The Lawyer's Nanny_A Single Daddy Romance

by Emerson Rose

  I step into the elevator and close my eyes as it takes me from the fourth floor to the lobby. Even being that high makes me shaky, next time I’m requesting the first floor, if there is a next time. I haven’t exactly been representing the Deardon Rose Ranch. So far this weekend, I’ve skipped the formal welcome dinner and the first half of the day of the convention. I'm glad my daddy doesn't have Facebook, at least he's not expecting pictures.

  The elevator opens and Mr. Valentino is standing right there waiting for me with a creepy smile on his face.

  “Good afternoon, Miss Deardon. I trust your first night’s stay was comfortable?”

  Comfortable. Now that’s not the word I would have used to describe my first night at the Crimson Haven Hotel. Twisted like a pretzel, sexually satisfied beyond belief, sated and sore maybe, but not comfortable. I’m happy, though, so I agree with him.

  “Yes, it was amazing, thanks.” My answer comes out a little more enthusiastic than I’d planned and Valentino picks up on it. “Oh… well, wonderful. Do you have plans right now? I thought I could show you the exhibits that are here in the hotel before you go over to the convention center.”

  “Tella!” Cannon yells, running across the lobby at top speed, nearly trampling a couple trying to check in. When he reaches me, he throws his little arms around my legs and squeezes tight.

  “Hey, Cannon,” I say kneeling down, so we are face to face. “I’m glad to see you, but you need to be careful about where you’re going, okay? You almost knocked over those nice people.”

  He lowers his eyes to the floor. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay. I know it’s hard when you’re excited.”

  “Ready for lunch?” Ash says, strolling up with his hands in the pockets of his dark blue jeans looking good enough to eat.

  “Yeah, ready to go. I’m sorry, Mr. Valentino. I already have plans this afternoon, thank you for the offer, though, that was sweet.”

  I swear he is suppressing the urge to roll his eyes when he says, “Very well then, I hope you three have a nice day together.”

  He turns on his heel and storms off behind the door marked Employees Only. It slams, and I jump turning to Ash and Cannon pulling the corners of my mouth back in a fake grimace.

  “Yikes.”

  “Somebody’s got a crush on you.”

  “Must be something in the water here.” I look back and forth between the two members of the male species that have been showering me with attention for the past twenty-four plus hours.

  “Something like that. You ready to eat?”

  “Yes, I’m starving.”

  Cannon slides his hand into mine and starts dragging me toward the entrance of the hotel. “I thought we were eating here?”

  “That was breakfast, we’ve already done that, you missed it,” Ash says with a wink. We’re eating at the Beef Expo in the convention center.”

  “Oh, I can’t, I’m a vegetarian.”

  He stops just outside the doors and stares at me in disbelief. Cannon asks, “What’s a getrian?”

  Ash holds my eyes while he answers his son’s question. “A crazy person who doesn’t eat meat.”

  A slow smile spreads across my face, “Gotcha!” Ash blows out a breath, and with his hands on his hips he looks down at the sidewalk. He shakes his head and looks up at me through his long eyelashes. “You’re bad.”

  I wiggle my eyebrows and continue to smile, but Cannon doesn’t like it that his daddy is calling his friend bad and steps in between us to defend me. While still holding my hand he frowns up at Ash and says, “Tella’s not bad.”

  “Okay, buddy, maybe bad was the wrong word. She’s a joker.”

  I’m not sure Cannon knows what a joker is, and that might be the point, but he accepts it as a sort of apology, and we’re off to lunch.

  And so goes the next week. Ash, Cannon, and I spent the mornings having big breakfasts at the diner in the hotel, afternoons at the convention, and evenings having dinner at either a restaurant or in the Presidential Suite.

  I spent every night in Ash’s bed memorizing his body. I want to get as much of him as possible before going back to my dull life of back-breaking work at the ranch.

  Every morning around four a.m. he walks me to the door to tell me goodbye with a long passionate kiss that says, I wish you wouldn’t leave. He asked that I never disappear from his bed without saying goodbye again and I give him that.

  Now it’s Saturday night, one week after arriving at the Crimson Haven Hotel and Spa. It’s also one week after meeting the most exciting man I’ve ever known and his adorable, energetic son.

  Suffice it to say, I have no desire to go home. I’ve considered accepting Ash’s job offer to be Cannon’s nanny a dozen times, but I am nothing if not responsible and dedicated to my family. I can’t leave them shorthanded. It wouldn’t be right.

  So here I am, packing my suitcase with a heavy heart like I pretty much knew I would be. I fly out tomorrow afternoon, Ash and Cannon leave in the morning, and we are having room service deliver dinner to their suite tonight. Cannon wants to watch a movie, his first choice was Poltergeist, which to my horror he has seen multiple times, but we settled for his second choice, Star Wars.

  When I’m finished packing, I grab my key card and slip it in the back pocket of my jeans with my phone and make my way upstairs. I don’t have to close my eyes on the elevator ride up anymore. I still don’t like it, but I’ve been up and down so many times this week I’m starting to get used to it. I still stay close to the interior of the atrium when walking to their room. Some things will never change.

  I knock even though Ash gave me a key card. I don’t know why since I’ve been having sex with this man every night for a week and his son thinks I hung the moon. But walking into their space without warning still feels wrong.

  I hear the pitter patter of Cannon racing to the door to beat his father right before he flings it open wide and yells, “Dad, she’s here!”

  Ash is three steps behind him wincing, “I can hear you, buddy, no need to yell.”

  I just saw them two hours ago, but Cannon makes me feel like it’s been years when he grabs my hand and leads me into the living room.

  Room service has already been here. On the coffee table, there are three plates with burgers and fries, just like the first meal we ate together. It feels like we have spent a lot more than a week together and the finality of our time together hits me like a punch to the gut.

  Tears sting the back of my eyes and a lump forms in my throat. I blink and swallow simultaneously to keep from overreacting, and it works, but not before Ash notices.

  “Sit,” Ash says, when his butt hits the couch. “Stella, remember that book I was going to show you? The one they were giving away at the conference but ran out of before we got there?”

  I have no idea what he’s talking about, but he has that look on his face again, the look that says just go with me on this one, so I do.

  “Uh, oh yeah, that book.”

  “I got a copy of it, come here I’ll show you.”

  “Daddy, I’m gonna eat.”

  “Go ahead and start without us. We’ll be right back, promise.”

  Ash takes my hand and leads me into his bedroom, closing the door gently. “You okay?”

  I thought I had my shit together, but now I can’t talk over the lump that’s reformed in my throat, so I simply nod.

  He tips his head to the side and looks at me skeptically. “I don’t think you are.”

  I stuff my hands in my pockets and look at my feet. He steps closer and hooks his finger under my chin to bring my glassy eyes to his. When he sees the tears brimming there, he folds me into his arms and strokes his hand up and down my back.

  “I haven’t pressed. I’ve tried to respect your wishes but, Stella,” he pulls back, so we are nose to nose. “I don’t want this to end. Cannon doesn’t want this to end. You don’t have to be his nanny, just come home with us for a week, spend some more time with me, w
ith us. I don’t want to lose you.”

  That’s it. I can’t hold back any longer. The tears threatening to fall, spring from my eyes onto his soft blue button-up shirt leaving little wet marks.

  “Aw, it’s okay, babe, don’t cry now, come on.” He kisses my wet cheek, and I strangle back a full-on bawling fit.

  “I. Don’t. Wanna.” sniff, “Leave. You.” hiccup, “Either.” I say, only able to force out one or two words at a time.

  “Then take a week of vacation and come to our ranch.”

  “That’ll, only make… it worse.” I bite my bottom lip to hold back any more tears. This is not me. I’m not a crier.

  “No, it’ll give us some more time. Just give me a week, then you can go home, and we can Skype and talk on the phone. I can fly down and see you. We don’t have to give up and forget what’s happened here. I won’t.”

  He’s hugging me again, tight, like he’s never going to let me go.

  And in my dream world, he wouldn’t.

  Ever.

  8

  Mine for a week

  Ash

  She agreed. It took some doing, but I wore her down until she said she would come home with us for a week. That’s all I need. One week on my luxurious ranch living the good life with Cannon and me at her side and there’s no way she will want to leave.

  “Come with me.” I lead her into my en suite bathroom and wet a washcloth with cool water. “Hold this on your eyes. I don’t think we have much time before Cannon gets restless and comes looking for his Tella.”

  She smiles and accepts the cloth pressing it on her eyes.

  “Do I look that bad?”

  “Just a little red-rimmed, and your skin’s blotchy, and you have snot on your lip.”

  “Okay, okay, I sound hideous, stop.”

  I take hold of her wrists, lowering her hands from her face and look at her with stern eyes.

  “You are not hideous, you’re beautiful.”

  “You’re just making sure I don’t back out on you.”

  “Damn right. But you are beautiful.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome, now hold this and I’ll go stall Casanova out there for as long as I can.”

  The smile I’ve been enjoying this past week returns to her lips.

  “That’s better. Come out when you’re ready.”

  I kiss her forehead and leave her alone to regroup. In the living room, Cannon has made quick work of one-fourth of his burger and half of his fries. The kid eats like a machine, and he’s never full.

  “Ready to watch some Star Wars?” He twists around to see me with a mouth full of fries. “Yeah!”

  “Don’t talk with your mouth full, you’ll choke.”

  Ignoring me he continues to talk with food in his mouth, “Where’s Tella?”

  “She had to use the bathroom. She’ll be out in a second. Before she comes back, I wanted to tell you something.”

  Now that he knows Stella's location his focus is back on his food.

  “Stella’s going to come home with us tomorrow for a week. We can show her where we live and you can show her your pig, Chester, and your chickens. Isn’t that great?”

  He’s my insurance policy in case she tries to change her mind. Cannon is her weakness, whatever he wants she does her best to give it to him. Hell, I should have had Cannon ask her to be his nanny, she probably would have said yes.

  Cannon swallows a mouthful of what cannot possibly be adequately chewed food and yells, “Yay!”

  “What’s all the yelling about?” she asks returning to the couch looking like she never shed a tear. I hate it when women cry, especially this woman. But it was necessary to get her to come home with us, so it was worth it this one time.

  He jumps up to stand in front of her, holding his greasy fingers out away from his body, so he doesn’t touch her with them. “You’re gonna meet my Chester and my chickens!” he says, bouncing up and down on his toes.

  “I am? Who’s Chester? And you have chickens? I have chickens, too, six of them.” She flashes him a superstar smile and opens her eyes wide with excitement.

  “Chester’s my pig. He’s big.” Cannon spreads his arms wide to show her how big and he’s not exaggerating, Chester’s a huge pig.

  “Wow, I can’t wait. Do your chickens have names, too?”

  “Uh, huh, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Daisy, and Minnie.” He insisted on naming them after Disney characters after seeing Disney on Ice a few Christmas' ago.

  “Cool, you’re good at naming chickens. Maybe you can help me with mine. They don’t have names.”

  He looks at her like she’s lost her ever living mind, and she bursts out in a fit of giggles.

  Yeah, this is good, we are good together, and I like it, too much maybe. Good things don’t last, bad things don’t either, for that matter. Eventually, everybody leaves, I’ve come to expect it.

  This thing with Stella feels different, though, bigger, important, more real. And it’s crystal clear that Cannon loves her, never in his life has he been closer to a woman. The longest he had a nanny was one year, and that was before he could walk and talk. As soon as he could get around on his own and communicate he was terrorizing one nanny after another, it was like he knew they were paid to care for him, it wasn’t a natural nurturing, it was forced, and he couldn’t stand it.

  With Stella, it’s easy, like breathing. Everything is effortless with her. She’s like a comfortable old pair of jeans that don’t pinch or scratch or bind.

  “No names?” he asks her.

  “Nope, not one of them. You think on that while we eat, and daddy will start the movie, okay?” Like magic, he sits back down on the floor next to the coffee table and starts shoveling his food in his mouth again. Maybe someday she’ll tell me her secret.

  “You should probably cancel your flight tomorrow before it gets too late. My laptop is on the bed.”

  “I’m not sure I can switch my flight this late.”

  “Cancel it. I’ll pay for it.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “I want to.”

  “What airline are you flying, I doubt I can get a seat on the same flight? I’ll probably have to take a later one.”

  I stare at her without saying anything until it comes to her.

  She rolls her eyes, “Oh yeah, I forgot, private jet. Is there room for me?”

  “Yeah, it seats ten comfortably.”

  “Ten,” she whispers to herself nodding. I lean forward and push her plate in her direction. “It’s getting cold, eat.”

  Three hours later, Cannon is passed out on the couch and the credits are still running from Star Wars. We ordered ice cream for him from room service, and I had them bring a bottle of wine for Stella and me.

  Her last glass is still half-full, and she’s fading fast. I’m not letting her leave tonight. Every night we have spent together has been in the throes of passion. Tonight’s going to be about snuggling and peaceful sleep in each other’s arms.

  Now that I know I have another week with her I can relax and stop thinking, this could be the last time, every time I touch her.

  I stand from my spot that is much too far away from Stella, and round the table to scoop my son up in my arms and take him to bed. Once he’s tucked in, I return and do the same with Stella.

  “I should go,” she murmurs against my chest when I pick her up.

  “You should stay,” I say kissing her softly and placing her in the center of my bed. Her eyes flutter, but she doesn’t argue when I tug off her jeans and slide in behind to spoon with her. “You canceled your flight?”

  “Mm-hm.”

  “Good.” I nuzzle her neck and reach up to free her damp hair. I scoop it up onto the pillow above us and breathe in the smell of lavender and lemon, forever burning it into my memory.

  “Get some sleep, beautiful, I’m taking you home tomorrow,” I say, but I already know she’s asleep. Her breathing is soft and regular, and every muscle
in her body has melted against mine.

  All is right in my world. My son is happy for the first time in, well, in forever. I’m the sexiest man alive, according to some stupid magazine, and this amazing woman is mine.

  Mine for a week.

  9

  Abandoned

  Stella

  So far Sunday has brought one complication after another, and I’m starting to think the Universe is pissed at me for not going home.

  For starters, I never woke up in the night to go back to my room. Something I later learned was intentional on Ash’s part, and as I expected, Cannon wasn’t ready for that.

  We overslept, and he came into Ash’s room to wake him up. The look on his face when he saw his daddy’s arms and legs tangled in the sheets and wrapped tight around my body was heartbreaking, to say the least.

  He looked at me like I had betrayed him, stabbed him in the back, and abandoned him all in one contorted painful expression.

  He didn’t act out or yell or scream like Ash says he usually does when he gets upset, no it was worse. He silently went to his room and closed the door. Ash tried to talk to him, but he had shut down. As the day went on he started to come around a little, but it’s four thirty in the afternoon now, we just boarded the jet, and he is still distant.

  My daddy wasn’t thrilled to hear I wasn’t coming home and my mother was even less thrilled when she found out where I was going and who I was going to be with.

  “That man is a womanizing, gigolo, heartbreaking, man-whore, Stella. You need to come home right away,” she yelled into the phone.

  After thirty agonizing minutes of begging her to try to understand and keep her mouth shut about the whole thing for Ash’s sake, she hung up on me. My mother has never hung up on me in my life. I don’t think she’s hung up on anyone before. My mama is the vision of politeness, charm, and Christianity unless you piss her off.

  Ash has asked that we keep our relationship low-profile due to his father’s upcoming election. But my mama took that as him being ashamed to be associated with me, which hurt because why in the hell would she go there at all if she didn't think it herself?