She ducked beneath his arm and swam submerged to the steps.
Crap. He’d probably ruined any chance of convincing her to care for Mandy.
While she wrapped herself in one of the over-sized towels stacked on a chair, he hoisted himself out of the pool. She turned toward the house, and he snared her wrist. “Please don’t get the wrong idea, Annie. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I just can’t stop thinking about you. If you knew how hard it is to keep my hands off you....”
Her gaze drifted down to the conspicuous bulge in his trunks.
He smiled and shrugged. “I guess I don’t have to tell you how hard it is. But I don’t simply want to sleep with you. I like you more than I’ve liked a woman in a very long time.”
In fact, he wasn’t totally sure he’d ever felt this way.
Chapter 4
Annie clenched her hands. If she didn’t go inside and get dressed immediately, there was no telling what she might do. Tyler didn’t need to touch her. All he had to do was look at her, and she turned into a pile of quivering hormones. She was pathetic.
“I knew it was a mistake to stay.” She spun away from him and headed for the house where the kids were already engrossed in the movie. By the time she borrowed a University of Pittsburgh T-shirt from Tyler’s dresser, as he’d invited her to, and changed out of her swimsuit, he’d cleared the table outside and was nearly finished cleaning up.
She pointed at the damp towel wrapped around his hips. “You should get dressed, or you’ll become an ice cube.”
He rinsed off a plate before putting it in the dishwasher and laughed. “I’d welcome a few goose bumps about now.”
She glanced away from him. “I should take Noah home. It’s past his bedtime.”
“Too late.” Tyler nodded toward the two kids sprawled out fast asleep on the sofa. “Since he’s already conked out, you can stay a while.”
“I really—”
“Please. I’d like to discuss something with you.”
“All right. But only until we’re done cleaning up.”
“No. I’ll finish that later.” He led her by the hand to a stool at the kitchen island. “I want you to sit and listen to me.”
“About what?”
“Our kids. Didn’t you notice the look on your son’s face while I was playing with him?”
Sadly enough, she had. The way Noah had basked in Tyler’s attention clearly illustrated how much her child missed having a father.
“We can help each other, Annie. My daughter imitated every move you made tonight. She needs a woman’s influence just as much as Noah needs a male role model. I know this might sound a little crazy, but”—he dragged in a deep breath—“I think we should make sort of a parent pact.”
“A what?” She did a double take.
“Don’t you see? Each of us is struggling to be both mother and father to our child. We could be filling each other’s needs by serving as the domestic partner we’re both lacking.”
She stared at him, amazed by his audacity and glanced pointedly at the towel around his waist. Her sputter of disbelief morphed into an unladylike snort. “Wait!” She held up one hand. “Let me guess which need you’d like filled first.”
He gawked back at her, his mouth hanging open. His stunned expression said she’d just leapt to the Grand Canyon of wrong conclusions. “You’ve completely misconstrued what I’m suggesting.”
Okay, so now who was thinking with her hormones?
“I’m sorry.” She shrugged. “Can you blame me after the way you looked at me in the pool?”
“No, I don’t. I’m sorry, too. I was simply proposing that you serve as Mandy’s mother pro tem, and naturally I’d pinch-hit for Noah’s dad. I eventually want to get married again, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon. So until one of us falls in love, we could fill the void in each other’s—”
“I guess I’m still not understanding. Are you suggesting we live together?”
“No, nothing like that. I’d simply like to hire you full-time as my housekeeper and nanny. I’d need you for an hour and a half in the morning and then again after school until seven or eight in the evening. Besides taking care of the kids in the afternoons, I’ll want you to grocery shop, do our laundry, clean the house, run errands, and prepare our meals.”
“It sounds like you want to hire a wife.”
“That’s actually pretty accurate.”
“Oh? Should I assume you want me to warm your bed, too?”
“I guess I deserved that.” He shrugged. “I won’t lie to you, Annie. I would love for us to fill each other’s needs in the bedroom, too. But what I want is very different from what I’d expect, which is for you to look after my daughter, clean the house, and cook our meals.”
She glanced around the gleaming upscale kitchen, coveting his restaurant quality, six-burner range, double oven, and sub-zero fridge. It was impossible not to imagine cooking the gourmet recipes she’d watched chefs prepare on television. She could never afford the ingredients to try them on her own. “What about my other customers?”
“If you’d like, you could still handle those jobs in the mornings. But I’d pay you twice whatever you’re earning now so you won’t have to.”
“And, other than a hefty paycheck, exactly how does this help me or—as you put it—fill the void for Noah and me?”
Tyler sank onto the stool next to her. “I’ll spend time with him in the evenings and on weekends. I’ll even watch him a couple of nights a week so you can go out.”
“And you’d be his Tiger Cub partner?”
“Absolutely. I’ll be kind of a stand-in father to him.”
The happy family portrait Tyler painted was too painful to contemplate—except it would solve a lot of problems for her. Not only did she desperately need the money, Noah would have a man to bond with. Not to mention, she’d get a free baby-sitter out of the deal so she could finally go to night school to get her GED.
She glanced over her shoulder at her sleeping son. It was an opportunity for him to enjoy all the luxuries she couldn’t afford to give him. Except, how would he cope when the fairytale ended without a happily-ever-after? “So what happens to our kids when you get married again?”
“I can’t speak for you, Annie, but I wouldn’t marry someone who’d have a problem with my friendship with Noah. He’s a great kid, and I’d be proud to be his surrogate uncle or even his dad.”
She didn’t need a PhD in psychology to see he wanted to replace the son he’d lost. But even if that was true, Tyler seemed sincere about his willingness to commit himself to mentoring her child. If he showed even half the devotion to Noah as he did his daughter, Annie’s son would be better off than most kids with real fathers.
“My motive for suggesting this deal is strictly for the benefit of our kids,” he continued. “I’d never use your job to pressure you into anything.” His lips curved in a lazy smile. “But there’s no escaping the fact that I’m attracted to you—a lot. And if you’re honest, you’ll admit you’re interested in me, too.”
She couldn’t deny it. Deep down she wanted a relationship with Tyler, but she also ultimately wanted a husband—not merely a temporary lover. “Your plan sounds great in theory. Except, what happens if I fall for you?”
He looked at her askance. “Isn’t it a bit premature to worry about that?”
“No. The nature of the job you’re offering makes it something we should consider.”
“Do you really think it’s likely you’d fall in love with me? We haven’t got a thing in common other than our kids. I’m almost thirty-three, and you’re—how old?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Exactly. Admit it. I bored you silly during dinner.”
“I wouldn’t say I was actually bored.” If anything the scope of Tyler’s knowledge had fascinated her. And intimidated her.
“But do you honestly think you’d ever want to marry someone like me? My wife has to accompany me to dozens o
f dull business dinners and play hostess at a lot of others. Do you believe you could be happy for the rest of your life with a guy who reads Forbes, Business Weekly, and The Wall Street Journal?”
In other words, could she be happy with any man whose lifestyle made her feel like a backwards bumpkin? “Probably not.”
Regardless, she couldn’t imagine meeting anyone she admired more than Tyler. Except if she let their relationship get serious, she would most likely end up devastated when it ended.
In spite of all of her excellent reasons not to go along with his plan, she had just as many good ones to agree to it. Noah deserved to have the best in life—for however long she could give it to him. With the additional money she would earn and the opportunity to go to school, by the time their arrangement concluded, she might have enough education to land a job that would allow her to continue giving her son some extras.
“Well?” Tyler lifted his eyebrows.
He’d presented a compelling case and cited every reason she’d be a fool not to accept his offer. But then, wasn’t that what lawyers did best? Make arguments? Negotiate? Convince people?
“So what do you think?” He leaned so close his warm breath tickled her ear.
This wasn’t a decision she should make with Tyler sitting so close. She needed a few days to consider all the pros and cons. A few days away from him.
“What I think, Counselor, is you definitely chose the right profession.”
~*~
“Pumpkin, would you please hand me that open-end wrench?” Lying on her back, Annie reached out from under the car for the cold steel tool her son placed in her palm.
Tyler had given her until Saturday evening to decide if she wanted the job he’d offered. He needed to know how to respond to any inquiries he received regarding his help-wanted ad that would appear in the Sunday newspaper tomorrow morning.
For three nights, she’d tossed and turned, trying to come up with a way she could accept Tyler’s job offer and still keep her heart from being broken. Now, the day of reckoning was upon her, and she was no closer to a decision than she’d been on Wednesday evening.
As she slid the plastic recycling container under the oil pan and removed the plug, a set of tires crunched the broken asphalt in the driveway behind her car. Noah’s scuffed sneakers streaked past her face toward the other vehicle.
After ensuring the stream of black sludge was running into the oil container, she scooted the dolly out from under the engine and stared up at Tyler’s appalled green gaze.
“What were you doing under there?” He grabbed her greasy hand and pulled her to her feet. Mandy wandered over to pet Mitch who was sunning himself on the front porch where Annie had hooked him to his chain.
“Changing the oil. I do my own tune-ups, too. My dad was an auto mechanic, and I used to help him before he”—she swallowed past the lump of grief that still formed whenever she thought about her dad—“died.”
“What happened, Annie? The look on your face—”
“When I was s-sixteen, my father was stabbed with a screwdriver during a robbery at his service station. I found him.”
Tyler squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m so sorry. Did they ever catch his killer?”
“No.” She blinked back the tears pooling in her eyes. “The screwdriver’s handle had been wiped clean, so they had no prints. The police found a small amount of other physical evidence, but they had no witnesses. Personally, I don’t think they looked very hard.”
“My detective buddy, Luke, says random acts of violence are the toughest cases to solve. Without a suspect, the police have no place to start digging.”
“Well, it didn’t seem like they even took out the shovel.”
Tyler picked up the rag from the car’s fender and wiped his hand and then several spots on her face. “Baseball games, fixing cars—it sounds as if the two of you were really close.”
She nodded and sniffled. “My mom’s brain tumor was diagnosed only three months later. I sometimes think it was a blessing that my father was spared watching her wither away. And knowing he was waiting in Heaven made her death easier for her and me.”
“That’s what I like most about you, Annie.” His mouth curled in a tender smile. “You’re so upbeat you even manage to find a blessing in a tragedy.”
She dragged her gaze away from his. “So why’d you stop by?”
“To tell you I’ve already gotten a call on my ad. It’s not supposed to be in the paper until tomorrow, but someone who works at the newspaper gave her cousin a copy of the classified section early. I need a decision whether or not you’re going to take the job.”
“The only way I can work for you is if we keep our relationship strictly platonic. I can’t get emotionally involved with you.”
“If that’s what you want.” He folded the rag and tossed it back on the car’s fender, heaving a disappointed sigh. “I think I’ve proven I’m a man of my word.”
She glanced at the gleaming silver SUV parked behind her car. “Where’s your Jag?”
“At home. I bought this yesterday.” He pressed the key into her hand. “It’s for you, if you take the position.” He scowled at her subcompact. “You can stop paying insurance on your car and get rid of it.”
“A vehicle comes with the job?”
“Certainly. My housekeeper will be running a lot of errands for me. I can’t expect her to use her own car and gas.”
Nor would he want his daughter seen riding around in an old junker like Annie drove.
“But you’re not obligated to provide transportation for your employee’s personal use. Especially not a Lincoln Navigator, which I suspect is fully loaded.” She narrowed her gaze. “You stuck this key in my hand so I’d feel like it was mine.”
“Would I do that?” He grinned. “It comes with a credit card for fuel, too.”
Considering the price gas had risen to, that alone was enough to convince her she’d be a fool not to accept his offer.
“And don’t forget, if you take the job, Noah and you will be eating at my house five days a week, so you won’t have much of a food bill either. You can even make his lunch when you fix Mandy’s. In fact, if you agree to work for me, I’ll get you some Phillies tickets.”
“I’m not blind to what you’re doing, Tyler. You think, if you sweeten the offer enough, I won’t be able to afford to turn it down.”
“Is it working?” His eyebrows lifted.
Unfortunately, it was. His talent for negotiating was what had allowed him to buy that vehicle. He’d made sure she wouldn’t stand a chance at resisting his offer.
Still, taking the job was the least of her worries. It was the rest of what Tyler wanted that she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle. Getting emotionally involved with Mandy and her father would complicate everyone’s life. They would all end up hurt when it didn’t work out—and, inevitably, it wouldn’t. Especially if Mr. Phi Beta Kappa Fitzpatrick ever discovered the truth about her.
She glanced back at the car and then over at the kids swinging on the old tire she’d hung from the large maple tree for Noah. She pictured Mandy’s immense redwood gym set and recalled how much her son had enjoyed climbing on it and swimming in the pool with her on Wednesday evening. “To be honest, Tyler, the opportunity seems too good to be true.”
He tipped her chin up and stared deep into her eyes as if he sensed the war raging within her. “You and Noah deserve a better life. Take the job, Annie.”
She wanted to believe that with all her heart. Except, when she watched her precious son sleep, she was sometimes consumed by such immense guilt over what she’d nearly done seven years ago she broke down in tears.
Tyler might be able to ignore they were from two totally different worlds, but a brilliant man like him could never love a woman who didn’t even have a high school diploma. She didn’t dare let herself daydream of a happily-ever-after with him. On the other hand, working for him would help her give Noah all that he needed.
&n
bsp; Annie sucked in a shuddering breath. “If I agree to be your housekeeper, do you promise to keep things platonic?”
“For as long as you want it that way. However,” Tyler murmured, staring deep into her eyes, “that doesn’t mean I’m not going to try to change your mind.”
Which was exactly what worried her. “The other night you said you would be Noah’s Tiger Cub partner.”
“That’s right. This will be good for both of our kids. Mandy will love having girl-time with you while I’m busy with Noah.”
The frightened half of Annie screamed don’t do it, but somehow the word, “Okay,” popped out of her mouth. “There’s an orientation for new scouts and their families at the library this afternoon.”
“Great. We’ll all go. It’ll give you a chance to drive the SUV. You’ve never handled anything larger than your car, have you?”
“Bigger. I was moving my dad’s tow truck around his parking lot by the time I was thirteen.” She glanced over at the dog. “I have one more little problem with taking the job. Or more accurately, a big hairy one. I can’t leave Mitch alone for eight hours every day. I know my house doesn’t seem like much to anyone else, but it’s all Noah and I have. The dog hasn’t realized he’s not a puppy any more. When he gets lonely, he destroys the place.”
“Then bring him to my house.”
“I can’t. If he damages something, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“Relax. I’ll help you train him. If he creates a problem, I’ll send him to obedience school. Mandy has been nagging me for a pet. She’ll enjoy having a dog to play with.”
“Okay. If you’re absolutely sure.”
“I am.” He gave Annie’s hand a reassuring squeeze. “But I don’t need you to start until Monday afternoon. I’ll leave a list of phone numbers with a credit card for gas, food, and anything else you need. Don’t hesitate to call me if you have any questions. I’ll try to be home by six-thirty. If I’m not, you and the kids go ahead and have dinner.”
The Parent Pact (Book Three of The Return to Redemption Series) Page 6