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Chace raised his palms as their eyes met. “Sounds doable, right?”
Holly sank her teeth into her bottom lip. “Itsoundslike a whole lottawe,” Hope replied rather than agreeing with him.
Her skepticism rang loud and clear. Chace wasn’t sure if she doubted their ability to work together in a parental capacity with the girls or if she suspected at some point he’d leave her high and dry to take care of the twins on her own.
Guess there was one way to find out. “Is that a problem?” He purposely phrased it as a dare, as if she were the one who didn’t want any parts of thewecomponent.
“Depends on what happens when duty calls.”
And there was his answer. Holly expected him to cut and run at the first opportunity. Well, she was in for a big surprise now, wasn’t she? “I’m on leave through January.” Chace cocked his right brow. “Didn’t your brother include that in the information he provided you?”
When her gaze narrowed significantly, Chace knew he’d hit a nerve.
“There are always emergencies.”
“Like this one?” Chace countered, refusing to let her get the best of him. “Because right now, this is the only emergency that concerns me.”
An uncomfortable silence stretched between them. Chace watched the play of emotions cross Holly’s face as she processed everything he’d said before she offered a response.
“Well?” he prompted. The last thirty-some hours had been brutal, and Chace was beyond exhausted.
“I agree we should keep everything as normal as possible. That’s why I thought it was better for the girls to remain in their own environment rather than packing them up and taking them to my place.”
“Good idea.”
“Is this also where you plan to stay?”
“Would you rather I didn’t?”
Holly shrugged. “It makes no difference to me.”
Yeah. Right.
Removing his ankle from his knee, he dropped his booted foot to the thick pewter carpeting with a soft thud and sat forward. “You sure?” he challenged her.
The few beats that passed before she answered were telling. “I’m already set up in the master downstairs.” Holly pushed herself off the sofa. “You can take the bedroom upstairs at the end of the hall on the right.”
Chace inclined his head in agreement. If she thought he’d protest, she was in for a rude awakening. He’d slept in far worse places than a double bed in his sister’s guest room.
“Okay, then.” She walked past him on her way to the staircase but stopped before descending. “Chace?”
He didn’t turn to look at her. “Yeah?”
“Let’s not make this any more difficult than it already is.”
Smiling to himself, Chace rolled to his feet. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
3
By the time Holly closed the bedroom door, she regretted over half of what she’d said as well as felt in the last thirty minutes.
Nothing new there, though, especially in the last eight years, where Chace Dutton was concerned. Why would she expect tonight to be any different?
Maybe because his being here has absolutely nothing to do with you.
True. Chace had only returned to Hickory Ridge because ofhisfamily emergency. Not to see her or rekindle any old flame. Besides, if she weren’t his sister’s best friend or his nieces’ godmother, Holly wouldn’t even be involved with Emme and Wren’s care at all. Nor would every nerve in her body buzz and sizzle as if attached to a live electrical current.
All because she would be sleeping under the same roof as her ex-fiancé for the foreseeable future.
