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be right, but for the wrong reasons. “I’m good with the whole stretching thing, but I’ll pass on the yoga.”
    “Why?” Isabelle asked.
    Cheryl’s gaze sharpened into her courtroom stare. “Yes, Garrett, why?” Her eyes shifted to the children, who were listening to the adult exchange with open curiosity. “Because I’m sure you don’t mean to imply that there’s anything wrong with men practicing yoga.”
    Damn it. He’d forgotten there were kids at the table. “No, no, not at all.” He scrambled to think of a believable excuse that wouldn’t dig him in deeper. “I’m just not very flexible.”
    “Don’t worry,” Isabelle assured him. “Yoga’s great for improving flexibility. I’ll come up with a simple routine to get you started.”
    “Make sure it involves flexing his mind, too,” Cheryl said to her. “His has gotten a little flabby.”
    “Can a brain get fat?” Beth interrupted, her eyes wide and curious.
    “Seems your Uncle Garrett’s can,” Peter said, which sparked another scolding from his wife.
    Garrett’s eyes met Isabelle’s across the table. She smiled at him, and it was the merriment in her expression that did him in. He had to smile back, although his was more rueful. He could admit it. She was as clever as she was pretty, and she’d just outplayed him.
    He’d underestimated her.
    On so many levels.
    * * *
    “I didn’t realize you and Garrett had met in Thailand,” Cheryl said.
    And Isabelle hadn’t realized that Cheryl didn’t know, because her husband definitely did.
    The two women were in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher and putting leftovers away. The men were getting the children into their pajamas and brushing their teeth. The unspoken question in Cheryl’s voice said she’d noticed her brother’s unusual interest in her children’s new nanny and had drawn the wrong conclusion.
    The possibility of Garrett being attracted to someone like Isabelle was laughable. Yes, she’d seen the way he looked at her when she was wearing a bikini, and again when she’d shown up to dinner in a short summer dress. She hadn’t been trying to make an impression on him. She’d been living in a third world country with a hot climate and lightweight clothes were all she owned these days. The local dresses were pretty, cheap, and easy to pack. Everything before she’d left for Thailand had gone to a consignment store, as it invariably did when she and her father changed locations. Either she sold what she had no use for, or she gave it to charity.
    She dropped a handful of rinsed flatware into the tray, then reached for the liquid detergent. Cheryl was a lawyer. Not to mention, Isabelle discovered that having the Mansfords’ good opinion of her mattered.
    She stuck to the truth when she answered the question. “I’d found myself in a bad situation in Bangkok. I was stranded and had no money. Garrett was working at the Embassy and bought me a plane ticket home.”
    “And then he asked Peter to give you a job,” Cheryl said, filling in what she saw as the blanks, and Isabelle didn’t correct her. “Garrett likes helping people. He’s always been that way. That’s why he chose to be a government program officer when our parents would have rather he went into the family automotive business.”
    She sounded so proud of him.
    “Is that what he is? A government program officer? What do they do?”
    “Lots of things, but in Garrett’s case, he travels to foreign countries to work with the embassies. He transfers between different departments all the time. Sometimes he helps people immigrate to Canada. Sometimes he organizes disaster relief.” Cheryl fastened cling wrap over the remains of the cheesecake and slid it into the stainless steel fridge. She closed the door with her hip. “When he was in Bangkok, he was with the Canadian Defence attaché’s office. A Defence attaché helps foreign military contractors who want to do business with the Canadian government, and