The Nanny Clause (Furever Yours Book 4)

by Karen Rose Smith

  Emma couldn’t decide if she wanted to hear about Daniel’s marriage to Lydia or not. In one way it was enlightening. In another she felt like a voyeur.

  “So you’re living in Alexandria now, married to a man that you told Daniel you were totally in love with.” Emma did want to get the main facts straight.

  “You two have talked about me?” Daniel’s ex sounded indignant.

  “Sharing feelings and backgrounds is part of being friends.”

  “The men in my life have never done well when I shared feelings. I wanted a different type of marriage than Daniel did. After Penny was born—” She stopped. Then she went on. “Paris was the perfect baby, content and happy. Even as a toddler, she was easy. But Penny... She had colic for six months. Daniel was at work all the time. He didn’t have to deal with the crying. She was a terror at two. Then I found myself pregnant with Pippa. I love her dearly. But three of them was too much.”

  Emma wondered if postpartum depression had played a role in Lydia’s actions. But that was then. This was now. She took a leap into a place where she didn’t belong. “Do you want Daniel back?”

  If Lydia had been lost in memories and regrets, she pushed them away quickly. “Would you move out if I said I did?”

  The word came out of Emma without any hesitation. “No.”

  Lydia scowled as if she’d expected Emma to turn tail and run. “You might want to rethink that.”

  “Did going after what you wanted make you happy?” Emma asked.

  “For a short time, it did,” Lydia replied defensively.

  “Before you shake up Daniel’s life again, maybe you should figure out exactly what it is you want. Daniel is the same man he was two years ago, only stronger. If you came back, what makes you think anything would be different this time around?”

  Lydia stood, her face reddening. “You don’t understand at all. Allen sold me on life with him. He said he wanted me and we’d have a wonderful life in Alexandria. But now we argue all the time. He wants me to get a job so I’m not lonely when he comes home late.”

  “Maybe you could talk about compromise.”

  “Compromise? All that means is that I’m supposed to give in. You’ve got to remember, these are lawyers we’re talking about. They don’t know how to give in.”

  Emma didn’t believe that was true about Daniel. On the other hand, did she really know? Yes, she did. He had changed his mind about taking in Fiesta because the girls wanted her so badly.

  “You just wait until Daniel decides his latest client or Spring Forest or Penny’s recent soccer game is more important than anything else—is more important than you. Then you’ll look at him differently.”

  With that, Lydia fled the room. Emma wasn’t sure what had just happened. Did Lydia consider her a confidante or an enemy?

  While Emma thought about that, she continued to look in her dresser drawers for her locket. She was unprepared when Daniel marched in looking troubled. “What did you say to Lydia?”

  “We talked about several things—why?”

  “Because she’s upset. She’s practically in tears. Penny saw that—and saw that it happened after she came out of here. I really don’t need you to stir up even more turmoil right now.”

  Emma’s back straightened. “Lydia came to me, Daniel. I didn’t go to her. She asked me questions. She told me things I might not even want to know. And then you claim that I upset her?”

  Daniel wiped his hand over his face. “We both might want her to leave, but on the other hand, if her visit can help the three P’s in any way, I want her to stay as long as she has to in order to connect with them again. I thought you understood that.”

  Emma studied Daniel and saw the anguish on his face. She remembered making love with him, the new things she’d experienced, the new things she thought he’d experienced.

  Her heart felt as if it was weighed down with a concrete block. “You’re having regrets, aren’t you? You’re considering what you could have done differently so that Lydia wouldn’t have left in the first place. Old feelings are stirring again. You’re wondering if Lydia’s marriage to Allen was a mistake and she’s realizing it.”

  Daniel’s eyes were stormy and he didn’t deny anything she said. “Maybe some of that is true.” He came closer to Emma. “But my marriage to Lydia was over two years ago. Of course, I have doubts about my life choices, don’t you? What about John? Do you wish that had never happened? Or are you stronger because of it?”

  Emma was confused, that was for sure. Could she regret her past and still step into the future? Could Daniel? Was he denying feelings he should look at more carefully? Was she?

  Lydia’s visit had definitely stirred up a hornet’s nest. Emma felt as if she and Daniel had been stung by those hornets already. Maybe the best thing she could do was leave.

  Chapter Twelve

  Emma knew the girls would be wondering where she was. Needing time to herself, she’d stayed in her room for a little while. But she wanted to prepare a pasta salad for lunch tomorrow. She couldn’t hide forever...and she wouldn’t.

  To her dismay, everyone was in the kitchen. She didn’t let that deter her.

  She’d cooked the pasta and poured dressing on it earlier. Paris liked cucumbers so Emma took several from the refrigerator and set them on the counter. Then she pulled a cutting board from the bottom cupboard.

  “Cooking at night?” Lydia asked.

  Emma didn’t know if that was an observation or a criticism. She took it as an observation. “Pasta salad is great for lunch after it has chilled overnight so the flavors can blend. Daniel can take some along to work if he wants.” She cut him a glance.

  He looked back at her with a troubled expression. Because of their argument? Or because of Lydia?

  As Emma skinned and chopped up the cucumber, Penny went to her dad. “Can we please take a walk around the woods to look for that gray dog?”

  Emma guessed she’d come into the kitchen while they’d been in the middle of a conversation.

  “I don’t know, honey. It will be dark in about half an hour.”

  “So we should go right now,” Penny insisted. She looked at her mother. “Can you walk with us? Dad won’t let us go alone.”

  Lydia seemed to consider what Penny had said. “I’m not a fan of hiking in the woods.”

  Then Lydia’s gaze met Emma’s. She added, “But it would be nice to do something with all of you. As long as we stay on the path, I guess it would be all right. Daniel, are you sure you don’t want to come along to protect us?”

  “You don’t need me along.”

  “What if we see the dog?” Lydia asked.

  “We couldn’t coax him out of the woods but if you do see him, you could put food and water out on the porch for him again.”

  Lydia wrinkled her nose as if that wasn’t an attractive prospect, either. What did the woman like? Emma knew she liked golf. What else? Maybe tennis. It was possible Paris might like to learn. If she had a chance, she’d suggest it to Lydia, who seemed like she was willing to make the effort to do activities with her daughters.

  Penny, Pippa and Paris were ready to go. They led the way to the screened-in porch with Lydia following them.

  After they left, there was nothing but silence between her and Daniel. Emma pulled the bowl of pasta from the refrigerator and dumped in the cucumbers. Then she pulled out the basket of cherry tomatoes. She’d halve them, add them to the bowl and stir it all up, then toss in tuna.

  “Why didn’t you go along?” Emma finally asked.

  “Because Lydia came here to reconnect with her daughters. She doesn’t need me along to do that.”

  “So you don’t want to spend time in her company?”

  Daniel slid back his chair and stood.

  Emma could sense him coming closer. When he put his hands on her shoulde
rs, she set down her knife, dried her hands and turned toward him.

  “Look, Emma. I said things before I probably shouldn’t have. In fact, I should have insisted Lydia stay at a hotel or a bed-and-breakfast. But that didn’t seem practical if she wanted to share breakfast with us and put the girls to bed.”

  Emma had considered Lydia insecure, but now she realized she was, too. “You didn’t want Lydia to stay here for you?”

  “If it was up to me, I’d give you the upstairs bedroom next to mine and Lydia the downstairs suite. But I didn’t want anything to be too obvious to the girls. At least, not yet. You have to stop imagining that I want Lydia back. I don’t.” He ran his thumb down Emma’s cheek.

  Emma lightened her tone. “And why would you want my bedroom next to yours?”

  He wiggled his eyebrows. “So that you could sneak in and out.”

  Something about what he’d said concerned Emma greatly. She wasn’t sure why he wanted to hide their relationship from his daughters. It was all so confusing with Lydia here—

  Daniel cupped Emma’s face between his palms, angled his head and set his lips on hers. Just before he closed his eyes, she’d seen the fire there. That fire caused an ache inside of her. He wanted her. She could tell that from his kiss. She wanted him.

  He trailed kisses down her neck, then took his hands from her face and edged them under her shirt. “Let’s go to your bedroom, Emma.”

  “But they could come back,” she breathed.

  “If the girls are looking for that dog, they’ll take their time out there. Don’t you want to steal minutes while we can?”

  Minutes. Did she want to steal minutes? Yes, she did, even if that’s all they were going to have. She wasn’t being impulsive. She saw the situation for what it was. She was still making a choice to be with Daniel.

  Suddenly Daniel stopped, lifted his head and scanned her face. “What do you want, Emma? I’m not going to try to convince you to do something you don’t want. This has to be a mutual decision.”

  The air in the room seemed to thin. She was making a conscious choice, not because she was so logical, but because she was in love. She loved the outdoor scent that hung around Daniel tonight. She loved the way his eyes twinkled when he smiled. She shivered when they turned a darker green as they were doing now.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him closer. “I know what I want. I want you.”

  His lips crushed hers as his fingers wove into her hair and his tongue slid into her mouth. The chemistry between them was always explosive, never more than it was right now. In some ways, she felt they were doing something forbidden that made it even more exciting. In other ways...she just wanted to be loved by him.

  They kissed the whole way to her bedroom. Once inside, he closed and locked the door. As he turned to look at her, he asked, “Do you want me to undress you? Or should we just get rid of our clothes?”

  She smiled coyly because she felt flirty with Daniel, romantic, braver than she’d ever felt before. “I think we better just shuck our clothes because we don’t know how much time we have.”

  They ended up undressing quickly, helping each other. But the helping was teasing foreplay and they both knew it. They tumbled onto the bed like two teenagers who couldn’t wait to make out.

  Each of Daniel’s touches was sensual but tender, too. When he slid his hands over her breasts, she felt as if she might come apart. Pleasure with Daniel was like learning a new word. She’d never exactly known what pleasure was before. Now she did, and she hungered for more of it. Daniel was so much more experienced than she was. She could tell by the way he touched her, as if he knew exactly what gave her the most pleasure. When he dragged his fingers over her stomach, she raised her knees, practically begging him to take her.

  “We don’t have as much time as I’d like,” he murmured. “Are you sure you’re ready?”

  “I’m more than ready. You, Daniel Sutton, turn me on.”

  “And you, Emma Alvarez, make me forget what universe I live in.” He rose above her and slowly lowered his body to hers.

  She passed her hands up and down his arms and then around to his back. With a groan, he entered her. He thrust slowly at first and then faster and faster. She urged him on by rocking her body against his, by scraping her nails down his back, by whispering his name. There was a raw need in both of them. She met his and he met hers. His kiss seemed to penetrate to her soul. This was the man she wanted to hold on to for a lifetime.

  The fireworks that happened when they climaxed blotted out every concern, every question and every doubt.

  When they’d both caught their breath, Daniel touched his forehead to hers. “I don’t want to leave this bed, but we’d better get dressed. If they have to knock on a locked door, Lydia will know what we’ve been doing.”

  “Do you care if she knows?”

  Daniel rolled to his side and then sat up on the edge of the bed. “It’s not that. I just don’t want any more conflict or tension. Knowing Lydia, she’ll soon tire of being with us and she’ll return to Virginia.”

  “Did she tell you that she and Allen are having problems?”

  Daniel looked surprised as he reached for his jeans. “No, she didn’t. She confided that to you?”

  “I overheard her on the phone with a friend. She said her marriage was on the skids. When we talked, she told me her marriage to him wasn’t what she expected. He wants her to get a job. She doesn’t want to.”

  Daniel finished dressing. “If that’s true, she might be here longer than I expected.”

  “And if she is?”

  “We’ll deal with it, Emma.”

  She could easily see that Daniel wasn’t ready to make any type of commitment to her. And once again, after the glorious experience of making love, they were discussing Lydia.

  * * *

  Daniel and Emma had just dressed and gone into the kitchen when they heard loud chatter from the patio. He and Emma both went into the screened-in porch while Lydia and the troops clamored inside.

  He heard Penny’s voice, higher than it usually was. “Mom, you should never have gone after it.”

  Pippa ran to Emma and wrapped her arms around Emma’s legs. “He ran away, Emma. He ran away.”

  Feeling empathy for all three daughters, Daniel looked at his oldest child, who had been quiet through all of this. With a shrug, Paris added, “Mom scared him, and I think she did it on purpose.”

  Obviously hoping to defuse the situation, Emma suggested, “Why don’t you all get a snack. There are cookies in the cookie jar.”

  Penny and Pippa hurried into the kitchen and went to the cookie container while Paris trailed behind them.

  Letting out a breath, Daniel studied his ex-wife, wanting to get her side of the situation. “What happened out there, Lydia?”

  “They’re all upset with me.”

  Patience weighed down Daniel’s voice. “Can you tell me why?”

  “We saw the dog.”

  “And?” he prompted.

  “And it looked like it was going to come toward Pippa. He’s scruffy and dirty and who knows what diseases he might carry. I shooed him away.”

  “You shooed him away from the girls.” Daniel wanted to make sure he’d heard Lydia clearly.

  “I did it for their own good, even if they can’t see that.”

  He tried to tap his anger down into irritation. “Maybe you need to see their point of view. For the past week they’ve set out food and water every night hoping to help this dog. The idea was that we would trap him, but this pup seems to be able to outsmart us. He waits until we’ve turned in to eat. I’d still like to catch him and take him to Furever Paws. Do you remember the animal shelter?”

  Lydia nodded. “What can the shelter do?”

  “It’s a no-kill shelter. They will bathe him, examine him, make
sure he’s adoptable. Eventually, they’ll find him a foster home until they can find him a permanent home. Just as Fiesta has found a home here, the three P’s want him to find a home, too.” He couldn’t help the stern edge that came into his voice. “All three of our daughters are compassionate, Lydia. And the compassionate thing wasn’t to shoo that dog back into the woods. I’m going to have to go out there and look for him just to make them feel better.”

  When Lydia’s lower lip began to tremble, Daniel knew he was in for a rough time.

  Tears filled her eyes.

  He could only say, “Aww, Lydia, don’t cry.” Then she was in his arms whether he wanted her to be there or not. As he glanced over Lydia’s head to Emma, he saw the hurt and disappointed expression on Emma’s face.

  He patted Lydia on the back, as he would have done with one of his daughters, and disentangled himself from her arms. “Why don’t you go inside and have a glass of milk and cookies with the girls. Let them know you care about the dog, too. Tell them Emma and I have gone out to search for him.”

  “You and Emma?” Lydia asked.

  “Yes. We’ll take flashlights. Emma’s not afraid to trek into the woods.”

  Lydia swiped her tears from her cheeks and fluffed her hair, as if having it in perfect place would help her relate to her daughters.

  He wasn’t sure what would wake up Lydia to some kind of understanding as to what worked and what didn’t work with the three P’s. But something had to or she would never bond with them again.

  Once more, Daniel checked Emma’s expression. It appeared to say she’d rather stay in the house with Lydia and his daughters than go out looking for the dog with him. He suspected it was the with him that was bothering her. She had every right to be upset at watching him console Lydia after what they’d shared.

  He crossed to a corner of the sunroom, picked up two Maglites then gently cupped her elbow. “Come on, let’s look. Maybe he didn’t go too far.”

  After taking one last look at the kitchen, she followed him outside.

  “Lydia’s having a hard time,” Daniel said. Even to his own ears, that sounded like defense of his ex.