The Nanny Solution

“Yes, sir. Very funny, sir. But if you would come out to the foyer, this could be explained much, much better.”

Jake decided that was a great idea. He was sure that these few minutes away from Hannah would get rid of whatever kept causing him to feel all the wrong reactions to a woman he wasn’t allowed to want. If that didn’t work, he could simply stay away, pretend to be busy, until his head cleared and he could behave normally around her again.

“All right.”

Jake turned to walk to the French doors but before he stepped away from the table, Felicity Lockhart, his red-haired, sex-goddess ex-girlfriend, flew onto the patio. Her eyes blazed and she carried a tightly wrapped bundle—his six-month-old son.

“Jake Malloy, we had a deal!”

Just like in the movies, the entire patio became quiet. Though Jake’s first instinct was stunned surprise, he knew he could handle her. He always did.

“Felicity, it’s very nice to see you.”

She stomped her foot. “Don’t you say it’s nice to see me! You made a promise. Now you have to keep it.”

“Okay,” Jake said soothingly. “Honey,” he added, slathering more balm on her bad mood. “Why don’t you let poor Dixon out of the blanket so he can breathe? Better yet, give Dixon to me.”

Felicity shoved Jake’s son at him. Jake sighed with relief when he realized the baby was in a deep sleep. He cuddled Dixon against his chest before he faced his former girlfriend. “Where’s Amanda?” he asked, referring to the nanny for which he paid through the nose.

“She’s in L.A.,” Felicity said quietly, as if she were calming down.

“And why would she be in L.A. when Dixon is in P.A.?”

“Because you promised me that if and when this day ever came we would not desert the baby to a nanny!”

Jake’s eyes narrowed. “What day?”

She flailed her arms as if exasperated. “I am on my way to do the biggest movie of my life!”

“You got a job?” he asked incredulously, and realized too late that was the absolute wrong thing to do. Her blazing eyes heated two notches and her chin raised defiantly. It was the same expression she’d worn the whole time they’d argued about getting married. He didn’t love her and she didn’t love him, but he had been raised without his father and he wanted his son to know both parents.

“It isn’t that I don’t think you have talent,” he quickly said. “Since Dixon was born, you just haven’t really seemed all that focused on your career.”

Luckily, his mother scampered over. Tall and regal in her gray-sequined gown, with dark hair and dark eyes, Georgiann Malloy reached for the baby. “Hi, Felicity!” she greeted in an overly cherry voice. Like Jake, his mother was a student of human nature and she knew how to handle people. “Why don’t you give me the baby, and you two can go inside and talk about this privately.”

“There is nothing to talk about!” Felicity shouted. “He promised and I am going.” With that she turned and stomped her way off the patio and through the French doors into the house.

Jake’s mother made a move to run after her, but Jake put his hand out to stop her. “Let her go.”

“But…”

“Mom, I did tell her that I would take care of Dixon if she got a movie role and had to go on location.”

“Yeah, but none of us ever thought she would actually get a movie.”

“Well, she did and now I have a baby.”

Hannah rocked back on her chair, her eyes wide with surprise, her brain shocked into numbness. Jake Malloy was a daddy?

“He’s so cute,” Sadie cooed, rising from her seat to rush over and fuss over the baby. “Jake, I’m so glad we finally get to see your son!”

“So am I!” Troy said. He also rose to look at the little boy Jake held.

Jake smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, well, even I hardly get to see him since he lives in L.A.”

“Yeah,” Hannah said, more to herself than to anyone else. Jake hadn’t really kept his son a secret. Troy knew about him. Sadie obviously knew about him. Yet, Jake hadn’t exactly made a public announcement, either. Could it be that perfect Jake Malloy wasn’t so perfect, after all?

She smiled stupidly, feeling a relief of sorts that he was human. “This certainly puts Jake in a whole different light.”

Hannah’s sister Caro laughed. “Stop that,” she said, patting Hannah’s hand in reprimand. Not quite as tall as Hannah, but sharing her blond hair, Caro was the sibling Hannah most resembled.

“I didn’t mean that to be rude,” Hannah said. “It just came out wrong.”

“I hope so,” Max Riley, Caro’s fiancé, agreed, catching Hannah’s gaze with his striking blue eyes. “I would hate to have to break the news to people that you aren’t the ‘nice’ Evans sister everyone believes you to be.”

“The ‘nice’ Evans sister?” Caro and Hannah asked simultaneously.

“Yeah,” Max said with a chuckle, as if it were common knowledge. “Maria is the mom. Sadie is the hottie. Caro’s the smart…yet, gorgeous one,” he said, sliding a meaningful glance in his fiancée’s direction. “And Hannah’s the nice one.”

Hannah gaped at him. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Max said.

Hannah had a little trouble digesting the fact that she had been so neatly compartmentalized by her community, until she thought about her life. She was an elementary schoolteacher who had never left home. Not even for college. Her oldest brother, Dakota, had packed up for Massachusetts Institute of Technology and never returned, and she didn’t want to risk hurting her parents like that. So even though her other brother, Luke, and her three sisters had at least left Wilburn to go to college, she had commuted so she could continue to help her aunt Sadie with her day care, so she could go to every family gathering, so she could attend Wil-burn High football games.

Maybe she was “nice”? Maybe she was too nice? Maybe she was so stupidly nice and naive that she would trip over her tongue every time she danced with a handsome, sophisticated man like Jake Malloy!

“Maybe that’s my problem. Maybe I’ve been nice too long.”

Caro said only “Hmm” as she glanced over her shoulder.

Following the direction of Caro’s gaze, Hannah saw that the baby had awakened and had nestled his face into Jake’s neck.

Max said, “Looks like that little boy is very happy to be with his daddy.”

“Yes, it does,” Caro agreed. “And it looks like his daddy is also very happy to be with him.”

Hannah frowned, wondering if the universe hadn’t hiccuped or something. First, she realized the “niceness” she thought her best trait had probably been what was keeping her from becoming more sophisticated, then playboy Jake Malloy actually looked as though he loved being a father. From the way he walked around the patio showing off his baby to his guests, it was clear he loved the little boy and was proud of him.

Troy returned to the table and said, “That’s one cute little boy.”

“He is beautiful,” Sadie said, joining her husband. “And he loves his daddy. The only problem is that Jake travels a lot for Troy.”

Max shrugged. “So?”

“So, he’s got a trip planned this week.” Sadie leaned forward. “He’s going to Paris, then Belgium.”

“Oh!” Caro gasped. “He’s so lucky.”

“He won’t be so lucky if he doesn’t find a nanny,” Jake’s mother said as she and Jake’s new stepfather, broad-shouldered investment counselor, Larry Simmons, walked to the table.

“Maybe we can help at the day care,” Caro said at the same time that Jake, holding his adorable little boy, approached the gathering group.

Hannah had to admit the infant was sweet. Chubby-cheeked, with red hair, he didn’t look a thing like his father, but apparently Jake didn’t care. He held him as if he were his most prized possession.

“Jake,” Caro continued, “I’m glad you’re here. Your mother mentioned that you have to go out of town, and I suggested that maybe the day care could help out with Dixon. Aunt Sadie is back now. Her chemotherapy is over and she’s nearly healthy as a horse. I’m working with her for backup.”

“Thank you,” Jake said, “but I think I need a nanny. My mother could easily watch the baby during the day like the day care, but won’t be able to stay overnight,” he added, casting a meaningful glance at his mother and her new husband. “So, it’s overnight care I need. Somebody who can get up in the middle of the night with him, that kind of thing.”

Caro said, “Why not hire Hannah?”

Hannah gaped at her older sister. “What?”

Caro smiled. “Well, the baby can’t stay overnight at the day care and you’re not working. It’s not like you don’t need the money. I seem to recall some school loans that aren’t yet paid off.”

Ready to make an apology and an excuse for not being able to be his nanny, Hannah looked at Jake. But the oddest notion hit her. He needed a nanny, but she also needed something he had in abundance. Sophistication. If she were to live with him, even just to see how he lived, maybe she could change. She didn’t exactly think sophistication would magically rub off on her, but she did have to start somewhere and seeing how the other half lived was definitely a good way.

“That might work,” she said cautiously, and caught Jake’s gaze. Again she felt the sizzle that always seemed to happen when their eyes locked. But, damn it, she didn’t care. They might be attracted to each other, but he would never date her. One look at the woman he chose to be the mother of his son proved Hannah was not his type. And she would never date him. She knew when she was out of her league.

And she needed this. Tonight, she’d realized that her sisters had become a hundred times more sophisticated than she was. If she didn’t catch up, she wouldn’t fit into her own family.

Please, she tried to say with her eyes, since that seemed to be her best form of communication with Jake. Please, hire me.

Chapter Two

He should have told her no. Actually, he could have ignored her. She hadn’t really asked the question with words, only with her eyes, so he could have easily pretended he hadn’t seen. But something wouldn’t let him. Caught in the gaze of those innocent green orbs, Jake found himself saying the word okay….

And then instantly decided he had to be absolutely insane. There was too much of a sexual attraction cracking between him and Hannah for them to be living under the same roof. As the person who cared for Dixon at night, Hannah wouldn’t just be part of his household, she would be sleeping right down the hall from his own damned bedroom. It absolutely, positively, definitely would not work. Yet, once he said okay, his fate seemed sealed. Her sisters began to chatter. Troy started outlining details of her salary and benefits, and that was that.

Because of day-care commitments, Hannah couldn’t start working for him until Monday morning, but Jake suddenly saw he could work that to his advantage. Instead of having his newly married mother help him and Dixon through the weekend, he decided he and his son would rough it and prove to everyone he could handle the baby himself.

Though he’d never had the baby at his house—only visited him at Felicity’s, he and his mother had decorated a nursery and bought the appropriate baby furniture, so he had enough stuff and enough experience that he wasn’t a complete idiot. Once he proved he could care for the baby alone, then even though Hannah would have to care for Dixon during the day when Jake was on trips, she wouldn’t have to stay overnight when he was home. They wouldn’t be sleeping a few doors down the hall from each other.

It seemed like an easy way to get himself out of his dilemma of living with a woman who held an unexpected sexual appeal for him. But when the baby threw up on Jake’s clean shirt after his Saturday morning feeding, and cried nonstop for no apparent reason all Sunday night, Jake knew he couldn’t handle Dixon alone. More than that, though, he suddenly found it easy to remember he was a grown man who had overcome sexual attractions before. This time he had the added incentive of knowing this particular woman was the baby sister—not just a sister but the baby sister—of his best friend. And if that wasn’t enough, at a quarter to four Monday morning, he had to change one of “those” diapers.

When the doorbell rang at seven o’clock, Jake was done cursing his stupidity and was praising the heavens that his best friend had a sister who could help him.

“Hi! Good morning!” he eagerly said as he opened his front door to Hannah, who stood on his porch holding a suitcase and an overnight case. No woman ever looked as good to him as she did at that moment. Not because of her thick blond hair. Not because of the dimple he saw when she smiled at him. Not even because her green eyes were sexy and alluring, but because he never again wanted to change another diaper.

“Hi,” Hannah said, smiling at him as she entered his foyer. She glanced around at the thick cherry-wood trim, the crystal chandelier and the heavy desk that decorated his foyer, looking naive and innocent and so incredibly beautiful that Jake felt his breath catch.

With the memory of his weekend of baby trouble ebbing away, and feeling like his normal self again, Jake couldn’t help but notice how naturally pretty she was. Though the youngest Evans daughter had inherited the light hair, porcelain skin and full pink lips of her mother’s family, she had also inherited the long, dark lashes from her father’s side. She wouldn’t need make up. Her figure was so perfect, she could make a sack look like Vera Wang.

Jake’s breathing sharpened and pinpricks of awareness began to spike on his skin, but he stopped them in their tracks with the reminder of the diaper.

“Where’s the baby?”

“He’s still upstairs. Not awake yet.”

“Good. We can get me settled in my room. Then, if you don’t mind, I’ll wake him, so we can begin to get him on a schedule.”

With the picture of the diaper still vibrating in his memory, Jake smiled gratefully, the same way he would with any assistant who was taking a messy job off his hands. That was when he realized all he had to do was treat Hannah like an assistant, a secretary, or any other subordinate he was accustomed to dealing with and everything would be okay.

“That’s fine,” he said, taking the heavier suitcase from her and leading her up the stairs. “Do whatever you think we need to do to make our lives and Dixon’s easier, because I have a feeling we’re going to have him for a couple of months.”

“Really? You heard from his mother?”

“I have a call in to his mother so we can get the details of the length of her shoot, but she hasn’t called me back. If she doesn’t phone by Wednesday, we’ll know this commitment she forced on us is a lot longer than she wanted to admit.”

Hannah laughed and Jake stiffened. He wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to get too chummy with her. The goal here was to be polite and bosslike, not funny. Though, it was hard not to be at least a little silly about Felicity’s antics. While dancing on Friday night it was clear he and Hannah shared the same sense of humor. Hannah would probably think it odd if they didn’t laugh and tease and joke. Then she would figure out something was wrong, then she might go to her brother…

Yeah. Better let her laugh. No, actually, what he had to do was to continue to make her laugh as he had done on Friday night.

“Here’s your room,” he said as he opened the door. The floral bedspread and curtains seemed perfect for her, not just because the yellow and orange colors suited her but also because giving her this room put her an entire corridor away. He’d had to rearrange the nursery to do this but he knew moving Dixon was much better than sleeping two doors down from Hannah.

“You have your own bathroom.” Which meant no awkward bathroom scene. No stockings over the shower rod. No running into each other naked beneath robes or bath towels.

“And here’s the walk-in closet, with laundry chute and caddy.” Which meant that as long as she put her clean and folded laundry on her shelf in the laundry room, she would only have to press a button to bring them to her room, not run around half naked looking for a blouse…Not that he thought she would. But he wasn’t taking any chances.

“It’s lovely.”

“Thanks. My mother decorated it.” He turned away from her and walked to the door, not about to stand and chat with her while she unpacked because that would definitely not be a bosslike thing. “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”

“Okay.”

Jake closed the door behind him and sighed with relief. That had actually gone very, very well. He had to like her. He had to get along with her. She was his best friend’s little sister, not to mention his boss Troy’s sister-in-law. For the rest of his life, she would be popping up at parties, baptisms and weddings. He couldn’t dislike her, avoid her, or ignore her. So all things considered, the first encounter had gone well. Plus, he was leaving for Paris this morning. She would have three full days to get herself adjusted to his house and he would have three full days to get himself adjusted to knowing she was in his house.

In his office, Jake typed in the short list of commands that activated his brand-new NannyCam and immediately the image of Dixon’s nursery flashed onto his computer screen. He didn’t feel guilty or feel as if he was spying on Hannah. To Jake this was simply a typical precaution any father who had to leave town the very first day of his nanny’s employment would take.

Watching the scene of the white crib and changing table in the large airy room, made sunny and happy with the rainbow curtains that currently billowed in the morning breeze, Jake sat back in his tall-backed black leather office chair. He had only intended to turn on the system, but just then Hannah emerged from the adjoining bathroom, carrying the baby tub, which she set on a counter by the crib. She picked up squirming Dixon and set him in the water.

Jake leaned in to study the screen again. Clearly happy to be in his bath, Dixon gooed, bounced and splashed, but Hannah only laughed. Jake watched her, his head tilting to one side as he observed the way she handled Dixon.

“You better stop wiggling or you’re going to slide right out of my hands.” As she said that, she leaned down to Dixon and rubbed her nose against his. The baby giggled all the more. Enveloped in a warm, fatherly feeling, Jake smiled.

He couldn’t picture Felicity doing this with his adorable little boy. Hell, he didn’t think the L.A. nanny was this warm with Dixon. Yet, it didn’t seem odd to see Hannah play so intimately with the baby she had gotten acquainted with at his party once they realized she would be his nanny. She and Dixon seemed at home with the playing, the tickling, the teasing.

He continued to silently watch Hannah, enjoying her interaction with Dixon, until he realized just how much he was enjoying it. He thought Hannah was pretty and sweet, and he adored his son. The sight of them together made him feel things that went beyond anything he had ever felt before and entered the soft, wonderful place he thought only existed in a man’s imagination: the place where intimacy with a woman mingled with the joy of fatherhood.

He bounced away from the screen.

Whoa, he thought, then turned off his computer screen, though he left the computer itself on, to continue operating the camera and to record everything that took place in the nursery while he was gone.

That was a weird feeling.

A very weird feeling. Especially since he and Hannah had never been intimate.

It was the kind of feeling he had heard other men talk about with reference to their wives. The kind of feeling that scared him silly because listening to his friends talk about turning all mushy inside watching their wives with their babies made him think they were wimps. He could allow for a little wimpiness and sappiness about being a dad. He could let a guy get sloppy as all hell over a woman. But as soon as a man made that baby/mother connection, Jake knew it was all over for the poor sap. The guy was a goner.

And he did not intend for anything to be over for himself. He had a great life. He was rich. He was good-looking. He had any woman he wanted from the large, sophisticated circle of jet-setters in which he traveled. And, if everything went well with this week’s delivery, he would have the kind of risky, adrenaline-producing career that most men only dreamed about.

He had no business thinking about mothers and babies. He loved Dixon. In fact, having Dixon was the blessing of his life because in spite of never marrying, he got to be a dad. He had an heir, money and, even if he only remained a CIA courier, a fabulous secret life of sorts. He didn’t need to be thinking sappy thoughts about a pretty girl.

With that, he left his office and headed for the kitchen and a final cup of coffee before he departed for the airport. As he brought the cup to his lips, Hannah entered the kitchen, carrying a very clean, very nicely dressed Dixon. Wearing a pale blue T-shirt, shorts and little tennis shoes, Jake’s six-month-old son already looked like the jock Jake was sure he would someday be.

“Here, give him to me,” Jake said, reaching for his son.

“Be careful. He’s particularly squirmy today.”

“It surprises me that he took to you so well.”

Hannah shrugged and gave him a beautiful smile that he felt the whole way to his toes. “It shouldn’t. He’s not old enough to make strange yet.”

She issued the comment so casually that it struck Jake that part of the reason he was having more trouble controlling his feelings today was that Hannah was acting differently. He could have sworn she was afraid of him when he danced with her Friday night. Or, at the very least, that she was shy. But here she was behaving as if they were lifelong buddies.

He could easily believe she wanted to work for him because she had been laid off and needed the money. But that shouldn’t make her eager to be around him. If anything, she should be shooing him out the door. Yet this morning he could swear she was happy to be with him.

As Hannah watched Jake cuddle Dixon affectionately against his chest, a quick round of realization buffeted her. First, he seemed suspicious of her and that could mean he sensed she was here under false pretenses. But that was only half true. Her main purpose might be to observe how he lived, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t take care of his son. Even analyzing Jake, she could effortlessly fulfill her duties as nanny.

Second, she really liked him. He was funny and, in spite of his wealth, he lived a relatively normal life. His house stood alone on the outskirts of town for privacy, but despite its size and beauty, it was a comfortable house. He was a comfortable guy.

Third, even though he was a jet-setting playboy, Jake made an adorable father. It was a role no one expected to see him play, but just as he did everything else in his life, he made fatherhood look easy.

But that was exactly why Hannah was here. She was sure it was sophistication that helped Jake make everything look simple and she wanted some of that sophistication. She didn’t think just being around him would cause her to absorb the information and experience she needed, and she suspected that once they became better friends she would have to ask him questions. But that only reinforced that she had to be here. Seeing how the other half lived, making friends and asking questions to learn everything she could was Phase One of her new life plan. Phase Two was to get a job in Pittsburgh, once she had sophistication enough that she could ace an interview. And Phase Three was to actually move out of town.

She had to be here. If it killed her, she had to overcome his suspicions of her.

“Well, I’m off,” Jake said. “There’s a maid who comes twice a week, by the way. Don’t even rinse the dishes. Just take care of Dixon.”

“Okay,” Hannah said, smiling at him as he kissed his little boy goodbye.

But when he stepped forward to hand the baby to Hannah, their eyes met and she didn’t know how she knew, but she got the sudden impression he was thinking he should be kissing her goodbye too.