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Not one to miss the fun, Mia had speed-crawled over and joined him, assuming the same position Benny had taken up and was bouncing on her stomach as well.

“More! More!” she called, her nose scrunched as she mock-laughed.

It was her latest trick, one that mimicked Benny, and Ella loved it.

Plonking Benny back to include Mia in the fun, Ella rocked up and down, as wild as she dared, until both children slid off to roll around the carpet, laughing and shrieking as they dragged themselves up for another turn.

“Whoa! Let’s give poor Ella break!” Leo scooped up his daughter. “Come here little tiger. You wanna play rides? I’ll show you a real ride!”

“It’s a competition? Really Leo?” She shouted indignantly to be heard over the shrieks, the sparkle in his eyes confirming she’d hit the target.

“Alright! Let’s show these colonials a few tricks, Benny boy.

They think because they’re rodeo people, they can do better than us?

Challenge accepted!” Still holding her son she rolled to her knees, competently hoisting him up onto her back with one hand.

“Hang on beautiful boy, we’re heading out! ”

Familiar with the game, Benny grabbed her sweater with his little fists and hung on as she, on all fours, raced him around the empty space. High on her back, Benny laughed so hard he almost slid off several times, rocking and rolling from side to side.

As expected, Leo was a fierce competitor, but still, her confidence took a bit of a hit when she felt him come up beside her, overtaking her with way too much ease, ignoring his passing quip about eating dust. But she didn’t give up easily.

Eyeing his determined grin, she hastened her pace, but after a very short sprint fraught with potential carpet burns, Ella was forced to admit Leo had superior horsey skills.

Especially when he had Mia perched on his shoulders, not his back, and crawled—very quickly—using just three limbs, his other hand steadying his daughter so she wouldn’t fall.

Show off.

No one had ever accused her of being a good loser, though, and that wasn’t going to start now. Giggling so hard she was in danger of collapsing; she tried to grab his shirt. “Unfair advantage! I’m calling foul.”

“On what grounds?”

“I believe I should have been given a handicap—my jockey is at least five pounds heavier than yours.” Though while she wouldn’t admit it out loud, she was quite content with the very acceptable consolation prize.

Traveling behind Leo Halligan while he was on all fours had its distinct advantages. Not a bad view at all…

Collapsing, his chuckle was contagious, easily swinging Mia into his lap, and reaching for Benny so Ella could collapse beside him.

This time the silence wasn’t awkward and after watching him for a few minutes, she dared to ask for his thoughts.

His sigh was resigned. “That this room isn’t going to be half as much fun when we get furniture in here.”

“Really?” She shook her head. “But you’ll be able to use it as a room. It will actually be useful.”

His eyes snagged and held hers. “Maybe. But it seems to me that there’s still a whole lot of fun things to do here just like it is. Plenty of room to roll around…”

“Oh.” It was all she could manage. Had there been innuendo there? She thought so, but…

Flames swept through her and she momentarily stilled; snatching her eyes away as she busied herself with everything possible that would keep her from having to face him.

Unfortunately it took mere minutes to tidy away the toys, and she was left scrambling to find something else.

She heard his low chuckle but refused to turn to him.

Perhaps he’d laughed at one of the children. And perhaps not…

Irrespective he’d gone and done it again. Planted the seeds that would later grow to fantasies and keep her awake long into the night.

Her head spat out a silent sarcastic thank you .

Her body refuted the sarcasm, insisting on focusing on the pure delight.

Closing her eyes she forced herself to breathe slowly; and calmly pull herself together. Even knowing it was an impossible ask. Her body throbbed with an energy that could be salved by only one thing—one man.

And as that was never going to happen. She was in big trouble.

Perhaps the township of Marietta could use a one-woman, human snow plow. Surely that was one way to get rid of this energy!

“Hey,” he called softly. “In a few days I have to go away, and I was thinking maybe we could all make a trip down into town before I go? Grab some lunch… I could introduce you around. I figured it might help you get more familiar with Marietta.”

Okay… Interesting. She was conjuring erotic fantasies, and he was thinking about introducing her around town?

That was a bucket of cold water, right there.

Lingering too long to position colored rings over the plastic post they circled, she ordered her body to behave, and only then finally turned to him.

“I… ah…” Her head was whirling, it would be churlish to refuse.

After all this was as much for his daughter as it was for her.

Making the townsfolk aware of her role in Mia’s life made sense, particularly as he was going away.

She pushed back the disappointment his declaration caused.

“Yes, of course. That would be lovely. Thank you.” She truly hadn’t meant to deliver those words with such clipped formality, and yet she had.

His one raised eyebrow told her he’d noticed, and though she’d attempted a smile to soften the blow, she knew she’d failed.

So she dragged her phone out of her rear jeans pocket.

“Goodness, look at the time. I should begin preparing dinner for these two. Do you have things to do? Should I take Mia with me?”

His eyes narrowed, assessing. “No. leave them both. We’ll play a bit more.”

Nodding she rose to go, feeling his gaze on her, only daring to breathe properly when she was out of sight.

Later that night she’d get on Google and look up yoga positions to build emotional resilience.

Pranayama might be one if memory served.

Child’s pose? Leg up the wall? She couldn’t remember any specific moves for suppressing an overactive libido, but that last one sounded eerily appropriate. Or maybe it was the opposite…

Her groan was long and low. Suddenly she felt defeated before she’d even begun.