had considered going into nursing.”
“That’s what I get for telling you all of my secrets,” Tessa muttered. What Freckles said was true. But after all that had happened with her mother, then her own injuries…
Unable to sit still a moment longer, she stood and settled the cat in her chair. The cat protested.
The bird squawked at the cat and danced back and forth on his wooden perch. The puppy had finished drinking and now sniffed the floor, a sure indication he needed out. Tessa picked him up and took him out back to do his business. While she stood at the door she said, “What else?” Evidently Liam had thought of everything.
“Liam wanted to send a cook to make sure his brother got the right meals. The person would prepare all of the meals while here and either live in, if you wanted, or stay in someone else’s house. However, Liam said that if the cook didn’t live in then he would subtract that weekly allotment. But, I thought, since you might want a chaperone and all…”
Absently Tessa nodded. A thousand a week. A thousand dollars. She wouldn’t have to go back to California. She could stay here in her house. She’d be in control of the situation. Control was very important to Tessa, especially in circumstances like this.
But the Slaters? She’d seen Liam—once. They were big men. Huge men. Living out here in Hill Creek, Texas, she had to wonder if all the men grew that big. Running her hands through her brown hair she twisted it into a knot, defying the morning wind to tear it loose again. Playing with her hair was a nervous habit of hers. She knew that. She tried not to do it, but the habit still surfaced—occasionally.
She heard Freckles stand, heard her move up behind her, making her way around the many creatures that occupied Tessa’s house. Once by her side, Freckles stared out the screen door as well.
“It would be an answer to your financial problems, Tessa. God still does answer prayers, you know.”
“Yes. It would help.” That was easy to admit. “But does God answer a prayer by sending a man to live in my house? By sending me a cook? By paying me an outrageous sum just to play baby-sitter and tutor?”
Freckles smiled. “It looks like this time He does.”
Tessa simply shook her head. “I just can’t believe it.”
“He’s going to pay a month’s salary in advance, Tessa. If you decide you can’t handle it at the end of eight weeks, you’ll get the full payment and Liam will find someone else.”
“Why?”
“Liam is desperate to help his brother. When I told him you might be interested in the job he jumped at the chance, working to make the offer too good to refuse.”
“It is that, I’ll admit,” Tessa murmured. She’d finally have the last of her medical bills paid off. There would be no more threatening letters from creditors, no more worries of losing everything, watching her credit die a certain death, losing everything because of the mountain of debt she’d been working to slowly pay off for three years now.
Tessa felt for the first time in a long time as if she was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. “Is Liam willing to draw up a contract?”
Freckles grinned. Reaching in her pocket, she pulled out a folded document. “Already done.”
Tessa laughed. She couldn’t help it. “Awful arrogant of him, wouldn’t you say?”
Freckles giggled. “No. He’s just really hopeful. He wants his brother home. The sooner, the better.”
Tessa took the contract and then hesitated as she stared at it.
“Come on, Tessa, what have you got to lose?” Freckles encouraged.
Tessa thought about the outside guestroom with its own private entrance, the lockable door between the outside and inside part of the kitchen. She thought about the cook moving in. She could put the woman in the extra room that she never used.
She thought about teaching someone to read and with third-graders knew she could do that easily. What did she have to lose?
Looking at Freckles she felt hope rise. Should she? Or should she not?
She might…
A wheelchair.
She could…
A chaperone.
Going over to a drawer in her kitchen, she opened it and pulled out a pen. With a quick read over the contract, she nodded and signed it. “You’re right. I haven’t a thing to lose.”
Chapter Two
E xcept her mind. This was insane. “What is that?” Tessa demanded of the newest men coming in her door, hefting a huge box. Once she quickly dropped her letter in the mailbox, she stepped back out of the way.
“Freezer, ma’am.” The man promptly bumped into the side of the door, grunting and shuffling his feet to keep from dropping the front end of his load.
“But why?” she cried, grabbing at the barking puppy who came into the kitchen and ran around their feet, nearly tripping an older round man.
“For the food,” a younger man behind the two moving men informed her.
Sam squawked and flapped his wings. Heaven knew where her cat or any of her other animals were. Hiding most likely.
“Where’d you like it?”
“What?” she asked glancing back at the man with gray hair.
“The freezer, ma’am.”
“Um, I—I…” Taking stock of her kitchen, she stroked the wiggling puppy. When Hubert the puppy wouldn’t calm down, she went to the side room just off the kitchen and put him into the room before pulling the door closed. She heard the whining but did her best to block it from her mind.
Turning her attention back to the kitchen, she finally pointed to the parrot’s perch. “We can put it there in front of the window and move Sam over here.”
She started toward the parrot. “We’ll get that ma’am,” the older man broke in.
Sam protested their approach, hopping to the floor and waddling his way over to Tessa. She picked him up, and put him on her shoulder. She then quickly moved the stepping stool and smaller birdcage—for her toad—into the living room.
Why in the world was the man sending in a freezer? It had to be the Slaters. “I really don’t need this,” she told the men as they positioned the freezer.
“Orders, ma’am.”
Tessa wondered if that was all the older man could say. She wanted to tell him her name was Tessa. She didn’t. Instead, she opened her mouth to explain that her guest would only be here a short time when the phone rang.
“We’ll put the food in the freezer, if that’s okay with you, Miss Stanridge,” the young delivery boy said, motioning to boxes of…something he’d brought with him.
