Adding Up to Marriage by Karen Templeton Page B

tree house myself. Eventually.”
    â€œDespite your mortal fear of broken limbs?”
    Another soft laugh preceded, “Apart from locking the kids in a padded room for the rest of their lives, there’s no way to prevent their getting hurt from time to time. Which I know,” he sighed out, then stood, facing her. “It wasn’t about keeping them safe as much as it was about keeping me safe. Or at least, me keeping control. You yanked the rug out from under me, Jewel, and I didn’t take it well.”
    â€œI—I know. And I’m sorry—”
    â€œNot your problem. And I mean that.”
    â€œOh.” She bit off another chunk of her burger, although her insides were shaking so much—and not only from the cold, despite the fire—she doubted she could get it down.
    â€œSo,” he said, sitting again. “You find someplace to stay yet?”
    He would bring that up. “’Fraid not.”
    â€œWhen you’re ready to move in then, let me know.”
    Jewel stared at his profile for what seemed like forever before saying, very quietly, “You sure?”
    â€œNot a bit.”
    She understood completely.
    Â 
    He could deal with the videos, as long as she didn’t leave them out where the kids could load them and subsequently scar themselves for life. He could deal with the working model of a woman’s innards, as long as she kept it in the closet in “her” room—again, due to the potential-scarring-for-life thing. Hell, he could even deal with the three boxes of stuffed toys which she’d insisted she couldn’t leave behind in case, apparently, a typhoon struck while the roof was off and they got wet. Which, yes, required a Herculean effort on his part to swallow back a comment about grown women hauling around their Beanie Baby collection.
    The books, however, nearly killed him. Literally.
    â€œWhat the hell are these printed on?” Silas panted out, lugging in the deceptively small box. “Lead?”
    â€œWuss,” Jewel said cheerfully, surveying the Beanie Baby-blitzed sofa. “And I saw that shudder.”
    â€œThe boys don’t have that many stuffed toys,” he said, giving in to curiosity and prying out Varney’s Midwifery, which was only marginally smaller than the base of his platform bed. “You’ve actually read this? Ow!”
    She walked over to snatch the missile-ized puppy off the floor. “Open it.”
    He did. Highlighted passages everywhere. And scribbled, virtually illegible notes. “Huh.”
    â€œYeah. Huh. I can’t take my licensing test until I’ve got more hands-on experience, but you better believe they will not be able to catch me on any of the technical stuff.”
    Silas watched as she rammed a drawer overflowing with her unmentionables back into the small, beat-up chest they’d hauled over from Eli’s house, still not fully at one with the idea of Jewel Jasper living in his house. She’d announced the morning after his offer that she was taking him up on it, right before she drove Ollie to school and withoutgiving Silas a chance to back out. Which of course he wouldn’t have, since it did appear he was her only option. But knowing it was only temporary? Not all that comforting, actually.
    Hell, bad enough it took a good hour after she left the house for her scent to fade, for him to hug his boys and not smell her on their clothes. Now he was doomed to live in a Jewel-scented fog for a full week. Maybe two. As long as he was in the house, anyway.
    Not that he would be all that much, what with her—and her herd of toys—taking over his office. Except at night.
    Nights were going to be a problem—
    â€œI’m guessing we’ll have to share the bath?”
    â€”as were mornings. Although she probably didn’t have a whole lot of girl stuff to clutter the sink with. Didn’t seem the type, somehow.
    â€œSure, no