Ever After (Nantucket Brides 3)

“Oh, look, Jared has already come to check on me. If you don’t give me a good report, he’s threatened to beat me up.”

“I’d settle for lifting you onto the massage table,” Hallie said and went forward to greet Jared and reassure him that Jamie Taggert had been a perfect gentleman.

Jared listened, glared in warning at Jamie—who smiled back at him—then left, and they went into the kitchen.

Hallie opened the refrigerator door and looked inside. It was packed full of containers of food, all carefully labeled. Fruit and salad greens were in the crisper, and the freezer was also full. “Who did this?”

“My mother sent someone to fill it.”

“I thought your mother was…gone.”

“Stepmom, then,” he said. “But she’s always been my mother, so…” Trailing off, he saw the weariness in her eyes. He led her to the old kitchen table. “You’ve done enough today, so you sit and I’ll microwave us a meal.”

“But it’s—”

“Your house and you’re the boss? You can claim all the power tomorrow, but tonight I’ll take care of you. What food do you like?”

“Obviously, anything.” She was referring to the extra pounds she had on her. Her plan had been that she would start a regular exercise program as soon as she was in her new job.

“What’s obvious is that every ounce has gone to exactly the right places.” He gave her such a warm look that Hallie almost blushed. “Sorry, please don’t tell Jared on me.”

Hallie searched for another point of conversation. “Jared told me your mother is the mystery writer Cale Anderson.”

“She is. She and my widower dad married when my brother Todd and I were just kids.” It wasn’t easy for him with the crutches, but Jamie was managing to get packages out of the fridge and carry them to the counter by the sink. He was beginning to like this woman. Yes, he was very physically attracted to her, but there was more than that. How many people would unexpectedly inherit a house in one day yet still put her patient first? As far as he knew, she hadn’t even looked at all the rooms. Instead, his welfare seemed to have been her first thought.

“What was it like, growing up with someone so famous?”

Jamie smiled. “Fame has never meant much to Mom. She writes because she likes doing it. When we were kids she used to have my brother and me act out scenes of her books so she could see how they’d work. Todd and I never thought anything about it until one day when we were in the third grade and some candy went missing. At recess we set up an interrogation room and asked some hard questions. That ended up with three kids crying in the principal’s office. And later, little Chrissy McNamara stepped up onto a pile of books and gave me a bloody nose.”

“You’re kidding!”

“I’m not. I was in love with her until I entered high school.”

Hallie smiled. “How much trouble did you get into?”

“After the dust settled, everyone agreed it was all Mom’s fault. Dad was mad at her for an entire twenty-four hours. That may have been a record.”

“So you had to stop acting out police procedurals?”

“Not at all,” Jamie said. “Todd and I just learned to keep our mouths shut.”

Hallie laughed hard. “I can see it all. She sounds like fun.”

“She is. Dad is the disciplinarian, but Mom believes childhood should be a joy and that’s how she made it.”

“How nice for you,” Hallie said, with feeling in her voice.

Jamie put a plate of sliced roast beef, two warmed vegetables, and salad in front of her. “What about you? What was your childhood like?”

“My dad sold pharmaceuticals and he traveled constantly. After my mother died, her parents moved in with us and Dad traveled even more.”

“I’m sorry,” Jamie said. “You must have missed him a great deal.”

“No, actually, we didn’t. My grandparents were wonderful. We had a huge backyard and Grams and Gramps were fabulous gardeners. We grew all our own vegetables and most of the fruit. I—” She broke off, seeming to be embarrassed.

“You what?” He put his plate on the table and sat down across from her.

“I was the center of their lives. What I did, who I liked and didn’t like, girlfriend fights, boys—they wanted to hear about all of it. I had slumber parties and big birthday parties. And when Dad came home we treated him like