chuckled. “You have a nice day, Petunia.”
Petunia glanced back, the door half-open, the little bell’s jangle just a ting of sound. Caden stood behind Maddie, his arm still around her waist. He looked like hell waiting for a place to land, all squared shoulders and contained aggression. Maddie, on the other hand, looked...at peace. The hand resting on Caden’s was relaxed. Her fingers stroked across his darker skin. Such a small gesture, but it had such a profound effect. Caden visibly relaxed. Petunia smiled. Maddie was a woman who knew her power and wielded it wisely. Yet she wouldn’t step inside a church she clearly longed to visit. It made no sense. If Petunia had more time she’d definitely be exploring that wrinkle. But time she didn’t have. As soon as she saved enough for her ticket, she’d be on her way to starting her own dream.
“Thank you, Maddie. You both have one, too.”
The “Will do” came from Caden.
Outside, she stopped and took that long-awaited, much-anticipated first bite. The pastry melted in her mouth. She closed her eyes and just appreciated the moment, letting the pleasure roll through her.
“You know, if you wore that exact same expression on your face at the next dance, you might spend more time on the floor dancing than on the side talking.”
Petunia didn’t have to open her eyes to know who was goading her. Ace Parker. The thorn in her side, her personal Achilles’ heel, Caden and Maddie’s best friend. She’d never understand how two productive people could appreciate a man of such low character. Opening her eyes, she found herself looking straight into the shadowed intensity of his. A frisson of awareness shot through her, hooking deep and drawing invisible wires tight. Damn the man. He even had beautiful eyes. She wanted to knock the black cowboy hat off his head so she could see the sky-blue irises flecked with those mesmerizing shards of icy gray. Eyes that saw too much. Eyes that made her want to... To push. Shove. Fight. His mouth quirked at the corner. She couldn’t look away.
They made her want to surrender. Damn him.
It was easy to see how Ace won so many poker games. There was an uncanny calm about the man. A subdued power that drew a person to trust where they probably shouldn’t. But she wasn’t a wrangler halfway through a bottle of cheap whiskey. She was a strong woman of intellect. Taking a slow breath, she gave him a small smile of her own, keeping it casual as if her breasts weren’t tingling and her lungs weren’t struggling to remember how to get her next breath.
“Of course a man of your predilections wouldn’t understand that it might be my preference to not carry on on the dance floor.”
“I understand, as a woman, you might be well on the shelf, but you’re not dead. You’ve got time to turn things around.”
He wasn’t the first to imply she needed to find a man, marry and devote herself to raising children. Petunia swallowed the bit of cinnamon roll and forced that smile to stay in place. It was hard. Very hard when she wanted nothing more than to touch his cheek, feel that slight stubble against her fingertips. He probably hadn’t even been to bed yet. “I’ll keep that in mind between my other endeavors.”
Ace leaned against the doorjamb, that quirk becoming a grin, but whereas hers felt tight, his looked easy. The aggravating man seemed to find humor in everything, especially in the matters close to her heart.
“Would that be the endeavor that involves taking children from the whorehouse, putting them in your house and trying to make them respectable?”
She tucked her roll into the napkin and straightened. There’d be no enjoying it while he was picking at her. “That would be the one.”
“And you think the citizens of this town are going to go along with that? Having those children of lust in their school with their properly raised and primly conceived children?”
It was probably a flaw in her defense that she did enjoy his way with words. “I don’t plan on giving them much choice.”
He sighed. “You just can’t shove reform down people’s throats.”
“When the alternative is leaving innocents neglected, uneducated and unloved, to grow up to be a bane on our society far into the future, I can force whatever I want.”
His left eyebrow crooked up. “You think you’ve got that much muscle?”
“I think with Christmas coming up, and the spirit of charity that goes with it, I have a good chance of making a start.”
“And you’re just going to take that inch?”
She nodded. “And stretch it into a mile.”
His right eyebrow joined the left. “And you don’t expect resentment?”
“Oh, I expect resentment.” She was already experiencing some. Her roll was getting cold.
“But you plan on getting past it?”
She nodded again. “I plan on getting past it.”
Ace shook his head and straightened, opening the door for Caden, who was bringing chairs out to the porch. “You know, no matter how many good deeds you do, they are never going to elect you mayor.”
She gritted her teeth. “The town already has a mayor.”
“Which you don’t think much of.”
He had to be observant to know that.
The mayor was a lazy man, and lazy men tended to stay the heck out of her way. So she was content with him in that office. “I’m hoping he’ll be supportive.”
If only by his disinterest.
Maddie spoke up from where she was wiping down the counter. “It is a good cause.”
Ace looked over at her. “It may be, but going about it this way is just going to make enemies.”
“Why?” Petunia stepped back as Caden set the chair in front of the door to hold it open. “Why should helping children make any enemies?”
Caden looked up from where he was bracing the chair. “Because those children have fathers who prefer that they stay hidden.”
“If those children have fathers,” she snapped, “then those fathers should be taking care of them.”
Ace shrugged. “They are, in their way.”
“It’s better than nothing,” Caden offered, folding his arms across his chest.
“Not by much.”
Petunia could see the first of the congregation leaving the church. If she didn’t get moving, she’d be forced to be civil to people who’d be taking veiled stabs at her. Her plan really wasn’t popular. “No living thing should suffer needlessly because others are too lazy or too worried about how it looks to help them. Society is only as strong as its weakest link.”
Ace swore. She flinched, even as every nerve ending snapped to attention. His eyes narrowed, and as if on cue her breath caught. Darn it! Why this with this man? It was so...inconvenient.
Caden looked between the two of
