The stern-lipped disapproval on the other men’s faces softened.
“But single parents can’t do it alone,” he continued. “Sloan, as the father of triplets, you should know that. You get a sitter for the girls once every couple of weeks. You go out. You have a good time. And you have a housekeeper, too, to help you with the cooking and cleaning. I can’t do this alone.”
Greg hated the accusatory tone he used. He hated throwing up into Sloan’s face any fun the man might have. Sloan, the father of nearly teen triplet girls, was a widower—a widower who was still grieving almost two years after losing his wife. But Greg was being bested by the desperation he felt to make his friends comprehend his plight.
“Yes,” Sloan agreed quietly, “I do get a sitter every now and then. But only so that I can have a beer with you two after work. I never stay out late. And I always get home in plenty of time to tuck my girls into bed.”
Guilt solidified in the pit of Greg’s stomach. He hadn’t the right to make his friend feel the need to defend himself like this. But before he could apologize, he discovered Sloan had more to say.
“And I do have a housekeeper. With three pre-teens running rampant in my house, I’d be a lunatic not to.” Sloan ran his finger absently along the corner of the counter as if he was debating how to word what was on his mind. Finally, he said, “But there’s a big difference between having a housekeeper come in a few times a week and having live-in help. Especially when you just met this woman.” He raised his eyes, locking gazes with Greg. “I’m going to say something you’re not going to like.”
Instant wariness had Greg steeling himself.
His friend sighed. “Travis and I both know that this past week has been hard on you. Dealing with fatherhood has really thrown a monkey wrench into the cogs of your life. And we also realize that finding out about Joy…finding out that a casual affair you had made you a dad…has, ah—” he stammered for the first time “—done something radical to your thinking.”
“Now, wait just a minute—”
“This has to be said,” Travis softly interrupted, the step he took closer to Sloan clear evidence that he agreed with whatever revelation the man was about to make.
Sloan plowed ahead. “You’ve taken this woman into your home—”
“Her name’s Jane,” Greg said, his hackles rising. “Jane Dale.”
“Okay, Jane Dale.” This time when Sloan continued, his tone was gentler. “I think your hiring her has a great deal to do with what happened to you. Your thinking about women has become…confused. You think you can save this woman. This Jane. You found out she was needy. So you gave her a job and a place to live. You’re somehow trying to make up for your behavior in the past.”
This was the truth. Greg had known it. He’d thought that very thing himself this morning when he was examining Jane in his office, hadn’t he? But why did his motivation for hiring Jane sound so blasted twisted coming from someone else’s mouth?
“We want you to know,” Travis added, “that we don’t believe you’ve done anything to make up for. It’s not a crime to date women. Pricilla was a consenting adult, right? And it’s your habit to practice safe sex, right?” Lifting his hand, palm up, Travis said, “Mistakes happen. Yes, you have to take responsibility for your actions. And you’re doing that. But you don’t have to try to save the world.”
But I never called Pricilla, the silent lamentation screeched across Greg’s mind like fingernails on a blackboard. I never reached out to her afterward. If I had, I’d have found out about my daughter sooner. All I thought about was getting away from a bad situation. All I thought about was myself.
Shoving the thoughts aside, he decided not to allow himself to get sidetracked with these dark recriminations regarding what he should have done. He needed to stick to the topic at hand.
“B-but,” he stuttered lamely, “I’m not just helping Jane. She’s helping me, too.” Then he let his eyes slide from one friend to the other. “Do you guys really think I’m a nutcase for hiring her?”
Both men remained silent for a moment. Travis shifted his overstuffed briefcase from one hand to the other. Then leveled a steady gaze at Greg.
“My friend,” Travis said, “just think about what you’ve done, and how out of sorts it seems with your usual actions. When we wanted to hire a new nurse for the practice, you refused to let the woman near the patients until we had three letters of recommendation from her previous employers. Three. Like Sloan said, you don’t know this Jane Dale.” He bit his bottom lip a moment. Quietly, he pointed out, “This is your daughter we’re talking about. Your daughter.”
A cold shiver clawed its way up Greg’s spine as revelation struck. “And I’ve left her with a complete stranger all day. A woman I know nothing about.”
Without another word, Greg snatched up his valise and headed for the front door.
Jane could not believe her good fortune. She’d actually lied her way into a job as Joy’s nanny. She was once again with the light of her life. Nothing could have made her happier.
When she’d arrived in town, she’d had no idea what she meant to do other than to throw herself on Greg Hamilton’s mercy, beg him for information about where Pricilla and Joy might be. During the days since her sister had disappeared with the baby, Jane had called every friend Pricilla had ever talked about. When a week had passed with no word from her sister, Jane felt she simply couldn’t hang around the apartment any longer. She wasn’t eating. Wasn’t sleeping. Couldn’t keep her mind on her work. She’d reached the end of her rope. She simply had to find Joy. However, when Jane had gone to her boss to ask for some time off to search for her family, she’d been told that if she walked out the door, she’d be walking away from her job. For good.
Jane had walked out the door without a backward glance.
She’d been that desperate to find her niece. She’d been that desperate to somehow heal the aching hole the baby’s disappearance had left in her heart. In her soul. She’d been that desperate to put to rest the worry she’d felt for Joy’s welfare. Pricilla had proved time and again during the past ten months that she wasn’t a good mother. Heck, Pricilla hadn’t wanted Joy. Who knew what her sister might do? Jane had been terribly anxious for Joy’s well-being.
Once she’d left her job, Jane had visited all Pricilla’s friends, hoping against hope that one of them had lied about harboring her sister and niece. Jane had questioned each of them. None of them had known where Pricilla might be. A few of them had told Jane that surely Pricilla would show up. Eventually.
Jane couldn’t take that chance. Not with Joy’s health and safety at stake.
It might have sounded strange, but little Joy always seemed to feel discomfited by her own mother’s presence. The baby would fidget and cry and reach for Jane. Jane suspected the child sensed Pricilla’s lack of mothering instinct.
To be absolutely honest, Jane loved Joy as if she were her own daughter. She felt like Joy’s mother. She loved the child to distraction. And that’s why she was willing to give up everything in order to find her.
And she had!
Jane had hardly believed her ears when the doctor mentioned needing a nanny for his daughter. She’d nearly toppled right off the examining table onto the floor.
Images of her appointment with Dr. Greg Hamilton this morning swirled, unbidden, into her brain like the heated waters of some tropic flood, invading and filling every nook and cranny of her thoughts. His hands had been so warm, so gentle on her skin as he’d listened to her heartbeat. She’d been certain that her pulse had accelerated. And she’d been utterly mortified when the silky touch of his fingers brushing her chest had caused her nipples to bud to life. However, she’d noticed that his gaze had been averted, and for that she’d been terribly relieved. Even now, as she thought about the way his mahogany hair fell in thick waves, the way his forest-green eyes studied her with concern, her heartbeat pounded, her face flushed.
“Stop.” She whispered the wo
rd aloud and Joy looked up at her from where she sat on the floor, gnawing happily on a teething ring.
How Joy came to be in Greg’s care, Jane couldn’t be sure. But there could only be one answer. Pricilla had given the baby to Greg.
Jane had no idea if Pricilla planned to return for Joy. Or if her sister simply meant to give Greg all parental rights to the baby.
The mere idea made Jane tremble with fear. She couldn’t imagine her life without this baby in it. She just couldn’t.
The lies she’d told Greg were wrong. She’d known that even as the grand stories had come rushing from her. However, she had good cause. And she reached for that cause, a big smile spreading across her face.
“Are you ready for a bath?” Jane asked Joy.
Joy chuckled, the dimples in her creamy cheeks deepening. The baby was so happy with any small amount of attention she received. Joy was an angel. She was Jane’s angel. It was true that Jane hadn’t given birth to this little girl, but she couldn’t love the child more even if she had.
“Let’s go have a tubby,” Jane crooned.
She’d have to tell Greg the truth. She knew that. But she’d win his trust first. She’d show him that she was the mother for Joy that Pricilla simply didn’t have it in her to be.
As she gathered together a towel, the baby shampoo and a washcloth, she felt her whole abdomen seize with icy dread. She had no legal claim on Joy. She couldn’t fight Greg for custody. Not when she was only the baby’s aunt. No court of law would side with her. And it seemed that Pricilla had lost all interest in helping her raise Joy.
Hot tears blurred Jane’s vision as she plugged up the drain of the kitchen’s big porcelain sink and turned on the spigot. Joy reached up and tweaked Jane’s bottom lip between her chubby fingers, seeming to sense her melancholy mood.
“It’s okay,” Jane said. And she didn’t know whether her words were meant more to assure the baby or herself. Then she whispered, “It really is going to be okay.”
She was with Joy. And for the moment, that was going to have to be enough.
Joy was still splashing in the warm water of the sink when Jane heard Greg come in through the front door.
“Hello? Jane? Where are you?”
The frantic tone of the doctor’s voice had her frowning. Something was wrong. Something terrible. Goose bumps rose on her arms as some kind of intrinsic proof.
Leaving the baby unattended wasn’t an option, so she called out, “We’re in here. In the kitchen.”
He literally burst through the doorway.
“What?” The anxiety pulsing from him frightened Jane and she reached for Joy with both hands, pulling her from the sink and clutching the baby’s wet body to her, heedless of the water dribbling down her clothing. “What’s the matter?”
The sight of them seemed to assuage the apprehension that darkened his green eyes.
“I was just…worried.”
She didn’t like his tone. Or his frown. Or the way he was looking at her. This morning—and then again when he’d come home at lunchtime—he had been so confident in her, so at ease with the idea that she was caring for Joy, so relieved to have her help.
“You see,” he continued in a rush to explain his abrupt arrival, “I was feeling a little nervous. It’s been quite a while since lunch and…and this is your first day with Joy and all.”
Trepidation had Jane’s gaze narrowing. Something had happened to cause this anxiety in him. And it must have to do with her. He was obviously having second thoughts about hiring her.
Greg went to the counter, picked up the towel and wrapped it around his daughter. His fingertips pressed against Jane’s shoulder, her arm, her waist, every place that he tucked the towel around Joy’s little body.
“You’re getting soaked.”
His tone was calmer now, and it smoothed over her like warm velvet. Jane’s throat went dry, a giddy feeling rose up in her chest and she blinked several times. She wished her body wouldn’t react to him, to his touch, to his voice, so…wildly.
Thankfully, he was distracted by Joy’s smile of greeting—a smile that turned into a delighted giggle at the sight of her daddy.
“Hey, little girl,” he said softly. “Did you miss me today?”
He went to take Joy from Jane.
“But you’ll get your suit all wet,” Jane warned.
“It’s okay.” Joy went to him, gladly. “It’s only water. It’ll dry.”
He gave his daughter a soft kiss on the forehead. The gesture was sweet enough to make Jane smile. She didn’t want to like Greg Hamilton. She wanted him to be the ogre she’d conjured him to be in her mind. But that image was fading fast. It was obvious that he cared about his little girl.
But he refused to help Pricilla unless she signed over full custody. This man is too controlling. Heartlessly so.
Jane pushed aside the silent arguments for and against him. She needed to focus on the here and now.
“Why don’t you take her into her room?” she suggested. “I was just going to get her ready for bed.”
She led the way down the hall, and Greg made delightful baby conversation with his daughter as he followed. The sound of it made Jane grin even though an uneasiness was swirling in her belly.
“You know—” he sat Joy on the changing table and dried her with the towel “—it’s a good thing I came straight home. Bedtime is a nightmare around here. This little girl cries herself to sleep every night. It’s usually a three-hour ordeal. You might be sorry you got yourself into this.”
“Oh, no.” Jane smiled to herself as she searched through the dresser drawer for pajama top and bottom. She quietly added, “I’ll never be sorry. That’s for sure.”
He set the towel aside and eased Joy down so he could place a diaper on her bottom. “You really didn’t have any problems today? She took a nap for you? Ate her lunch?”
“Not a single tear,” she told him. “All day long. She ate some rice cereal for lunch. A little applesauce. And drank a bottle of milk. Then she napped for more than an hour.”
Jane approached the changing table and tickled Joy’s belly. “You were a perfect little angel weren’t you, my Joy?”
Suddenly, Jane froze. Had she acted too familiar with her niece? Would Greg realize she was no stranger to this baby?
“She is an angel, isn’t she?”
Greg’s easy manner made her want to sigh with relief. Her expression was stiff as she looked up at him.
“Yes, she is.”
She busied herself tucking one of Joy’s feet into the leg of the cotton pajama bottom.
“Jane.”
He paused. He swallowed. And Jane knew he was about to say something she wasn’t going to like.
“I’ve been thinking,” he continued. “Maybe we, um, jumped into this, ah, arrangement too quickly.”
“No way.” She waved off his remark, keeping her tone airy and light, then reached to pull the elastic-waist pants over Joy’s little bottom. But fear lumped in her throat. He was going to fire her just when she’d found Joy. He was going to ask her to leave his home just when she’d been reunited with her little girl. She couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t!
“Don’t you worry about me,” she told him. “I’m just fine. I told you, Joy and I made out great together today. We played. We laughed. I read to her. And I cleaned the house.” Her words came tumbling from her tongue in a rush. “I washed clothes. I cleaned up the kitchen. I picked up. And…” She paused to take a deep breath, sitting Joy up and dressing her in the pajama top. The last thing she wanted was to sound too desperate. That might make Greg ill at ease. “I cooked dinner. I saved you a plate. It’s ready to be reheated in the microwave.”
She lifted Joy onto her hip, then tucked her bottom lip between her teeth. Taking a deep inhalation, she tried to control the fear that had a tight grip on her. Finally, she glanced up at Greg. “Please give me a chance.”
A frown dug deeply into his brow. “It’s not you,”
he said. “You’ve done a great job. And I do appreciate it.” His head tilted a fraction. “It’s me.”
Joy squirmed to get down onto the floor among her toys, so Jane put the baby down and moved some blocks within her reach. Then she straightened her spine and looked at Greg.
“I was talking with my friends this evening,” he said. “Both Sloan and Travis feel that…I might have rushed into this situation. And after having some time to think it over—” his full, sexy lips pursed for a moment before he finally admitted “—I’m afraid I might have to agree with them.”
They stared at each other, he obviously feeling guilty, she feeling tremendously desperate. She didn’t want to be tossed out on her ear. She wanted to be here. With Joy. She had to do something. Say something that would make him change his mind.
“Do your friends believe I’m a serial killer, or something?” She chuckled, hoping to break the tension with humor. But when she thought about some of the outlandish national news stories she’d read and heard on radio and TV in the past, this suggestion of hers didn’t sound so funny. Stranger things happened every single day in these times.
“Greg, please.” Her expression as well as her tone revealed the utter sincerity she felt. “I know I’m pretty much a stranger to you. But I want this job. I need it.”
What an understatement that was, she thought.
“I know you don’t know me,” she continued. “Your friends don’t know me. But all of you can get to know me…if you’ll just give me a chance.”
Indecision flickered in his gaze. She could clearly see it, and it gave her hope.
“I’m not terribly educated,” she admitted. “I had to drop out of college in my freshman year. But I am well read. I’ve worked hard all my life. Supported myself. And my sister. So I’m hard-working. I always have been.” Her tone went all whispery as she automatically added, “I was forced to be.”
Uneasiness crept over every inch of her skin. She hadn’t meant to reveal this much personal information about herself. Before he could ask her to elaborate, she softly blurted. “I’m dependable. And honest.”
These things were true…well, usually they were, but remembering the lies she’d conjured for Greg this morning, the withholding of information and her true relationship to Joy, Jane nearly choked when that adjective had slipped from her lips.
The Nanny Proposal Page 3
