“No, thank you. I'm on it." He paused and narrowed his eyes at Annabelle, who grinned sweetly. “Your recommendation was...fine."
"But she couldn't take a joke," Annabelle added, looking quite pleased with herself.
Vane grimaced. "Don't start, Annabelle." He raked his fingers through his dark hair. "To be honest, this renovation has taken up a lot of my bandwidth. I thought...” He spread his hands. “I figured that I could watch her myself for a while. At least till we find the right one.” His expression softened as he looked at Annabelle again. “I'm her guardian, after all. Someone, somewhere along the line, figured I was the best one to take on that role.”
The soft, squishy, puppy-squealing, and dying-houseplants-rescuing part of Maggie insisted this was totally cute and heartwarming. But the teacher part, the one who was always on the alert for what was best for her students, bristled. “Are you sure that's best?” She smiled brightly at Annabelle. “Hey, can you go give us a moment? Grown-up talk.”
Once she was safely out of earshot, Maggie turned back to Vane with vehemence. “Look, I know you're trying to do the best you can.”
“You do?” Vane said dryly. “Could have fooled me.”
“That's not the point. The point is that Annabelle needs someone who can open her up. Help her work through her issues and give her one-on-one attention. Seriously, Vane, she's not where she should be socially.”
He folded his arms across his chest. She lifted her chin and refused to break eye contact. Just because he was tall and handsome and broodily magnetic, and had a deep, commanding voice that she swore she could feel down to her toes, didn't mean he could try to intimidate her. She folded her own arms over her chest and waited for her point to sink in.
Lighting flashed at the same time that thunder boomed. Vane broke eye contact first, to her triumph, and looked at the front window. “Damn,” he muttered.
She gave into the urge to look, too. “Oh,” she breathed.
The rain slanted sideways against the wide, leaded-glass windows. The landscape had been smeared away into a featureless swirl of gray and black. Driving back in this was going to be hell, she realized, then cursed herself for staying here as long as she had.
But... Annabelle.
“I'm wondering if you really—” A deafening clap of thunder rattled the house, and they were immediately plunged into darkness. “Oh!” Maggie yelped. Suddenly blind, she wheeled around and reached out for the wall to steady herself.
No wall was that warm. Or solid feeling. “Hey, you're okay,” Vane soothed. He gripped her hand and pulled her close to him. “Just a power outage.”
Maggie swallowed hard. His arm was heavy and soothing around her shoulders. More soothing than it had any right to be. Without thinking, she turned inward, wrapping herself more tightly in his comforting presence.
That's when a wail rose up from the hallway. A high, inhuman cry of pure panic.
Vane dropped his arm immediately. “Annabelle!” he called, “Don't worry, I'll get you a light!”
Maggie stood stock still, stranded in the unfamiliar darkness. She tried to guess from the sounds what was happening. Quick footsteps retreating down the hall. A rustle and then a clatter, and all the while Annabelle's screams wrenched her heart.
“I got it!” Vane called. A beam of light pierced the darkness. He flung open the bathroom door and dropped the light as he fell to his knees.
Two shadows, one big and one small, embraced on the wall behind their forms. Maggie swallowed hard and wiped at her eyes.
“It's okay,” Vane soothed. “I've got the light. Here, want to hold it?”
Annabelle clutched the flashlight to her chest. Vane nodded and then turned on a second one and shone it on Maggie. “If the power's out, that means the bridge will be out, too. There's no way to get off the island for the time being.” The corner of his mouth quirked up. “I guess that means you'll be spending the night.”
3
Maggie stretched out under the covers and took a deep breath. Vane had called this the “guest room” with an ironic smile as he shoved a stack of cardboard boxes against the wall. “Sorry about the accommodations,” he'd said more than once. “Everything is all jumbled up with the renovation.”
Maggie felt pretty jumbled up herself. She closed her eyes and rolled onto her side, willing sleep to overtake her. One night. She just needed a place to stay for the night. And maybe in the morning, Vane would work out the nanny situation and she could leave with her conscience crystal clear. Exhaling deeply, she nodded to herself. Yes. It would all work out in the morning. This was just a bump in the road.
Sleep was just starting to take hold when a piercing scream made her sit bolt upright in bed. “Annabelle?” she called, immediately dropping all her worries about tomorrow. Her favorite student was screaming her head off. Why?
“I'm coming!' she called. Leaping from the bed, she sprinted down a random hallway, heart in her throat. Why was she screaming? “I'm coming, Annabelle!” she shouted.
“No, you're not!” a voice hissed in the dark. Right as she ran smack into Vane's outstretched arm and fell back.
“What are you doing? Get out of the way, she needs help!” She shoved in vain at his arm. “Stop it!”
“I know how to handle this,” Vane growled. “Stay there.” He poked his head into the bedroom. Inside, Annabelle sobbed and thrashed. Maggie moved instinctually to help her, but Vane stopped her again. “I said stay there. Hey, Annabelle?”
Annabelle screamed and rolled away, hammering her feet against the wall.
“Back off,” he warned Maggie.
“What's happening to her?”
Vane just pinched the bridge of his nose as Annabelle screamed on and on.
Slowly the pieces fell into place. “Is she asleep?” Maggie asked.
“Yes. Night terrors.” The set of his jaw was grim.
“Can't you wake her up?” She bit her nail in agony. “This is awful!'
“I know. But the doctor said waking her would make them worse.”
“You talked to her doctor about this?”
He looked at her sharply. “Of course, I did.”
“Does this happen every night?”
His eyes blazed. “Of course not.” Then his face fell. “It did at first. But she's been so much better—almost two months since the last attack. Sometimes my voice helps. But other times, like you see, it just makes it worse.” He put his hand on her shoulder and gave Maggie a gentle shove. “Come on, let's give her space.”
Maggie allowed him to steer her out into the hallway, but when Annabelle's screams turned to moans, she couldn't stand it any longer. “Honey!” she cried, ducking under Vane's arm and rushing to Annabelle's side. “Honey, shush. Shhh, it's okay.” She touched the girl's sweaty forehead. “Ssshhh,” she soothed.
Annabelle stiffened like she'd been touched with electricity. She stopped moaning and turned her face into Maggie's hand. She let out a long, breath...
And was quiet.
Vane grunted from the doorway. “That's never happened before.”
Maggie jerked her hand back. “I'm sorry, I just couldn't bear to see—”
“It's fine. Of course, it's fine. Jesus, thank you.”
Warmth spread through Maggie's stomach. “Of course. Should we go back to bed or wait?”
Vane looked into Annabelle’s bedroom, then nodded. “I think it's okay to go back to bed. She's out.” He glanced at Maggie again. “Thank you.”
She grinned. His gratitude made her feel like she was glowing. She touched her face as she retreated to her cramped room. The heat in her cheeks was embarrassing and made her flush all the hotter.
“I helped,” she whispered to the empty room, before curling up under the covers.
She was asleep in seconds.
Maggie jerked awake a second time. Confused, she leaped from her bed and ran smack into a stack of boxes, sending them tumbling to the floor. Annabelle was screaming again.
Vane was
already at Annabelle's bedside, shushing her over and over again. He stroked her forehead, and then ducked away from her flailing limbs. “Let me try,” Maggie begged, dropping to her knees next to him. “Annabelle, honey, shhh, it's okay.”
Annabelle kicked out hard. Maggie jerked her head back, but not fast enough. The girl's heel caught her under the chin, making her teeth clack together and her eyes water.
“Shit, you okay?” Vane asked, steadying her before she fell back.
“Yeah.” She shook her head and grimaced. “Sadly, that's not the first time a student has kicked me in the face. Annabelle honey, shhhh.”
Vane shook his head. “It's not working this time.” He gripped Maggie's arms and gently helped her to her feet. “Gotta wait it out.”
"How did you deal with this when it happened every night?" Annabelle's screams tore at her heart. "That must have been awful."
“You could say that.” He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “But they tapered. The nights got better, but then the days got worse. She's run off two nannies, and I think the word has gotten out because I can't find a third. I was fudging the truth a bit when I said I hadn't started looking yet. Truth is, I've exhausted every angle I have.” He ran his tongue along his bottom teeth. “I'm... starting to wonder if I'm the right person for her.” His voice caught.
Without thinking, Maggie wrapped her arms around him. He stiffened in her embrace, then slowly, by degrees, he relaxed against her and sighed into her neck.
She pressed her head to his shoulder. She'd always been a hugger. Human connection wasn't only through words, and sometimes words couldn't say all she wanted to say. But as she pressed herself against Vane, what started as just a desire to comfort gave way to desire for... something else.
He turned his head so that his lips grazed her neck. One hand traveled up her back until it cupped the back of her neck possessively. She gasped as his other hand slid down, and she rose up on her toes.
Then pulled back with a gasp. If sleeping here was inappropriate, then pressing herself against him was downright scandalous. She held out her hands to ward him off. But either he misinterpreted her gesture or was too far gone, because instead of backing up like she expected, he entwined his fingers with hers and dropped his head. “I just... need someone she can count on. Just for a bit. Buy me some time to figure it out.”
Seeing him open and vulnerable like this was almost as upsetting as Annabelle's cries. She wanted to jerk her hands away, but found herself twining their fingers more tightly together.
“But you're that someone,” she exhorted him, pumping their joined hands up and down as she made her point. “For better or worse, you are her person. Her guardian. You have to have more confidence in yourself, Vane. You already care for her so deeply, I can see that, you just—” She caught herself as the idea overtook her. It was brilliant, actually. The perfect solution to everything. “You need someone she trusts as backup.” She licked her lips and smiled. “She trusts me.”
Vane dropped her hands. “What are you saying?”
“I could be the nanny,” she blurted. “Your backup. You could feel comfortable knowing you have another adult around while you get your bearings.”
“That is... an incredible offer—”
“It's only for a month,” she cautioned. “I want to go on one more vacation before I take my new position.”
“Six weeks,” he blurted.
“Excuse me?”
“I want to hire you for six weeks, not just a month. The renovations will be over by then.”
Maggie narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, I don't know if that's going to—” A piercing scream from Annabelle cut her off mid-sentence. She and Vane both spun around in the doorway. Vane clapped his hand over his mouth, the corners of his eyes creased with pain.
All her life, people called her a bleeding heart. And what, Maggie wondered, was so wrong with that? What was wrong with helping people who needed it?
“Okay,” she agreed, touching his shoulder. “Don't worry. I'll stay. I'll help.”
4
Vane didn't like to think of himself as a caffeine addict, per se. Coffee was a tool. A tool that he used to help him get through his day. He'd been plagued by insomnia his whole life, and waking up feeling like he hadn't slept at all, or sometimes feeling more tired than he'd been when he laid down for the night, was something he was used to. It took at least two cups of the darkest, blackest coffee he could brew to even get his eyes fully open most mornings.
But this morning he woke to a cloudless sky, a bright sun, and the kind of rested, restored feeling he'd always assumed was just a lie told by Hollywood to make you feel bad.
He sat up in bed and tried to place himself. He was at the vacation house, at the start of the renovations, that much he knew. But other than that, he felt like a different person. Lighter and less careworn. It was as if last night's storm had washed everything so that it now gleamed clean and bright in the morning sun. Last night's turmoil seemed like a distant memory.
But the hug from Maggie was as fresh as if she'd just released him.
Vane ran his hand up his arms, tracing the places where their skin had touched. Hugs had always felt like a chore, something to get through because it was polite and expected. But the way Maggie had hugged him had felt genuine. She'd actually given him something in the gift of her nearness. It felt personal. Special. And it had dug deep under his skin so that he swore he could still feel it now, hours later.
A jolt shot through him, launching him to his feet. He paced a tight circle in the center of his bedroom as he raked his fingers through his hair over and over again. “Shit,” he hissed to himself. “Cut this shit out right now.”
Whatever he was feeling, he needed to stop feeling it immediately. Maggie was temporary. She'd agreed to stay on for six weeks and no more, so it would be stupid of him to start thinking about more ways they could touch each other... maybe make sure she was still able to feel him for hours afterward.
“Cut it out,” he chastised himself again. He stalked to the window and stared blankly out at the white sand beach below. He exhaled sharply and dug his fingernails into the soft wood of the windowsill. “Just. Stop.”
“Okay!” Annabelle's voice floated up to him from below, as if in reply. The screen door banged open, and she charged out into the sand, still barefoot and in her nightgown. Her fine, sandy hair streamed out behind her as she shrieked and laughed. She reached the edge of the water and turned around.
Vane dug his fingernails into the wood even harder. Maggie was running across the sand towards Annabelle. “You can't get away!” she called to Annabelle. “I'm going to splash you!”
Annabelle's delighted shriek went right to Vane's heart. The two of them bounded across the sand in such a perfect picture of happiness that Vane found himself turning to head out and join them. He stopped with a growl and raked his fingers through his hair yet again.
If they were going to get the renovation done in time, he needed to concentrate on that. Not on playing tag with his ward and her nanny. Yes. Maggie was the nanny, and he wasn't about to screw up that relationship. Annabelle needed someone she trusted watching her. Much more than Vane needed to see what Maggie looked like naked.
I bet she looks spectacular.
That thought propelled him right into the shower with a groan, where a few minutes spent dancing under a freezing cold spray got his mind back in order. And without a moment to spare either. He was just pulling on his usual work uniform of a rugged pair of khaki trousers and a clean white button-down with the sleeves rolled to his elbows when his cell phone rang.
“Uncle Vane!” Annabelle shouted from downstairs. “There's a man!”
“I got it, honey.” He jammed the phone to his ear. “I'm guessing you're downstairs?”
“Time is money, McClellan.” Al Raymond was one of the best contractors around, and he knew it too. Vane appreciated how he never tried to kiss Vane's ass. Other contractors he'd worked wi
th were too over-awed and grateful to be working with the famed architect Vane McClellan and had ended up being little more than yes-men because of it. Al, on the other hand, was never shy about telling Vane exactly how feasible his plans and ideas were. And he always made those assessments in the most sarcastic way possible. Case in point, his greeting when Vane reached the front door. “Did I interrupt your beauty sleep, pretty boy?”
“Don't knock it till you've tried it. Which, by the looks of you, you never have,” Vane said with a grin as he accepted Al's bone-crushing handshake.
Al smirked. “And maybe you'd better stay awake longer. Any more sleep, and you're going to wake up looking like that one over there.” He raised his eyebrows in Maggie's direction appreciatively. “New nanny? Where'd you find that one?”
“She's temporary,” Vane snapped, suddenly irritated.
“Shame.”
“You mean because I’ll have to start interviewing people all over again in less than a month?”
“Sure. That's exactly what I mean.”
Vane narrowed his eyes. “She's Annabelle's teacher.”
“I could teach her a thing or two.” Al caught sight of Vane's face and laughed. “Or how 'bout not, since you look like you wanna murder me for even looking in her direction. Fine then, let's stop talking about your pretty Mary Poppins and start making this trash heap livable?”
Vane grinned in spite of himself. “Time is money, Al. It'd be nice if you stopped dragging your feet.”
Al snorted again and let out a sharp whistle. At his cue, the small army of his crew emerged from their waiting pickups.
Vane rubbed his hands together. It was finally happening. After all the planning and red tape and nearly tripling his initial budget, he was almost taken aback by how casually the start of the renovation actually was. No fanfare, no explosions. Just a bunch of guys checking measurements and good-naturedly insulting each other's moms.
This was just another job to them, but to him it was so much more. This was his childhood retreat. The place that he held in his heart. The setting for all his best memories.
McClellan Billionaires: The Complete Series Page 22