by Nikki Moore
Surely she was just feeling vulnerable after her break up with Greg? He’d hurt her, badly. She was bound to be a soppy mess.
‘It’s okay,’ she said, hugging him briefly before easing away. ‘You can always talk to me about things like this. Thank you for telling me. Your daddy is really busy but he loves you, always remember that.’
She crouched down in front of him so that she could look him in the eye. Casting a quick glance at Aimee, she saw the girl had finally put her book down but was peeling bark intently from the apple tree whilst pretending not to listen.
Zoe brought her gaze back to Jasper’s and straightened his black and green Ben 10 t-shirt. She knew that Matt probably preferred them in designer stuff but it was what Jasper had chosen that morning so she would side with him if it came to it.
‘I’ll see if I can get your daddy to start playing with you a bit more. How about I ask him to slot some Jasper time into his diary?’ A reassuring smile at Aimee. ‘I’ll also do the same for your big sister. Perhaps the three of you can get some time together every week, maybe have dinner out somewhere too. Would you like that?’
‘Yes!’ Jasper punched the air in reply to her proposal.
She didn’t normally like setting expectations without first having discussed these things with parents, but she would find some way to convince Matt that his children needed some quality time with him. After all, he wasn’t unreasonable; when he’d understood what was going on this morning, he’d done the right thing. She only hoped he would this time too.
Realising that Aimee had left the tree and was edging closer, casually picking flowers to disguise her interest in their conversation, Zoe suppressed a grin.
‘Zoe?’ Jasper said brightly.
‘Yes?’
He looked up at her thoughtfully, sucking his lower lip into his mouth, which she knew all too well was a habit he was already learning from her. Kids were like sponges at this age. They picked things up so easily. ‘Can you come out with us to dinner too, Zoe? Please? Please, please, please?’
Her eyebrows pleated as she contemplated how to answer. It was important the three of them have time together as the family unit they should be. She wasn’t a part of that, she was just doing a job and not even properly. They needed to learn to function as a family without her so that if, she mentally adjusted that to when, she left it wouldn’t all fall apart. Added to which, it would be mortifying if Matt thought she was trying to wangle some kind of date-night via the kids. Plus, for her plan to work and be convincing, it all had to come from him.
‘I don’t think so, Jasper,’ she answered in a soft voice, careful not to reject him, ‘but thank you for the thought, it’s very sweet. You’ll spend lots of time with me without your dad around, so your time with him should be your special time, just the three of you. Anyway,’ time for a change of mood she decided, ‘you’ve got me now, and I think I know two children who might need to run round the garden some more, or be tickled!’
Swinging round, she lunged at Jasper with a pretend growl and on the rest of the spin lurched toward Aimee, who skipped out of arms’ reach with a squeak.
Within minutes they had her pinned down on the perfectly manicured but somewhat prickly lawn, the smell of flowers and freshly cut grass filling her nose. She sneezed, the bright sun beating down on her head and shoulders. A bee buzzed somewhere and a breeze blew the leaves of the tree above their heads, pretty shadows dappling the lawn around them. Jasper laughingly pulled up short bunches of grass and threw them on her as she sat up, the blades tangling in her hair and going down the top of her dress. Aimee let out a series of uncharacteristic giggles as she saw what a mess her nanny was in. Somewhere in the distance a car beeped.
Throwing her head back and laughing like one of the evil geniuses in the programmes that according to Mel, Jasper was occasionally allowed to watch—mwah-ha-ha—Zoe jumped up to go after him, and was rewarded with a cackle of glee from Aimee, who stuck more grass down the back of Zoe’s dress through the cut-out hole. ‘You little troublemakers!’ She ran after Jasper, grabbing him and lobster-pinching his waist to tickle him.
‘Stop! Stop,’ Jasper howled, giggling as he squirmed away, ‘I’m going to wee myself!’
Aimee and Zoe shared a look and burst into fresh laughter. Zoe released Jasper and sank down onto the grass and Aimee copied, clutching her stomach. When Zoe rolled over onto her back, Jasper bundled on top of her, his sweaty, compact little weight half-crushing her. A wave of nausea hit her square in the tummy. Ignoring the sick feeling because they were all having such good fun and it was the most that Aimee had come out of her shell so far, Zoe wrestled the little boy onto the lawn, tickling him this time by squeezing his chubby knees.
Another wave of nausea swept over her as she sat up, touching a quick hand to her hot cheeks and moist upper lip. She didn’t feel so good. She’d done a thorough job of protecting the kids from the sun, slapping sun cream on them, keeping them well watered and in the shade, but had obviously not done such a great job on herself. The kids giggled as she sat on the ground recovering, the sound making her smile despite the way her stomach rolled over in a sick flip. Yuck.
A shadow appeared over her and she arched her back to peer upwards, hand shielding her eyes from the sun. ‘Matt.’
‘What’s going on out here?’ he asked, hands on hips. ‘I could hear the noise from out on the driveway!’
He’d returned early to work from home and catch up on some emails in Sadie’s absence, but had been drawn outside by the sound of the kids’ screeches of hilarity. They both quietened as he looked from them to his new nanny. She was certainly making herself at home, he thought. Walking through the house he’d noticed the paintings hung up to dry with pegs and string, paint pots and brushes drying on the draining board, the fragrant loaf of fresh bread resting on the kitchen unit and the sweet smell of pancakes, presumably from breakfast.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard his children being so noisy. Melody had spent most of her time trying to tame them into nice, quiet, obedient kids. Not that it had always been successful with Jasper, he mused. But he’d appreciated her efforts. He couldn’t think properly when there was clamour going on around him, it made it almost impossible to work. Yet Zoe seemed almost determined to undo whatever Mel had done and make his kids as loud and distracting as possible.
Still, as he gazed down into their beaming little faces, he noticed that they also appeared happier than they had in a long time. The photo that Zoe had sent him of Jasper covered in blue paint had been hilarious. His mouth quirked, shoulders relaxing. As much as what had happened with Melody pained him, perhaps the change would be good for all of them. Even him, set in his ways. Zoe didn’t seem afraid to challenge him, and although it was a bit irritating to have to explain himself, she also appeared to know what she was talking about, her bold confidence about children that she hardly knew somehow comforting. Hopefully she would stick around for a while. He’d just have to make sure he didn’t let Stephen anywhere near her. It was probably just as well his younger brother was yachting on the Med to get over what Melody had done. Stephen had his own brand of arrogant charm (he’d once referred to himself as similar to Spencer out of Made in Chelsea) and it drove a lot of women crazy. Matt didn’t want to lose another nanny because of his brother’s love life. He grimaced at the thought of Stephen with Zoe, a pang of annoyance shooting through him. She’d said she was single, and bagging a young, rich playboy might appeal. That had certainly been the case with his last nanny.
His gaze dropped to his new one, where she still sat at his feet. ‘Are you all right?’ he asked abruptly, taking in her pale yellow sun dress, the top half filled with mouth wateringly generous curves that made his palms itch to touch them. Even in the studio, a place that was sacrosanct, he hadn’t been able to get the sight of her stood in her red, lacy bra out of his head. He jerked his eyes upwards, away from her creamy cleavage. Her tangled blue-black hair was peppered with b
its of grass and her cheeks were flushed with heat. She looked like she’d been for a tumble in a country field. His groin immediately tightened at the image that filled his mind. Her beneath him naked on a bed of grass, her breasts rosy and round in the sunlight—
‘Y-yes,’ she said, dazedly pushing her hair back from her face, cutting across his frustratingly inappropriate thoughts.
He frowned, taking in the slightly unfocused look in her eyes and the dewy hint of sweat on her face.
‘You don’t look it. You look as if you’re suffering from the heat. If you’re in this state, what on earth have you done to the kids?’
She pushed herself up hastily. ‘Now wait just a minute! I—’ too hastily as it turned out, because she swayed and stumbled forward into his unprepared arms.
He caught her against him with a surprised grunt, his muscular arms tightening around her as he looked down into her flustered face and then lower to her rounded cleavage, spying blades of grass tucked down there that he suddenly, desperately wanted to get rid of with his teeth, with his tongue—
He cursed as his body hardened even more and she must have noticed because she thrust herself away from him.
‘Can you watch the kids please?’ she said huskily as she turned to jog toward the house, ‘I’m sorry, I—’ she planted a hand across her mouth, ‘I think I’m going to be sick!’
She ran off and left him, looking from her departing back to Aimee and Jasper in astonishment. He wasn’t every woman’s cup of tea—he could be distracted, tetchy and knew he kept people out of reach, plus he was her boss—but it wasn’t often that he made grown women throw up.
Almost two hours later, after a long cooling bath and a power nap to ease away the worst of her mild heatstroke, Zoe came downstairs to tidy the kitchen and start prepping dinner. She met Matt coming out of his office.
‘Hi.’ He gestured at her loose pastel pink t-shirt and baggy white shorts. ‘Feeling better?’
‘Yes, thanks.’ She peered around him, concerned. ‘Where are the kids?’
‘They’re fine,’ he replied. ‘Sadie popped round to see me as she’s feeling a little more human, so they’re in there with her,’ he hitched his thumb over his shoulder, ‘playing hangman and chase the monkey.’ He raised an eyebrow as she opened her mouth. ‘It’s okay, they’ve known her for years, and she was happy to help. Besides, what she’s got isn’t catching. It’s a gynaecological…thing.’
‘Oh, right,’ she murmured, moving on quickly. ‘Well, I’m sorry she had to look after them. I’m not usually unreliable but I felt pretty ill. This is the hottest summer I can remember for a while and I keep forgetting to apply sun cream and stay in the shade. New York was stifling in the summer, so we always retreated into the nearest air-conned building. I’ll be more careful in future.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Matt said, shifting nearer and touching her elbow, ‘as long as you’re better now, and don’t make a habit of it.’ He frowned as she jerked her arm away. ‘Sorry. I was going to come and knock on your door to see how you were doing, but I thought it was better to leave you to it.’
‘It was. Thank you.’
‘I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable,’ he said gruffly, ‘out in the garden.’
‘Uncomfortable?’ she frowned. No. Not uncomfortable, just supremely conscious of his hard, muscular body despite battling rolling nausea.
‘When I caught you, you backed away pretty quickly. I wasn’t coming on to you, I promise. Jesus, that sounded so cheesy and sort of insulting.’ He puffed out a breath and tried again. ‘What I mean is, you work for me and I’m not really dating at the moment, haven’t since Helen died and—’
‘Wait. What? You said this morning I shouldn’t believe everything I read in the papers, but you’re seriously telling me that you haven’t dated any of the women you’ve been seen with? What about your fiancée, the pop star?’
‘We were never engaged. She just liked costume jewellery, and wearing the ring was good PR, according to my publicist,’ he explained, a frustrated expression crossing his face. ‘But me storming out of the hotel with the kids was true enough. Though how the press got tipped off for that one, I don’t know. As for the dating,’ he shifted from one foot to another, rubbing the small dark bruise under his chin from earlier in the morning, ‘it’s a fluid term, isn’t it?’
She stared at him. ‘Oh?’
‘Well, what I mean is, I date occasionally,’ his face started to burn a slow, deep pink, ‘I just don’t have significant relationships. So you don’t have to worry about Aimee and Jasper, I don’t bring women home with me, I just—’
‘Stop, please,’ she interrupted in a pained voice, holding a hand up, palm out. ‘Wow, you really don’t know how to talk to women anymore,’ she sighed. ‘Look, its fine Matt, don’t worry about it, I get that you were just trying to help in the garden. I didn’t read anything into it.’ Talk about awkward. Though it would have been the perfect opportunity to learn more about his love life if she was going to get close enough for her plan to work, there was a strange reluctance inside her to pursue the conversation. She bit her lip, staring at the frayed collar of his t-shirt. ‘So, um, how long has Sadie been here? Did she arrive right after I went up?’ It was oddly disappointing that he could have played with his children but had instead got his assistant on the job.
‘Don’t leap to conclusions,’ he shook his head. ‘And definitely don’t scowl at me like that. I’ve been playing with them for the last half hour too. I didn’t have much of a choice, given your second-hand directive.’
‘Huh? Sorry, what do you mean?’ She squinted at him.
Matt tapped his chin with a long finger, as if he was pondering one of life’s great mysteries. ‘Let me see. How did Jasper so delicately put it? Zoe says you have to spend more time with us. Tell me, do you normally use children to try and manipulate men?’
Her mouth dropped open and her face flushed at the accusation. ‘No!’ Still, although she hadn’t used the exact words Jasper had, the message was close enough. Bugger, she’d wanted to talk to Matt first. He had a cheek though. He of all people was in no position to judge someone else’s behaviour after what he’d done to her sister, tearing her life apart without a backward glance. ‘No,’ she repeated defensively. ‘Absolutely not, I only—’
The office door opened behind him.
‘S-sorry.’ Aimee stopped, picking up on the tension.
‘That’s okay,’ Zoe replied in a soothing voice, talking to the girl and studiously avoiding Matt’s gaze. ‘Were you after something, Aimee?’
‘Jasper asked about dinner.’
‘I’m just on my way to sort it out. Can you tell him it’ll be about half an hour please?’ She turned to Matt as his daughter nodded and went back into his office. ‘We can talk about this later. I don’t want the children to overhear. Will Sadie be staying for dinner?’ she asked in a neutral tone, studying the skirting board to keep her cool.
‘Why would she?’ Matt asked, confused.
‘Um, because it’s the polite thing to do, especially as she’s just been playing with your kids?’
‘Oh, right,’ it was like the thought was alien, had never occurred to him. ‘I don’t think so. She never has before. I should think she wants to get home to rest anyway.’
‘Are you going to ask?’
He raised both eyebrows. ‘I guess I am now.’ Stepping around Zoe, ‘Sadie,’ he called, ‘can you come out a minute please?’
The door opened and an attractive fox-faced brunette stuck her head into the hallway, ‘Yes, Matt?’
‘This is my new nanny Zoe,’ he gestured. ‘Zoe, this is Sadie.’ He gave the women a moment to exchange polite nods. ‘Sadie, Zoe wants to know if you’re staying for dinner?’
‘Matt!’ Zoe muttered, shaking her head.
‘Matt, you’re a sod!’ Sadie scolded, a dimple flashing in her left cheek, dark eyebrows arching. ‘I need a break from the rabble for a while, but thank you for ask
ing, Zoe. Matt never would have. He finds it hard to observe social niceties and talk to normal people, especially when he’s working with a new artist.’
‘Hey, I’m stood right here,’ Matt protested, folding his arms.
‘I know,’ Sadie said impishly, ducking back into the room, ‘that’s the best time to talk about someone.’ Her voice floated out into the hallway, full of mirth. ‘You’ve got me for twenty more minutes. Then I’m escaping.’ The door swung shut and she said something else, causing the children to chortle.
‘I like her,’ Zoe said as Matt turned to face her.
‘Huh, I wonder why,’ he remarked drily. ‘Now you’ll both gang up on me,’ he said with a mournful expression.
‘Oh, you poor baby,’ she rebutted in mock sympathy, still so used to the banter of her relationship with Greg that she forgot who she was talking to. God, she’d better not be flirting with Matt, it didn’t bear thinking about. ‘Right, I need to get on.’ Twisting away she started toward the kitchen. He trailed along behind her. ‘Aren’t you going to go back into your office?’ Zoe said in a hopeful voice, his footsteps echoing hers.
‘Nope,’ he replied, ‘we need to talk.’
The weight of his gaze on her back tingled a warning along her spine. She thought of the comment he’d levelled at her about manipulating men through children.
This should be fun.
7
‘You’re cross with me,’ she pre-empted Matt as he rested against one of the marble countertops with a scowl. Reaching up to take Jasper’s paintings down from their pegs, she tested them with careful fingers to check they were dry. ‘However, if Jasper had given me time to talk to you first,’ she continued, ‘I would have explained that what I’d said to the kids was that I would ask you if you could spend some quality time with each of them, with some time as a whole family too.’ Setting the paintings aside she put her hands on her hips. ‘I don’t do things through the children Matt, that’s not my style. I approach things with parents directly, and prefer to work in partnership with them so we have common goals.’ She nodded. ‘Jasper was right though, I do feel that way. Living in the same house is one thing, but actually talking to each other and sharing your lives is another.’
