Against the Heart Read Free

until Mama finishes talking to this nice man."
    Lily started nodding, visions of ice cream dancing in her four-year-old head.  "Okay." 
    Meri set her back on her feet.  When she looked at the man, she could read the amusement on his beyond attractive face.  "As I said, she’s usually well behaved," she said.  "You wouldn’t even know she was there."
    His amusement slowly faded.  "I’ll be honest, Ms...?"
    "Jones.  Meriwether Jones.  People just call me Meri.  This is my daughter, Lily."
    "I’ll be honest, Meri.  The house is a real mess.  It’s going to need hours of hard work to get it in shape.  I think you’d be better off--"
    She caught his arm, stopping him mid-sentence.  "I really need this job.  I promise, if you hire me, you won’t be disappointed."
    His gaze traveled from the reddish-brown hair she had braided into two long plaits, paused at the pink T-shirt that read I AM WOMAN, moved down over her jeans to her pink canvas sneakers.  He looked at Lily, who stood quietly now, big blue eyes a little lighter than his staring back into his face. 
    "All right, fine.  You’re hired.  But my father lives in there and he isn’t going to like having a kid in the house.  You have to keep your daughter away from him."
    Her heart was thumping.  This could be the answer to her prayers.  Or a least to her immediate prayer that she could earn enough to get to a city where she could find a real job.  "That won’t be a problem.  He won’t even know she’s there." 
    "I guess we’ll see."
    "How far away is the house?"  Meri thought of the Chevy and wondered if she needed to use some of her remaining ten dollars to put a gallon of gas in the tank. 
    "Not far.  Just up the road.  How soon can you start?"
    Her stomach growled.  She’d been feeding Lily, but she was afraid to spend her last few dollars on food for herself.
    "If you have something there to make sandwiches, I can start today.  In fact, I can start as soon as I get there."
    The man pulled out his wallet and handed her two, twenty-dollar-bills.  "Get some bread and meat and whatever else you need.  You don’t happen to cook, do you?"
    She started nodding.  "I’m a very good cook.  I took cooking lessons.  For a while I wanted to be a chef."
    One of his dark gold eyebrows went up in what could have been relief.  He handed her another twenty.  "Get something to make for supper.  You can eat with us if you want." 
    Did she want to eat supper with them?  Her stomach growled again.  Oh, God, did she.  "It won’t take me long.  I’ll get the groceries and follow you home."
    "All right.  Fifteen minutes.  By the way, my name’s Ian Brodie." 
    "Nice to meet you, Mr. Brodie."
    "Ian works."
    "Nice to meet you, Ian.  We’ll be right back."   Grabbing her daughter’s hand, she hurried into the grocery store.  Sixteen minutes later, she was through the checkout line carrying three plastic grocery bags of food, out the door into the parking lot.
    The bad news was, there was no sign of Ian Brodie.
     
    Ian sat in his Jeep waiting for Meriwether Jones.  He should have hired someone else.  Some big strapping female who could tackle a dirty job like the one in his father’s house.  But Ian was a sucker for a woman in trouble, and he’d been a cop long enough to know this one surely was.
    He could read the desperation in her face, and the fact that she was so pretty only made it worse.  Along with her mahogany hair, golden brown eyes, and fine-boned features, she had sexy, feminine curves in all the right places.  He’d felt a kick the moment he’d laid eyes on her. 
    Add to that, she had a kid.  Ian had a weakness for kids, and Lily, with her big blue eyes and angelic face, was a real cutie.
    He saw Meri emerge from the store, holding onto an armload of groceries, Lily hurrying along beside her.  In a pair of jeans, a neon green T-shirt, and pink sneakers the color of her mom’s, the little girl licked an orange