An X-rated nursery rhyme…

“She’s not beautiful,” April went on, “but she’s… something better. I don’t know. Whatever it is, she doesn’t seem to have a clue about it.”

“She’s a train wreck.” Too late, he remembered he was supposed to be smitten. “Just because I’m in love doesn’t mean I’m blind. It’s the fact that she’s her own person I’m attracted to.”

“Yes, I can see that.”

He grabbed the hoe and began hacking at some weeds around a rosebush. He knew it was a rosebush because it had a couple of flowers.

“You heard about Marli Moffatt,” she said.

The hoe struck a rock. “Hard to avoid. It’s all over the news.”

“I guess her daughter will go to Marli’s sister. God knows Jack won’t do anything but write a check.”

He tossed down the hoe and picked up the shovel again.

She toyed with one of her bracelets. “I hope you’ve figured out by now that kicking me out isn’t a good idea, not if you want to live here in any kind of comfort this summer. I’ll be out of your life permanently in three or four weeks.”

“That’s what you said in November when you showed up at the Chargers game.”

“It won’t happen again.”

He stabbed the shovel into the dirt, then worked it free. She’d been on top of everything today. It was hard to reconcile her efficiency with the drugged-out woman who’d regularly misplaced her kid. “Why should I believe you this time?”

“Because I’m sick of living with guilt. You’re never going to forgive me, and I’m not asking again. Once the house is done, I’m gone.”

“Why are you doing this? Why the fucking charade?”

She shrugged, looking bored—the last woman in the bar after the fun had ended. “I thought it would be a kick, that’s all.”

“Hey, Susan!” Mr. Horny Electrician poked his head around the corner. “Can you come here for a minute?”

Dean dug up another rock as she walked away. Now that he saw how many tasks she was juggling, he knew he’d be hurting himself more than her if he made her leave. He could always head back to Chicago, but the idea of letting her drive him away stuck in his craw. He didn’t run from anybody, especially not from his mother. But he also couldn’t stand the idea of being alone with her, even on a hundred acres of property, and that was why keeping Blue around had become a necessity, not just an impulse. She’d be his buffer.