Read Sister's Choice for Free Online Page A

nice guy.”
    “What’s he doing?”
    “We’ll find out.” Jamie called to him as they rounded the last bend. “Cash, up here.”
    The man stopped and turned, watching as they drew closer. He didn’t wave, then go back to work, as most would have. He watched them approach. Jamie saw a slow grin light his face.
    “Boy, have they grown,” he said when the three females reached him.
    Jamie was delighted he remembered her daughters so well that he could catalog the changes. “Hey, it’s nice to see you again. I was hoping you’d come by this week, so I could tell you how much I love the cabin.”
    “I had good plans to work with.”
    “I hope you’ll say the same thing about the big house. I’ve been working on incorporating Kendra and Isaac’s ideas with my own. Maybe you’ll have a chance to look over my final drawings soon, so we can have your architect go over them and draft the blueprints? Kendra says you’d like to break ground in a month or so.”
    “I’ll be glad to. It was a darned shame about that fire. I’m glad they’re planning to get started again.” He squatted and looked Alison in the eye. “You’re Alison. I’m Cash. Remember?”
    “We found a baby deer.”
    “You did?” He sounded properly enthused. “Did it run away?”
    “No, it was little.”
    “Like you?”
    “No! Little, like this.” She threw her arms open. “With spots.”
    “Why are you throwing boards on the ground?” Hannah asked.
    “You’re Hannah, right? Somebody told me two little girls needed a playhouse. Do you think they were right?”
    Alison whirled. “Mommy?”
    “Kendra sent you?” Jamie asked.
    “We both figured they’d need something to do out here this summer or go crazy as trout in a drought. A place of their own. And a way to give you a little more space.”
    Jamie wondered how much Kendra had told Cash about their reason for moving here. “I think it’s a wonderful idea. Girls, what do you say?”
    Hannah spoke first. “How big is it going to be, and where do you plan to put it?”
    Cash got to his feet. “You’re Hannah, all right, only bigger. I remember all those questions.”
    “I was hoping for a thank you, not an interrogation,” Jamie told her daughter.
    “I would like to know exactly what to thank him for.”
    Cash laughed. “Well now, I thought with your mommy’s help we could figure out something together. What do you think? Would you have some ideas?”
    Hannah’s whole face glowed with excitement. “A pirate ship?”
    “Too many showings of Peter Pan ,” Jamie explained.
    “Or maybe a spaceship?” Hannah added
    “ Lost in Space and Star Trek . Why don’t we let Mr. Rosslyn build you something that can be anything you want it to be. A castle, a ship, a fort.”
    Cash gave a low whistle. “You don’t ask for much, do you?”
    Jamie met his eyes and smiled a little. Cash was an attractive man, and she was aware he was thinking of more than a playhouse. She felt his interest and saw it in his eyes. She reminded herself that she was feeling lonely, that she’d been yearning for an adult to talk to and was therefore a tad too receptive to the warmth in his smile. But despite her better instincts, she heard herself playing along.
    “Oh, you might be surprised what I could ask for.”
    He hesitated just long enough to make a point. “A man could have trouble keeping up.”
    She doubted this man would have trouble on any level. She studied him for a moment. Cash was taller than she was, although an inch or so shy of six feet. His hair was a warm brown, his skin deeply tanned. His eyes were most arresting of all, neither blue nor green but something in between, like a tropical ocean under dark brows and lashes. She guessed Cash was maybe four or five years older than she was, but like her, he had lived those years at warp speed. He was country-boy casual on the outside, but from the first time they’d met, she had thought there was probably something more simmering