The Lumberjack's Nanny: A Forbidden Romance (Rockford Falls Romance)

by Natasha L. Black

  “Hello?” I answered.

  “Rach, Kelly just went home sick.”

  “Okay. I know I have her scheduled for the shift before mine, but—”

  “I already tried everybody on the list, trying to do you a solid cause I know you’re busy with the little girl during the day. Nobody can come in to work it. I have a doctor’s appointment at one that I can’t miss. You’re the manager, kid. Come cover the shift.”

  “I’ll have to call Max. I’ll be in as soon as I can get there.”

  “I can hold down the fort for a half-hour, but you know the customers don’t like me.”

  “They love you, Hugh. Hang in there. I’ll just—call Max.”

  I dialed Max’s number.

  “Hey, I’m sorry to bother you, but I had to call because something came up. I need to leave and go to the diner. Can you come take over with Sadie for the rest of the day?”

  “I’m hauling to the sawmill right now. It’ll be three-thirty before I can quit. You can take her to the diner if you don’t care. Let her color in the booth or let her have the tablet.”

  “I know we agreed I wouldn’t do this, take her to the diner—”

  “It’s fine, Rach. You’ll keep an eye on her and she’ll probably love it. It’s a one-time thing.”

  “Thanks, Max. We’ll be there waiting.”

  “I’ll be there by four, four-thirty at the latest.”

  I turned to Sadie who was watching me, curious.

  “Daddy said you can come to the diner with me this one time. You have to stay at the booth and if you need something you tell me. Go grab a couple Barbies and I’ll get the tablet off the charger.”

  “I get to play the tablet?”

  “I know, right? I knew you’d be excited,” I said.

  Relief just whooshed through me. I put on my shoes, made Sadie go pee and put on her flip-flops. I grabbed the stuff she’d picked out to take with her and shoved it in a grocery bag.

  “Do I get to be a waitress?”

  “Uh, no. I don’t think that’s gonna happen, Sadie Lady. But you can color and play dolls and stuff. And remember I set up the Super Why Phonics app for you.”

  “Phonics? Raaach…” she said, trying out a whine. I turned and looked at her, rolled my eyes.

  “Nice try, kiddo. But you have to play educational stuff and watch PBS Kids. No Snapchat, remember?”

  “I remember,” she said, but she had a silly smile on her face, and it felt good to know she wanted to come with me to the diner, that she thought it was fun.

  I got her settled, got her some lemonade, and went to work. It was slower during the afternoon, so I was able to spend some time coloring with Sadie. I let her fill ketchup and mustard bottles with my help and taught her how to wipe them off. Then we did the salt refills, and I ended up under the table with the broom and dustpan because she was not ready to fill saltshakers.

  Around three-thirty, she was getting restless. I’d taken her to the bathroom, set her up an episode of Wild Kratts, but she was just bored of being there. The third time I told her to quit picking the ice cubes out of her glass and playing with them on the table, I asked her what she needed.

  “I’m hungry,” she said. “Can I have fries?”

  “How about a grilled cheese?” I offered.

  Her face lit up, “Really? Can I see how you make it?”

  “I’m not gonna make it, the cook’s gonna make it. I’ll go put in the order and see if they got time for me to take you back there.”

  “Please! Tell them please for me!” she said.

  I leaned into the kitchen and asked Donnie, the cook on this shift, and he said, sure. So, I had Sadie wash her hands and I tied an apron around her, pulled her hair back with a rubber band and set her on a stool. She was fascinated with the kitchen, with the big tub of margarine Donnie scooped out of with a butter knife for her to spread on the bread. I grabbed my phone and snapped a picture, just for myself. Then I went and got her a spatula. Because every cook needs a spatula.

  20

  Max

  When I walked in the diner, there were a couple people eating at the counter and an older woman having pie and coffee at a booth and looking at her phone. I didn’t see Sadie or Rachel, but Sadie’s stuff was spread out all over the booth we usually sat in. Crayons and coloring books, Barbies and LOL dolls strewn over the table and in the seat. The woman at the cash register said, “Hey, Max, they’re in the kitchen making a grilled cheese. Go on back.”

  I slipped back to the kitchen and saw them together. A guy was holding a skillet and Sadie stood on a stool with Rachel’s arm around her middle, so she didn’t fall. Rachel helped her use a big spatula to flip a sandwich in the skillet and then Sadie grinned up at Rachel. I felt a swoop in my chest. The feelings I’d barely let myself consider for Rachel just coursed through me at the sight. I had opened that door just a crack over the weekend, letting myself consider having Rachel in my life romantically. But this—this was something deeper and precious and bittersweet. It was a glimpse of Rachel mothering Sadie, loving her and helping her.

  Sadie saw me and said, “Daddy, look! Look what I made!” She showed me the sandwich excitedly.

  “Looks great, Sadie Cakes. You better eat it before I steal a bite. I’m gonna have to have you make dinner on your own pretty soon.”

  She beamed and got down from the chair with Rachel’s help. Rachel helped her take off the apron and handed her the sandwich on a plate. As I held the kitchen door for my daughter, Sadie marched through it and said, “Order up!” We all burst out laughing, even Sadie.

  I asked the cook to make me a grilled cheese and an order of fries, and I joined Sadie for an early supper at our booth. I busied myself picking up her crayons and stuff while she told me about her day and gobbled her sandwich down. Business had picked up by the time we left, and I waved at Rachel who had her hands full.

  “See you tomorrow,” I said, and took Sadie home.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about Rachel, about the way she was with Sadie when I saw them together. It had been so beautiful, and it had been the tipping point on my feelings for Rachel, the ones that I couldn’t even pretend to deny any longer.

  When she arrived for the day, I told her that I had a call from Edie Sharpe, Macy’s mom, and Sadie was going to their house for a play date at noon.

  “If you can drop her off there, I’ll pick her up after work. You can have the afternoon off. I know you need it. You’ve been working so hard.”

  “Thanks. I’ll take her right after we eat.”

  “That’s okay, Macy’s mom said they’re making their own pizzas or something.”

  “Okay. I can pick her up if you need me to and stay with her till you get home.”

  “No, it’s fine. Edie said they’d be glad to have her till after five. They’ve got a new trampoline apparently. Sadie’s excited.”

  “I’m glad,” she said.

  I nodded. “Have a good day,” I said, when what I wanted to do was kiss her cheek instinctively.

  My day was busy, and I took a new order from Noah for an add-on he was doing for a vacation home by the lake outside Overton. I knew I had a couple of the specialty items he needed in my shed at home, so on my lunch break I drove home. When I pulled in the drive, I saw Rachel’s car was still there. I wondered if Sadie had gotten sick and stayed home from the play date or something, because it was after one o’clock.

  When I walked in the cabin, I called out, “Rachel? Everything okay?”

  She came out of the laundry room with a basket of towels. “Yeah, it’s fine. I just came back after I dropped Sadie off so I could do a load. We made a big mess painting this morning and I didn’t want you or the cleaning lady to have to deal with it.” She put down the basket and took out Sadie’s t-shirt from this morning and checked it. “See, it all came out. If I’d left it set till your housekeeper comes, it would’ve stained the mermaid shirt. And you know how important the mermaid shirt is.”


  “Thanks for doing that. I just came to pick up some stuff from the shed that Noah needs for a job. I can fold those later. You can—” I stopped talking.

  Rachel was looking at me, and I saw everything. The mix of happiness and embarrassment at my finding her here alone, the curiosity and mischief and affection. The spark of attraction in her eyes. I reached over and took a towel from her, tossed it on the couch. Then I put my hand on her face.

  “I was wrong when I said we shouldn’t see each other. I was wrong to think that I could go the rest of my life and never touch you again, never kiss you, never tell you how goddamn beautiful you are when you fold laundry.”

  “I know. Laundry is some hot girl shit,” she said and laughed.

  “Come here,” I said. She stepped toward me. I kissed her, licked her upper lip, slid my tongue in her mouth, and swallowed her sigh when I did it.

  My hands were under her t-shirt on her smooth skin, and she slid her palms down my back to the curve of my ass and squeezed. We were sure and confident in our touches, our kisses, my hands stripping off her shorts while she worked on my jeans. I tugged off my sweaty work shirt and she ran her hands over my abs, slid her fingers just inside my boxer briefs. I shuddered at the sensation. This was moving fast, and I wanted it to move even faster. I nipped at her neck the way she liked, and Rachel arched toward me.

  21

  Rachel

  One minute I’m folding laundry. The next minute, Max has me bent over the arm of the couch, his fingers between my legs. I writhed and pushed back against his questing fingers, wanting more.

  “All right, baby, if that’s what you want,” he said, and just like that, he thrust his cock into me. I was tight and he was huge, but he had me wet enough that I felt the smooth glide of his cock, eased by my wetness as he rocked his hips into me. I moaned at the luscious heaviness of his penetration and rested my cheek on the pillow as he held my hips and thrust. Then I felt the flick of his finger over my clit, his hand reaching around the front to stroke my most sensitive spot while he took me from behind. In no time I was pumping my hips back to take more of him, grinding into his hand. I screamed with the jolt of the sudden bright flash of orgasm that rolled through me. He groaned as my inner muscles tightened around his length. Then he withdrew from me and flipped me over. My hips were still up on the arm of the couch, my legs dangling, as I sprawled languorously over the cushions.

  “We’re just getting started, beautiful,” he said with a wicked smile.

  All tanned muscle and sexy mischief, Max lowered himself to his knees and put his mouth to me. I tried to wriggle away from him because I’d just come so fast and hard. I was sensitive and wanted to curl up for a minute and come back down from that high. He was having none of that, his hand on my belly both pressing me down and arousing me, a tingle sparking down to my sex just from his hand on my lower abdomen.

  “Oh—oh!” I said as sensations rocketed through me with every stroke of his tongue and fingers.

  He was relentless. I thrashed. I bucked; I know I pulled his hair once. Most of all, I reveled in it, in his face buried between my legs, eating me out in the middle of the day in his cabin, on his couch. Everything about him was easy and energetic, like he had grown less grave, more adventurous overnight. When he lapped at my clit and pushed two long fingers inside my sex, I clenched and went rigid, coming almost painfully hard as he pumped his fingers in and out of me. I cried out, clutched the back of the couch with one hand like it was the only thing keeping me on earth. Finally, I slid my legs down onto the couch, tucked them under me and sat bewildered for a second. Then he was right there, kissing me, picking me up and taking me to his bed.

  “Now I’m going to have you, Rachel Carter. Very thoroughly, right here in my bed, even if it takes all day.”

  “All day?” I said, my voice squeaky and excited.

  “All. Day.”

  His big, powerful body covered mine. He kissed my fingertips, my palm, my wrist, all the way up to my shoulder. Then he settled his mouth against my neck and set me on fire with the sensations. He gave me tingles of stimulation and the hot rush of his tongue on my skin, tasting me, and when he rubbed my nipples, I canted my hips forward, rocked a couple of times, just miming the way I wanted to have him inside me.

  “Whatever you want, baby,” he said, touching my face, gazing at me tenderly before kissing my neck again and then my lips.

  Then he spread my legs and settled the broad head of his cock against my slit, entering me as I drew in my breath, tried to relax the muscles in my lower body to accommodate him. Just because he’d been inside me from behind a few minutes ago didn’t mean that this penetration was a shock. He was so big, so thick, that he seemed to be tunneling into my body, making room for his massive cock in me. I spread my legs as widely as I could and lifted my hips to take him. He felt incredible, so smooth and hot to the touch. Instinctively, I rocked with him, his rhythm as natural to me as breathing. The union I felt with him, not just physically but emotionally, was breathtaking though. Max kissed my cheek, and kissed my lips, his thrusts growing uneven, desperate. As the momentum built, I felt myself carried away by the force of his passion, by the pleasure coursing through me that rose to a crescendo. As I arched and started to cry out, I felt him go harder.

  “Now—Rachel—I’m coming—” he ground out through gritted teeth. The raw heat of him within me, the rush of his orgasm within me was so powerful that my head went back, and I screamed, my climax bursting to life again, wringing me out as I came with him in perfect concert.

  Panting, I smiled, met his eyes. He looked stunned, stroked my cheekbone and looked at me affectionately, fondly. “You are so beautiful, Rachel,” he said, his voice hushed.

  “So are you,” I said, smiling even bigger.

  “No, I’m manly. Very masculine. I have a beard, see?” he teased.

  “That’s not all I’ve seen that you have,” I giggled.

  “I’d say you’ve seen it all. I hope you like what you see.”

  “How could I not?” I said, surprised that he even needed to ask. His body was so perfect, so muscular it looked sculpted. The fact he cared about my approval moved me though. “You’re gorgeous, and you also know how to use what you’ve got.”

  “If that means I’m phenomenal in bed, I’ll take that compliment,” he grinned.

  “Oh, you are,” I said incredulously. “Like nothing I’ve ever seen. For real. Not that I ever got around much but compared to what I have to compare it to—no contest.”

  “So, I’m the best you’ve ever had?” he said, kissing my lips teasingly.

  “Yeah, that’s what I’m saying,” I told him.

  “Well, I can return that compliment a hundred percent. And I did get around that much in my heyday,” he said a little ruefully, “but I’ve never had anyone like you. It’s never been this intense, this—”

  “Beautiful?” I teased.

  “Yeah, I guess that’s the word I’m looking for. That’s always the word I’m looking for when I’m with you. Beautiful,” he said. I know I looked away a little shyly. He tugged me toward him and held me close.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  “I’m sure you can tell; you can see it when I look at you and feel it when I touch you. At least I hope you can. I have feelings for you, and they go deeper than just physical attraction. I’m falling for you, Rachel. There’s no denying it now.”

  I shut my eyes for a second, my lips curving into a small smile. When I opened my eyes, I grinned, “This is a dream. Tell me it’s not a dream.”

  “It’s better than a dream,” he said, kissing my forehead, “because you’re really here.”

  “I have feelings for you, too. I have for a while now. I didn’t want to admit it at first. Like I said I haven’t been around that much, but I’ve been burned in the past, and I’m not looking for ways to get hurt.”

  “I respect that. I haven’t had the best luck either, and my relationships, such as they were, te
nded to be brief. A few months at most. No one ever got to know me, really know me, and I never went to the trouble to know them. Not the way I want to know you. I want to know how old you were when you learned to ride a bike, and what your favorite song was in high school. All of it.”

  “I learned to ride a bike when I was seven, I think. Fell off and knocked out my front teeth. In high school, I’d hate to answer for my taste in music back then. Let’s just say I liked whatever crap was popular, and I had posters up in my room of skinny British boy bands. What about you?”

  “I didn’t learn to ride a bike until the summer I was ten when I stayed a few weeks with my cousins at their ranch. I grew up in Manhattan, so there wasn’t a lot of room to practice there. As for music, I didn’t have very good taste either. At one point, I attended a Katy Perry concert, I’m sorry to admit.”

  I laughed, “I know I loved her. So you’re in good company. Bad taste in music. Good taste in lovers.”

  “I don’t think I ever had good taste in lovers until you,” he said.

  “You’re killing me with the romantic lines.”

  “I just want you to know I appreciate you. And I mean every word. I still don’t want to hit Sadie with a big announcement that we’re together as a couple right away, but I want to be with you more, spend time together, both with and without her.”

  “I agree,” I said, “I don’t want to hide that I’m with you, but I don’t want to confuse her either. But I do want to ask you something personal.”

  “Fire away,” he said, snuggling me in his arms.

  “What about her mom?”

  “I told you, she gave up her rights when Sadie was a baby,” he said, and the way he stopped talking abruptly told me that he wasn’t ready to say much more about it yet. I could be patient. I had the man I wanted right here in my arms. Whatever sad story had caused him to end up as a single father could wait until he felt comfortable sharing it with me. I was happy right where I was.