Mommy for Hire

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  The only problem was, when he entered his study, his daughter wasn’t there. “Savannah,” Grady called, and was greeted with silence. “Savannah!” His voice turned stern. He looked behind the sofa, the desk, in the storage closet concealed behind paneled doors.

  No sign of her anywhere.

  Her abandoned homework sat on the child-size wooden table in the corner, next to her pushed-back chair. Figuring he knew where she had gone, Grady grumbled, “You may have to interview her outside.”

  Alexis’s shapely brow lifted in inquiry.

  “Savannah’s going to have to approve of anyone I marry,” Grady explained, leading the way through the sprawling first floor of his multimillion-dollar home, to the French doors that opened onto the patio. “So I figured we’d start by finding out precisely what she wants in a mother.”

  As suspected, his misbehaving daughter was seated on her swing, knowing full well that she was doing something wrong. “Look how high I can go, Daddy!” she exclaimed, pumping her legs.

  Figuring the lecture could wait, Grady said, “Savannah, this is Ms. Graham. She’s going to help us find someone to take care of you.”

  Savannah’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t want another nanny!”

  “I know you don’t.” He stopped the swing, then hunkered down in front of her, so the two of them were at eye level. “Which is why we’re now looking for a Mommy.”

  NOT EXACTLY THE WAY Alexis would have put it. But now that the matter-of-fact declaration was out there, she figured they were just going to have to go with it.

  “Your daddy,” she said, picking up where Grady had left off, “is looking to get married again. His new wife will be your mommy and that’s why we want to know what kind of one you want, before I actually start searching.”

  Savannah McCabe scrunched up her eyes and twisted her mouth thoughtfully. The face she was making did nothing to diminish her prettiness. Grady’s five-year-old daughter was incredibly beautiful. A halo of wild honey-blond curls framed her expressive face. She had bright blue eyes and thick, curling lashes. Round cheeks, a pert nose and a pugnacious little chin added to her angelically stubborn aura. She was tall and athletically built—like her daddy—yet feminine, too.

  She was dressed in a ridiculously frilly pink organza dress, with mismatched purple-and-yellow-polka-dot tights and lime-green cowgirl boots. A red-and-white striped barrette in the shape of a candy cane had been shoved into her uncombed hair.

  She clearly had Grady McCabe wrapped around her little finger.

  Although Alexis doubted he saw it that way.

  “I don’t want a mommy, either,” Savannah declared. “I just want my daddy.” She hopped down off the swing and pushed herself into his arms.

  Grady hugged her close. Over Savannah’s head, he met Alexis’s eyes.

  This, he hadn’t expected.

  However, Alexis had.

  No little girl who’d had her father’s undivided attention was going to want an interloper in their lives.

  “Sweetie, you know you need a mommy,” he was saying.

  “My mommy’s in heaven.”

  “That’s right. Which is why,” Grady continued, “your mommy wants you to have another mommy now. Someone who can be with you and help you do things.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like…go shopping, bake cookies and go to the park—and comb your hair and all that stuff.”

  “We do that.” Savannah pushed away from Grady and hopped back on her swing.

  He moved back as she began swinging madly, the petulant look again on her face.

  Alexis put a hand on Grady’s arm before he could say another word. The tensing of his bicep made her fingers tingle. When their glances met, she silently beseeched him to let her handle this.

  Dropping her hand, she stepped away from him and turned to Savannah. “Let’s pretend that I’m your fairy godmother.”

  Savannah’s eyes widened in interest. “Like in Cinderella?”

  “Sort of.” Alexis smiled. “Only instead of me making you into a princess, I will help you and your daddy look for a real live princess to come and be your new mommy. What do you think about that?”

  “A princess could be my mommy?”

  For the kind of lavish lifestyle Grady was offering, Alexis figured he could get anything he wanted from a woman interested in that.

  She nodded. “Of course, she would look a lot like everybody else’s mommy.” She set down her briefcase in the grass and sat in the swing next to Savannah’s, nodding at Grady to do the same.

  Reluctantly, he took the swing on the other side of his daughter.

  Alexis began to swing at the same level and speed as Savannah. “And she’d be kind and loving…and lots of fun.”

  “Would she play games with me?”

  Alexis smiled. “Oh, yes.”

  “And dress-up?” Savannah pressed.

  “Absolutely.” Or else she wouldn’t be a candidate, Alexis thought.

  “And she’d help you with your homework,” Grady interjected.

  “Then I don’t want one,” the little girl declared. “Because I don’t want to do my homework ever again!” That said, she hopped out of the swing and stomped inside the house.

  Alexis offered a sympathetic smile. “Do you want to go after her?”

  He shook his head. “I’ll give her a few minutes to cool off first.”

  She couldn’t help but feel bad for the man. He obviously loved his daughter very much, but was at a loss as to how to handle her. At times like this, another parent would come in handy. “I gather homework is an issue?”

  “Recently, yes, for no reason any of us can figure out. Savannah knows how to write all her letters and numbers and color in the lines, and she does those things without a problem at school.” He shrugged helplessly. “She just doesn’t want to do them at home.”

  “You’ve talked to her teacher?”

  “She can’t understand Savannah’s increasingly recalcitrant behavior either, but it’s to the point now that if Savannah doesn’t perform as required, they’re going to have to hold her back a year. I don’t want that to happen,” he said emphatically. “I think she’s more than ready for first grade, intellectually. Emotionally, well, I think not having a mother is beginning to be an issue for her. So I’m hoping that if I solve that problem, I’ll solve the homework problem.”

  Feeling as if they were finally getting somewhere, Alexis guessed, “Which is why you decided to get married ASAP.”

  Grady nodded with determination. “I’d like to be married by the Fourth of July.”

  Once again, Alexis was knocked off-kilter by his demands. “Why so fast?”

  “Savannah’s in a year-round school program. She graduates from kindergarten on June thirtieth and then is off until first grade starts on August first. I think it would be helpful to her to spend the month of vacation getting to know her new mother.”

  Alexis understood that Grady was used to getting things done quickly, in business. “You don’t want to work that fast,” she warned. There was no possible way they could find a suitable wife in less than a month!

  His jaw set. “I think it can be done in that time frame.”

  She knew the customer was always right. Still, she felt she had to at least try and talk sense into him. “What Savannah needs,” she urged gently, “is for you to take as much time as necessary to do this right.”

  He looked irritated, but at least willing to listen to what she had to say. “Then what would you suggest? How can we do this right and still do it fast?”

  Alexis drew a bracing breath. “First, I need to spend time with Savannah. If I’m to find someone who is going to be compatible with you both, I’ve got to understand a lot more about what the two of you want. And while you certainly can fill out the detailed questionnaires that the agency provides, Savannah can’t.”

  Grady caught her drift. “Want to start by staying for dinner with us tonight?”

  He�
�s just a client. Albeit a very handsome one. “Sure.” Alexis forced herself to maintain a businesslike attitude. “If that would make it easier.”

  “A lot, actually.”

  The French door from the family room flew open and Savannah stomped out. She was wearing a violet feather boa, a red cowgirl hat…and an attitude that begged for some one-on-one attention. “How come you’re still out here swinging—when I’m mad?” She planted her hands on her hips and glared at both of them.

  Grady seemed to know that what his daughter really needed at that moment was some tender loving care. “We were talking about what to do next,” he soothed.

  “Your dad asked me to stay for dinner with the two of you,” Alexis reported. And in an effort to include Savannah, she added, “Is that all right with you?”

  The child lowered her head and dragged the toe of her cowgirl boot across the patio flagstone. “Well….” She drew out the word. Threw up her hands even more dramatically. “Okay. I guess!”

  “Great!” Grady winked at Alexis. “I’ll throw something on the stove while you girls get to know each other.”

  Chapter Two

  “Close your eyes, Daddy!” Savannah shouted from the hallway just beyond the kitchen. “And don’t open them until I tell you to, okay?”

  Grady grinned. He didn’t know what Alexis and Savannah had been talking about in her bedroom while he’d been preparing dinner, but his little girl sounded a lot happier.

  “Okay.” After setting the baking tray on top of the stove to cool, he leaned against the counter and closed his eyes. “I’m ready,” he shouted back.

  “Are you sure your eyes are closed?” Savannah called.

  “Yes.” To convince her, he put a hand over them. “I can’t see anything!”

  “Okay!” Savannah exclaimed, “’Cause ready or not, Daddy, here we come!”

  This ought to be good, Grady thought.

  He heard the familiar clomp of Savannah’s cowgirl boots coming down the hardwood hallway. Followed by the tapping of Alexis’s high heels.

  Seconds later, he felt the movement of bodies, and inhaled the sexy, feminine scent of Alexis Graham’s perfume.

  Savannah giggled. “Okay, Daddy, you can look now!”

  Grady opened his eyes and found his daughter in one of her dress-up costumes. Her cowgirl boots peeked out from beneath the hem, a jeweled crown adorned her head, and the boa encircled her neck.

  Beside her, Alexis stood. Her honey-blond hair was swept into an elegant knot, on the back of her head, and she, too, wore a child-size tiara and a great deal of play jewelry. Her regal attire consisted of a makeshift shawl wrapped around her shoulders and a ruffled pink-and-white cotton “skirt” that suspiciously resembled one of Savannah’s bedroom curtains.

  “We’re playing dress-up,” Savannah announced. “I’m the princess and Alexis is my fairy godmother!”

  “So I see.” Grady worked to contain his pleasure before trading glances with Alexis.

  She solemnly waved a magic wand at Savannah, and the little girl beamed up at her. To his surprise, Alexis seemed to be enjoying herself every bit as much as his daughter.

  “And she said I can call her Alexis if I want!” Savannah declared.

  Grady grinned. He wanted his daughter attaching herself emotionally to her new mother, not the woman he had hired to find them one.

  Alexis met his eyes. Seeming to understand his reservation, she said, “I think it’s important if Savannah and I are going to be friends that the two of us be on a first-name basis.”

  Put that way, Grady decided, it was acceptable to forgo the traditional method of address.

  “You can call her Alexis, too, Daddy,” Savannah chimed in.

  Grady wasn’t sure he wanted even that level of intimacy with a woman he found so physically attractive. But if it made his daughter happy…And Savannah did look happier than he had seen her look in a very long time. “Then I will,” he agreed with a smile.

  “And you know what else?” Savannah babbled as she sat down in her chair at the breakfast room table, her poufy skirt fluffing out around her. “Alexis is going to find me the kind of mommy I always wanted to have, and she’s going to do it right away! Isn’t that awesome?”

  “It is awesome.” Surprised that Alexis had been able to change Savannah’s mind so easily, Grady put dinner on the table. Breaded fish sticks from the freezer, macaroni and cheese out of a box, creamed corn from a can and applesauce from a jar.

  If Alexis was surprised at the pedestrian fare, she didn’t show it.

  Grady checked to make sure they had everything, and realized he had forgotten the tartar sauce and ketchup.

  He got both from the fridge.

  “Do you want anything else for your fish sticks?” he asked Alexis.

  Looking impossibly at ease in curtains and a tiara, Alexis spread her napkin across her lap. “Tartar sauce will be fine, thanks. This looks delicious.”

  Savannah leaned toward her eagerly. “My daddy’s a very good cook. He knows how to make all my favorites.”

  Grady filled her plate, put a puddle of ketchup next to her fish sticks and handed it to her. “So what else have you ladies been doing?” he asked curiously.

  “You tell him,” Savannah said, her mouth half-full.

  Grady gestured to remind Savannah to remember her manners, and Alexis grinned. “We’ve been trying to figure out what kind of mom a princess would want her fairy godmother to bring her.”

  “And what kind of mother would that be?” he asked.

  Alexis regarded Grady with a deadpan expression. “The kind that likes to read stories and play dress-up and never makes Savannah do her homework.”

  He worked to suppress a groan. He should have seen that coming. But when it came to his daughter, he was a total push-over.

  Alexis responded to Savannah’s wordless pantomime and reached over to cut up the fish sticks on the child’s plate—something Grady had forgotten to do.

  Savannah basked in the extra attention and help, even saying a polite thank-you afterwards.

  Alexis added a tiny amount of tartar sauce to her fish. “She should also let Savannah stay up as late as she wishes, and wear whatever she wants to kindergarten. And she should let her eat candy and cake instead of vegetables and fruit. And buy only chocolate milk at the store.”

  “I can see you’ve given this a lot of thought,” Grady remarked to his daughter.

  “And most important of all—” Alexis looked at Grady steadily “—she wants her new mother here in time for her kindergarten graduation. That way she’ll have a mommy and a daddy there with her, just like everyone else.”

  “THANKS FOR STAYING,” Grady told Alexis several hours later. The curtain, play jewelry and tiara were gone. One again Alexis was garbed in a sophisticated business suit and heels. Her hair was still in an elegant knot on top of her head, but a few strands had slipped down the nape of her neck. She looked even prettier than she had before.

  He pushed the thought away. It was not like him to notice. That wasn’t why she was here, a fact they were both very well aware of.

  “Where would you like to talk?” Alexis asked, tilting her face up to his.

  “The formal dining room,” Grady decided, since it was the closest thing he had to a conference room in his home.

  They sat opposite each other. Alexis opened up her briefcase and removed a pen and notepad emblazoned with the company logo and her name. “I don’t know about you, but I think we may have made a mistake involving Savannah so closely in the selection process.”

  “You’re referring to her list of desired traits in a mother?”

  Alexis nodded, observing him as keenly as she had his daughter. “Savannah now has a very clear picture of what she wants.”

  Grady stretched his legs out in front of him and slumped back in his chair. “She also knows granting all those wishes is impossible. No parent with the best interest of their child in mind behaves that way.”
/>   Alexis was silent. “You and I know that. I’m not so sure Savannah does.”

  “What are you saying?” Grady prompted.

  Alexis cupped her chin in her hand and predicted glumly, “It’s going to be tough finding someone by graduation.”

  Grady shrugged. He refused to lower his expectations just because they had hit a snag. He didn’t think Alexis should, either. “I’ve closed more than one impossible-to-pull-off business deal in less than two weeks.”

  Her blue eyes darkened. “That’s just it,” she countered. “This isn’t business, Grady. It’s personal.”

  Only to a degree, Grady thought; since he did not plan to get emotionally involved with the woman who would be rearing his child. Had this been anything other than a business arrangement, it would have been complicated. “Just go through your files,” he advised, not bothering to mask his impatience. “Find some likely candidates. Introduce them to Savannah. And don’t make this any more complex for any of us than it has to be.”

  Alexis tensed. After sending him a look of thinly veiled displeasure, she asked with forced politeness, “Are you certain you don’t want to meet them first?”

  Grady had vowed when his wife died that he would never love a woman that way again. It was a promise he had kept—and intended to go right on keeping—no matter how much his little girl wanted a mother. “A bit pointless, don’t you think, if my daughter doesn’t warm to them first?”

  Alexis compressed her lips. “I’ll be frank. I’m worried she could get hurt.”

  “She’s already been hurt, from the first moment she figured out what a mommy was and learned hers was already in heaven.”

  The matchmaker’s expression turned compassionate. “I need to know what you’re looking for, too,” she said, writing Grady’s name across the top of the page.

  Finding it too uncomfortable to look into her eyes, he studied the way her hair gleamed in the light of the chandelier overhead instead, then wished he hadn’t noticed. “I already told you my requirements.”

  She waited in silence until he looked straight at her. “For this to work on even the most rudimentary level, you and Savannah both have to be compatible with the match. So let’s start again. What do you want in a woman?”