ROMANCE: The Summer Nanny (A Sweet & Clean Romance Novella) (Women's Adventure in Alaska Romance Book 2)

by Renee Hart

  Quietly, she opened the bedroom door, listening for movement elsewhere in the house. There was nothing that she could hear from where she stood. Moving to the top of the stairs, she stopped to listen again. Her nervousness was making her feel like a cat burglar. Still, no sound of anyone else in the house. She headed downstairs when she realized that her suitcases were no longer sitting in the front entryway. She picked up the pace as her eyes scanned the surrounding area for her luggage.

  This is odd, she thought. I’m sure Katie wouldn’t have put them somewhere else. We both went to bed at the same time last night.

  She stood in the hallway scratching her head. The sudden sound of the garage door opening made her jump in surprise. She almost started to run back upstairs when she realized that would be silly. She had no reason to hide or to be afraid. She was the new nanny after all. Deciding to hold her ground, she turned to face the front door to greet whomever had arrived. She didn’t hear the back door open.

  “Hello?”

  The sound of a deep male voice behind her startled Mandy, and she gave a little shriek. Spinning around to face this intruder, she lost her balance and started to fall. Two strong arms caught her mid-way to the floor and she found herself looking into an anxious pair of dark brown eyes. She had time to notice how they matched Katie’s eyes before he lifted up and set her back on her feet. If he let go of her a bit too quickly, she didn’t notice as she still felt the strength of his arms around her. Breathless, she put a hand to her chest and tried to still her heart.

  “You frightened me,” she said. “I thought you would be coming in the front door. I didn’t think about there being a door in the back from the garage. Katie didn’t have time to show me everything last night. I got in so late, you see….”

  Her voice trailed off as she realized she was babbling. The man still hadn’t said a word. He just stood there staring at her with a mixture of questions running across his face.

  “Good morning.”

  The sound of Katie’s sleepy voice from the top of the stairs drew their attention to her. She cautiously regarded the two of them as she made her way down the stairs.

  “I see you two have met,” she said.

  A slight smile played across her face as she saw them together for the first time.

  “Well, not exactly,” her father said in a droll voice, “we haven’t gotten that far yet.”

  Extending his hand, Darren attempted to interject some social protocol into the scene.

  Mandy thought it best to play along and they acted out a very proper, formal introduction for Katie’s benefit. If she caught the hint of comedy in their words, she didn’t let on. She simply walked past them both and headed for the kitchen.

  “Wow, I’m starving,” she exclaimed as she tried to redirect their attention to safer ground. She was hoping to not have to make too many explanations today.

  “Uh, Katie,” Mandy called, “do you have any idea what happened to the bags I left here last night.”

  Katie stopped and turned around in surprise. She looked around the entryway.

  Her father cleared his throat.

  “I think I can explain that,” he began. “Your bags are out in my SUV.”

  “What? Why?” Katie nearly shouted.

  “Does this mean I’m leaving already,” Mandy asked with a confused look on her face.

  “No. No!”

  Darren held up his hands in self-defense as he addressed the two of them.

  “I made a mistake. I thought the bags belonged to Mrs. Wilson, (“Our housekeeper,” he said in an aside to Mandy.) and I loaded them up this morning when I took her to the airport. When she didn’t recognize them, I realized that someone else was in the house.”

  This last part was said with a pointed look at Katie, letting her know that sooner or later a more detailed explanation of all of this was going to be required of her.

  “Wow, Dad,” Katie groaned. “You never listen to me. I told you Mandy was coming.”

  “Yes, you did,” he agreed, “but you still managed to leave out one little detail…as in, when!”

  Mandy looked from father to daughter and back again. As a teacher, she was used to parent/child conflicts and miscommunications, but at school, she had some professional distance. Here, she was feeling a bit too involved, almost like she was being drawn in to their battle. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling for her. She decided it was time to follow Katie’s lead and change the subject.

  “So, what’s for breakfast,” she quipped with a grin.

  Picking up the lifeline Mandy was throwing her inadvertently, Katie turned back towards the kitchen.

  “Dad’s going to make us pancakes with reindeer sausage,” she tossed over her shoulder.

  “Sounds wonderful,” Mandy said as she followed her charge. “I’ve never had reindeer sausage before.”

  As she walked into the kitchen, she was able to see the entire expanse of the backyard which ended at the bank of the Chena River. The grass was lush and green and there wasn’t any snow in view from where she stood. She gasped at the sight, as it was breathtaking in the bright sunlight.

  “This is incredible,” she said as she walked to the windows.

  The entire back of the house was plate glass windows all the way up to the second story. Two French doors opened to a large patio made of fieldstone and the guest cabin was off to one side of the lawn. Spruce trees grew along the edges of the lawn, separating it from the neighbor’s. Her closer view point revealed massive mountains in the distance clearly capped with snow. Mandy’s entire perspective of Alaska was changed in that one instant. She hadn’t expected anything like this.

  Behind her Katie and Darren busied themselves with the task of getting breakfast ready. The two of them wrestled with their own thoughts as their new nanny took in the sights. If the air, seemed a bit frosty in the kitchen, well, this was Alaska.

  ***

  Katie attempted to fill the air with small talk as she tried to keep Mandy from revealing too many details about how she came to Alaska. Every time her father asked a question, she’d interrupt either him or Mandy until they were both very suspicious of her. Finally, the two of them stopped talking and turned to look at her.

  “Is there something you need to tell us,” Darren asked, “because this isn’t working for me.”

  Katie’s face fell and she knew there was no point in trying to keep her secrets. She decided in that moment to come clean about the entire plan and hope for the best. She had no reason to expect anything after what she had done in deceiving them. Slowly she explained everything in exact detail, down to the amount she’d spent on a first class ticket from Atlanta to Fairbanks and the promise of a fair salary. (She did notice the two of them wince when she told them how much she’d paid for the air fare.)

  Mandy listened to Katie’s tearful confession in shocked silence. Realizing she was the unwitting party to an outright deception was disconcerting. She wasn’t encouraged by the look on Darren’s handsome face. He was carefully holding his tongue to give Katie enough time to tell the whole story, but the effort was showing. Mandy was sure she could hear the sound of him grinding his teeth.

  When Katie was finished, Darren turned to look at Mandy. Her soft green eyes and strawberry blond hair reminded him of his late wife. He could only wonder at the affect this woman was having on Katie. She had the few pictures of her mother that were left in the house upstairs in her room. Just thinking of Karen made Darren sad as he tried to determine his next step.

  “I’m sorry,” Mandy said. “I think this is partly my fault. I took this job because I wanted to get away from Atlanta for the summer and Alaska seemed pretty far away. I was dealing with a major disappointment in my own life and didn’t ask the right questions about the job.”

  She looked down at her hands, not knowing how to proceed and unwilling to look at Katie’s tears. Although it had only been a few hours, she liked the little girl and didn’t want to see her hurt.

&nbs
p; Darren looked down at the table himself. Nothing in management training had ever prepared him for a situation like this. His daughter was openly crying now, and the young woman next to her looked ready to cry too. He was starting to feel like a buffoon in his own house. That wasn’t helping anything.

  Finally, the solution seemed obvious to him. Clearly, Katie had made some errors in judgment in bringing a stranger into their house and that had to be dealt with, but Mandy seemed like a decent person. Maybe this was as simple as putting their ducks back in the right order.

  “Normally, when I hire someone, I do a background check on them and get some references first,” Darren began. “Would you be willing to give me your information and a reference so I can take care of that?”

  “Of course,” Mandy said. “That’s not a problem…if you really want me to stay after all this.”

  “If everything checks out and you’re not a career criminal that goes around posing as a nanny for nefarious purposes, I think that would make Katie very happy and besides, my instincts tell me you’re not a danger to us and they’re usually pretty accurate. Anyone willing to eat five of my pancakes is a hero in my book.”

  Katie stopped sniffling and looked at her father hopefully.

  “As for you, young lady, your punishment is to be determined,” he said sternly. “Right now, I’m too full of pancakes to think of anything harsh enough to make atonement for what you’ve done to Mandy and my credit card balance.”

  Katie quickly looked back down at the table, but not fast enough for her father to miss the grin on her face. She wasn’t too worried about any punishment her father could contrive for her. He wasn’t that creative. She missed the wink Darren directed at Mandy over her head.

  ***

  Being the CEO of operations in a large corporation comes with several advantages and one of them included a very efficient personnel department. Darren faxed all of Mandy’s information to his hiring manager and received a full background report including a personal testimony from the principal at the school in Atlanta within two hours.

  The woman was a highly regarded third grade teacher with a very impressive resume. As blind luck would have it, Katie had somehow managed to find an excellent nanny for herself. Darren didn’t want to consider all of the things that could have gone wrong with this venture. He could only thank God that nothing did and Mandy had answered Katie’s job ad.

  Unfortunately with the report came another that required Darren’s attention immediately in the field office. He dreaded seeing Katie’s face when he told her he needed to head back up to the Slope. At least, he had the satisfaction of knowing she was in good hands. He went to see what the two of them were up to while he’d been working in his office and deliver the bad news.

  ***

  He found them in the back yard where Katie was giving Mandy a look at the guest cabin. It was set up with sleeping quarters in the loft and a sitting area with a half bathroom downstairs. The river was very close and tall spruce trees surrounded it on three sides. It was pretty quiet most of the time. The float planes and boat traffic did occasionally disrupt the peace, but they were used to it.

  Mandy was enchanted with the cabin, but she felt, with Darren gone so much of the time, it would be better for her to stay in the house with Katie. Secretly, she wasn’t too sure about being out here alone, nor about how she’d feel going back and forth to the cabin in the dark. The wilderness aspect of Alaska wasn’t very far away and Katie had already told her how moose and bear showed up at their place regularly. Alaskans considered the wildlife just part of the neighborhood.

  Darren was relieved at her decision and didn’t realize fear was a part of it. He didn’t want Katie staying in the house alone either. He also didn’t realize that Mandy knew very little about Alaska, including the fact it wouldn’t ever get dark during most of her stay. She’d be lucky to see stars again before she headed back to Atlanta. The three of them had a lot to learn about each other in three short months. A small part of him was looking forward to it.

  ***

  “What do you like on your pizza,” Darren asked with a grin.

  He knew Katie wanted pineapple and reindeer sausage. He didn’t even need to ask. He smiled at Mandy as he tried to brush off Katie’s hold on his arm. She was jumping up and down with excitement and shouting out her requests.

  Mandy grinned back at him and wrinkled up her nose.

  Giving him a wink, she said, “I think I’d like mushrooms and onions myself. With bleu cheese dressing!”

  Katie turned to look at her with a look of total disgust on her face.

  Mandy broke out laughing.

  “I’m just kidding! Reindeer sausage and pineapple is fine with me as long as you add in extra cheese.”

  Nodding her head wildly, Katie jumped up and down again.

  Darren laughed as he went into his office to place the order. He knew he wouldn’t be able to hear a thing with Katie acting up like that.

  ***

  The three of them ate pizza out on the patio while they watched the sun dance along the northwestern horizon. The gorgeous blaze as it slipped over the edge lit up the sky in brilliant colors of red and orange. Mandy realized as they were sitting there that even with the sun gone it wasn’t really dark.

  “What time will it get dark,” she asked.

  “Well, it really doesn’t and since this is only the first of June, the days are going to continue getting longer until we reach the summer solstice,” Katie explained. “Don’t you know? This is the Land of the Midnight Sun?”

  Mandy replied, “We hear things like that, but it’s hard to imagine what it’s like from Atlanta. To me, it’s just some kind of romantic phrase. I’ve never seen a 24 hour day.”

  “I’m not sure ‘romantic’ is the right word for it,” Darren said. “It can be hard to get used to for some people who find it hard to sleep when it’s still light outside, and the downside is that in the winter we have days that are 20+ hours of darkness. Those can be even harder to get used to,” he added soberly.

  The three of them sat there quietly as each of them considered these extremes from their own perspective. Mandy didn’t understand the sadness that came over her new employers, but she felt it.

  Darren was the first to break the silence as he stood and began to gather the remains of their meal.

  “I have to head up to the Slope first thing in the morning,” he said. “Something’s come up.”

  Looking at Mandy, he added, “This is our life and the way my business works. I hope you’re okay with all of this.”

  Forcing a smile, Mandy looked back at him.

  “Of course. I understand. I mean that’s why you need a nanny, right?”

  Darren nodded grimly as he carefully avoided looking at the disappointment on Katie’s face. He knew she was anything but happy about this. He could only hope that she and Mandy would find a way to have fun on their own.

  Chapter 5

  The next morning, the sound of a helicopter landing in the backyard jarred Mandy out of her bed. She scrambled to the window, but her room looked out over the neighbor’s house. She hurried down to the kitchen just in time to see Darren climbing in beside the pilot. She watched in amazement as the chopper lifted off and flew away over the river. If she caught his last worried look back towards the house as they left, it didn’t really register with her.

  She realized Katie was sitting at the counter watching her father fly away also. Listlessly stirring a bowl of oatmeal, the sadness on her face was evident. She brightened a bit as she turned to look at Mandy.

  “Would you like some oatmeal,” Katie asked. “I don’t think there’s anything else. No one’s done any real grocery shopping in a while. Dad left us some money so we can go today if you want.”

  She pointed at two envelopes lying on the counter.

  “One of those are for you,” she said.

  Mandy took the fatter envelope with her name on the front and peeked inside. The stac
k of hundred dollar bills inside made her gasp in surprise. A set of car keys tumbled out and clattered to the floor. She picked them and examined them.

  “Those are for Dad’s SUV. He figured you wouldn’t want to drive the Hummer.”

  “No, of course not,” Mandy agreed as she wondered if she would even be able to drive a ‘Hummer’. Just the thought of doing such a thing nearly made her break out in hives.

  “I think I’ll just have some coffee this morning,” she said absently.

  Katie finished her oatmeal and the two of them made ready to go to the grocery store. Mandy opened the closet and looked at her parka.

  “I guess I really didn’t need to buy this, did I?”

  She laughed at the look on Katie’s face.

  “I know. I know. I’m a teacher. I should know how to do basic research. I have to confess, I was in such a panic when I read your e-mail. I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

  “Well, I hope you brought some lighter shirts and shorts, cause it can get pretty hot here in Fairbanks,” Katie said.

  “What do you mean hot?”

  “We’ll have days when it’s in the eighties and sometimes, even the nineties,” Katie added.

  As she said that, Katie pushed the button to open the garage door. Mandy looked at the Hummer and laughed.

  “I take it that isn’t one of the million dollar Hummers!”

  “No way! That hunk of junk is something my dad picked up at one of those surplus sales the army uses to clear out their closets. The seats are barely padded and there’s no radio or CD player. I hate riding in it!”

  Mandy turned her attention to the Range Rover parked next to it. Pushing the door lock button, she and Katie got in and put on their seatbelts.

  “Uh,” Mandy said as she looked around at the controls.

  “What?”

  “I don’t know how to drive a stick shift,” Mandy confessed weakly. “I never learned. I never needed to learn.”