Chapter Two

      Stephanie didn’t hear the actual conversation between Drew and his guest. Adrenaline made her heartbeat pulse and pound in her ears in a fierce rhythm, like a roofer hammering nails, drowning out the sound of the men’s voices.

       At the knock, she’d experienced a startling moment of panic where she’d actually considered hiding behind the couch. She’d been certain that the man at the door was Ryan, that he’d already tracked her down, determined to charm or intimidate her into going back with him.

       Which she would never do.

       She wondered how long this indeterminable fear would follow her around. Would she ever not jump when someone knocked on the door?

       She was more relieved than she could say when she realized the visit had nothing to do with her, but she felt guilty that it was at Drew’s expense—it didn’t take a genius to figure out something had gone wrong in his world.

       He slammed the door and returned to his chair, a crumpled manila envelope clenched in his fist. His breath came in ragged gasps and his face was an alarming shade of crimson. Stephanie braced for the detonation she was sure was to follow, for the man was clearly a ticking time bomb.

       The explosion never came. Drew yanked at the knot in his tie and stretched his neck from side to side, but he didn’t yell, or sulk, or throw anything, which is what Ryan did when things didn’t go his way.

       Instead, Drew quietly reached into his shirt pocket for his reading glasses and removed from the envelope a crisp white set of legal documents. He released a long, unsteady breath as he silently perused the papers, the worry lines on his forehead deepening. When he was finished, he bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. Stephanie thought he might be praying, but she wasn’t certain. Probably staving off a headache, as well.

       The pressure in the air around her seemed to intensify as her mind thought up a number of scenarios that Drew might be facing. She wanted to reach out to him but wasn’t sure how. When she laid a comforting hand on his forearm, his muscles rippled with tension.

       “My ex-wife is suing me for full custody of the twins.” The statement was matter-of-fact, but his expression was anything but. Agony flashed through his eyes when he spoke of the woman, and Stephanie winced. She could relate to that kind of pain—of having the person you had expected to spend your life with let you down.

       But there was more injury than anger in Drew’s gaze. Stephanie couldn’t claim to be as noble. She despised what Ryan had done to her, and she hated herself even more for having let him, for getting her priorities so mixed up she couldn’t see what was happening to her until it was too late.

       But for her, at least, what was done was done, and she was moving forward with her life, starting now.

       For Drew, however, it looked as if his troubles were just beginning.

       He cleared his throat, his lips moving silently as he searched for the right words. “Obviously, I’m pretty desperate to find adequate child care for the twins,” he began, leaning his forearms on his elbows and clasping his hands together. “The boys were in day care with a local woman, but she had to move to Chicago to be near her ailing sister. Her leaving left a big gap in Serendipity, especially for me.”

       “I’m sorry to hear that,” she replied, though in truth she wasn’t exactly sorry. If the woman hadn’t left, she wouldn’t have a job. “The boys are three years old, right? Do they attend preschool yet?”

       He shook his head. “Unfortunately, Serendipity doesn’t have a preschool.”

       “Oh, my,” she responded, her surprise showing in her voice. She would have thought that even as tiny a town as Serendipity would have a preschool to help the little ones with learning readiness.

       “I know. It’s a huge issue, right? I’ve been in mediation over custody of the children with my ex-wife, Heather, for some time now, and being able to send the twins to a preschool might have worked in my favor. Right now, I have temporary custody. Heather sometimes visits the kids on weekends. Right after the divorce, that was how she wanted it, but now, inexplicably, she’s changed her mind.”

       He sighed. “I hired you in the hopes that she and the mediators would see how serious I am about taking care of the twins and would grant me primary custody without getting the court involved.” He slapped the legal document with the back of his hand. “As you can see, that’s not working out so well for me.”

       He scrubbed his free hand over his scalp, making the short ends of his hair stick up every which direction. “If my ex-wife has it her way, I won’t get to see the twins at all, except for maybe supervised visits. She’s claiming I’m an unfit father.”

       “Why did she change her mind? And why would she be so unwilling to share custody?” Granted, Stephanie had just met Drew, but she’d appreciated what she’d seen so far. No one could fake the kind of love shining from Drew’s eyes when he was around his boys, or even spoke of them. He appeared to be a patient and tender father. He was even willing to hire a nanny from out of town to make sure the twins were adequately cared for full-time. If that wasn’t devotion, Stephanie didn’t know what was.

       Besides, the boys needed their father in their lives.

       “Two years ago, Heather left me and the kids because she didn’t like being tied down as a wife and mother. She’s a party girl, and always has been. Staying home on Friday nights just didn’t suit her.”

       “Then why does she want custody of the boys now?”

       He scoffed and shook his head. “There’s the rub. I don’t know. She doesn’t want to be tied down with the twins, so it only makes sense that I maintain primary custody. I’m guessing she just doesn’t want me to have them, because she wants to hurt me. I had no idea she felt so much hostility against me.”

       His voice was raspy with emotion, and his gaze didn’t quite meet hers. “If she wins in court, the twins will be raised by various relatives and an absentee mother. I’m afraid for them. That’s why I have to fight.”

       “Wow.” Stephanie didn’t even know what else to say. She’d grown up in foster care. She knew firsthand what it meant to be unloved, to be shuffled from house to house with no stability. She couldn’t imagine using those two precious boys as pawns in what was essentially a vindictive game.

       “According to this summons, I’ve got a CFI—a Child and Family Investigator—from the court coming to the house sometime in the near future to scope out the family situation. With all your credentials as a nanny for the twins, I can only hope it will help my case.”

       “It certainly can’t hurt. I’ll do whatever I can,” she vowed.

       “I know I have to trust God with my boys. But sometimes I find it hard to put my circumstances in God’s hands. Their whole lives may be affected by