by Susan Meier
She could have spun around with her arms outstretched, taking it all in, but she simply smiled and told Danny it was lovely.
Pleased, he’d nodded. “I want to run through a few more things, then you can unpack, watch TV, do whatever you like.”
“Great.”
He led her out to the huge open area. As they passed the center island that separated the kitchen from the rest of the space, he grabbed some papers from the marble countertop.
“These are instructions Rex’s mom wrote for us. They don’t merely set out his routine—Alisha also mentioned a lot of his likes and dislikes.” He handed them to her, then sat on one of the paisley chairs.
Lowering herself to the sofa, she scanned them, then glanced up. “This is wonderful, very thorough.”
“Rex’s mom is one of those overorganized people. She thinks of everything.”
“That’ll be a big help.”
“I know you’re probably confused about the arrangement with Rex’s mom, so let me just say that she and I had a very short-term relationship. She got pregnant but didn’t tell me. My biological dad, who I recently discovered had been monitoring my life, uncovered Rex. In order to tell me about my son, he had to out himself as my father. Anyway, I contacted Alisha, and she and I had been working on visitation when she got a fabulous job opportunity in Spain.”
“Spain. Wow.”
“I know. She couldn’t pass it up. But she also didn’t want to take Rex away from everyone. Her parents and two sisters live in Manhattan. I live here. In Spain, Rex would only have her. After some soul-searching, she decided to let me raise Rex. The job in Spain is her dream job, but it comes with tons of responsibility and she’ll be working a lot. In the end, she realized it would be better for Rex to be around people who love him. She’ll get him for a week or two every summer and one holiday a year. And, of course, she’ll come to New York a few times a year to see him.”
“That’s wonderful for you.”
“Yes. It was hard coming to terms with the fact that Alishia hadn’t intended to tell me about Rex. But once Mark’s private investigators found out about the baby, she was generous. She didn’t hedge. She let me see him. A lot. When this job offer came up, she didn’t take only herself into consideration, she thought of what was best for Rex. Now here I am, a real father.”
He smiled and attraction hit her again. His sweats and oversize T-shirt made him look sexy, especially with his short black hair slightly untidy, his smile quick and genuine. Connection wove through her. The kind of feeling she’d always believed a person would have when they clicked with someone romantically. When they imagined a future with them—
She redirected it. The connection was a result of him being a nice guy, someone who wanted to be a good father. Every nanny in the world could appreciate that. That’s why they clicked. As for the future? She wanted to be Rex’s nanny for a long time. That’s what she’d focus on.
“I’m glad everything worked out.”
“I am too.” He rose from his chair. “Okay. That’s it. With Rex in bed, the rest of the evening is yours.”
She nodded. “Thanks.” She walked to her room, through the sitting room and to the bedroom where her duffel bag lay on the soft sage-colored spread. She took a long breath, as the joy of getting this job hit her fully. She had a gorgeous little boy to care for, a luxurious suite all to herself and would earn enough money that her goal was on track.
And maybe, after all these years, so was her life? For the first time in a decade she hadn’t let her fear rule her decision. The sense of taking back her life rolled through her, along with a weird something—
Oh good grief, she felt normal.
Normal.
Who’d have thought experiencing what every other person in the world felt every day would be so empowering, so welcome, so joyous?
* * *
Saturday morning, as Marnie finished helping Rex with breakfast, Danny grabbed Wiggles’s leash.
Drying her hands in a paper towel, she said, “Are you taking him for his walk?”
Danny laughed. “I’m surprised he waited this long.”
Now that she’d acclimated, she’d decided to treat this like any other job. Do all the things she did with the upwardly mobile executives she’d worked for over the years.
“What do you say Rex and I go with you?”
His dark eyes lit. “Go with me?”
“I’d like to get an idea of where Wiggles goes on his walk, and the lay of the land in the neighborhood.”
“That makes sense.”
He might be clueless about some childcare issues, but he was open-minded. Another thing that would make working for him easy. “Do you have a stroller?”
“A big fancy one and a little thing my mom called an umbrella stroller.”
“Let’s take the big fancy one.”
They loaded Rex in the stroller, leashed Wiggles and rode the elevator to the lobby. Danny pushed the stroller through the revolving door. Marnie followed him out into the almost empty street, typical of early Saturday morning on Park Avenue. The scents of warm pastries and coffee hit her immediately. Her stomach growled.
“We’ll pick up something from the bakery down the block when we get back.”
She grimaced. “Sorry about that. My stomach usually doesn’t growl, but I inadvertently skipped dinner last night.”
“You should have said something! There’s a whole fridge full of food.”
“I seriously forgot.” She’d been too busy being confused, then bold, then overwhelmed with how wonderful it was to take what felt like the next step in her life. “But I’m going to hold you to a visit to that bakery.”
They strolled down the quiet street. Trees lined the sidewalk in front of buildings that rose to the blue sky. “This is beautiful.”
Danny glanced around. “I like it. I didn’t think I would, but once I moved in it felt like home.”
“I can see why.” The area had the mood of a city, but there was a sophisticated hominess about it. The few people milling about wore jeans and T-shirts or yoga pants and tank tops. Sun sneaking through the thick leaves of the trees almost made it look enchanted.
Wiggles found a comfortable tree and did his business. Marnie gave Danny the leash and she took the stroller.
After handling things, Danny said, “And this is about as far as we get every morning.”
“We should walk another block or two. Give Rex some outside time.”
“You can take him to the park this afternoon after his nap.”
She looked around, comfortable with her surroundings and positive she could find her way. “Good idea.”
As the words popped out of her mouth, she saw a tall, slim man approaching. Even from a distance she knew who he was. Her stomach knotted. He read a newspaper as he walked, his gait unmistakable.
She stopped. Danny stopped. “What?”
Her dad.
All this time she’d been so worried about Roger that she’d only given a passing thought to her dad because he lived on the Upper East Side. Not here.
He walked right by her. She could think he was preoccupied with his newspaper but the truth was, even if he’d looked her in the face, he wouldn’t have recognized her. She’d been twelve the last time he’d seen her. He didn’t know her as an adult.
Sadness billowed from her stomach to her chest.
“Marnie?”
She shook her head to clear it. This was a plum assignment and she was very lucky to have it. Like it or not, her dad was a wealthy guy. She shouldn’t be surprised he’d moved to Park Avenue, probably to a new, fancier building. She’d gotten over his loss years ago. Seeing him had just thrown her, that’s all.
Her old fears returned. If she could so easily run into her father, was she tempting fate with Roger Martin? His family was in the sa
me tax bracket as her dad, as Danny Manelli.
Her past came tumbling back. Her father leaving her mother. Being broke after being accustomed to being wealthy. Getting kicked out of their apartment. The lack of stability.
And the man responsible was walking down the same street she’d be using every day.
Had it been a mistake to take this job?
No!
There was no way to get beyond her stupid past but to move forward, to be courageous, to enter this world and put all that behind her. Particularly given that this job provided the stability and security she hadn’t had since she was twelve.
She took a breath, knowing acknowledgment was the first step to shattering the hold her past had over her. “It’s okay. I just saw someone I knew.”
He peered up the street and then down again. “Someone you knew?”
Face it. Look the past in the eye and steal its power.
“Actually, it was my dad.”
He frowned. “Your dad?” He glanced around again. “I didn’t hear anyone say hello. You didn’t stop—”
She batted a hand. The best way to regain control was to minimize what had happened. Think of it as unimportant. A blip. “It’s nothing.” She turned the stroller toward Danny’s building. “He... Well, I’m sure he didn’t recognize me. He hasn’t seen me since I was twelve. He took my brother and left me and my mom.”
* * *
Danny stared at her, so confused he sputtered, “He left your mom, and you haven’t seen him since?”
“Yes,” Marnie said, as if she were giving a report in a boardroom. Calm. In control. “I found his condo and tried to visit when I was fourteen. I wanted to let him know my mom was fine and that we should...you know...visit or something, but he wouldn’t see me. Wouldn’t let me see my brother either. He had a maid tell me to leave.” She gazed around, as if seeing the whole street with a different perspective. “He must have moved again...to Park Avenue. I know he wouldn’t walk more than a block for the paper.”
Sympathy washed through Danny. “I’m sorry.”
She shrugged. “Don’t be. Lots of time has gone by. I’m accustomed to it now.” She smiled brightly. Too brightly. “It’s no biggie.”
“It would have been a biggie to me.”
“It was. In the beginning.” She bit her lip, then her demeanor brightened again. “But, you know, life goes on.”
“Still, a father who didn’t want to see you? That’s awful.” He sniffed. “Look at what I’m saying. I literally found out a few months ago that I had a biological father. I went through a phase where I was almost incapacitated by the realization that, no matter how much he was edging into my life now, he hadn’t wanted me when I was born. Or he wouldn’t have had my biological mother give me up for adoption.” He sniffed again. “He kept saying he’d wanted me. That he’d hidden my two sisters and me for our safety. But...” He shrugged. “Actions speak louder than words.”
“My dad’s a selfish, self-centered perfectionist.”
“That’s my dad too.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to be like him.”
She smiled. “Good plan.”
She rolled the stroller up to the penthouse’s building, but Danny stopped her.
She gave him a confused look.
“We’re going to the bakery for bagels, remember?”
“That’s right.” She shook her head, embarrassed that she’d forgotten, then she winced. “I was kind of hoping for a Danish.”
He laughed. “Whatever you want.”
They ambled into the nearby bakery, and she examined the pastries as if she were choosing a diamond. He almost told her to pick two, but something stopped him. If her dad lived on Park Avenue, he had to be wealthy. Yet, here she was, a nanny, because her father had left her and her mother.
Their lives were flipped.
She’d started off the child of a wealthy man and had become lower middle class. He’d started off the child of a lower middle-class blue-collar couple and was suddenly wealthy.
And he was complaining?
Guilt surged through him, but an unexpected suspicion tiptoed in on its heels. Was it odd that she’d admitted something so personal to someone she barely knew? As a lawyer, he was accustomed to people telling him their troubles. But he wasn’t her lawyer. He was her boss.
Jace, as administrator of the Hinton security team, and his two half sisters who were living his nightmare had warned him that now that he was heir to one of the world’s biggest fortunes, people would scam him. Work to get close to him, tell him sad stories and hope he opened the purse strings.
The thought was so shocking he shook his head to clear it. Marnie was a good person. He could feel it in his bones. And her life had been hard. She wouldn’t lie about that.
Watching her so carefully choose a simple Danish confirmed that. Having had to scrape for money, he knew pride when he saw it. The fierce need to never overstep boundaries. Never exploit a kindness for fear of looking greedy.
He wouldn’t buy her two Danish. She wouldn’t eat the second one. He would buy the one she selected. And not make her feel uncomfortable.
They returned to the penthouse. Wiggles raced inside, and Danny had to wrestle the exuberant pup to remove his leash. “I think it’s time to talk about obedience school.”
“I have a whole list saved on my laptop. I can print it out for you or send it to your phone.”
“Send it to my phone.”
“Okay.” Marnie sat Rex in the highchair and gave him a sippy cup of milk before she headed for the one-cup coffeemaker. “Do you want coffee with your bagel?”
“Yes. But I’ll get it. You’re not a maid, remember?”
She smiled sheepishly. “No. But there’s no reason we can’t be friends. We are living together. We’ll be in each other’s hair a lot. Might as well work together.”
His suspicions about her crept up on him again. But he squelched them. They were living together. Being kind just made sense. Particularly since she was the first person in months with whom he felt comfortable talking. Maybe because her life was as messed up as his?
“I don’t mind making coffee for my friend.”
He forced the suspicion away. “Okay. A cup of regular, please.”
Wiggles barked. Danny walked to the counter. “I give him a treat when we get back from our walk.”
He pulled a biscuit from a cookie jar in the corner. The dog grabbed it and raced away.
Marnie’s eyes widened. “Good thing I didn’t look in there. I might have thought they were cookies and eaten one.”
Danny laughed, back to feeling good about hiring her. Not just because she was a great nanny, but because she deserved a break. After a few minutes of making coffee and finding cream, they sat at the counter, her with her Danish. Him with a bagel slathered in thick cream cheese.
She took a bite, squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. “Oh man! This is sooo good.”
“Best bakery in the area,” he replied, but he watched her. The clicks of rightness he kept getting with her had probably been his subconscious picking up on the similarities in their lives.
“We seem to have a lot in common.”
She peeked over at him. “Oh yeah? Like what?”
He ignored the lightning bolt of attraction that shot through him when their gazes connected. Not only was it a cliché to have a thing for the nanny, but it seemed like she needed a friend as much as he did.
“We both understand being lower middle class.”
She glanced around his penthouse. “Looks like you’ve moved up in the world.”
“But I won’t forget my roots. I don’t want to.”
“I get that. I didn’t really want to forget my dad, either, but he made his choices.”
“And my biological dad made his.”
She pulled a sm
all bite off her Danish. “You’re the first person I’ve told about my dad.”
He could have drowned in her soft green eyes and almost did drown in the sense of rightness that filled him. Not just that he could tell her almost anything, but more.
More?
Now that the attraction had coupled with a real connection, what he felt for her grew and edged in the direction of something with relationship potential. But he didn’t want to be a cliché. And he sure as hell didn’t intend to drag her into something she didn’t want.
And he didn’t want.
Did he?
No. A woman with whom he’d had a one-night stand had had his child and not told him. His parents had hidden the fact that he was adopted. His biological dad kept saying he loved all his kids, but he’d lived decades without making contact with any of them.
The problem wasn’t that Marnie was his employee. It was trust. Right now, Danny’s trust issues had trust issues. That’s why he kept getting weird suspicions about her. He couldn’t look at a situation normally. He couldn’t look at a person without wondering what they were hiding.
She was a good person with a hard life just trying to make a living, and his thoughts had jumped to a very bad place over her telling him a simple truth about her life.
So, no. Even considering a relationship right now was out of the question. No matter how beautiful she was or how soft she looked or how happy he was when she was around—
He jumped off his stool. What the hell was he thinking! He had to stop letting his thoughts go crazy when she was around. “It’s time for me and Rex to video call my mom and dad.”
“The ones from upstate?”
Her question was normal. Easily spoken. Like a conversation between employer and nanny. She hadn’t noticed him mooning over her. This had to be the end of thinking things like wanting more. He didn’t want more. He had enough on his plate with a child to raise, a new dad and coworkers who didn’t know how to deal with him now that he was superrich.