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month, one to New York, one to Rome, and the last one to Chicago. Jeremy was becoming more emotional with every trip he took, and now, it seemed he’d made some attachment to this new tutor.
    An attractive woman around the house Tanner didn’t need.
    Fritz leaned back in his chair, pursed his lips, and with a gentle thwack, rested his mountain cane against his son’s desk. “First of all, I did tell you I hired a tutor, so I don’t know why you’re so fired up. Second of all, I heard from Harry over at Police Headquarters that you called there asking for a one Miss Hannah Elliot?”
    “Harry?” Tanner shouted, his temper rising. So good old Chief of Police Harry had told his father all about the phone call. Things were finally falling into place.
    The two older men were best of friends and had been on the rodeo circuit together. Fritz had broken his leg falling off a bucking bronco, ending his career. He suffered a slight limp at times, but the man liked to exaggerate his old injury with that silly walking stick, something he didn’t need at all.
    It was strange, but Tanner and his brothers knew that the stick was more of a physical reminder Fritz used when he was upset with his sons. And somewhere in their English history with the Duke of Elbourne, Tanner had heard stories of someone’s crazy aunt who had used a parasol in a similar manner. In fact, Fritz loved those stories...
    “She ain’t a gold-digger, I’ll tell you that. But she did give you the run around, huh?” Fritz let out a wicked smile. “Got to ya, did she?”  
    “Got to me?” Tanner said, casting his father an incredulous look. “You bet she got to me.” With cornsilk hair and a scent as sweet as the flowers near a mountain spring, she got to him. Even Hannah’s gentle way with Jeremy had touched him.
    But Tanner wasn’t going to tell his father that. The man knew enough already and was smarter than he let on. The fact that Fritz had lost his mother at ten, dropped out of school at fourteen, and ran away from home to join the rodeo circuit never ceased to amaze Tanner.
    Tanner’s grandfather, on the other hand, was a domineering man who drank too much and died early. Although Fritz had inherited much of his wealth, the man gave to many charities and was on the board of directors for many of them. And while Fritz may not have had a college education like their mother, what the older man knew of the world was enough to give Tanner the jitters. 
    As if reading his mind about Hannah, Fritz let out a snort of amusement.
    “She’s a sweet one, ain’t she? Rather like Julie. Like your mother too. God bless her soul. Good thing your mama made me promise to send you three boys to college. Not that going to college is for everyone. But you boys needed it. Your mama also made sure you wouldn’t be talking like your old man. Yep, the lady sure did have an education and turned you boys out just fine. Real fine. But she’d be turning in her grave if—”
    “Dad, that woman you hired painted the dinosaur’s feet with red nail polish!” 
    “Yep,” Fritz said, ignoring his son. “Knew the moment I set eyes on Hannah she was the one for you, especially when I heard the little filly turned you down cold. No gold-digging there. Disciplines like your mother, too. You should take a lesson or two from that gal.” 
    The older man rapped his mountain stick against Tanner’s desk. “I said, Fritz, I said, a girl like that should be Jeremy’s tutor. Your mother was a teacher, and this one reminded me of her.”
    “Oh, come on, now,” Tanner said, grimacing. “This woman is nothing like Mom.” 
    He lied. Hannah’s intelligence that night on the mountain road reminded him too much of his mother. But it was her vulnerability that reminded him too much of Julie. The thought shocked him.
    Still, it was a good thing Hannah hadn’t left the car that night, because all he had wanted to do was hold her to keep her from shaking and let her know he