‘Though, actually, I probably didn’t need to make those calls. I’m a reasonable judge of character.’
That’s what she’d thought about herself. Dan and Joe had proved that to be a lie. She couldn’t have got it any more wrong if she’d tried. ‘I’m happier that you checked me out properly,’ she said.
‘OK. Do you drive?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘That makes life easier. I have a car that Cindy uses, so I’ll put you on the insurance. Perhaps you could let my PA have a copy of your driving licence and let her know all the information that the insurer would need.’
‘Sure. I have my licence with me.’
‘Good. So are you able to meet Sienna this afternoon?’
If Sophie wanted to save her business, she didn’t have much choice. She’d just have to move her meetings. ‘What time do you want me to meet you at the nursery school?’
‘It’s probably better if I pick you up from your office and take you with me,’ he said. ‘Perhaps I could pick you up at half-past three, to give me time to brief you?’
‘All right.’
‘Thank you, Miss Firth. Or may I call you Sophie?’
‘That rather depends on whether you expect me to curtsey and call you “sir”,’ she said dryly.
He smiled. ‘Jamie will do.’
‘Sophie.’ She held out her hand. ‘So, to recap, if Sienna likes me, then my side of the deal is that I’ll be your temporary nanny until Cindy can come back to work. Your side is that you’ll buy out Eva’s share of my business, and lend me two staff while I’m nannying for you, to help with the transition.’
‘Deal,’ he said, and shook her outstretched hand.
Her skin actually tingled where he touched her. Which was so inappropriate—if this worked out, technically he would be her part-time employer and her part-time business partner. She couldn’t afford to react to him like that. Worse still, he’d quickly masked an expression of surprise, so she had the feeling that he’d felt exactly the same.
This had the potential of being a complete and utter disaster. Especially with her track record in relationships, and in any case Jamie Wallis was a single father who really didn’t have time for a relationship.
Maybe she should call off the deal.
But she didn’t have a plan C and she needed him to buy out Eva’s share of the firm. So she’d just have to ignore every bit of attraction she felt towards him and keep this strictly professional.
‘One thing I should have asked you,’ he said. ‘Given that this means you’ll be juggling your workload and it’s going to take up more time in your day, will it be a problem with your partner?’
‘I don’t have a partner,’ she said. ‘And, just to make it clear, I’m not looking for one.’ She knew that not all men were the same—her stepfather and her brothers were all wonderful—but she always seemed to pick Mr Wrong. Three years of dating Dan, and thinking that he was going to ask her to marry him when instead he’d dropped a bombshell; and then Joe, who’d lied to her from the outset and she’d felt disgusting and grubby when she’d learned the truth.
She wasn’t going to put herself through all that again, falling in love with someone who would let her down and break her heart. After Joe, she’d promised herself that she’d keep all her relationships either business or strictly platonic. ‘So I’ll see you at half-past three,’ she said. ‘You have my mobile phone number in your file. If you could text me in the next couple of minutes, so I have your number, we can keep each other posted if anything crops up.’
‘All right,’ he said.
‘And I’ll see your PA with my driving licence on my way out.’
‘Thank you, Miss F—Sophie,’ he corrected himself. ‘See you at half-past three.’
* * *
It looked as if he had a new nanny and a new business partner, Jamie thought as Sophie left his office. A bossy one who liked to run things her own way; but he thought part of that might be bluster. The fact she’d said that Sienna should make the final decision told him that she’d be fair and listen.
Sophie Firth intrigued him. She was the first woman to intrigue him since Fran. If he was honest with himself, she was the first woman to attract him since Fran—with those sincere brown eyes and a warmth that drew him—but he pushed the thought away. It would be too complicated to have any kind of relationship with her outside a purely professional one.
Plus, after what he’d done, he didn’t deserve one.
This was going to be strictly business.
* * *
‘So Jamie actually said yes?’ Eva asked.
Sophie lifted both hands in a ‘whoa there’ sign. ‘It all hinges on whether Sienna likes me.’
‘Sienna?’
‘He’s got a nanny crisis. The deal is, if Sienna likes me, I’ll be her temporary nanny until her real nanny’s broken leg has healed. And in return he’ll buy you out.’
Eva frowned. ‘So what about Plans & Planes? Are you hiring a temp to replace you?’
‘No. I’m borrowing two members of his team to help with the workload,’ Sophie said. ‘I’ll be here when Sienna’s at nursery, and I can catch up with paperwork in the evening.’
‘Well, that explains why he asked me about you and kids when he called. I thought he just wanted to double-check that you were a safe bet in business,’ Eva said thoughtfully.
‘What did you tell him?’ Sophie asked.
‘That I’ve known you since our first day at uni, and if Aidan hadn’t been headhunted we’d still be business partners when we’re really old, and you have a niece and nephew that you see all the time,’ Eva said.
Sophie relaxed. ‘OK. Well, you certainly helped. I just have to hope that Sienna likes me—or I’ll have to start dreaming up a plan C.’
‘But you’re going to be working stupid hours, if you’re being a nanny on top of what you do here,’ Eva said, looking worried.
Sophie shrugged. ‘It’s not for ever, just for a couple of months, maybe. I’ll manage.’
She hoped.
‘So, to save me putting my foot in it, what actually happened to your cousin?’ she asked.
‘They were on holiday, two years ago, and Fran fell ill,’ Eva said. ‘She died before they could fly her home. It was so sad. She was only thirty-three.’
‘And that means Sienna was only two when it happened, so she’ll only know her mum through photos and videos. Poor little mite,’ Sophie said.
‘Jamie was devastated. I’m not sure he’s really recovered. Today was the first time I’d really spoken to him since the funeral,’ Eva said.
‘Didn’t his family rally round?’
‘One of his sisters lives in Cornwall and I think the other lives in Cumbria,’ Eva said.
No wonder he’d said they were too far away.
‘And he said his parents can’t help, either,’ Sophie said. ‘So I’m guessing they’re either too frail or they’ve passed away.’
‘Oh, they could help, all right,’ Eva said, ‘but his mum would take over. Fran said Gwen was really overbearing and forever trying to organise their lives for them. The epitome of a difficult mother-in-law.’
‘Ouch.’ That might explain why Jamie’s sisters had moved so far away from London, Sophie thought. And why Jamie seemed to keep himself at an emotional distance.
‘Fran’s mum is lovely, but Fran looked so much like her, I think it just brings back what he’s lost every time Jamie sees her,’ Eva said. ‘Plus they live in Norfolk, so they’re a bit too far away for him to be able to ask them for help.’
‘Poor man,’ Sophie said. Now she was beginning to see what made Jamie Wallis tick. And he had an even better excuse than she did for avoiding relationships: he was still a grieving widower, whereas she’d simply los
t trust in her own judgement of people.
* * *
When Jamie left his office at half-past two, his PA raised an eyebrow as he passed her desk. ‘Is everything all right?’
‘Nanny crisis. I’m getting the potential temp to meet me at the nursery school,’ he explained.
Her face softened. ‘And how is Sienna?’
‘Fine. And hopefully she’ll get on with the temp.’ If he kept referring to Sophie as ‘the temp’, hopefully that was how he’d come to see her. And he was absolutely not going to think about her caramel hair and how it would be lit with gold in the sunshine. For pity’s sake. He didn’t have time to think like that about anyone.
He called in at his house to pick up the file Cindy had left for the temporary nanny while she was on holiday, showing Sienna’s routine, then drove to Plans & Planes. Sophie’s office was very different from his own; the downstairs acted as the shop front for the travel agency, but when Mara showed him upstairs, where the event management side was based, he could see that the office was completely open plan, with two small rooms that he assumed were for client meetings.
Eva, who was sitting at one of the desks, came over and greeted him with a hug. ‘You’re a lifesaver, Jamie. Thanks.’
‘Hopefully, Sophie’s going to be a lifesaver for me, too,’ he said.
‘That all depends on whether Sienna likes me. It’s the deal breaker,’ Sophie reminded him as she joined them.
‘Ready to go?’ he asked.
‘Ready.’
He handed her the file when she got into the car. ‘Cindy put this together for when she was away. It’s Sienna’s routine plus a list of answers to the kind of questions she’d expect someone to ask.’
‘That’s useful. Thank you. I’ll read it on the way to nursery school, if that’s all right with you,’ she said. ‘And maybe you can answer any further questions I might have?’
‘Sure.’ He liked the fact that she was so businesslike.
* * *
Sophie’s misgivings increased as she skim-read the file. ‘Let me get this clear. You expect the nanny to get Sienna up in the mornings, then help her get her bathed and dressed and breakfasted?’
‘And help her clean her teeth, then drop her at nursery school,’ he finished.
‘Why don’t you take your daughter to nursery school yourself?’
‘Because I have a business to run. I need to be in the office quite a while before she needs to be at nursery school.’
Sophie knew Jamie was a single father, but from what she could see the work-life balance just wasn’t there. When did he get to spend quality time with his daughter? According to this file, he didn’t even eat with her in the evenings. There was a menu of what looked like typical nursery food, which clearly she would be expected to cook. Did Sophie eat on her own, or with the nanny? Sophie’s heart sank.
Fran had died two years ago, so surely Jamie should be smothering his daughter in cotton wool rather than using his work to avoid the little girl? It sounded more and more as if he was a cold workaholic who put his business first, second and third.
Sophie could remember what it felt like to be the daughter of a workaholic, one who’d missed every school performance and every parents’ evening because he was always too busy. Her father had never had the chance to put things right because he’d died of a heart attack when she was ten. She was so aware of all the things they’d missed out on; even though her mother had remarried six years later and Sophie loved her stepfather dearly, she still missed her father and wished they’d had the chance to share things.
Maybe, she thought, she could change things for Sienna so the little girl didn’t grow up with that same hole in her life, that same sense of loneliness and wondering secretly if something was wrong with her because her dad didn’t spend time with her the way her friends’ dads did. And, even if seeing Sienna reminded him of what he’d lost, at least Jamie still had his daughter.
Jamie Wallis didn’t just need a nanny, he needed someone who could help him fix his relationship with his little girl.
And Sophie thought she might just be the one to do that.
Copyright © 2017 by Pamela Brooks
ISBN-13: 9781488015236
The Billionaire’s Christmas Baby
First North American Publication 2017
Copyright © 2017 by Marion Lennox
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