Christine Flynn - Tall, Dark, Texas Ranger / Once Upon A Christmas Eve - Tall, Dark, Texas Ranger

Her mother looked at him. “I’m not sure I can afford you.”

A slow, easy smile spread across Coop’s face. “I work pretty cheap. If you buy the materials, my labor is free.”

Beth smiled. “I like that, but it doesn’t seem fair.”

Coop looked thoughtful. “How about if you throw in a few meals?”

Lilly wanted to object. The last thing she wanted was another man around. “Noah, I would think you’d get pretty tired of spending the evening with bickering kids.”

“I think I’m up to it,” he assured her.

She was losing this battle. The privacy she needed so desperately since her marriage and life fell apart.

She looked at the good-looking man across from her. All she wanted was a nice quiet summer break. But it didn’t look like that was going to happen now.

LILLY tried to ignore him, but how could she ignore a shirtless man right in her line of sight? And that was exactly where Noah Cooper was. It was only eight o’clock the following morning, and the man stood on a ladder scraping the peeling paint off the back of the house.

Finally giving in to the old adage “What was the harm in looking.” And that was exactly what she did. Look.

She leaned a little to the side of the kitchen sink to get a better view. To see how his faded jeans fit across his nice rear end. How those muscles over his back and shoulders bunched with his movement. The tiny beads of sweat that gathered along his spine and ran down into the back of his Levi’s.

She blew out a breath. Whoa, must be the heat getting to her. She turned away. She didn’t need to get all worked up just noticing a man, especially not a man who’d just arrived in town.

One thing for sure, she didn’t need any more complications in her life, or in her kids’ lives. After the disaster with Michael, she couldn’t risk it.

The man she thought she loved and respected had seemed to change overnight. Something she couldn’t believe at all. She’d known Michael Robert Perry since grade school. They’d gotten together in high school and then went to the same college. There had never been anyone else.

She thought she knew the man she’d married at twenty. Until he turned into a stranger and he started keeping secrets and then finally left her and the kids. It was still hard to believe that man she’d loved and shared two children with had abandoned his family.

Worse, after the divorce, he refused to even see his own children. Gave her full custody. He did pay child support for a while, but she soon discovered that he’d mortgaged their house for the business. She couldn’t afford the payments.

Thank God she could come back home to live with her mother. Her kids needed the stability of having their grandmother there when she couldn’t be. And they helped each other out financially.

Even after all that, Lilly kept praying that the old Mike would return and want his family back. But he never showed up, never spent time with Kasey and Robbie.

For the past two years, she had to deal with the aftermath of two kids losing a parent, then the finality of his death a few months ago. Robbie seemed to be doing fine, but not Kasey. She’d always been Daddy’s little girl. Now, she was sad and angry.

Lilly could still remember when the sheriff came to tell her about Mike’s death. He said it was suicide.

That day part of her died, too. For the man who’d been such a big part of her life. The man who she’d vowed to love, honor and cherish. Mike’s desertion from his family had ended that long before his death.

“What happened, Mike?” she breathed, unable to stop wondering if she’d been the cause. “Why did you change? What made you stop loving us?”

Lilly glanced out the window again to see Coop. Why was she drawn to him? Okay, it had been a long time since she’d had a man’s attention. And Noah Cooper was easy to look at, in a rugged male sort of way. He wasn’t afraid to get down and dirty. She felt heat rush through her as he climbed off the ladder. He went to the hose, turned it on and raised the spray over his head, allowing the water to run over him.

“Oh, my,” she groaned as the water dripped over his chest and ran down to his waist. He reached for a towel and she couldn’t look away from the erotic scene as he rubbed the towel over his muscular chest and arms. Already the sun had bronzed his skin, contrasting with the white line along his waistline.

He turned and exposed his wide back and she caught a dark mark on his left shoulder. A tattoo. She squinted but couldn’t make it out.

“What’s so interesting?”

Lilly jumped as her mother came into the kitchen. “Nothing, just Mr. Cooper working on the house.”

Beth glanced out the window and grinned. “And what a nice view, too.” She sighed. “Oh, to be young again.”

Lilly tried to concentrate on her coffee. “Mother, at your age.”

“At any age,” she countered. “There’s nothing wrong with enjoying looking at a man, Lilly. You’re a healthy, young woman.”

“And I’m a mother and a school principal. I have to set a good example.”

“Then show your kids that you haven’t shriveled up and died. Get out there and live.”

Before she could put up any argument, the back door opened and Mr. Sexy walked in. He’d put on his shirt, but it wasn’t buttoned yet.

He nodded. “Mornin’, ladies.”

Her mother smiled. “Good morning, Coop. I see that you’ve already started working.”

“Wanted to get an early start before the heat really hit,” he informed her as he went to the coffeepot and poured some into the mug.

“Then you’re in time for some breakfast. Lilly is about to fix hers.” She turned to her daughter. “You wouldn’t mind cooking up some eggs for Coop? With Jenny out with the baby, I promised to help out at the Blind Stitch this morning.”

Lilly didn’t like this. “Sure.” She went to the stove, grabbed the skillet, then went to the refrigerator to take out the bacon and eggs. “How do you like your eggs, Mr. Cooper?”

“Any way is fine.”

Lilly cracked the eggs into a bowl. “Scrambled.”

“Well, I better get going,” her mother said. “I’ll be home for lunch. Anything you need from the store?”

“No, Mom, I can’t think of anything.”

“Okay, bye.” She was out the door and Lilly was left alone with the first man who, in a long time, made her aware of the fact she was a woman. She didn’t need this right now.

Coop watched as Lilly Perry stomped around the kitchen. He knew she wasn’t happy about him being here, but he had no choice. He had a job to do.

“Here, let me help.” He went to the stove and took the bacon from her and began to lay strips in the flat skillet.

“You don’t need to do this. You and my mother have a deal.”

He looked at her, catching her pretty blue eyes. “That’s right, your mother and I made a deal. You had nothing to do with it.” He felt a stirring and glanced down at the sizzling bacon. “This is your vacation, Lilly.”

“I have children, Mr. Cooper. I don’t get a vacation, summer or otherwise.”

“Okay, then I don’t want to add to your chores.”

“Cooking breakfast isn’t going to kill me.”

He stopped her. “What’s the problem? No one can help you?”

She stiffened. “It’s easier to go it on my own.”

“Sounds like you’ve been let down a lot.”

They both held the standoff until the bacon began crackling. He turned down the flame.

“You’ve made it clear you don’t want me here,” he told her. “And I’m not sure why.”

“I don’t know much about you. And with you being around my kids and mother … I need to watch out for them.”