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with him. In fact, she kind of wished she’d left her sketches at her
parents’ house.
    “Do you need help unpacking?” Chas asked, his fingers
resting lightly on her upper back. She’d already noticed that about him. He
liked to touch. What surprised her was how much she liked his touch.
    “No. I’m good. You want me to get lunch together for you?”
    “No. I ordered pizza. You just worry about getting settled
in today.”
    Greer smiled. “Thanks. You guys have been really great.”
    Chas returned her smile. “We’re just glad you’re here.”
    As she unpacked her clothing and her art supplies, Greer
couldn’t help smiling. Maybe things were finally improving. She would make darn
sure she did a great job. And if she was a little more interested in her
employers than she should be? She sighed. She’d keep that to herself.
    Glancing out the window to the rolling pasture, it finally
hit her that she was looking at the reverse view of what she’d always stared at
as a kid. Back then, she’d gazed at the big house from the woods below,
wondering who lived there and what their lives were like.
    She shook her head. Life took some strange twists.

Chapter Three
     
    By the middle of the following day, Greer realized Liam and
Chas hadn’t been joking when they said she wouldn’t have much to do. Chas was
at the hospital, and after spending the morning in his studio, Liam had left
for a meeting at a downtown gallery.
    Finally alone in the big house, Greer decided to learn her
way around. The kitchen she was already well-acquainted with. Liam and Chas
loved to eat. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or multiple snacks—it didn’t matter. As
active as they both were, they shoveled food in at a rate she was still trying
to adjust to. So, skipping the kitchen, she began her tour of the house at the
front. Like a lot of older homes, everything branched off large central
hallways both upstairs and down, but the sheer size of the house was
mind-boggling.
    The breakfast room was a cozy extension off the kitchen. It
made Greer suspect it had once been a part of the kitchen that had later been
split off to provide the family a less formal place to dine than the huge
dining room sprawling just on the other side of a swinging door. Greer looked
at the long, polished table and wondered if Liam ever put it to use.
    That side of the house contained most of what she considered
to be the company rooms. In addition to the dining room, a small sitting room
decorated in feminine colors seemed to indicate it had once been his mother’s
and grandmother’s private domain, a music room was next door, and leading
directly from the music room was a large, very-formal living room, big enough
it could probably double as a ballroom. Greer smiled, imagining a bygone era
when women would have floated down the wide staircase in long dresses with
billowing hoop skirts.
    On the other side of the hallway were the rooms now getting
the most use, a large library, Chas’ study where she’d been taken the first
night, an informal family room sporting a man-sized flat screen TV. Her
apartment was behind, off the kitchen. There were also narrow back stairs
leading from the kitchen to the upper floors. First designed, no doubt, for the
servants to take meals upstairs, so they had as little contact with the main
part of the house as possible.
    She’d leave the upper two floors for later. At the moment,
with no one around, Greer wanted to satisfy her curiosity, so she headed back
to Chas’ study. It intrigued her how much a part of Liam’s life he was, even to
the point of being part of the decision to hire her. She had to admit, it
smacked of a more intimate relationship than just friends.
    Greer sat in his chair, laughing slightly when her feet
barely touched the floor. Crossing her legs Indian style, she leaned forward
and smoothed her hand across the polished wooden surface of his desk. She
inhaled deeply, taking in his scent—mainly soap and the herbal