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with all his heart. Nothing could go wrong. He’d promised their father to care for them. He loved them. They loved him. Everything would work out. It had to.
    “You’ll be a wonderful father, Eric.” Sam spontaneously pressed a hand over the top of his. Little jolts of electricity shot all the way up to his shoulder. “I saw you with them. You already are.”
    Eric tried to remember why Sam Harcourt turned him cold, but with her sweet eyes looking at him this way and their hands touching, his mind was blitzed.
    “Hey, you two. Any chance we can have a meeting tonight? Or is this a private party?” Caleb Williams ambled toward them, his wife Anne at his side. Their smiles had Eric wondering. Did they think there was something going on between him and Sam?
    Man, were they ever confused.
    “Time to get started, I guess.” By sheer force of will he got up and moved to the head of the table, leaving Sam where she was. Instantly, his vacant chair was filled by one of the girls and the chitchat began about Nikki’s haircut. Should she get a skunk stripe or not?
    Eric was hard-pressed not to laugh but he noticed Sam took the question with complete seriousness.
    He called the meeting to order and was pleased that the kids had followed through with their assignments. Very quickly, he collected price lists, tentative work schedules, booth ideas and a host of other details the kids had come up with on their own.
    “We’ll need a full workday before the picnic,” he said. “To set up booths, put up signs, decorate.”
    “What about the day before?”
    “Can’t,” he said. “My calendar is full. I have to work.”
    “I don’t,” Sam said. “The kids and I can handle it.”
    With school still weeks away, most of the kids were at loose ends. So was Sam. Eric’s lip curled. She was on hiatus, a word the rest of the world barely understood.
    “All right. Sounds good to me. I’ll leave the particulars up to you.”
    Gina, usually quiet as a mouse, piped up. “Maybe the two of you should get together that night and go over everything. I mean, Eric can’t be there Friday. Sam needs to fill him in on the plans.”
    “Great idea,” Nikki added. “Don’t you think, guys?” She gave the other teens a look that said they’d better agree and do it fast.
    “Yeah. Sure. Eric, you don’t want to be in the dark. No telling what we might do without your input. You can’t trust a bunch of teenagers, you know. You and Sam should definitely get together that last Friday night before the picnic.”
    Why were the kids behaving so strangely? He glanced at Sam, saw a flush on the crest of her cheekbones. He looked at Caleb and then at Anne. They both grinned like African hyenas.
    What was up with this?
    “All right. Sure. Whatever.” He looked at Sam. “Is that okay with you?”
    She nodded mutely, an unusual turn of events, and Eric adjourned the meeting to the dining room.
    As he pushed back from the table, Caleb came toward him, that annoying grin still on his face. “Might as well give up.”
    “What are you talking about?” All these undercurrents were making him grumpy.
    “The kids. They did it to Anne and me.”
    Eric got a bad feeling. “Did what?”
    “Played matchmaker.”
    “And?”
    “And now they have their sights set on you and Sam.”
    “Me? Sam?” His blood pressure shot up. “You’re losing it, brother.”
    At Caleb’s soft chuckle, Eric’s belly went south. He was having enough trouble with his own head on the subject of Samantha Harcourt. If this bunch of teenagers started in, he’d have no peace at all. Samantha was not the kind of woman he wanted to be interested in. Women like her aimed for the kneecaps and left you alone and bleeding.
    At the sound of giggling, Eric glanced toward the dining-room doorway. Three pairs of teenaged eyes gleamed at him with speculation.
    He was in trouble here. Serious trouble.

Chapter Four

    S am gazed around at the group of kids once again gathered in the