by Meg Ripley
“I wish I did! But hey, maybe you can do the same thing. I’d love to have you come out there with me.” As excited as she was for a potential new life in America, Brianna was still a little scared. She didn’t know anyone out there, and while she was hopeful that she would make some new friends, it would all be a little bit easier with a familiar face at her side.
“No way. I want to, but I’ve got too much going on here.” Cathy didn’t say it, but they both knew what she meant. Her father had passed away less than a year ago, leaving her mother to handle all five of their children. She couldn’t exactly just leave them all behind.
“I’m sorry. If I get to go, I hope you don’t hate me for it.”
“Never.” Cathy hugged her tight.
“Thanks. And don’t get your hopes up for me too much. I’m trying not to. I want to do this so badly, but there’s no guarantee that it will happen. The employment agency is supposed to send me some job listings that match what I’m looking for, but I bet there are hundreds of people competing for them.” She flopped back down on her bed, looking hopelessly at the ceiling. Her dreams were huge, but she knew deep down that it was just as likely she would end up working her dead-end job at the local grocer for the rest of her life. She could always go back to school, but the only thing she truly had a passion for was music.
“Brianna!” The voice came floating up the stairs, followed by heavy footsteps. “Brianna, the mail just came, and some of it’s for you.” Her mother came into the room without knocking, handing her a stack of envelopes. “Seriously, girl, you’ve got to stop sending off for so much junk in the mail. I nearly tipped over backwards just trying to get up the stairs with it.” She plopped a thick stack of magazines, catalogs and envelopes down on the mattress.
Her heart surging with excitement, Brianna did her best not to make it obvious. Her mother would only get suspicious if she understood how desperately Brianna wanted to dig through the pile. “Thanks!”
“Mmhmm. Don’t forget you’re helping me with dinner tonight. I’m not letting you stay here just so you can lay around in your room all day listening to the radio.” Mrs. Murphy stormed out and slammed the door.
“Wow, what’s she so mad about?”
Brianna shook her head as she began sorting through the glossy publications. “Don’t mind her. She likes to pretend that she’s doing me a big favor, when it was really her idea that I stay here instead of getting a flat of my own. She said she wanted me to save money, blah blah blah. It’s really just so she can control me. Oh, here it is!” She triumphantly held a thick envelope in the air. “Good thing the employment agency is just over in Carlow. If there was a more exotic return address, she might have ripped it right open.”
Cathy joined her on the bed as Brianna willed a long, razor-like talon to surface at her fingertip, sliced open the envelope and took out the packet of papers, revealing the various listings for work as a nanny. There weren’t as many as Brianna had been hoping for, but at least it was a start.
“Oh, look at that one!” Cathy took one of the sheets and read aloud. “Prestigious couple seeking an au pair for their five young children. Must be willing to work nights and weekends and be a talented cook. Payment will be discussed during interview.”
“Let’s set that one aside for the moment. I could do it if I had to, but I’m not sure about tackling five kids on my own. It might not be worth it. Look at this one.” Brianna pointed out another listing, tracking the words with her claw as she read them aloud: “Seeking a full-time caretaker for young daughter. Light housekeeping also required. Salary fair and living quarters provided.”
“It sounds more doable, that’s for sure.” Cathy leaned over her shoulder to see. “But are you really sure this is the right way to go? What if you get all wrapped up in this nanny business and you don’t have any time to work on your music? Maybe you could just start sending demo tapes to some of the record labels.”
“I have, unfortunately.” Brianna had spent all of her savings just to have it recorded, but no one seemed interested in it. The few replies she had received were polite, but they were still rejections. “I don’t think a crappy tape from a local studio is going to impress the bigshots. I think my best bet is to have a steady job so I can work on my music without having to worry about running out of money. Maybe I can even record a new demo once I get out there.”
“So, are you going to apply?”
Brianna straightened her back, trying to exude a confidence that she didn’t completely feel. Could life be like the movies? Probably not, but she could try, anyway.
“Yeah. I am.”
Chapter Three
Little Stephanie’s eyes flashed their reptilian form as she pounded her tiny fists against her thighs. “No, Daddy! Pink one!”
Damien closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He didn’t remember Stephanie being so difficult before. It was possible she was trying to adjust to the divorce as well, even though Linda had never spent all that much time with her. He supposed the absence of even a bad presence was still an absence, that would take some getting used to.
“All right, sweetie. You can wear the pink shirt, but this is the last time you get to change your mind.” He took the top off the little hanger in her closet and swapped out her yellow shirt for the pink one, as she requested. Damien wanted nothing more than for Stephanie to be happy, but he was beginning to realize just how hard it was to find the line between letting his daughter make some of her own decisions and spoiling her. He didn’t want her to turn out like her mother, constantly expecting everyone around her to give her exactly what she wanted.
“Okay, Daddy. Braids?”
“I’ll do my best.” He ran a brush through her curls and attempted to tame them into two braids. Stephanie sat still for him, and he was gentle as he removed the tangles, but he was certainly no hairdresser. Her part was crooked, one plait was thicker than the other, and he couldn’t even find two matching hair ties. If he ever found a class that taught dads how to do their daughters’ hair, he would sign up in an instant. Fortunately, Damien knew that Stephanie wouldn’t mind a slightly sloppy hairdo while she was still so young. “Are you all ready to go?”
“The park?” she asked hopefully.
“No, the airport, remember?” He had already taken her to the park twice in the last several days, doing his best to blend his parenting and his work schedules.
The search for a nanny had been much more difficult than he’d anticipated. Damien had started by putting an ad in the local paper, but that backfired on him quickly. He was soon receiving calls at all hours; some were from people who legitimately wanted the job, but none of them seemed to have decent references. Others were simply using random phone numbers they had found in the paper as leads to peddle the latest beauty products to or try to wrap him up in their financial schemes. It was bad enough that he had considered changing his number.
“Don’t bother with any of that,” his cousin Molly had advised when he called her to see if she had anyone to recommend. As a prominent attorney, she usually needed someone to take care of her children for her. “Everyone here is so hungry for a job, they’re starving—and, shifter or not, they’ll do anything, even if they aren’t qualified. I hope you didn’t put anything in the ad to indicate just who you are or what you do for a living.”
“No, I thought I kept it pretty simple.”
“Still, anyone offering a full-time, live-in position has obviously got money, so I’m sure half the people who called are just trying to swindle you somehow. Or worse, since you’re in Beverly Hills, maybe they assume you’re in the industry and they’re just trying to weasel their way in to get their fifteen minutes of fame.”
Damien sighed, frustrated with just how difficult the process was. “Then what do you suggest I do? I don’t know anyone who’s qualified, but I’m reserved about leaving Stephanie with a complete stranger.”
“I know, dear, I know. But since you can’t just stay at home with h
er, you’ve got to get over some of that. Hire an au pair from overseas. She’ll have no idea who you are, and she’ll have to do a good job or risk getting kicked out of the country. It’s your best bet, and it’s very in right now.”
It sounded a little cold to him, but Damien wasn’t sure he had any other good options. “Okay, I’ll give it a try.” To his surprise, he’d received several decent responses from the employment agency he placed the ad with. They didn’t sound like people who were just trying to butter him up to get their foot in the door, and he liked that. Damien sent a response letter and a plane ticket to the applicant that seemed the most promising, a young woman from Ireland.
“Why airport?” Stephanie stumbled a little over the words.
“I’m going to pick up your new nanny,” Damien reminded her as they headed downstairs and toward the garage. It had been a difficult thing to explain to his little girl, but he hoped she would understand once the au pair was in place and he started spending more time at the office. “Daddy has to go to work, and he can’t always take you. So Daddy found a very nice lady who’s going to come and stay with you.”
“Daddy go away?”
“No, no. Daddy won’t ever leave you, sweetheart. Daddy will still come home every afternoon for dinner, and he’ll be here to tuck you in at bedtime. I promise.” He kissed her little cheek before buckling her safely into the backseat of his BMW 733i. As he got behind the wheel, his heart ached to think that Stephanie might believe he was abandoning her. Linda had already disappeared from her life, and even though she had a right to supervised visitation, she had yet to take advantage of it. If his job were different, he would have just taken Stephanie with him everywhere he went.
As guilty as he felt for having to hire a caretaker for his daughter, there was something he felt even more rueful about. When he’d first met Linda, she seemed spontaneous and fun. As they continued to date, he saw more and more of the true side of her, but he’d convinced himself he was in love with her and that nothing else mattered. It had brought him no greater joy than to welcome their daughter into the world just a year after their wedding. But it had somehow never occurred to him just what might happen when a child is born to two dragons who are so very different.
Stephanie had immediately shown her shifter qualities. Much of her skin had been scales when she was born, a trait that she soon learned to control. She showed her joy and her displeasure in her transformations, sending sparks of fire from her mouth when she didn’t like her breakfast and rippling the scales on her arms as she played. It had been a constant source of annoyance for Linda, who felt it was much more proper to stay in human form. The public eye was on them, after all, and while shifters had been a known presence in the world for some time, there were still subsets of humans who hadn’t fully acclimated to them as of yet. Linda feared their judgement, but Damien, on the other hand, had loved that his daughter took such relish in being herself. It was thrilling to see new life carrying on the shifter gene, and he bonded closely with his baby girl very quickly.
He could handle the fact that he was divorced; these things happened. But Linda’s vile nature and the fact that she resented her own daughter—even though she never blatantly said so—had affected Stephanie’s life as well. He didn’t know what his future held, but Damien was sure that it was going to be a very long time before he ever let himself care for someone else. He had to make sure Stephanie was protected at all costs.
Traffic was thick as Damien made his way to LAX, and it didn’t help his nerves. He met new people all the time, and he had never been one to shy away from social situations. But he didn’t know this woman from Ireland. What if she’d lied on her resume? Damien had called her references, but those could also have been faked. He pulled in a deep breath and let it out through pursed lips. He would just have to rely on his instincts and see how he felt about her once he met her. He was the one who’d sent her a job offer and a plane ticket, so that was on him. But whoever took care of Stephanie had to be absolutely perfect.
“Plane!” Stephanie squealed from the backseat. “Plane!”
“You’re going to see a lot of those as we get closer to the airport,” Damien explained, happy to engage in a conversation with his daughter and get out of his own head. “Most of them are really big planes, too.”
“See more plane?”
“Yeah. And I’m sure we can watch a few of them take off and land while we’re there.” And he knew he would probably also stop in the gift shop and let her pick something out. They probably had some little plastic airplane she could take home to play with.
The place was packed, and for a moment, Damien wished he had just told the new nanny to catch a cab and come to the house. That wasn’t very professional, though, and it didn’t seem like a nice way to welcome someone to a new country. It was going to be difficult to find someone in this crowd, though. He was glad that he’d at least had the forethought to tell this Brianna that he would be waiting just outside his favorite cocktail bar. It was easy to spot, and it was the best place he could think of. He picked up Stephanie and held her on his hip, not wanting to risk losing her. She clutched the little plastic plane they’d easily found in the gift shop, making it swoop through the air while they waited.
As he scanned the crowded terminal, his eyes landed on a woman emerging from of one of the gates. Her light brown hair was thick and flowing, teased into gentle waves that floated around her face as she walked. Her skin was the color of cream, with bright rosettes of color on her cheeks, and her brilliant blue eyes were like a beacon, even across a crowd. She had a bold look about her, as though she felt she had every right to be walking through that airport and she didn’t care what anyone else thought about her. Only after he had thoroughly studied her face did he notice her show-stopping curves and the way her hips swayed while she walked.
Damien swallowed, finding that his throat was suddenly very tight; his core growing hotter by the second from the fire his dragon threatened to unleash. It wasn’t like him to see a good-looking woman and instantly feel that sort of attraction. Beautiful women surrounded him all the time. Most of the singers and other band members that came through the studio kept themselves polished and trendy, but it had never affected him more than using that sex appeal as branding for upcoming albums. His friends, coworkers, and even the people he had met through Linda were all gorgeous, and that had become an everyday occurrence for him. Damien had assumed things would still work for him that way, but maybe being newly-single had changed his perspective.
He looked away but was forced to look back as he realized the woman was heading right toward him. Those sapphire eyes locked on his, and she flashed a brilliant smile. It couldn’t be. It was impossible. But he couldn’t deny it as she approached him with one eyebrow raised.
“Damien Van Buren?” she asked, the gentle lilt in her voice mesmerizing.
He cleared his throat and put out his hand, reminding himself that this was purely a professional transaction, and he would have to keep it that way, no matter how appealing she was. “Hi, you must be Brianna Murphy. Welcome to America.”
“I am,” she said, dazzling him with that million-dollar smile once again. “It’s so nice to meet you. And this must be Stephanie!” As bright as her eyes had seemed before, they positively lit up when they landed on the little girl. “You and I are going to have so much fun together!”
For a moment, Stephanie simply stared at the newcomer. But then her face slowly transformed as she smiled, and the same light was reflected back in her own eyes. “You’re pretty!”
“Thank you very much,” Brianna said with a self-conscious giggle. “You’re very pretty, too.”
The group turned and headed toward the exit.
“I hope your flight was all right.”
“It was very long, but overall, it was enjoyable. I love that I got to see so much of the U.S. on my way here. Everything is just so beautiful!”
He could say the same about her, but
he held his tongue. “I hear the same thing about Ireland.”
Brianna nodded, creating more movement in her hair. “It is, but in a different way. It’s the complete opposite.”
“I hope you won’t be too terribly homesick.” He felt like such a dolt saying stiff sentences like that, but he didn’t want to just walk along in silence.
“No, I think I’ll be fine. I’ve been looking forward to a change of scenery.”
Stephanie suddenly began wiggling in his arms, and when Damien looked down, he saw that she was reaching out toward Brianna. The au pair had seen it as well, and she held out her arms to receive the little girl as though it was the most natural thing in the world to fly to a new country and scoop a child into her arms as if she were her own. With a smile, he let his daughter go.
They easily found his car in the parking lot, and Damien let Brianna buckle Stephanie into the backseat. “It looks to me like you’re starting your probationary period right away,” he said when he opened the passenger door to let Brianna in. At his cousin’s suggestion, Damien had extended the job offer with a probationary period of thirty days. That would give them each time to decide if it was working out. “She seems to be taking well to you.”
“Like I said in my letter, I have a lot of experience with little ones.” Brianna turned around to give Stephanie a wink in the back seat. “I have more cousins than I can count. As one of the oldest, I’ve spent most of my life babysitting.”
“That’s good to hear. Stephanie really needs someone who will interact with her while I work. She’s not the sort of kid who’s content to sit in a corner with her toys all day. Even the TV only occupies her for so long. She likes to get outside and play, and she’s already got quite the imagination for a two-year-old.”
“And what about your wife? Does she work?” Brianna craned her head to look out the window at the palm trees lining the road.