The Billionaire And The Nanny

by Paige North

It’s certainly not back in Morningside Valley.

  Days like today, when it’s back-to-back meetings and the office is buzzing with the fifty employees I have on the payroll, that I can’t believe I actually come from that nothing town.

  I felt suffocated there; I had to get out to become who I am today.

  I’d gone into that screening with such high hopes. I thought Jessa was going to love it and, I don’t know, swoon all over me about how great it was.

  What a joke.

  She took everything that I’ve worked so hard for and told me it was meaningless. Who cares if I don’t actually eat at Rusty’s? His meat is too dry anyway.

  When I get back to my penthouse I stand looking out the picture window and think of Jessa. I can’t get over her rejection of me. To refuse to live with me by saying she couldn’t leave her family feels like the ultimate rejection.

  I really thought we could make it this time. I bought that damn house out in the suburbs, I was so sure of it. Now my real estate agent is already trying to unload it, so quickly after I bought it and had it upgraded. At least I’ll get flipping prices for it.

  I look down at the city lights twinkling and wonder how a person couldn’t love this life.

  But maybe that’s not the problem. Maybe she just doesn’t love me. Then again, maybe she’s just sick and tired of chasing a man who’s always running away from something or someone.

  I suppose I’ll need to find out the real answer, soon enough.

  Jessa

  There’s nothing to do but focus on Lucy and work so that’s what I do—I throw myself into both of them.

  I become super-mom to Lucy, setting up elaborate craft activities at the kitchen table, taking her on long walks to look for different kinds of wildflowers, which we identify and press in a book.

  We read together, cook together (the cupcake decorating was an overshot) and snuggle together at night. She asks about Cole and I promise her that she’ll see him soon. For now, she seems to accept this.

  At work I’m Mr. Johnson’s right hand as always but I step it up a notch, learning from him and paying super close attention to all the animals.

  One day, a couple of weeks after Cole leaves town, I take one of the big dogs out back for a little walk. Her name is Nanny and she’s a big furry Bernese Mountain dog who loves sniffing around outside and enjoying the sun. I take the brush we have and give her a good grooming, watching all the fur flutter away in the light breeze of the day.

  My mind is on Cole. I’ve tried so hard to keep him at bay, doing everything and anything to fill the time and occupy my mind but as I sit out back and brush this big girl’s hair, my mind begins to wander back to him.

  Do I love Morningside Valley more than Cole? Is it more important for me to be near my parents and sister, or is it more important for Lucy to be near her father?

  Cole was unbelievably good with Lucy. He took to her in no time flat, like a couple of reunited best friends. She adores him. Last night after dinner she picked up my phone and went straight to the photos, looking at pictures of herself and Cole, and it made my heart ache.

  I slowly brush Nanny and think about Cole, and what our family could be together. I criticized him for not understanding why I wanted to stay here, but maybe I’ve been too inflexible myself.

  Maybe Cole is right and the suburbs are the perfect middle ground. I thought he was too domineering by buying and decorating a house without consulting me but honestly? Who buys another person a house? That was the ultimate gesture of asking me to be with him. He built a home for us, for Lucy to grow up in, and I acted like he’d offended me by doing it.

  I picture us as the real family I always dreamed of—and that includes living together, not sending Lucy to see him every other weekend. Cole grew up without his mother and I know how hard that was on him. He’s offered me the chance to be together…and I said no.

  I think of his smile, and the way he cocks his head when he’s really listening. I love how he wants to show me new things, even when they’re out of my comfort zone. Cole wants to be a better person—that’s what he’s been doing since he left Morningside Valley. How many women in town do I know who would love for their boyfriend to try be a better man?

  I realize something profound—I’ve been wrong all along. I wanted to protect myself, or maybe Lucy, or maybe I’ve just been too scared to take the leap with Cole. But I realize, suddenly and at once, that Cole Frost wants to be with me, and I want to be with him. The price he’s asking me to pay…Live in a different city, in a luxurious ten thousand square foot home.

  Rough life, Jessa.

  But mostly, I realize that I love him. I love him and I want Lucy to have her father and our family to be complete.

  “Come on, Nanny,” I say, letting the last bits of her fur flutter away in the wind. “Let’s go inside.”

  When I get inside and put Nanny back in her crate I go to Dr. Johnson.

  “Everything’s under control for the rest of the day, right?” I ask.

  “Yeah, nothing else major,” he says.

  “You think it’d be okay if I left for the day?”

  He looks up at me. “Everything okay with Lucy?”

  “Yeah, she’s fine,” I say. “There’s just something I really have to take care of.”

  “Well, if it’s important, go on,” he says. “Take the rest of the day.”

  I am going to drive to the city and tell Cole I want to try. I’m willing to uproot for him, and for Lucy. And for me.

  I grab my bag near Chrissy’s desk and say, “Wish me luck!”

  “Good luck, sugar!” she says, not needing to know what I’m doing to want me to succeed.

  When I walk out the door and start for my car, I stop dead in my tracks.

  Cole has just put his truck in park and is stepping out of it. My heart is in my throat. He looks like perfection, in relaxed jeans and a T-shirt that ripples lightly in the breeze. When he sees me, a smile slowly grows on his face.

  Tears begin to fill my eyes. He’s here—for me. It’s like something out of a dream.

  “What are you…” That’s all I can get out. He walks slowly toward me, placing his hand on my cheek.

  “Come on,” he says. “I want to show you something.”

  He takes my hand and leads me to his truck. We drive off, and I’m too scared and shocked to even ask where we’re going, and why, and what he’s doing here.

  Soon I see that we’re headed out to the farm that is now owned by his uncle Dan.

  “Cole, listen,” I say after so much silence. “I’ve been thinking, about everything. I understand what you’ve—”

  “Jessa, sshhh…” he says. “Just wait.”

  The little smile playing on his lips makes my heart race.

  When the property of the farm comes into view, I see immediately that there is a ton of construction going on—particularly at the main house.

  “Oh my God,” I say, taking it all in. The house looks brand-new, and it’s being expanded as well. A gorgeous new porch has been made, shutters around the new windows, and the roof has been replaced. They’re painting what’s been completed but are adding on at the sides and back. It’s a major job.

  One thing I know for sure—Uncle Dan could never afford all this.

  Cole parks and quickly comes around to my side of the truck to open the door for me. Good thing, because I’m too busy staring slack-jawed at all the work that’s been done and that’s in progress.

  He takes my hand and helps me out.

  “Cole, what’s going on?” I ask, still staring at the house but very aware of my hand in his.

  “I never really left town,” he says. “After the film screening I went back to the city for about thirty-six hours before I realized something. The answer has been here all along.”

  “What do you mean?” I say, turning back to look at the house.

  “After I left Morningside Valley and got back to my apartment, I couldn’t sleep. I worked my
ass off but I couldn’t stop thinking—about you and us and Lucy. I realized I’d been wrong about everything.”

  “No, Cole, wait,” I say, turning back to him. “That’s what I was coming to tell you. I’ve been wrong. The suburbs are a great option. We could live—”

  “I bought the farm,” he says, interrupting me. “From Uncle Dan.”

  “What? Seriously? Why?”

  “I’m going to make it my own,” he says. “Truly my own. I’m going to bring it back to life, really get things growing and thriving here like they were so long ago. So long that I hardly remember.”

  “What about Dan?” I ask, even though he’s the least of my questions racing through my head right now.

  “Believe me, Uncle Dan was more than happy to sell off the albatross around his neck.”

  He pulls me into his arms, and wraps his arms around my waist. “Jessa, I messed things up from the very beginning. But I’m going to change all that. No more running, no more trying to take you away from the place you love. I want to make a family with you and Lucy. Here.” He nods off toward the construction of the resurrected house. “I want us all to live here, together, on the farm.”

  “Cole, I…I don’t even know what to say,” I begin, completely taken by surprise. “You don’t have to do this.”

  “I know,” he says. “I want to. Listen, I want to read something to you. Something I wrote in response to that email you sent me.”

  He takes his phone out of his back pocket and opens it up.

  “Jessa,” he begins, reading from his phone. “Getting your email broke my heart in so many ways. Mostly, it reminded me of how fucked up I am. I am a mess of problems. There was nothing good in my life, at least not until you came along. You are the one bright light in my life. I love every second I spend with you. But you have to understand that there are so many demons for me in this town that I had to get out.

  “I’ve been thinking of you every day…and night. The truth is, being with you scares me. I’m falling for you as well, and that scares me because I know you’re too good for me. I’ll just end up dumping all my problems on you and make your life as miserable as mine and I can’t bear that. Or I’ll keep my problems from you and you’ll grow to resent me for being so shut off. I can’t take either. So until I can figure out what I’m doing with my life, I have to go. I will be back, though. I hope to be better then. I hope that maybe, just maybe, we can be together.

  Love always, Cole.”

  When he looks up at me, tears are freely flowing down my face. “You wrote me?” I ask. “All this time you’d actually replied to my email?”

  “I did,” he says, putting his phone away. “But I never sent it. I was too much of a coward to tell you how I really felt. But not anymore. I love you, Jessa Chance. I love you and I love Lucy more than anything in the world. And I want us to be together, here, in this gorgeous house on this beautiful land. I’ve realized that this is what made me who I am—for better or worse. And with you and Lucy by my side, I can be even better, even stronger.”

  “What about what you said?” I ask, feeling overwhelmed by all that is happening. “You said you could never live here. That clients would never come out to this Podunk town.”

  “Did I say that?” he asks, raising an eyebrow. “Okay, I know. I said a lot of things. What can I say—I see it differently now. That’s the big thing. The little thing is, I also realized that city folk love an authentic country experience, so I’m going to build little guest quarters out back for when clients do come in for meetings. They’re going to eat it up.”

  “So you’ve thought of everything,” I say.

  “Everything,” he says. “Even this.”

  He reaches into his pocket. He gets down on one knee and looks up at me.

  “Jessa, I love you more than anything. I always have. It’s just taken me so long to realize what you’ve always been to me. I want to spend the rest of my life with you by my side. Jessa…will you marry me?”

  Before I know what I’m doing—well, I know I’m a crying mess, there in my vet clinic scrubs—I bend down and take Cole’s face in my hands and kiss him until we’re both laughing. He stands and picks me up by my waist and spins me around.

  “Is that a yes?”

  “Yes,” I say. “Yes, yes, yes!”

  “You haven’t even looked at the ring yet.”

  “I don’t care,” I say. “All I want is you.”

  It’s the happiest I’ve ever been, and more than I could ever hope for. Our family may have been born almost three years ago, but it’s finally just beginning.

  Epilogue

  JESSA

  I stretch my body out catlike across the big, soft bed. I’m alone. But I’m happy.

  I slowly open my eyes to another day. I reach for my phone on my bedside table and find a bunch of alerts. I knew it. I told him my idea, and he trusted it was a good one.

  We were both right.

  The video I posted of Cole just before I went to bed last night already has thousands of views and hundreds of comments.

  “If people can see you the way I see you, they’ll love you even more. Just like I do,” I’d told him some time ago, when I proposed the idea of filming him on the farm, doing the actual work that he does on a day-to-day basis. Nothing fancy or special, just short clips I took from my cell phone. They’ve proven to be quite the hit. Just as I suspected, people love seeing what a regular guy Cole really is, and that he gets outside and truly works. It doesn’t hurt that he’s doing it in the clothes he created.

  I hear a squeal and a laugh coming from downstairs. I go downstairs to see what those two are up to.

  Cole has a ton of tools all laid out on the kitchen table.

  “Now see, sweetie, there are many different kinds of pliers,” Cole is saying to Lucy, who looks as rapt as if she’s watching a Disney film. “You got your pump, your electronic, and your flush cutter. All have very different uses.”

  “What’s this one?” Lucy asks, pointing.

  “Needle nose pliers,” Cole says. “For picking your nose!”

  Lucy laughs, and Cole tickles and kisses her neck.

  “What are you two up to?” I ask, walking in on them.

  “Working, Momma,” Lucy says.

  “It’s about time she learned her tools,” Cole says. “You want coffee?”

  “Love some,” I say. “I thought you had that design meeting today?”

  Cole goes to the built-in coffee machine and makes me a professional grade cappuccino.

  “I do,” he says from the machine. When it’s done he sprinkles cinnamon on top like I like, then hands me the frothy drink. “But not until eleven. Dennis has his crew out and I wanted to take Lucy around to show her some stuff. Never too young to learn.”

  “But I thought you wanted her to take over Peak Expeditions some day?” I ask, sipping my drink.

  “Doesn’t hurt to have strong roots on the farm, now does it?” He leans in and kisses my lips, licking my top lip. “Foam,” he says.

  In addition to renovating the farm house and adding guest cottages out back, Cole also built a state-of-the-art office on our property.

  Our land. Our home. With our family.

  He doesn’t work the farm full time—his passion is still his company. But he likes chipping in and treats the crew like family. When I watch him working, or when I review the footage I took of him from a day working the land, I know that he’s the real deal, a farm boy born and bred.

  His customers—and potential customers—seem to agree. The online comments are strongly favorable. Some of the haters have even rescinded their nasty comments, admitting that they were wrong in calling Cole a phony.

  I’m happy he’s being recognized. I’m happy he’s successful. Mostly, though, I’m just happy he’s my husband, and an amazing father to Lucy.

  I take my cappuccino and go sit on the front porch in the swing, and watch the day unfold.

  The breeze ruffles my hair as
I watch sunlight dappling the ground through the leaves on the trees out front.

  My heart feels full to bursting.

  Inside I can hear Cole and Lucy screaming and laughing, and something clattering to the ground—probably some of those tools.

  “Cool it you two!” I holler at them. “You’ll ruin the house!”

  The sound settles down. As I rock gently on the porch, I’m not sure what I like more: the quiet sounds of the farm, or the wild sounds of Lucy and Cole playing.

  Cole and Lucy come outside to join me. Lucy races down the steps. She sees Denise, the landscaper, planting flowers and wants to help. Denise loves showing Lucy all about gardening.

  Cole joins me on the swing. He sits close to me and draws me to him. While Lucy is engaged in using the hand trowel, Cole kisses me. Fully, deeply, right there on the front porch. He presses to me, his tongue filling my mouth, and it never gets old. I love how he can be both gentle and passionate. We still have a hard time keeping our hands off each other.

  My hand holds his face, prickly whiskers and all, pulling him gently close when I hear, “Momma! I dug a hole!”

  We both stop and look out at Lucy.

  “Way to go, sweetie!” I call.

  I lean against Cole and rest my head on his shoulder as our toes rock the swing in unison.

  “Do you miss being at work every day?” he asks.

  I shrug. “Sometimes. I love it there. But I also remember how hard it was when Lucy was first born to care for a baby and have a full-time job. I’ll keep doing part time as long as I can.”

  “You can do whatever you want,” Cole says. “Part time, full time, no time. You could stay here all day with Lucy and the baby.”

  He rests his hand on my growing belly. I put my hand on top of his.

  “I think I could just sit here forever,” I say.

  “If that’s what you want, then that’s what we’ll do. Even when it storms, snows or if a tornado comes through,” Cole teases. “My wife wants to sit and swing forever, so that’s what we’ll do.”

  I grin and he kisses my forehead.