Page 3 of Substitute Bride

She gave him a little smile. “She was brave and went right back to sleep.”

Jill seemed pleased with this praise and squirmed on her stool.

James turned back to her. “You know you can wake me up anytime you want to if you get scared at night.”

“I know,” Jill said soberly. “But Rosie took care of me.”

Rose couldn’t read James’s expression as his eyes moved a few times between her and his daughter, but whatever mental conclusions he had drawn seemed to satisfy him. He turned back to grab his coffee and took a long sip. “So what’s happening today?” he asked.

He tended to be rather absentminded, and he could never keep a schedule in his mind. His assistant kept him on track at work, and Rose kept him on track at home.

“The girls have dance practice this afternoon. Then they have a birthday party at a roller-skating rink this evening. You said you had a work dinner tonight, so you probably won’t see them until bedtime.”

“Oh. Right.” He’d obviously forgotten about his work function. “Whose birthday is it?”

“Mya’s!” Julie informed him, grinning brightly. “She’s going to have pink strawberry cupcakes!”

“Sounds good. I wouldn’t mind having one of those.”

“They’re not for you!”

Rose picked up Julie’s empty cereal bowl and then glanced at Jill’s. “Take three more bites, Jill, and then you need to run and brush your teeth so I’ll have time to do your hair before school.”

Jill obediently took three more quick bites before she dropped her spoon and slid off the stool. The girls disappeared from the kitchen in a flurry of red-brown hair and whispers.

“I should be back by eight this evening, so I’ll be here for bedtime,” James told her as he took another long sip of coffee.

“Okay.”

Because she was watching, she could see him wince slightly as he swallowed. When he lowered the mug, he absently rubbed the side of his face.

“Does your jaw hurt?” she asked.

He dropped his hand quickly. “It’s okay.”

She was neither surprised nor deceived by his attempt to cover. After working for him for so long, she knew him really well. “Do you think you’ve been clenching your teeth at night?” she asked. “That would make your jaw sore.”

“I don’t know,” he said, frowning at her. “Not that I’m aware of. I said it was fine.”

She watched as he took another sip of coffee and saw the slight wince even though he was clearly trying to hide it. His teeth must be sensitive. That, in addition to the sore jaw, almost certainly meant he was clenching his teeth at night.

He had a lot of stress at work, and she suspected there was a lot of stress involved in being engaged to Genevieve Brown.

She had no idea why he was going to marry the woman. Of course she was gorgeous, but James had always been a smart man. Surely he could see beyond her looks.

Rose had never known his first wife, but from everything she’d heard, the woman had been both sweet and pretty. How hard would it be for James to find a woman like her to marry now?

Genevieve wasn’t good for him. Rose tried to be supportive, but she couldn’t help but hope something would come between them before the wedding, which was fortunately still eight months away.

James could do a lot better than Genevieve. It wasn’t Rose’s place to say anything, but she’d spent a lot of time thinking about it in the past couple of months.

James deserved a lot better, and his little girls did too.

James Harwood always went to his home office to work for an hour in the mornings before he headed into the office. Normal office hours in the company were eight thirty to five. If he went in at seven thirty, then his assistant would feel like she needed to arrive that early too, so he always waited to go in.

He found he usually got a lot done in that morning hour with no one to call or stop by the way they always did when he was at work.

This morning, however, his jaw was killing him, and he was having trouble focusing on the e-mails he was trying to sort through in his in-box.