by Donna Fasano
As Cassie watched her new employer disappear down the road, all she could think about was Joshua Kingston's charming smile– and her peculiar reaction to it.
Chapter Two
The jet engine hummed steadily as Joshua stowed his briefcase and settled himself into the seat. He hadn't wanted to go on this trip. He'd put it off and put it off until Dean Lasher had reminded him of his original agreement with the university: that of not only teaching, conducting research and publishing the results of that research, but also of traveling to other colleges, conferences, and private corporations to speak on his findings.
Joshua knew very well that his seminars afforded the university a certain amount of prestige and publicity, publicity that went a long way in procuring monetary donations from the businesses he visited. So he understood and was not offended by Dean Lasher's gentle prodding.
It wasn't as though Joshua was careless when it came to his profession, not by any means. He worked hard preparing lessons for his students and made certain he was always available for the young men and women he taught. He spent hours in the lab on his research, and even more hours writing the papers that were successfully published in numerous scientific journals. But he couldn't argue with the dean when the man had pointed out that the travel had ceased. At least it had for the past three years– ever since the death of Joshua's wife.
Memories of Elizabeth's last days brought a cloud of guilt that fogged his brain. You're an intelligent man, a familiar, accusatory voice echoed in his head. You should have seen the signs long before the accident.
Clenching his jaw, he forced the dark thoughts aside. He had one hell of a lot of sins to atone for. He knew that. And he was trying. With Andrew.
Joshua shook his head. He still couldn't believe he had left his son in the care of a virtual stranger.
He took a moment to remind himself that the stranger had the highest recommendation from his aunt, that she had first-aid certification and eight full years' experience with children. The new nanny might be a stranger, but he was certain she was a competent stranger.
Cassandra Simmons.
The rush of adrenaline that shot through his body just at the mere thought of her name amazed him. It was absolutely illogical.
Unbidden images of her filled his mind as though she were flower-scented air that permeated every nook and cranny of his brain. The open smile that widened her temptingly full lips. Her perky little nose. Those alluring cobalt eyes– eyes that held an impish gleam as though Cassie knew a secret she intended to reveal to no one. He chuckled at the thought. God, she was cute.
After rubbing his fingers across his jaw in deep contemplation, he placed his elbow on the armrest and cupped his chin in his hands. He could feel the raw hormones coursing through his body and he frowned. Cassie Simmons conjured feelings and desires in him that he hadn't experienced in a long, long time.
Why now? Why her? If he were forced to hazard a guess, he'd have to blame the fact that she looked nothing like what he expected. When his aunt had called and told him she was sending over a friend of hers, he'd expected a grandmotherly type… like all the other nannies he'd hired in the past. Finding the gorgeous, sexy Cassie climbing down out of that tree had clearly knocked him a little off-kilter.
"Fasten your seat belt, please." The flight attendant touched his shoulder and continued along the narrow aisle.
As he moved to follow instructions, Joshua's analytical mind rationalized that having unwittingly viewed Cassie's long legs, firm thighs, trim hips, and lush breasts as she'd descended the ladder had to be the explanation for his reaction to her. This purely physiological response to a beautiful, curvaceous woman was normal. Of course it was.
Unfastening the top button of his shirt, he loosened his tie and sighed. He felt better, relieved somehow, now that he understood that the thoughts invading his mind were quite natural.
He pulled from his breast pocket the index cards on which he'd jotted notes for his seminar. But try as he might, he couldn't seem to focus. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head against the padded seat back. Immediately, Cassie's twinkling eyes gleamed at him, her sunny fragrance filled his nostrils and his blood raged.
Normal, he told himself. Quite normal.
~ ~ ~
"You got the job!" Mary Kingston hugged Cassie and kissed her on the cheek. "I knew you'd win Joshua over." She gave Cassie's shoulder a grandmotherly pat.
"Mary, the man didn't have much choice in hiring me, now, did he?" Cassie sprinkled the question with light sarcasm. "You didn't tell me he had to leave so soon. We barely had ten minutes to get acquainted before he had to run out the door."
Mary's soft wrinkled brow creased even more with a befuddled frown. "I didn't mention that he was leaving to give one of his seminars? I'm almost certain I mentioned that." The old woman shrugged. "As you get older, the mind begins to rust, you know." She smiled brightly. "But everything turned out for the best."
"It sure did," Cassie agreed, her heart constricting with the deep emotion she felt for this woman.
Mary Kingston had been a friend of Cassie's grandmother and Cassie loved the lady dearly. Mary had been a godsend two years ago. When Cassie's mother died leaving Cassie sole guardian of Eric, Mary had contacted her with an offer of help. And help Mary did, insisting that Cassie and Eric live in an upstairs apartment in a house the woman owned across town and then going even further by setting the rent ridiculously low. When Cassie found herself dealing with the crisis of unemployment, Mary had once again unselfishly and generously intervened with a recommendation to Joshua Kingston.
Cassie gazed out the window to check on Eric and Andy, the steady tap, tap of Mary's knitting needles lulling her into a hazy trance.
Crisis had seemed to be Cassie's middle name since the age of fifteen. Her father had died in a freak accident at the small processing plant where he worked, a fly-by-night company that hadn't bothered with insurance. Cassie's mother had felt somewhat avenged when the company went bankrupt. But justice had been bittersweet because the lawyers had reported that, after all was said and done, no compensation would be forthcoming for Mrs. Simmons and her teenage daughter. Cassie's mother sank into a black depression.
Barely one month later, when Cassie celebrated her sixteenth birthday– which was anything but sweet– she discovered her mother was experiencing a menopausal pregnancy. This turn of events only seemed to darken Mrs. Simmons's despair.
Losing her husband and realizing her desperate economic predicament were more than Cassie's mother could take. Then, finding herself expecting a baby in the midst of such dire circumstances, the woman refused to fight back and simply let the unfortunate situation completely snuff out what little bit of spirit she had left.
Cassie had watched her mother descend deeper and deeper into the bleak pit of anguish and grief until the woman was no longer able to take care of herself, her daughter or the baby boy she had given birth to.
"You're dwelling on it again, aren't you?" Mary's gentle voice pulled Cassie from her bleak reverie. "You're thinking about your decision. Wondering whether you did the right thing all those years ago."
Suppressed emotion tightened her throat and made it impossible to speak, so Cassie only nodded.
"I can't tell you if what you did was right or not. But someone had to take over," Mary remarked candidly. "You had a mother who stopped being a mother, and you had a baby brother who was going hungry."
Hearing the stark truth spoken aloud only magnified Cassie's response to the memory of her past. She dragged oxygen into her lungs through strangled air passages and she fought the threatening tears by blinking several times, hard.
Mary's voice became whisper soft as she said, "You did the only thing a sixteen-year-old could do. You found a job. And when one job wasn't enough, you found another. Yes, some very unfortunate things happened. Your dad passed away. Your mom was ill. Your education fell by the wayside." Then her tone took on a gruff straightforwardness meant to comfort
. "You took the lemons that life gave you and you made lemonade. You did what you had to do to take care of your family." Mary's eyes glittered with pride. "You have spunk, Cassie. You have the courage of three women."
Cassie sighed and forced herself to smile. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up. It's just that... sometimes... when I look at Eric, I feel so badly that he'll never know his mom and dad. All he's got is me. Someone who'll never be worth looking up to."
"Don't you ever say that again!" Mary's admonition was sharp.
Refusing to relent, Cassie said, "Well, look at me. I got fired from my last job. I'm flat broke and–"
"Now, now," Mary crooned, her angry tone quickly replaced by grandmotherly encouragement. "None of that was your fault. You can't be blamed just because a company needs to cut back."
"What's so infuriating about the whole mess is that I had more seniority than some of those other overeducated idiots." Cassie flung her hand up in agitation. "I could work rings around each and every one of them. Why, I produce more... and I did it faster…" Her voice trailed off and she lowered her head. "But they all had something I didn't. And the minute the truth came out, I was history. And it wasn't the first time it happened. Or the second."
"Now, you look here," Mary said. "There's nothing wrong with you. You've just had a run of bad luck. Stop thinking bad thoughts. All that's in the past. You've got a new job now. A job that offers Eric a lovely home to live in and plenty of good, wholesome food, and–"
"But if Professor Kingston finds out..."
"Would you just hush up about it," Mary scolded. "Joshua's not going to find out anything." Her wizened eyes crinkled as she added, "No one would ever guess you'd dropped out of high school. You're so bright. If I didn't think so, I'd never have recommended you to my nephew."
Cassie's eyes softened. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to dredge it all up again."
"Nonsense. You needn't apologize to me, Cassie Simmons. Why, we're almost family, you and me, and little Eric out there." Mary picked up her knitting needles and pulled more yarn from the skein. "I love you both dearly and I just want to see you happy. That's why I sent you to Joshua. He'll make things right for you, and you'll be helping him out at the same time. It's a perfect arrangement."
Cassie conjured an image of Joshua Kingston as he'd stood at the door to leave. She'd been jolted to the core by his smile– a smile that had transformed his intense handsome features to drop-dead gorgeous. Cassie lifted her eyes to Mary's face as a flicker of doubt crossed her mind.
"I wouldn't say the arrangement is perfect just yet," Cassie said ruefully. "I didn't have a chance to tell the professor about Eric."
"Eric?" Mary paused for a moment. "Why, I'm almost certain I told Joshua about little Eric." Then she cocked her head a fraction. "At least, I think I mentioned Eric. No," she argued with herself, "I'm sure I mentioned him."
Cassie repressed a smile at the old woman's forgetfulness. Cassie knew Mary's heart was in the right place, and that it was made of pure twenty-four karat gold.
"Well, if you did, Joshua didn't seem to remember," Cassie replied gently.
"It's good to know someone else's mind is rusting, besides my own." Mary chuckled, her eyes twinkling as she placed the blame of absentmindedness on Joshua.
"It looks as though I'll just have to remind him when he gets home." Cassie opened the door and called the two boys to come in from where they'd been playing in Mary's backyard. Then she turned back to her friend. "Mary, thanks for watching Eric while I went to talk to the Professor. We're going to have to go so I can pick up our things from the apartment. It will take us a while to get settled and I'd like the move to go as smoothly for Eric as possible."
"Oh, he'll do just fine," Mary said. "He's really looking forward to getting to know Andrew. And Joshua will make a wonderful father figure for him."
"I don't know about that," Cassie commented dubiously. She shook her head. "The professor seems so restrictive with Andy. I mean, I understand about the asthma, but..."
"Andrew was such a sickly baby," Mary was quick to answer. Then she pursed her lips in disgust. "And all those nannies coming and going. It's been awful for both Joshua and little Andrew. Seems the minute Andrew got used to one or the other, she'd up and quit and Joshua was putting another ad in the newspaper."
"Why did they all leave, one right after the other?" Cassie asked. "Seems odd, don't you think?"
"Who knows? Couldn't follow the rules, I guess."
"But all those rules make it hard for Andy to–"
Cassie was interrupted when Eric came charging into the house.
"Cassie, Cassie! You should see the shot Andy just made!"
Eric's exuberance was infectious. "Andy's good at marbles, is he?"
It had been hard to find a game for the two of them to play, what with all the rules governing Andy's activity. Eric was a sports-minded boy, loving baseball, soccer, football, anything physical, and all these things were off-limits to Andy. But when Mary had mentioned marbles, even producing a small sack full, both Eric and Andy had been quick to agree.
"Yeah!" Eric clapped his new friend on the back. "Andy has a special thumb flick, and he knocked three of my marbles out of the circle with one shot."
"A special thumb flick, eh?" Cassie ruffled Andy's hair and saw the boy blush with pride over Eric's praise.
"Aww, it wasn't anything great, Cassie," Andy mumbled, but it was clear he was enjoying Eric's accolades.
"Sure it was!" Eric turned to Andy. "You'll teach me how you do it, won't 'cha?"
A smile washed over Andy's whole face. "Sure, I will."
"You boys gather up all the marbles, now," Cassie told them. "We need to be scooting home, so Eric and I can get ourselves settled in."
Cassie saw that Mary had returned to the task of knitting the bright yellow square that would soon be part of a large afghan.
"Mary," she said softly, "I can't thank you enough for all that you've done for me and Eric."
"Stuff an' nonsense," the old woman scoffed. "You're perfect for the job."
"It's not just the job." Cassie knelt down by the rocker, lacing her fingers together and draping them over the arm of the chair. "It's everything. The apartment, your watching Eric at the drop of a hat, the moral support, the listening ear, the shoulder to lean on. The list of things you've done for me is endless."
"It's been a two-way street, missy. What about you chauffeuring me all over town, to the doctor, the bank. And you do all my shopping." Mary's soft, wrinkled hand covered Cassie's. "You've done just as much for me as I ever have for you, so don't feel you owe me any thank-yous."
Cassie was about to insist that Mary take the appreciation due her, but remained silent, afraid the emotion she felt would swell her throat and make her cry. "Well, just know I'll do my best to take care of Andy."
"And Joshua," Mary quickly added. "Don't forget to take care of Joshua."
Cassie promised she would, but in her heart she felt Joshua Kingston could easily take care of himself.
~ ~ ~
The rays of the Sunday afternoon sun caressed Cassie's skin as she floated on her back in the pool. The boys splashed and laughed in the shallow end. She closed her eyes, letting her muscles relax, as she thought back on her busy, thoroughly enjoyable weekend.
Friday evening had been spent getting settled. Andy wanted Eric to sleep next door to him, which left Cassie with the room adjacent to the master bedroom. She didn't know why that disturbed her, but after several trips back and forth to her new room, she'd noticed that she'd become preoccupied with Professor Kingston's sleeping quarters. So much so, that she'd finally closed his door to shut off any temptation of peeking in. She couldn't fathom why she found the thought of exploring his room so enticing. Maybe she felt that by studying this most personal domain, she would gain some insight into Joshua Kingston, the man. The very idea of her thinking of the professor as a male rather than her employer had startled her so that she'd vowed to stay away from
his room. Seeking out his character was not part of her job here, her business was strictly to care for the man's son.
But try as she might, Cassie couldn't completely exorcize the disturbing reflections of the intriguing man who seemed to haunt her mind. Joshua's quick, terse telephone calls inquiring as to how things were going came like clockwork and always left Cassie pondering Joshua Kingston's dark temperament. Even now she had to consciously pull herself out of this daydreamy state and force herself to concentrate on minding the boys who were paddling in the pool.
Cassie was pleased that she, Eric, and Andy were getting along so famously. They'd spent the entire weekend together with no quarreling or fussing. The boys had behaved, for the most part… boys were boys, and she couldn't hold that against them. They'd gone shopping together because the kitchen cabinets had been bare enough to embarrass Mother Hubbard.
She was learning the kinds of foods Andy enjoyed, and which he was allowed. She felt she knew the list of restrictions by heart now. That dreaded list was her biggest problem. Finding quiet games to occupy the boys had been her toughest task all weekend. Eric suggested over and over that they play outdoors, and Andy had begged to join him. But Cassie had had to stop them from racing around more than once. She felt she'd done an adequate job so far, because she hadn't seen Andy strain to breathe or use his inhaler since she'd helped him from the tree.
When the boys suggested a swim, Cassie had consulted the list and found that the pool wasn't among Andy's restrictions. When questioned, Andy's face was angel-innocent as he swore the pool wasn't off limits. This didn't make sense to Cassie. If keeping Andy calm and unexcited had been the professor's goal, then allowing his son to swim was probably not the best idea. So she'd told the boys they could putter in the water—and puttering meant just that, no diving, racing, chasing, or tossing. They hadn't liked her rule, but they'd resigned themselves to it just the same.
