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they’d been, she was stuck with all sorts of horror stories running through her mind.
    Thankfulness flooded her mind, when she heard Tim’s truck pull into her drive. She wouldn’t trade spots with a parent any day. “Come on girls. You know the rule. Do the crime, pay the time. Every action has a consequence.”
    A chorus of “I know, I know,” met her words. Words the team lived by during season.
    A few seconds after a very angry Tim took off with Jen, an even angrier Brenton showed up for Nina.
    The minute Mallory saw him, color flooded her face. Brenton as sex God beckoning her closer and closer with his business proposal was enticing. Brenton as avenging father was magnetic. It proved he had scruples of sorts, and she was such a sucker for scruples.
    She’d lost her mind last night, and now she’d have to live with it every time she saw him. She would not allow insanity to close in on her this time.
    He pointed at Nina the second he saw her. “Go sit in the truck.” His voice left no room for discussion, and Mallory almost felt sorry for her.
    Nina trudged out the door and climbed into the SUV, and Mallory moved toward her door. Putting distance between them front and center in her mind. She didn’t want to be alone with Brenton ever again. But she wasn’t going to turn tail and hide. Obviously he wanted to say something.
    “I just want to thank you for calling.”
    He really had no idea about towns like this. “Well here we pretty much consider all the kids our own. If you’re a part of the community, you’ve just added a couple hundred watchful eyes to your parenting arsenal. We don’t have a drug problem and our kids aren’t pregnant. The only time we ever see green hair is when St. Patrick’s Day rolls around.”
    He held up a hand to stop her. “I was just thanking you. I don’t need a sound byte. But it’s good to know you consider me a part of the community.”
    No sense correcting him on that assumption. He knew good and well she didn’t.
    She could see Nina watching them with interest from the truck. He was so close to her now, Mallory could only imagine what it looked like.
    Taking three steps toward the door, she made it clear what she thought. “Well, you better get. Nina says you’ve got business to do today.”
    The word reminded her of the night before and obviously it did him, too. His smile grew, and he stepped closer to her again.
    “Nothing like the business last night, I assure you.”
    She wasn’t going to let him intimidate her. “Well, that’s good then.” She faked a little laugh. “You know I think they put you in jail in most states for business like last night.”
    In answer, he smiled and she felt her heart thud right to her toe nails.  
    “I’m pretty choosy about business like that, Mallory. I think I can pretty much sum up the number of times I’ve made an offer even similar. Never. But you intrigue me.”
    She’d intrigued him? She wanted to irritate the hell out of him so he’d move on.
    However, at this moment, he really had her at a disadvantage. She couldn’t do battle in a bathrobe and bare feet.
    “Well it’s good to know what drove the insanity. On that note, I think I’ll be going inside.”
    She turned and scurried through her door before he could make any more comments. As she watched them drive away, she wondered why the one man on earth who was trying to ruin her life was the one man she’d ever felt drawn to like this.
    Sometimes life just didn’t make sense.
    She threw her bathrobe over her closet door and settled into bed for forbidden dreams, and she would have been content to stay there if her phone hadn’t started ringing. She decided to ignore it and let the machine pick it up anyway, but once she heard the message, she knew sleep was out of the question.

Chapter Four
    “Mal, if you’re there pick up. It’s Celinda. Pick up the phone.”
    She really didn’t want to talk to Celinda. Talking to Celinda usually meant bad