Operation Nanny
Page 7
No sign of a threat, and his Marine’s sixth sense didn’t raise his hackles.
“You enjoying working for Ms. Miles?” Charlotte asked as she handed the cup to Katie, who began drinking with greedy slurps.
“She’s a nice lady,” he answered carefully.
“A bit of a celebrity around here,” she added. “Big-time reporter like her. Lots of people are curious.”
Something about the tone of her voice pinged his radar. “People asking questions about her?”
She seemed to sense his sudden shift in intensity. “Oh, nothing bad. Just curious folks. It’s not every day someone you see on TV moves into your little town, you know.”
She was holding something back. Jim could tell. He lowered his voice conspiratorially. “I know I’m a little starstruck myself when she walks into the room.”
Charlotte gave a soft chuckle. “She’s a pretty thing—now, that’s the honest truth. I suppose that’s going to bring out the curiosity in some folks. That and...”
“The accident,” he finished for her.
Charlotte’s expression darkened. “That wasn’t an accident. It was murder. Such a nice young couple, so looking forward to making their lives here. For such a thing to happen...” She shook her head. “What’s this world coming to?”
“I guess you’ve probably had to drive off nosy reporters with a fire hose.”
His dry comment was enough to make Charlotte smile a little. “Not quite, but there have been a few strangers coming through acting a little too curious about the Harpers and Ms. Miles for my liking.”
“Anybody in particular? In case I need to watch out for them.”
“Well, there was a fellow came through a couple of days ago, a stranger. Didn’t bother with any hellos or how-do-you-dos, just got right to the point. He wanted to know more about what happened to the Harpers. He was asking if they had any enemies around here.”
Pushy question, Jim thought, for some random passerby. “Could it have been a policeman?”
“I don’t think so,” Charlotte said with a shake of her head. “He’d have identified himself as such, wouldn’t he?”
Almost certainly, Jim thought. The bluntness of the stranger’s questions sounded more like an inept private investigator or maybe a young and hungry reporter, someone who didn’t realize that a little schmoozing went a long way toward getting the information wanted. “Did you get his name?”
“He introduced himself as Mark, but he didn’t give me a last name.”
“Can I ask you to do something for me, Charlotte?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small business card. On one side was his name and cell-phone number. “If you see that man around here again, will you give me a call? I think Ms. Miles would like to know if someone’s snooping around, trying to poke into her personal grief, you know?”
Charlotte took the card, giving Jim a solemn nod. “I’ll do that. You bet I will. It’s not right for people to come here trying to add to her problems. I’ll definitely give you a call.”
He gave her arm a light squeeze, then pulled a ten-dollar bill from the pocket of the diaper bag and laid it on the counter in front of her. “Thanks for the drinks and the conversation. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.”
He settled Katie in her car seat with her cup of apple juice and took a moment to look around him. Cherry Grove Diner was smack-dab in the middle of the town’s small downtown district. Besides the diner, there were a couple of antiques stores situated across the street from each other, a small boutique that seemed to cater to teenagers and a small green park across the street from the tiny town hall.
It would be hard for a stranger to pass through town without people noticing, he thought. That was a plus.
But the farm where Lacey and Katie lived wasn’t close to town. There was no police department in tiny Cherry Grove, only the county sheriff’s department a couple of towns over. If trouble struck, he might be the only protection Lacey and her little niece had.
He climbed into the driver’s seat of the Jeep, unease prickling the skin at the back of his neck. It would be all too easy for someone determined to do harm to accomplish his goals.
Picking up his phone, he called Lacey’s cell-phone number.
She answered on the second ring. “Everything okay?” she asked, sounding tense.
“Fine. We’re on our way home.”
“Okay. Great.”
“Do you have a security system?”
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line. “No. I’ve been considering putting one in.”
“I think you should,” he said. “If you need a suggestion, I know a company that can put together a system to your exact requirements.”
She sounded bemused. “Is that a service you’ve had need of before?”
“My previous employers used the same company for their security system,” he answered. It wasn’t a lie, though he left out the fact that his employer had, in fact, worked for Campbell Cove Security and had installed the system himself.
“I appreciate the suggestion,” she said in a tone that suggested she didn’t appreciate his interference at all. “But I have contacts of my own if I decide I need a security system.”
“Of course,” he said, making sure his tone of voice portrayed a contrition he didn’t feel. “See you soon.”
He ended the call and shoved the phone into his pocket with a soft growl. The woman was being stubborn and hardheaded, determined to maintain her independence to the detriment of her own safety, and her niece’s safety, as well.
Well, that was just too damn bad. Jim had come to Cherry Grove on a mission of his own, and he wasn’t about to let Lacey Miles and her bloody contrarian streak get in his way.
Chapter Seven
After nearly a week of forecasts threatening heavy snowfall, the winter storm finally arrived, blustering into Cherry Grove midday on a gray Sunday and dumping nearly a foot of snow by the next morning.
For Lacey, the snowfall was nothing but an annoyance. There was too much snow for safe driving, and the county snowplows wouldn’t make it out this far before the snow melted off. Jim offered to drive her into town in his four-wheel-drive Jeep if she needed anything, but the truth was, she didn’t. She just didn’t like feeling trapped.
Katie, on the other hand, seemed utterly delighted with the thick blanket of snow outside the farmhouse windows. Jim bundled her up and took her to the backyard, where they proceeded to construct a lopsided snowman with twigs for arms and coals from the barbecue on the back deck for eyes and mouth. Lacey dug a half-wilted carrot from the refrigerator’s crisper for their use as a nose, and by the time they’d added Jim’s baseball cap and Lacey’s woolen scarf, the snowman looked almost respectable.
“Not a fan of the cold white stuff?” Jim asked as he settled on the back porch step next to her, his sharp gaze following Katie as she happily trudged through the snow.
“When you spend a winter in the mountains of Kaziristan...”
“Or Afghanistan,” he added.
She turned her head to look at him. He was still watching Katie, but grim lines creased his face. “You did a tour of Afghanistan?”
“And Iraq.”
“You spent a decade in the Marine Corps. Why did you decide not to re-up?”
He gave a shrug. “It wasn’t the life I wanted anymore.”
“And caring for children was?”
He looked at her, his gaze serious. “I enjoy it. I have a lot of experience with kids. I’m good at it.”
She gave a slow nod. “Katie certainly responds well to you.”
“Katie’s easy. She’s eager to make connections.”
And yet, Lacey had yet to make a real connection with her niece. Katie always seemed tentative with her, as if she
wasn’t quite sure what she should do when Lacey was trying to interact with her.
“I could use some of your talent with kids,” she murmured.
“Mind if I offer some advice?” He asked the question as if he expected her to say yes, she did mind.
She gave a wave of her gloved hand. “Offer away.”
“Sometimes, the best communication is a hug. Or a touch.” He looked at the little girl plunging through the snow with peals of delighted laughter. “Katie likes hugs. She likes to give them, too.”
“To everyone but me.”
“It’s not about you, Lacey. You think you’re doing something wrong, but to Katie, that nervousness and fear translates to her thinking she’s the one who’s doing something wrong. She wants to please you. The other day, when we went to the store in town, she talked about you constantly.”
Lacey frowned, not sure she believed him. “She did?”
“Relax with her. Every interaction isn’t a matter of grave importance. Let yourself enjoy her. You do like children, don’t you?”
“I guess. I haven’t really been around kids that much. Not in happy circumstances, anyway,” she added, remembering some of the nightmarish scenes she’d witnessed during her time as a reporter in Central Asia. Being a child in a war zone was a deadly risk. The little ones were often the ones who suffered the most from man’s depravity.
“Why don’t you go play with Katie now?” Jim suggested. “In the meantime, I’ll fix us some nice hot soup for lunch.”
He stood and held his hand out to her. She took it, letting him pull her to her feet. As he started up the porch steps, she walked out into the snowy backyard to catch up with Katie.
The little girl looked up at her, a worried expression on her face. Lacey remembered Jim’s advice and grinned down at her niece. “How’s the snow, sweet pea? Cold enough for ya?”
Katie grinned up at her. “C-c-c-cold!” she agreed, reaching up one snow-packed mitten to Lacey.
Lacey dusted the snow off Katie’s mitten and took her niece’s small hand, nodding toward the snowman. “We need to give Mr. Snowman a name, don’t you think? How about Marvin?”
“Mahbin?” Katie laughed. “Mahbin!”
“Marvin, it is.” Lacey reached her hands down to her niece.
Katie practically threw herself into Lacey’s arms, hugging her tightly when Lacey tugged her close.
A flood of emotion poured into Lacey, threatening to swamp her. She blinked back a swell of tears and buried her face in Katie’s damp curls, wishing like hell that Marianne and Toby were still here for them both.
* * *
“SHE SPENDS A lot of time upstairs,” Jim said into the phone, using his free hand to spoon chicken and vegetable soup into three bowls to cool. “She keeps the door to one of the rooms upstairs locked, so I think that’s probably where she goes. I haven’t tried asking her about it, though.”
“Probably best you don’t.” Alexander Quinn’s tone was firm. “You’re not there to poke into her business.”
“I know.” He lowered the heat on the stove, glancing toward the door to the mudroom. “But I can’t shake the feeling that she’s conducting her own investigation into her sister’s murder.”
“Can’t blame her for that, can you?”
“No, but if she’s going to be taking risks that way, it’s going to make my job a whole lot more difficult.”
“That’s why you’re paid the big bucks,” Quinn said with a hint of humor in his voice.
The sound of footsteps in the mudroom off the kitchen gave Jim a moment’s warning. “Gotta go.” He ended the call and shoved his phone into his pocket, looking up with a smile as Lacey entered, Katie on her hip. Their noses and cheeks were red with cold, and Jim hurried them to the kitchen table. “You ladies look frozen.”
Lacey set Katie in her high chair. “I think we’re even colder than Marvin out there.”
“Mahbin!” Katie echoed with a toothy grin.
“We named the snowman.” Lacey pulled out the chair next to Katie’s. “Please tell me that delicious soup I’m smelling is ready to serve.”
“It is.” Jim checked to be sure the soup wasn’t too hot to eat, then set the bowls on the table in front of them. “I also toasted some French bread with butter to go with it. Would you like a slice?”
“My waistline says I shouldn’t. But I think I will anyway.” Lacey’s wry grin transformed her normally solemn expression, shaving years off her age. Makeup-free, with cheeks reddened by the cold, she seemed barely out of her teens, though he knew from his research that she was thirty-two years old, only a couple of years younger than he was.
He set a slice of warm, butter-slathered French bread on a napkin beside her soup bowl. “How about you, Katiebug?”
“Thpoon?” she asked.
He retrieved three spoons from a nearby drawer and passed them around, giving Katie the small one. Katie took it and dipped it into the soup, on the verge of making a mess.
“How about I help you with that?” Lacey suggested, taking the spoon from Katie’s fist.
“I know it’s messier, but maybe you should let her feed herself,” Jim suggested.
Lacey paused with the spoon halfway to Katie’s mouth and looked at him. “You think she’s ready for that?”
Katie’s mouth opened and closed like a hungry little bird, much to Jim’s amusement. He quelled a laugh. “She’s the right age to start learning how to use a spoon.”
Lacey slowly put the spoon in Katie’s bowl of soup. “Did you learn that sort of thing in college? What age they start feeding themselves? I feel so useless sometimes. Is there a book I should be reading?”
She looked so lost it drove all humor from Jim’s mood. “You and Katie have been thrown together without any warning and, yeah, I could suggest a book or two, but honestly? Most of what you need to know you’re only going to learn by trial and error.”
Her eyes were bright with unshed tears when they met his gaze. “More error than anything else, I’m afraid.”
“You had a good day with her today, didn’t you? Out there with Marvin the Snowman?”
“Mahbin,” Katie said around a spoonful of soup.
Lacey chuckled. “Yeah, we did.”
“So, let’s call that one a victory. Give yourself a pat on the back.”
The look Lacey flashed in his direction was surprisingly full of vulnerability, and he realized just how over her head she felt in the role of instant mother.
He might have had other motives for taking this job as Katie’s nanny, but he could also take some time out of his other activities to help Lacey learn to relax and enjoy taking care of her niece. He had been thrust into instant parenthood years ago, adopting the role of father to his younger siblings after his own father’s death. It had been terrifying, learning how to parent by doing it because he’d had no other choice.
Katie had stopped eating and was now lazily drawing circles in what was left of the soup, big yawns and droopy eyelids signaling her need for an afternoon nap. “Katie, would you like me to read you a book?” he asked, unfastening her stained bib.
She nodded, reaching up for him.
“I’ll clean up.” Lacey watched them with a bemused smile.
After extracting Katie from the high chair, he took her into the bathroom for a quick washup, then carried her into her bedroom. She was still sleeping in a crib, though she was getting close to the age where she could handle sleeping in her own bed.
He settled in the rocking chair next to the crib, Katie on his lap, and looked through the reading choices. “What’ll it be, Katiebug? Moons, brown bears or dirty dogs?”
“Doggy!”
Her enthusiasm suggested there might be a canine or two in Lacey’s future. He wondered if she liked dogs.
He tucked Katie closer, picked up the book and started reading.
* * *
THE LOW RUMBLE of Jim’s voice carried down the hall, soothing Lacey’s nerves as she tucked her feet up under her on the sofa and checked her phone for messages. She had several texts from some of her friends in town, but most of them were quick check-ins she could deal with later.
There was a series of messages from her boss at the station, most trying to track down files and information that she could have found in a heartbeat if she were there. She texted back the answers and set the phone on the table beside her, leaning her head back against the sofa cushions and letting her eyes drift shut.
Had she been wrong to take the sabbatical from work? She had instant access to so much information at the office, plus plenty of face time with the handful of people who’d been with her in the war zones, both the literal ones across the globe and the figurative ones in the capital. They could help her work through her not quite coherent thoughts on the threats she faced.
Here at the farmhouse, all she had was a sleepy two-year-old and a nanny. Granted, the nanny was a former Marine, but was that enough to make him a decent sounding board?
What she needed to do was stop thinking. Just for a little while. All the stress she was putting on herself, on top of the natural stress of losing her sister and brother-in-law and gaining sole custody of her niece within the span of a few explosive seconds, was going to make her sick or crazy or both.
Shifting until she was lying on the sofa with her head on one of the sofa’s throw pillows, she tried not to think of anything at all. But memories of her morning in the snow with Katie intruded, and they were so happy and carefree that she didn’t fight them.
The air out here was so crisp and clean, a benefit of country living she’d never really considered before. She had never expected to feel the pull of the land itself, but it was starting to speak to her the way it had obviously spoken to Marianne and Toby when they’d decided to make Cherry Grove their home. The snow-covered fields stretched toward the mountains to the west, as pretty as a Christmas card.