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Not unless she was an expert at herding cats.
“I’ll call around and see about renting an SUV or a minivan for you to use. It’s too cold outside to walk anywhere, but I know that you can’t stay cooped up inside. Let me see what I can come up with.”
“That would be great,” Lily said. “Hannah was showing me her booster seat today. She’s quite proud of it.”
Cullen could imagine the girl doing that. For a surreal nanosecond, he saw a flash of what it might be like to keep the kids permanently, with someone like Lily at his side helping him raise them. The thought was simultaneously inviting and terrifying. He blinked it away.
“You’ll need a front-door key,” he said. “Let me get it for you.”
Lily followed him over to a brass key holder that was hanging on the foyer wall just outside the kitchen. He plucked a silver key on a leather key valet.
As he handed it to her, his fingers grazed her soft palm. A tingle of awareness zinged through him and she pulled her hand away a little too fast.
“Feel free to let yourself in,” he said. “No need to knock.”
She nodded.
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said and turned toward the door. He followed her to lock up after he let her out, feeling a bit like a stray dog trailing along behind a beautiful stranger. She was a good soul who also happened to be a striking woman. A different brand of beautiful that wasn’t his usual type. But even if she was, he didn’t need to complicate matters by crossing lines that should be clearly drawn.
“Good night,” she said.
“Lily?”
She stopped and turned back to face him. The glitter winked at him. Before he knew what he was doing, he reached out and brushed it away. Her cheek was just as soft and smooth as it looked. It took everything he had not to trace his finger along the edge of her jawline and over that full bottom lip—
But then her fingers flew to her cheek.
“It was a speck of glitter,” he said. “On your cheek. For a moment, I thought it might be some of that pixie dust you used to work your magic on the kids. But I guess it’s just your sparkling personality shining through.”
Oh, hell. That was corny.
But she smiled. And blushed. He could even see it in the golden glow of the porch light.
“Thank you,” she said. “But I probably have enough loose glitter in my car to decorate the entire neighborhood.”
Her keys jingled against the metal of the ring as she gave a little wave of her hand. “See you tomorrow.”
He watched her walk away toward her sensible navy blue, four-door sedan and the electricity that had been hanging in the air between them seemed to fade, replaced by the realization that she would be around only until the end of the month.
He felt a little foolish remembering his earlier vision of keeping the kids. She was the one who had set order to the chaos. But she had a job, probably with good benefits, that she would return to after the first of the year. Surely she wasn’t interested in being a full-time nanny.
He could ask, but it wasn’t likely.
Still, his heart felt heavy when he thought of the huge task of trying to place all four kids in the same family. The attorney, Cameron Brady, had said he would try, but it was a long shot.
What was he going to do if the perfect family didn’t materialize?
It would be impossible to try to care for them on his own; that was just a ridiculous thought that had momentarily run away with his senses. It had been a preposterous lapse of reason. He, of all people, knew that kids need two parents. A mother and a father. Not an absentee pseudo-uncle/father who would spend more time at work than at home. But the fantasy had been fun for the fleeting moment it had lasted.
Chapter Three
At six o’clock the next morning, Cullen was in the kitchen making himself a cup of coffee when Lily showed up at the front door with her arms full of reusable grocery bags.
“Let me help you with those,” Cullen said, taking the three sacks from her. “What on earth did you bring?”
“I picked up some things for lunch,” she said as she took off her coat and scarf. “And we’re going to do some baking today.”
As he set the bags on the island in the kitchen, he peered inside and spied grapes, carrots, peanut butter and a loaf of whole-wheat bread, among other things.
