Nanny Makes Three

“Poor little girl,” Melissa said softly. “I’m sorry about your wife.”

“I was never married to Alice Ann’s mother,” he replied, his jaw tightening. “She—”

“Do my hair, Daddy,” his daughter said, running back into the room waving a small pink brush.

Gregory took the brush and started tugging it through her snarled hair. He came to a knot and left the brush stuck there. Tapping Melissa’s résumé, he asked, “You’ve held a variety of jobs, but none remotely connected to child care. Plus there’s a big gap in your work history. Were you on holiday for the whole ten months?”

“Come here, honey,” Melissa called to Alice Ann. She straightened the girl’s skirt, then extricated the brush and gently worked through the tangles, strand by strand. She glanced at Gregory, knowing her explanation wasn’t going to sound good. “I was traveling with the Cirque du Soleil.”

“You ran away and joined the circus?” he asked skeptically.

“Were there lion tamers?” Alice Ann made claws with her fingers and roared at Melissa.

“No, it’s not that kind of circus,” she said, laughing. “My former boyfriend is a highwire artist,” she replied. “Our relationship didn’t work out so I came back.”

“You up and ran off for ten months,” Gregory mused. “That suggests a certain lack of stability on your part.

“Or adventurousness.” Melissa finished combing out the tangles. She picked a pair of sparkly purple hair clips from the handful Alice Ann had brought and pinned them on either side of her head.

Gregory studied her through narrowed eyes, then dropped his gaze to his notes. Finally he looked up. “Why do you want to be a nanny?”

Melissa opened her mouth, but no brilliant lies came out. Finally she settled on the truth, or as close to the truth as she could get without giving Diane away. “I want to do Something Big.”

“Something Big?” His eyebrows lifted, as if her answer surprised him. “Something Big,” he repeated thoughtfully, and his expression softened. “You believe looking after children is that important?”

Melissa nodded. She did, actually, although in all honesty she hadn’t imagined herself doing it until about twelve hours ago. Gregory seemed impressed, though, so she just smiled and tried to look like a competent, caring mother substitute.

“I’ll have to think it over and get back to you.” He got up, indicating the interview was over, and held out his hand. “Thank you for coming by.”

“Thank you.” She wasn’t expecting the pulse of warmth as their palms clasped, or the jolt when his eyes met hers. “I—I’ll need that résumé back, if you don’t mind.”

Gregory scribbled down her phone number on his legal pad and handed her the sheets. “Your good copy, is it?”

Ignoring his comment, Melissa crouched to say goodbye to Alice Ann and drew the girl into a hug. “If I don’t see you again, take care. You’re just perfect. Don’t let anyone turn you into a mouse, or anything else you’re not.”

Alice Ann nodded, eyes wide. “I’ll watch out for that mean old witch. I’ll turn her into a bat!”

Melissa rose to her feet and started down the steps of the veranda. “I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”

Yeah, right, she thought as she walked back to her car. When pigs fly! What a disaster. She gave a last smile and a wave to Gregory and Alice Ann, then put her car in gear and set off. He was probably calling Mrs. Blundstone right now. Soon Alice Ann would be reading at a fourth-grade level. Melissa would wind up selling time-shares in the Simpson Desert over the phone to little old ladies. Diane and her kids would be found and sent back to her abusive husband. And Gregory would believe he’d done the right thing and wonder why he was still lonely.

Melissa drew up with a start. Gregory, lonely? Where had that come from? He was a successful lawyer, a handsome man. He most likely had heaps of friends, not to mention women hanging around. But there was something in his eyes that said he was looking for more. Maybe like her, he didn’t even know what that something was. Or who. Okay, now she was getting fanciful.

Her mobile phone rang just as she was about to turn out of his driveway onto Balderdash Road. “Hello?”

“The job is yours.” Gregory’s voice sounded deeper over the phone.

Melissa slammed on the brakes and the car slewed sideways in the gravel. “You mean it?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Can you move in tomorrow?”

“I’ll move in tonight!”

“You are keen.” Gregory chuckled. “Okay, then. Come for dinner at six.” He paused. “I did mention, didn’t I, that I would also expect you to help out with the pigs occasionally?”

“The pigs?” she repeated slowly.

“Yes,” Gregory said. “Is that a problem?”

Melissa swallowed. “No, not at all. I love pigs.”

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