by Leslie North
Fifteen minutes after she e-signed the employment contract on her phone, Drew had called to let her know that the nanny suite at the house was ready. She’d spent one final night in the crappy apartment above an older couple’s garage and loaded her things—there wasn’t much nowadays—into her car. Move-in day. First day at work. Why not take care of it all in one fell swoop?
Sure, she hadn’t expected to be going to work as a nanny. The moment she’d left the Preston offices, she’d pulled up the job description and her cover letter on her computer. Yep, definitely an office job, though her cover letter did talk about her nanny experience in a “being organized while caring for triplets definitely transfers to being organized while caring for a middle manager” kind of way. Someone must have seen the word “nanny” and sorted her application incorrectly. Well, she’d make it work. At least she hadn’t blown it when, mid-interview, it became clear what Drew Preston wanted from her.
A job was a job. And if she had to work as a nanny, it might as well be for Drew Preston. Handsome, muscular Drew Preston, with blond hair and blue eyes that had made her forget she was at a job interview for a brief second.
Shake it off, Penny.
The real thing to focus on should be slipping her interview information and logistics experience into casual conversation, obviously. She’d have to work her way in from the outside. The inside outside.
Anyway.
One last curve of the driveway, and the house came into view.
And it wasn’t a house.
It was a mansion.
“Wow.” The fact that Drew Preston of Preston Logistics lived in a sprawling Spanish colonial-style mansion with a driveway a mile long and a garage the size of Texas shouldn’t have been a surprise, but…it was huge.
She parked the car and peered toward the massive front doors. Her phone buzzed in the center console, and she picked it up. A text from her friend Tessa—someone she’d met at the yoga studio and one of her only friends in town.
Tessa: Ice cream? Tonight?
Penny: Can’t. I got a new job.
Tessa: A night job?
Penny: I’ll tell you about it in class.
She put her phone down in time to see a man in a white polo shirt and black slacks jog down the front steps, a broad grin on his face. Penny stepped out of the car into the California sun as he came around to her.
“Good morning. You must be Ms. Fox,” he said, extending his hand for her to shake. “I’m Mike, Mr. Preston’s day staffer. I’ll help you with your things and put your car in the garage for you.”
Mike opened one of the back doors and pulled out the suitcases as if they weighed nothing, when in fact they contained the entire inventory of Penny’s current life. They’d weighed a ton when she packed earlier in the morning. He took the suitcases briskly across the driveway, Penny hurrying to keep up.
“I’ll get you my number, and then we should be all set. Anything you guys need, I’m your man.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I look forward to—”
The big doors opened again, and there he was, all six foot something of him, blue eyes finding her right away.
“Morning, Ms. Fox. Mike, you can take her car in—I’ve got the bags from here.” He bent to take the suitcases from Mike while Penny ignored a fluttery, pleasant feeling behind her breastbone. Those eyes were something else.
“Hi.” The whole thing had her more than a little breathless. A modern-day butler? If Drew Preston had seen the apartment she’d just come from… “Mr. Preston. Hi.”
“Come on in.”
She followed him in through those enormous doors into an even more enormous entryway, the entire thing bathed in golden morning light. The ceilings soared above them, a sea of marble below her. The entry opened into a wide, sunny living room with low furniture, then an open kitchen…the place went on for miles. Music played—a throbbing beat, a melody that matched the sunshine in the room. It sounded like the band Carver Row.
Logan, the little boy from the office, came careening around the corner.
“Is it her, Daddy? Is it her?”
“It’s Miss Penny,” Drew said, dropping a suitcase to ruffle Logan’s hair. He picked it up again with a warm smile for his son. “Let’s show her her rooms, okay?”
“It’s this way.” Logan pointed up a wide, curving staircase to the second floor. “I’ll show you.”
The three of them climbed the stairs together, Penny’s heart thumping. It seemed so intimate, to climb up the stairs in her new boss’s house. She’d been expecting something…less intimate. Maybe a room downstairs, or in a guest house. But no—Drew led her to the second floor, Logan running ahead. They made a left down the first hallway, and Logan popped his head out of a doorway midway down. “Come on,” he shouted. “Let’s go!”
Penny laughed. “Coming right along,” she answered.
“He’s pretty rambunctious,” Drew said, glancing down at her. It wasn’t quite an apology.
“I like people with spirit.”
At the door to her room, Penny took a couple quick steps ahead and made a turn to beat Drew into the doorway…right as he sped up, too. They crashed together, and she put a hand on his chest to steady herself. All that hard muscle…
“Sorry about that,” Drew said. “I’m usually better at getting things from point A to point B.”
It was a terrible shipping joke, and she laughed through the heat in her cheeks. “I’m quite the obstacle to navigate around.”
“Perhaps your deliveries need more white-glove treatment.” Drew winked at her, then pulled the suitcases into the room.
Had that been heat in his eyes?
Penny pushed all those thoughts deep down where they wouldn’t distract her from the most essential task of the day: nailing him.
God. No. Nailing the job. She had to be excellent at this job, otherwise it was back to the garage apartment and struggling to make ends meet. A few bad puns between boss and employee wasn’t really flirting, was it?
“So, this’ll be your private space,” Drew was saying.
“This” ended up being a wide, spacious bedroom, complete with walk-in closet and en suite bathroom, all of it sunny and gleaming and bright. It smelled so fresh and clean, like someone had just been through with fresh paint and lemons.
“Whoa,” she breathed, shooting Drew a smile that felt bewildered. She hoped it came off more as impressed as hell. “When you said nanny suite I didn’t think it meant a room at the Ritz.”
He laughed again, the sound rich and comforting. “It’s important for you to be close to Logan’s room, which is on the other side of the staircase. And I like to treat my people well.” His gaze held hers for a heartbeat longer than necessary, and…wow.
His eyes.
Blue, like the ocean at the coast. The sight of them made her feel the sea breeze in her hair and the salt on her lips. What would Drew Preston look like in one of those breezes, in a classic all-American red swimsuit?
It wasn’t something she should think about right now. Or ever, really. Not as long as he was her boss and sleeping somewhere down the hall.
Oh, god.
His perfect mouth turned down into a frown. “I’d give you more time to get settled in, but I have to head to the office. Are you okay to get started?”
“I’m more than okay.” Too much? Pull it back, Penny. “Let’s do this.”
They went back down the stairs, and Drew gave her a whirlwind tour of the rest of the house. Some of the rest of the house. Here was the playroom, with wall-to-wall carpeting, a mini trampoline, and minimalist shelves featuring fewer toys than she’d expected. Drew caught her looking.
“I read that kids have an easier time with fewer toys, so we really cut down. Now he has his favorites. Don’t lose Mr. Bear, though,” he warned. Penny liked this relaxed side of him. “Mr. Bear goes to Susan’s house with Logan when he goes,” he added, in a quieter voice as the boy ran in a wide loop around the room. “Things ar
e better between the two of us now, but it’s still a big transition to navigate.”
“I completely understand.” Penny had nannied for a couple of divorced children while she was in college, and it had always been a hurdle.
“I’m glad.” Drew’s eyes met hers again. “I saw on your resume that you have a lot of corporate experience, but I’m grateful you’ve decided to dedicate yourself to raising kids. Businesses…” He shook his head and laughed ruefully. “Ah, we don’t need to get into what business do to relationships. I’ll let you check out the snacks in the kitchen before I go. Logan usually won’t sit for breakfast for me.”
“Challenge accepted,” Penny said brightly. But the dodged bullet swung a little closer, looping back. If he thought she was out of the business game entirely, how was she going to bond with him over shipping routes and packaging innovations? Men like him—they were all the same. They’d shelve her in a category and never think she could be multifaceted. Drew’s not the same, a little voice in her head said, but that little voice was wrong.
In the kitchen, Penny scooped Logan up and set him in a chair high enough to reach the island. “Are you okay to sit here?”
“Yes!” He chirped. “On my bottom.”
“That’s right.”
Logan’s swung his little legs as she met Drew over by the fridge. “Logan, do you like strawberries?” Penny asked over her shoulder.
“Berries! Yeah!”
With a confident smile at Drew, she took the plate he offered and made a smiley face out of strawberry slices, which she put in front of Logan with a flourish. The boy chortled at the happy face, then picked one of the slices between his fingers.
“Strawberries,” Penny raised a single finger. “We need two more things. What’ll they be, Logan? Bagel? Toast? Egg?”
“Toast!” he cried, three fingers in the air.
“That’s two. Strawberries, toast…yogurt?”
“I like chocolate yogurt.”
She cut a glance at Drew, who looked…impressed. He gave her a discreet nod.
“Chocolate yogurt it is. Strawberries, toast, chocolate yogurt.” Penny set about finding the bread and the toaster.
“You have a knack for this,” said Drew.
She flashed him her most winning smile. “I read an article about supply chain management that I think applies here.” Bam. Insider info, casual conversation. “Planning is the most important step. I’ve found that’s true for small kids too.”
“Ah, so you have a business mind, too.” Those blue eyes lingered on hers. “You won’t have to worry much about business here. I keep things separate. Very separate.”
Sigh.
“Got it,” Penny said.
“I’m headed out.” Drew stepped closer, and she got a whiff of his skin, his scent. Sunscreen and a hint of cologne. God, he even smelled all-American. “Call if you need anything.”
“I will.”
Of course she would, if she did need anything. But Penny had a new plan—find a better job, and fast.
3
“And I said, if it means I get to eat at this restaurant every time I head west, then there’s no way this town is getting left off the map.” Jack Holloway laughed at the ending of his own story, a deep and delighted belly laugh that made it impossible not to join in.
“Well, you got that route, Mr. Holloway.”
“He did,” chimed in Jack’s wife, who sat next to him on the couch, hand on his knee. “He got that route and then some. You know, we’ve had a wonderful life because of all that hard work you did in the beginning.”
“It’s not just a collection of southwestern shipping routes for me. It’s my legacy.”
“I completely understand.” Maybe it sounded cheesy, but it was true on more than one level for Drew. Getting Preston Logistics back to its former glory would finally close the chapter in which he’d been totally screwed over by Susan, and it would help secure a comfortable future for Logan, not to mention Drew’s brothers. They counted on him to pull this off, too. He felt the weight of that responsibility even now, out on his back deck in the light from another glorious California sunset. It bathed everything in red and orange and made it seem like the three of them were already celebrating the deal…though it wasn’t closed.
The sound of the sliding door stole his next thoughts completely.
Drew turned his head toward the sound of running footsteps, and Logan came into view a moment later, his hair wet from the bath, wearing fresh pajamas. A moment after that…Penny.
“Hi, everybody.” She wore a proud smile on her face, and Drew reveled in it. What had made her smile that way? He had a flash of Penny leaning close in his kitchen, grinning over a funny anecdote from her day with Logan. “We’d have come out earlier, but this one insisted on an extra trip to the playground.” And Logan wasn’t a huge fan of salmon, but Penny didn’t say that.
“I wanted to show you my book.” Logan tipped the book over the arm of Drew’s chair. “It has trucks.”
Logan scrambled into Drew’s lap. He hauled the book into place in front of the two of them and opened it to a random page. “This is the red truck.” Logan pointed. “And this—”
Penny came around to the loveseat where Jack and Lisa sat. “Hi. I’m Penny.” She shook hands with both of them. “It’s great to meet you.” In a lower voice, she added, “I think Logan here wants to impress everybody with his book.”
“As he should,” said Jack. He left his own seat and planted himself in a chair next to Drew. “Do you mind if I read along with you, Logan?
“I’m reading the book,” Logan told him with a charming grin. “It has cars and trucks.”
Logan flipped the page. This one showed a family climbing into a car—a mom, dad, and two kids, all with matching dark hair. “This is a car, and that’s mama and daddy.”
Lisa stood up to talk to Penny, and the two women stepped closer. Penny chuckled at something Lisa said, then she reached out and touched Lisa’s arm, giving the men a little side-eye.
“And a blue car,” Logan said. “And mama and daddy ride in there, and daddy drives.”
“We’ve been talking about cars and trucks all afternoon.” Penny said, that pride shining from her face again. “Logan was matching the pictures in the book to cars we saw outside.”
Logan flipped through the book, and Lisa and Penny gathered around the chair, Lisa with Jack and Penny at Drew’s right hand. It felt…right, to have her stand there next to him as the sun sank closer to the horizon. Drew resisted the urge to put his hand on the small of her back and pull her closer to the chair. Totally inappropriate. Not now, not ever…
“I can’t tell you,” Jack said quietly, “how much I appreciate that you’re a family man yourself. It means you understand the business like I do. You know what it means here.” He tapped his chest. “It’s not only an intellectual game when you’re providing for your wife and child.”
Wife. And. Child.
The words hit him like three bricks breaking the surface of still water. The hairs on the back of his neck leapt to attention, and Drew shifted Logan on his legs—anything to shake the feeling of being under a microscope.
Penny had heard. There was no way she’d missed it. He glanced up at her. She still smiled down at them, but she’d frozen in place. The only thing that moved in the breeze were some wisps of hair that had escaped her shining ponytail.
“The three of you have something very special together, I hope you know that.” Jack’s voice had shorted out like a radio losing contact, but it came back with a laugh. “Oh, of course you do. Family life…” He trailed off. “You get it, son.”
Penny opened her mouth, and Drew raised his hand to the book and flipped to the next page. The movement caught her attention. He had never looked at anyone with such intensity in his life. Please play along, he begged with his eyes, or at least he hoped that’s what he was communicating. Was his heart even beating? He couldn’t feel it any longer.
Then she smiled a little wider and gave him the tiniest nod.
“You’ve done such a good job reading, Logan.” She leaned down to Logan’s level, and Drew caught a whiff of the sunscreen on her skin. She always smelled so warm… “Remember what we said? We’d come see Daddy and his guests, and then we’d head to bed.”
“Yep.” Logan held up three fingers. “See Daddy. Head to bed.”
Penny held up two fingers. “Daddy. Bed. Like this.”
Logan copied her, laughing, and climbed down to the deck. He slipped his hand into Penny’s, and that was the signal, apparently, because Jack got to his feet.
“It was a lovely dinner, Drew.” He extended his hand for Drew to shake, and he channeled another burst of confidence into the gesture. “And good conversation, too. So kind of you to let us meet your family. We’ll let you get on with your evening.”
“Walk with us through the house,” Drew said, his heart climbing into his throat again. Now it seemed like a tactical mission, getting Jack and Lisa to the front door without letting him in on the truth.
Penny brushed past, holding Logan’s hand.
What would you do if she really was your wife?
Drew turned to follow her in, catching up in two long strides. Now he did put his hand on the small of her back, feeling her move through her shirt with every step she took. Something inside him sighed—almost a happy growl—and Penny looked up at him, dark eyes brimming with questions. But she also leaned in a little closer, a playful smile teasing at her lips.
At the door, Penny stayed close, holding Logan’s hand as they waved Jack and Lisa off.
There was nothing quite like a silent agreement to pretend to be someone’s wife when it came to sending Penny’s heart racing. It still beat fast and hard as she loaded the dishes from Logan’s dinner into the dishwasher. They’d lingered at the playground, then come back for a quick dinner, and then…
Then Jack Holloway had mistaken her for Drew’s wife.
It would have been so awkward if she hadn’t read his expression correctly. Another wave of tension spilled down over her shoulders. It had been a pretty close call, and she’d gone along with it.