“That’s not a bad idea,” he mused. His gaze ran over her face. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

Her mouth turned up in a small smile. “I kill flowers. I’m terrible gardener.”

The comment prompted a chuckle from him. “Where’s Tyler?”

She cleared her throat and ran her tongue along her lower lip. “He’s in my darkroom.”

Both his brows lifted in amazement. “You have an actual darkroom in this house?”

She gestured with her thumb over her shoulder. “It’s down the hall. I made some rearrangements to my laundry room.”

Sexy and resourceful. “No kidding?”

“It’s the biggest room without a window.”

He slid his hands in his pockets. “And you trust an eleven-year-old in there by himself?”

Elisa glanced down the hallway, then back at him. “Yeah, I do. He’s a quick learner.”

The compliment warmed him from the inside out. “Yes, he is. What’s he doing in there?”

“Right now he’s cleaning. Earlier we were developing the pictures he took.”

Brody’s mouth turned up in another smile. His son, the boy who slept with his baseball glove, spent the afternoon taking pictures?

Elisa ran a hand through her hair. “To be completely honest, I don’t know much about boys and even less about things they like. He seemed kind of bored and I couldn’t really think of anything else to entertain him.”

The uncertainty radiating off her was so endearing, Brody wanted to envelop her in a hug. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason. The need to feel those womanly curves pressing against him almost had him reaching for her.

She’d willingly given up her afternoons to look after someone else’s child, and a child she didn’t know that well, to boot. Instead of letting Tyler sit around a house that had nothing to offer him, Elisa engaged him. She showed his son the only thing she knew, even if those things didn’t particularly interest Tyler. Brody appreciated her effort and affection toward his son.

“I’m sure he had a good time.” He tried to put her doubt to rest. “And just so you know, he’s really into baseball.”

“I know,” she said with a grin. “He mentioned…” She paused and her smile faltered. “He said something about going to the baseball fields.”

Playing catch at the baseball fields had been a special tradition Brody and Tyler started years ago. On his days off, the two of them would ride their bikes and toss the ball back and forth. Since the divorce their routine had shifted. Unfortunately, on some of Brody’s days off, Tyler had been with his mother or at school. In those cases, Brody would sometimes go into work anyway. Providing a good life for his son was the most important thing to him. Before he knew it, several years had passed since they’d gone to the fields. Brody didn’t like to talk about the divorce or how the situation had affected Tyler. The subject was a sore spot for Brody, knowing he’d been unable to keep his family glued together. He’d felt as though he’d let his only child down, and he’d walked away from his divorce feeling like he’d lost a piece of himself. That particular chapter of his life had closed and was one he didn’t often share. Hearing Elisa mention the past times he and his son had shared made Brody wonder. Had Kelly or Tyler said other things to Elisa? Things about the divorce Brody wasn’t proud of?

He cleared his throat. “What else did Tyler mention?” he asked, trying not to sound anxious.

Elisa tilted her head and some silken hair slid over her shoulder. “Not much. Just that the two of you used to go there.” Her bottomless brown eyes studied him for one intense moment. “He really enjoyed the time out today. I think he’d probably like to go back.”

Brody nodded. “I’m glad. Maybe the two of you can go back tomorrow.”

Her lips twitched in a hint of a smile. “Actually I think he would have more fun if you took him.”

Tyler had outgrown the playground years ago. The last time Brody mentioned that place Tyler’s response was “Dad, the park is lame.”

“Tyler isn’t really into the playground,” he said to Elisa.

She took a step closer to him. “I wasn’t talking about the playground. When he mentioned the baseball fields, there was something wistful about him, almost sad. Like he really wanted to go back but…”

Her words twisted in his gut and made him feel almost nauseous. “But I’m too busy to take him.”

Elisa placed a hand on his arm. Her soft skin burned him up from the inside out. “I didn’t mean to imply anything. I just thought—”

“It’s okay.” He tried not to show the effect her words had on him. Guilt. Worst father in the world. Yeah, he was definitely feeling those right now. He cleared his throat again. “I know how much my work takes me away.”

Elisa took a step closer to him. Her womanly cinnamon scent tickled his nose and clouded his brain. “I’m sure he’s—”

A door down the hallway opened before Elisa could finish her sentence. Tyler’s striped polo hung loose over his grass-stained blue jeans. His brand-new black and white Nikes scuffed down the white-carpeted hallway. Over the past year Tyler had shot up over two inches in height. His hair, once as white blond as his mother’s, had darkened to a deep honey. His boy was growing into his own. Sometime when Brody hadn’t looked, Tyler had started to resemble a young man. The last thing he wanted was for Tyler to suffer because of the long hours Brody worked. He had to admit, he’d really begun to miss some of the things they’d usually done together.

Brody’s heart squeezed in his chest when Tyler’s green eyes landed on his. The boy smiled, then his smile grew even wider when he glanced at Elisa.

“How’d they come out?” Elisa asked Tyler.

Tyler shifted the papers in his hand and showed them to her. “This one is kind of streaky but the others are pretty good.”

Elisa placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. “Don’t feel bad about that. I messed up a ton of photos when I first started.”

The woman was a natural nurturer. Her face softened and her pouty, full mouth turned up in a reassuring grin. She gave Tyler her undivided attention as they went over each photo.

Elisa handed one to Brody, letting her hand linger on his arm while her left did the reaching. “Didn’t he do a good job?” She asked the question as though both she and Tyler had been waiting for him to say something. How long had he been standing there just watching them?

He took the picture and allowed his fingers to brush along Elisa’s softer ones. Pure fire shot up his arm like a jolt of electricity. His brain did a pretty good job of trying to ignore the sensation, while other body parts had a mind of their own. Brody summoned his iron-clad willpower and forced his eyes to the photos. Never in his life would he have imagined his eleven-year-old son enjoying taking pictures.

Apparently not, given the ear-to-ear grin on Tyler’s face and the way he practically hopped from one foot to other with excitement. That was what astonished Brody the most—not the fact that the pictures were semigood. The activity Elisa had introduced to Tyler this afternoon had made an impression on the boy. Brody couldn’t remember the last time his son had been this enthusiastic about something.

Brody’s mouth turned up in a proud grin as he shuffled through the black-and-white pictures. “You took these all by yourself?” he asked after he’d found his voice.

Tyler shrugged a bony shoulder. “Well, Elisa helped me.”

Elisa placed an arm around the boy. “All I did was show him how to use the camera. After that it was all him.”

Brody held up the picture of the well. “Do you mind if I frame this one and put it in my office?”

“Sure.” Tyler took one of the photos out of Brody’s hands. “I want Elisa to have this one.”

She took the picture and gazed at it with a small smile. “That’s very nice of you, Tyler.”

Brody needed to get out of there before he started kissing the hell out of Elisa in front of his child. The urge was getting stronger and stronger, and he needed to eliminate the temptation altogether.

“Tyler, why don’t you get your stuff so we can go get some dinner?”

“Okay.” Tyler gathered his backpack from the front door and hugged Elisa good-bye. His long, skinny arms wrapped around Elisa’s narrow waist as though he didn’t want to let go. Hell, Brody knew the feeling.

“See you tomorrow, Tyler,” Elisa said as the boy opened the front door.

Brody stepped through after his son and turned to face the beautiful woman who had his guts tied in knots. The casual khaki pants and baby pink polo was just as sexy on her as the slacks and floral print blouse she’d had on the first day he met her. Her hair hung free over her shoulders and halfway down to her waist. The sight reminded him of those cartoon mermaids who had nothing to cover their bare breasts except their long hair. He took a step closer to her just as an image of water cascading over her hair and down her bare breasts invaded his mind.

“Dad, I’m hungry.”

The words spoken behind him were like a bucket of ice-cold water thrown over his head. Nothing like the presence of his son to pull him back to reality.

“Is something on your mind?” Elisa asked in that soft, bedroom voice of hers.

“Uh, no,” Brody managed to get out without making a complete ass of himself. He’d come close to doing that too many times around her. “I just wanted to thank you for taking him out today.”

Her face softened again and her mouth spread into a grin. “It’s always a pleasure with him. Are we still on for tomorrow to take pictures?”

She was supposed to take pictures? Of what?

Elisa straightened from the door. “You still want to do the shoot, right?”