by Robin Wells
“Here you go,” Nick said, holding out his slacks to her.
Her face hot, she reluctantly turned around, then found she couldn’t suppress her laughter. The sight of Nick in black socks, a long-tailed white shirt, an impeccably knotted tie and gray boxer shorts covered with yellow happy faces was more than she could stand.
“Be sure and come back,” Nick growled as he reluctantly passed her his slacks. “It would be a dirty trick to run off and leave me like this.”
Rachel dangled his trousers from her hand, the belt buckle flopping against her wrist. “That’s a real temptation,” Rachel teased. “I’ve finally got you where I’ve always wanted you.”
Nick cocked an eyebrow. “Undressed?”
She didn’t know it was possible, but her face grew still hotter. “I meant completely at my mercy.”
“But I’ve been there all along, sweetheart.” Nick flashed a rakish grin. “I’ve been there all along.”
His eyes held a dangerous glimmer. All of a sudden, the lighthearted, teasing mood shifted and changed to something more substantial, something with deep undercurrents and dark, murky depths.
“I—I’d better get to work on these before that stain starts to set,” Rachel said. She abruptly left the room, taking his trousers with her.
Nick stared at the closed door behind her for a long moment after she left, wondering if she had any idea how true his remark had been.
Ten minutes later, Nick glanced at his watch for the umpteenth time. “She’ll be back soon,” he told the screaming baby, gently setting her back in her playpen.
Lord, he hoped he was right. The child had started wailing soon after Rachel had left the room, and showed no signs of letting up since. He’d tried all the usual remedies—holding her, singing to her, even pushing her around the tiny office in her stroller. Each new attempt to calm her only seemed to infuriate the child more.
The only thing he hadn’t tried was humor. He might as well give it a shot.
“Hey, Jenny—want to play doggy?” Nick promptly got on his hands and knees, scrunched his features into a silly face and peered at her through the mesh side of the playpen.
Startled, the baby stopped crying and stared.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!” Nick stuck out his tongue and panted. Jenny smiled. Encouraged, he wagged his backside. The baby burst into giggles.
Thank heavens—he’d finally found a way to calm her. Still on all fours, he panted and waggled his happy-face clad backside again.
A breeze on his bare thighs alerted him that the door had opened. He turned his head to see the company president staring down in shocked disbelief.
“What in bald blazes is going on here?” Rex demanded, closing the door.
Nick scrambled to his feet. The gray-haired man raked his eyes over Nick’s pantless legs, then stared at him as if he’d lost his mind.
“I know this must look odd, sir, but there’s a logical explanation.”
“There’d better be, son. And I can’t wait to hear it.”
The door opened again. Nick gave a sigh of relief as Rachel walked through it. Her face drained of color at the sight of Rex.
“Mr. Barrington,” she gasped.
“Excuse me, sir.” Reaching around Rex, Nick snatched his trousers from Rachel’s hands, then turned toward the wall and rapidly pulled them on.
When he turned back around, Rex’s curious gaze flicked from him to Rachel, then back again. “Delaney, will you tell me what the devil is going on?”
“It’s very simple. The baby is my niece, Jenny...”
“Yes, yes, I know all about that. Very commendable, your taking on the task of raising your brother’s child.”
“Well, Jenny’s lunch spilled on my pants and Rachel was helping me clean them.” Nick quickly filled Rex in on Jenny’s adjustment problems, the doctor’s advice and Rachel’s assistance.
“I see.” The gray-haired man thoughtfully stroked his chin. “Well, it’s apparent to me that there’s only one thing to do about all this.”
“What’s that?”
“Send you both home.”
Nick’s heart sank to his shoes. He’d spent years working toward this promotion, and his first day in the new position, he was about to be suspended.
Dadblast it. Drawing a deep breath, Nick pulled himself erect and prepared to face the music. “Sir, if you feel that disciplinary action is necessary, I won’t argue with you, but please leave Rachel out of it. She was only trying to help me, and she shouldn’t be punished for that.”
“Disciplinary action?” Rex stared at him for a moment, then slapped his thigh and gave a hearty laugh. “You’ve been up in that cold climate too long, son, if you think I’m going to punish a couple of employees for trying to take care of an orphaned child. I’m not talking about disciplinary action. I’m talking about taking some time off—with pay, of course—to get your family affairs straightened out I’m sure this place can muddle along for a week or so while you two help this baby adjust.”
“B-But I have a staff meeting scheduled to start planning the audit, and—”
Rex waved his hand. “All that will keep.” He clapped Nick on the shoulder. “Take care of your family concerns. son, and come back to the office when they’re in order.” Rex turned to the door, then stopped and winked at Rachel.
“I appreciate your helpfulness, Rachel.”
“My pleasure, sir.”
Rex grinned. “Just make sure he keeps his pants on, you hear?”
Rachel’s face turned florid.
Rex laughed heartily. “Good luck, you two. Now gather up all this stuff and take that baby home where she belongs.”
With that, he walked out and closed the door behind him.
Rachel and Nick looked at each other. Nick ventured a tentative grin. “Well, you heard the man. What are we waiting for?”
Chapter Six
Rachel carried Jenny through the automatic door of the local supermarket Wednesday afternoon. Nick followed behind, pausing to grab a shopping cart at the entrance.
Rachel could feel his eyes on her as she settled the child in the cart’s baby seat and snapped the safety belt in place around her waist.
“She sits up well for a baby her age, doesn’t she?” he remarked.
“Yes. she does.”
“It won’t be long before she’s crawling. She’s making all the preliminary movements—getting up on her knees, rocking back and forth, rolling across the floor.”
Rachel’s eyebrows rose. “I’m surprised you know all that.”
Nick grinned. “There was a book in Jenny’s things about the development of babies. I’ve been reading it.”
Rachel’s chest filled with warmth. Nick was obviously growing attached to the child. She’d been vaguely worried that Nick was going to try to keep the baby at emotional arm’s length ever since he’d said he didn’t want Jenny to call him Daddy, but her concerns along that score had eased in the past few days. They’d interviewed nannies all day yesterday and again this morning, and Nick’s selectiveness had impressed her. So had his attentiveness to the baby. He seemed to love nothing more than making Jenny laugh.
It was clear that Jenny was growing fond of him, too, Rachel reflected. The child smiled when he walked in the room and perked up at the sound of his voice. She reached out and grabbed at him when he played with her, let him feed her and even allowed him to change her diaper.
But she hadn’t yet let him hold her. Or rather, Nick hadn’t tried since the day they’d left the office.
“I’m going to wait and let her make the first move,” Nick had said when Rachel had questioned him about it. His eyes had taken on a teasing light. “It’s the same approach I’m using with you.”
Rachel had laughed, but her heart had thudded furiously. “Don’t hold your breath,” she’d told him.
But that was exactly how she felt whenever she was alone with him—as if she were holding her breath, waiting for something to happen, hoping.
..
Hoping what? Rachel caught herself up short. She knew better than to hope for something that could never be.
Besides, Nick might be growing closer to Jenny, but he was deliberately keeping his distance from Rachel. Each night after they put Jenny to bed, Nick would excuse himself and disappear into the study to peruse the stack of files he’d brought with him when they’d left the office on Monday. He said he needed to work on developing the internal audit guidelines, but Rachel suspected he was deliberately avoiding being alone with her.
Which was fine, she told herself. They had no business being alone together. Sexual tension continued to sizzle between them, filling the air with an electrical charge that made it hard for her to keep her eyes off Nick. She’d often caught him gazing at her, too, in a way that made her blood run fast and hot.
As a matter of fact, he was doing it right now. He looked away as she met his gaze.
“I’ll drive,” he said, assuming the spot behind the cart. He leaned down to Jenny. “This way I can make sure we cruise down the cookie aisle.” Nick’s conspiratorial wink made Jenny giggle.
Yes, Nick and the baby were definitely bonding, Rachel thought, following them into the produce section. She stopped beside him next to a display of melons, where an elderly woman in a red dress was thumping a cantaloupe. The woman’s wrinkled lips stretched into a smile as she spotted Jenny. “Oh, what a precious child!” She reached a frail hand out to the baby.
Jenny promptly grabbed Nick’s shirt and buried her face against his chest.
Nick smiled apologetically. “She’s kind of shy.”
“Oh, my great-granddaughter is the same way,” the woman said in a frail, vibrato voice. “Terrified of strangers, but very affectionate with family.” The lady smiled again. “Your child seems affectionate, too. Why, it looks like she wants you to pick her up right now.”
Nick’s brows flew up in surprise. “It does?” He stared at Jenny, who was stretching her tiny arms in the air, then turned questioningly to Rachel “Do you think so?”
His eyes were so eager and hopeful that it made Rachel’s heart ache. He looked like a young boy who’d just spotted a bicycle on his front lawn on his birthday and wasn’t quite sure if it was for him. A lump formed in her throat as she nodded. “Sure looks like it to me.”
Nick quickly unfastened the red safety strap, then slowly, cautiously lifted the baby from the cart. Jenny clung to his neck. Smiling broadly, he awkwardly patted her back.
The old woman placed the cantaloupe in her basket and grinned at Jenny. “That’s better, isn’t it? No place feels as safe as Daddy’s arms.” The woman glanced at Rachel “Except for Mommy’s arms, of course.”
Rachel noticed that Nick didn’t bother to correct the woman about the nature of their relationship. He was too absorbed in holding the baby against his shoulder. Rachel held her breath as the woman toddled off, afraid that Jenny would revert to form and start crying. Nick, too, seemed cautious. He stood rooted to the spot, patting the baby’s back, until the child raised her head and gazed around.
“The lady’s gone,” he told her. “The coast’s all clear.”
Jenny looked into his face, then stretched out a hand and touched his jaw. She abruptly pulled back her fingers, a surprised look on her face.
Nick grinned. “A little rough, huh? That’s called a five o’clock shadow.”
Jenny reached out and tentatively touched his face again, then broke into a cherubic smile.
Nick’s eyes filled with pleasure and pride. “Hey—I’m holding her, and she’s smiling!”
Rachel nodded. “She sure seems to like it”
Nick’s smile was ear to ear, filled with unabashed delight. “What do you say, Jenny—want to hang out with me while we shop?”
Jenny’s teeth gleamed as she grinned. Nick beamed just as widely. “Looks like you’d better take over as shopping cart driver,” he said to Rachel. “I seem to have a new job—official baby carrier.”
“So I see.” Their eyes met, and Rachel felt as if her heart was full to bursting, overflowing with emotion. It seemed an unlikely place for a miracle—an impersonal, fluorescent-lit supermarket, with Muzak humming in the background and dozens of shoppers going about their everyday errands—but Rachel knew a miracle was happening all the same. A baby had opened her arms and her uncle had opened his heart. A new family was being born.
A new family that didn’t include her. Rachel blinked back the tears that inexplicably formed in her eyes and looked down, pretending a keen interest in the melons.
She was being ridiculous, she silently scolded herself. She’d known from the beginning that her role was to help Nick form a relationship with the baby, then move out of their lives. And yet, over the past few days, she’d enjoyed playing house with Nick and Jenny. It had been a wonderful fantasy, pretending that she belonged there, pretending that she was Jenny’s mother and Nick’s wife.
That was the problem, she thought glumly. It had been too wonderful.
Because the truth was they weren’t a family, and they weren’t going to become one. Not as long as Nick thought marriage was about as pleasant as Chinese water torture.
A cold emptiness ached in her chest. She needed to face it No matter how tender and warm and funny Nick was, no matter how longingly he looked at her, no matter how devoted he became to Jenny, he had no intention of ever getting married. And all the pretending in the world wouldn’t change that fact.
“Thank you for coming, Mrs. Evans,” Nick said the next afternoon, opening the front door wider. “Please come in.”
Holding Jenny on her lap, Rachel watched as yet another nanny applicant sent by the child-care agency entered the living room. This one was a short, rotund woman with salt-and-pepper hair. Her lively brown eyes creased into a warm smile as she spotted the baby.
“Oh, what a little darling!”
To her credit, the woman stopped in her tracks and clasped her hands together. The other nannies had all made a beeline for Jenny, making the child cower and hide her head against Rachel’s shoulder.
Nick gestured toward Rachel. “This is my friend Rachel, who’s been kind enough to help me out with Jenny. Rachel, Jenny, this is Mrs. Evans.”
Mrs. Evans smiled at Rachel. “It’s very nice to meet you. Is Jenny bashful with strangers?”
“Very,” Nick confirmed. “She only started letting me hold her yesterday. She still prefers Rachel.”
The woman’s eyes grew warm. “The agency told me that the poor child had recently lost her parents.”
“That’s right.”
“Well, it’s important to be patient and affectionate, but not to overwhelm her. She needs time and space to adjust to things at her own pace.”
Nick glanced at Rachel. “That’s almost exactly what the pediatrician said.”
Mrs. Evans smiled. “Thirty years ago, my husband and I adopted our son after his parents were killed in a boating accident. Every baby is different, of course, but I have a pretty good idea of what you and Jenny are going through. It must be a difficult adjustment for both of you.”
Nick and Rachel exchanged a silent glance. All nine of the applicants they’d interviewed so far had been more than qualified, but this one was special. Even Jenny seemed to agree. Instead of averting her eyes, she was staring at Mrs. Evans with open curiosity.
Rachel sat silently as Nick asked Mrs. Evans questions about her background, her experience and her child-care philosophy. She knew it was irrational, but the more perfectly the woman responded to the questions, the further her spirits plummeted.
She was about to be phased out of Nick and Jenny’s lives. It was what they’d intended all along, but it hurt all the same.
She gazed at the baby, snuggled contentedly on her lap, and tightened her embrace on the child. Jenny had completely, irrevocably stolen her heart. The thought of not being about to hold her like this made her arms ache.
She loved Jenny. Just like she loved Nick.
&nbs
p; The thought filled her with alarm. Determined to push it from her mind, she forced her attention back to the conversation at hand.
“I’ll need someone during the weekdays from seven in the morning until six or so at night,” Nick was saying to Mrs. Evans. “Every now and then I’ll need to go out of town, and on those occasions, Jenny’s nanny will need to stay here with her for the duration of the trip. Would that be a problem for you?”
“No, not at all. I’m very flexible.”
Nick glanced at Rachel Rachel flashed what she hoped was an encouraging smile, then looked down at Jenny, wanting to hide the tears in her eyes.
“You sound ideal for the job. Could you start work on Monday?”
Mrs. Evans hesitated. “Is that the day you’re going back to work?”
Nick nodded.
“If I might offer a suggestion... It will probably be easier on Jenny if you phase me in gradually.”
And phase me out the same way. Rachel swallowed around a hard lump in her throat.
Nick’s face grew thoughtful. “You’re right. What do you suggest?”
“Well, perhaps I should come over for a few hours Saturday afternoon, then stay a while longer Sunday. That way it won’t be such a shock to Jenny when she’s left alone with me for the entire day on Monday.”
“Sounds like a good plan.” Nick turned to Rachel. “What do you think?”
Rachel swallowed hard. “I—I think Mrs. Evans is right. And that’ll work out fine for me. I have to attend my friend Olivia’s baby shower on Saturday, anyway.”
Jenny whimpered and shifted restlessly. Rachel was glad for an excuse to leave the room. “I think Jenny’s hungry. If you two will excuse me, I’ll go fix her a snack while you iron out the details.” Carrying the baby, Rachel fled the room. Like a prisoner about to face the gallows, she had the distinct feeling that time was running out.
“Sweet dreams, sweetheart. Have a nice nap.” Rachel leaned over the crib on Friday and kissed the baby’s downy cheek, then raised the safety rail and tiptoed out of the nursery. This was the last time she’d tuck Jenny in bed for an afternoon nap, she thought sadly, pulling the door softly closed behind her.