Part-Time Wife by Susan Mallery Read Free Book Online Page A

takes the bus," he said, then bit into the third piece of pizza.
    She sat cross-legged on the kitchen chair. Just looking at her folded legs made his knees throb. She'd run her hands through her hair, but there were still spiky tufts sticking up. Most of the lights in the house were off. Only the lamp in the family room and a small light over the stove illuminated the kitchen. In the dim room, her pupils were huge, nearly covering her irises, and her eyes looked black against her pale skin.
    Her small hands fluttered gracefully as she moved. She made notes on a yellow pad, detailing where to pick up whom and what foods made the boys gag.
    "I'm not a fancy cook, but pretty much everything I put together is edible," she said.
    "That's all we require."
    She glanced at him. "This has been hard on you, hasn't it?"
    "Yeah." He took a swallow of beer and set the bottle on the table. "Since Mrs. Miller left there's been four different women in here. I guess she spoiled us. I didn't think it would be that difficult to replace her, but I was wrong."
    "Well, you've got another five weeks until you have to think about that."
    He raised his eyebrows. "What happened to our one-week trial?"
    She shrugged. "I spent the day with the boys, and I think I can handle it. Unless they don't like me, I can't think of a reason why I can't stay the agreed time. At least it will save you from having to look for someone instantly."
    "I think I've interviewed nearly every nanny in a fifty-mile radius."
    He supposed he could have put the boys in some kind of day-care program and then just hired sitters for the weekends, but that never seemed to work out. He had to coordinate meals, cleaning, food shopping. It was easier to find one person to do it all. He was fortunate enough to have the money to pay for outside help. Every day he saw people who survived on much less.
    "Now you get a break," Jill said. "Besides, staying here gives me some time, too. When Kim and her husband come home from their honeymoon, the last thing they'll want is a houseguest. I was going to have to look for my own place anyway. I haven't decided if I want to stay here or go back to San Clemente ." She looked at him and smiled. "Now I don't have to."
    Intellectually he knew his boys were sleeping upstairs. There were neighbors across the street and next door. He and Jill were hardly alone. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling of the world having been reduced to just the two of them. In the brief silences of their conversation he could hear the soft sound of her breathing. Despite his best effort to keep his attention above her shoulders, his gaze was drawn again and again to her chest. Not just to stare at her breasts, although they stirred his imagination, but also to watch her breathe. She wasn't like any woman he'd ever dated. Of course, he was getting old and there was a chance he couldn't remember back that far.
    He studied her hands on the glass. Her slender fingers made random patterns in the condensation. Her nails were short and unpainted, but still feminine. He couldn't get over how small she was, every part of her perfectly proportioned, but little. Krystal had been tall, nearly five-nine. Most of the women he'd dated had been tall, as well.
    "I didn't know how you wanted to handle discipline with the boys," she said.
    "Ben's already been a problem?"
    She raised her eyebrows. "Why assume it was him?"
    "C.J. is very charming and fun-loving. Like my brother Kyle. He prefers to get his way by cajoling. Danny is going to be shy for the first couple of days, which leaves only Ben."
    Ben had also been a problem in the past. Craig grimaced as he remembered the reports from Ben's teachers. The boy was sullen and uncooperative. His grades continued to be good, but he didn't participate in group activities.
    "I did convince him to behave," she said, then stared down at the table. "But I'm not sure you'll approve of the method." She glanced up, her gaze sheepish. "I didn't know if you