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.A whole bunch of ladies called with information forthe upcoming fall picnic, you got three calls from a guy named Royce, and the Taylors wanted toknow if you could babysit for them tomorrow night. Crap, no wonder he was upset.He d spent the morning acting as her answering service. Sorry,Blake.I told people to call my cell phone but the battery died.I guess since everyone knows I mstaying with you they decided to try the house.I ll tell them to stop. Who s Royce? She blinked in confusion for a moment. Oh, a guy from college.He s trying to convince me to sign upfor another class. Why was he asking about Royce? Especially in that gravelly voice that made shivers scurry up herspine. The twins are already registered and ready to start.Can you still get into classes at this point? Blake kept his gaze straight ahead on the road, but his hands hung on to the wheel a trifle tightly, hisknuckles white.Curiouser and curiouser.The moment had come to be blunt.It was hardly right for her to fault Cari and Leo for notcommunicating when she was guilty of the same thing with Blake. I m not interested in taking any more classes.I figure I need to move on to the next stage of my life.Meet new goals, fulfill new desires. Okay, it wasn t a totally blunt declaration of wanting to jumphim, but it was a start.Especially as she opened her shoulders to face him, pulling one leg up on thebench seat so that her knee bumped into his thigh.A gentle caress.Barely there but enough to get herheart pounding. Where s he live? Her mind clouded with the image of Blake reaching to touch her, smoothing his strong fingers overher thigh.His work-hardened hands opening her jeans and unbuttoning her blouse, caressing her bareskin& Jaxi, where does he live? Blake demanded. She shook her head and lifted her gaze from his hands.What the hell were they talking about again? Who? This Royce guy. The urge to giggle rose, and she beat it down unmercifully.Acting like a teenager wasn t theimpression she wanted to project right now. Don t worry about Royce.He s a nice enough guy butI m not interested in him. She adjusted her leg casually, rubbing his thigh again.Blake changed gears, his leg shifting away from hers. Well, you let me know if he gives you anytrouble, alright? She leaned toward him slightly, letting her body soften, letting her desire for him show in her eyesand the tone of her voice. Now why would you do that? You re not my father to watch over me andsave me from the big bad wolves. Come on, Blake, make a move.She was sure she d seen signs ofhis attraction, but the man was damn stubborn.Whatever held him back was driving her up the wall. No, I m not your father, but I ve thought about you a lot lately.I haven t been taking care of you aswell as I did before you began college classes.I m going to work on that, Jaxi.You need someone towatch out for you. Hope rose in her heart.Was he coming around? Maybe his earlier anger was because he feltresponsible for her and wanted more?Then he dumped cold water on her dreams as he reached to pat her knee gently.Playfully.As far froma lover s caress as possible. You re a good girl, and you deserve to be cared for.I m going to be thebest big brother you could ever have. With a final squeeze to her knee, he turned up the radio, andhis strong hands thumped the wheel in time with the song, a peculiar pinched smile on his face.Jaxi stared at him slack-jawed, her body and mind both reeling as she tried to understand what he djust said.He d gone insane.A big brother? Like hell that s what she needed.If he wanted to care for her, it wouldn t be as a bigboy reluctantly playing house with a little girl.Making mud pies good-naturedly when he wouldprefer to be anywhere else.They d done that already, years ago.It was time to shake things up, toshow Blake she was no little girl and he was definitely not her big brother.She d told Jesse earlier she played to win.The game started now in earnest, and Blake wasn t goingto know what hit him. Chapter SixThe testosterone in the room was driving her crazy.Jaxi dipped her hands into the sink and tested the water, turning her face away to hide the smile thatrose unbidden as Jesse and Joel scrambled to impress her.They carried in dirty plates, scraping andcleaning the few leftovers into the slop buckets for the animals.They were well trained MarionColeman had never let any of her boys slack off, in or out of the house.Jaxi turned to the stack of handwashing and began.If it hadn t been for the other chores, and helping Marion, she bet she wouldn t even be here now.Between the guys skills at batching it, and the fact the twins would occasionally be home onweekends from school, there were a lot of hands around.Just not enough when you added Marion s work to the list
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