Almost Midnight by Teresa McCarthy

said softly, her heart pounding like a thunder. “My guess is you hate life.” 
    Triumph flooded through her when another flicker of irritation ticked at his jaw. But those words barely made it out of her mouth before she forged on.
    “You see, Mr. Clearbrook, I’ve found that life isn’t fair, and sometimes it’s just the little things in life that count to the ones you love. Jeremy’s mother may be dead, but you aren’t. So take that beautiful son of yours and love him for all he’s worth, because someday you may never have him again, or he may not have you.” 
    Her words were a mere whisper, sounding as if they came from someone else, a purging of some kind, a needed release.
    But Tanner just stood there, immobile, staring at her as if she were a worm on the sidewalk.
    Pain squeezed Hannah’s chest so tight she thought she might stop breathing. She didn’t wait for him to answer. She lifted her chin, turned, and strode past the study doors, walking out of the house with as much dignity as she could muster. A string of watery sneezes didn’t help the stinging that filled her eyes.
    She had heard the Clearbrook family had come from some grand duke in England. Well, right now, she felt like one of the duke’s servants about to be sacked. Tanner Clearbrook may not be a duke, but he sure as heck acted like one with his pompous attitude.
    She was astonished that he hadn’t fired her right there. But if she knew anything about millionaires and dukes, they didn’t take insubordination lightly. Tanner Clearbrook would give her the boot later that evening - because now, he did have her number.
    Depressed at the thought of losing Jeremy, she slipped into her tin-can-of-a-car that was parked on the street. A cool mountain breeze blew through windows as she turned the key, reminding her too much of that night on the mountain.
    Didn’t the man know how lucky he was to have a son?
    She listened with dread as the engine clicked without turning over. It was dead. Again.
    Her fingers curled into her palms. There was no way she was calling that man to fix it. She hit the steering wheel, her heart aching with grief as painful memories began to stir in her mind.
    “I don’t want kids, Hannah. I want you all to myself!”
    “But we agreed—”
    “Well, I changed my mind, and that’s all I’m going to say on the subject, so drop it.”
    With a sob, Hannah jerked the keys from the ignition and stepped out of her car. Now what?
    She had stopped the payments on her cell phone. She couldn’t afford it. She remembered there was a gas station not too far away. A block or two maybe?
    She started walking. She would pay whatever she had to before she asked Mr. John Tanner Clearbrook for help!
     
    A frown spread across Tanner’s face as he paced the floor of his study, trying to control the urge to call Hannah back and apologize. He’d seen the naked pain in her eyes and wasn’t proud of the way he’d treated her. She probably had no idea the way she affected him. He combed a frustrated hand through his hair and sighed.
    “Dad!”
    Jeremy’s voice cut through Tanner’s thoughts like a knife.
    Climbing the stairs two at a time, Tanner burst into Jeremy’s room and found his son pressing his nose against the window overlooking the front yard. The boy was clutching his red painted toe dinosaur under one arm and Max the Bear under the other. Max, Tanner thought. His younger brother had never heard the end of it after his nephew had named the stuffed bear after him.
    “What’s wrong, partner?” 
    Jeremy turned around, his watery gaze pushing Tanner’s guilt up a notch. “She promised to make me gingerbread, and now she’s gone. I don’t think her car could start and she just got up and left. Did she leave because I didn’t say I’m sorry again? I’m sorry, Dad. I didn’t mean to be so bad.”
    Tanner knew she meant Hannah Elliot. The lady was a threat to him and his son, a threat to their harmony, however