But wouldn’t they ring the doorbell?
Her pulse throbbed in her neck. Had she remembered to turn on the alarm after Natalie left this morning? She knew she’d locked the door, but Trinity had wanted a snack, and she was going to come back and—
Oh no.
She hadn’t.
But the door was locked at least. They were safe. Anyway, it was probably her overactive imagination. Her fear of living in a multi-million dollar house that would be like a kid walking into Willy-Wonka’s factory for a burglar.
Serenity stuck her thumb in her mouth, something she only did when she was extremely tired or scared. “Is someone hewe?”
Mari pasted on a smile she hoped said brave since she was feeling anything but. “I don’t think—”
The eery sound of a door opening filled the air, followed by the loud thud of a door slamming.
Both girls’ eyes went wide.
Maybe—Maybe Natalie had come home early because of the snow. But she always yelled hello and came through the garage into the kitchen. Mr. Hillard was still in Paris on business and wouldn’t be home for another week.
She could feel her heart trying to beat out of her chest as she glanced from the girls toward the hall that was around the corner and out of view.
Think, Mari, think. She couldn’t just sit here. Her cell phone was in her purse that was conveniently in the foyer, probably being stolen by said burglar this very moment.
The girls wouldn’t stay quiet forever and who knows what some burglar would do when he found them unarmed.
Unarmed—
She needed a weapon. Glancing around, she spied the poker from the fireplace. The living room was at the back of the house, and given that she hadn’t heard footsteps, the intruder hadn’t made their way back here yet.
Squeezing the girls’ arms, she motioned for them to sit down. They’d be out of sight as long as they stayed quiet. “I’m going to go see who it is. You both—stay here until I call for you, okay? You have to promise me, no matter what, you won’t come out or make a peep. It’ll be a game. Got it?”
Both girls nodded, eyes wide and little bodies shaking as they huddled in the corner behind the chair. She longed to reassure them more, but right now, fear might work to their benefit and make them listen to her.
She swallowed the lump of panic lodged in her throat and eased off the chair, then grabbed the poker as quietly as she could.
Taking a glance back, she steeled her arms and raised the poker as if it were a baseball bat. This was for the girls. She was their protection. They’d been left without the alarm that would have alerted authorities of an intruder—because of her.
She was all they had.
No, that wasn’t true. Jesus was here, and he would give her the strength she needed. Lord, please help. I’m—I’m scared, but you’ve given these little girls in my charge and—just help. Please.
Tiptoeing to the wall, she followed it to the corner, then peeked down the hall.
Terror froze her to the spot.
There was a man. Black stocking cap. Blue jeans. Standing next to the small table in the foyer, his arm next to—her purse?
She breathed another prayer for strength, lifted the poker over her head, then rounded the corner and ran toward the burglar.
The man spun around just as she brought the poker down on his head with all the muscle she had.
It felt like an eternity for him to fall. His eyes, a stunning blue and not at all unattractive as she assumed a criminal would have, stared at her, wide and shocked.
Then slowly, his body crumpled to the ground.
Little feet scampered behind her.
No—
She twirled around to see her two charges, staring at the man.
“I told you girls to wait behind the—”
Serenity ran forward, but Mari held out an arm to stop her. “No. You need to go back to your spot. I have to call the police.”
“But Miss Mawi, you kiwed him!”
“I don’t think he—”
Trinity rushed past them both before Mari could stop her. “You killed Uncle Brandon!”
Chapter 2
“Uncu Bwandon? You okay? Miss Mawi didn’t mean to huwt you. I pwomise.”
Brandon Stone blinked, the blurry room beginning to clear except for the little white dots speckling the view.
Two little faces sporting worried frowns peered down at him. Familiar—his adorable twin nieces. He forced a tiny smile for their benefit. “I’m—okay.”
Or not. His head throbbed as if someone had just used it as a cymbal and was continuing to do so over and over and over.
“Sir. I—I’m so sorry. Are you okay? Do you want me to call an ambulance?”
A female voice—unfamiliar. Young. Who was she? And where was—
Every protective nerve in his body buzzed to life as he pushed up despite the aching protest from his forehead. Swallowing down the dizziness that threatened to send him into blackness again or, worse, to vomiting, he narrowed his view to the stranger in the room. She was—gorgeous. Her blond hair was swept into a messy bun. Her eyes were even bluer than his which was saying something. But she was also chewing on her lip as if she was guilty of something, and she held a black stick—was that a fireplace poker? Gorgeous or not, she’d just attacked him, and Brandon’s sister was nowhere to be found. “Who are you and where is Natalie?”
The blond rocked back onto her heels, then stood, the weapon still in her hand. “I’m Mari Jenkins, the nanny. Natalie’s at work.”
Her words only fanned his suspicions. Natalie hadn’t worked since the twins were born and prided herself on being a stay-at-home mom. Did the whole mommy-and-me play group circuit like the professional momma she was. She’d even talked about homeschooling.
There was no way she’d gone back to work.
He gritted his teeth and pushed off the ground to his feet. To his horror, equilibrium vanished, and his weight shifted forward without permission, sending his body lunging forward.
The slight woman caught him, her hands on his chest, keeping him from tipping further. “Whoa there. Maybe you should sit down.”
He reached up and grabbed her arms, praying his grip was at least tight enough to make her weapon useless. “I—should. But first, you need to tell me what you’re really doing here.”
“I told you. I’m the new nanny.”
“Natalie doesn’t need a nanny. She doesn’t work or—”
The woman smiled as if placating a child. “She does now.”
Trinity tugged on his shirt. “Uncle Brandon, Miss Mari is our nanny, I promise. Mommy goes to work just like daddy now.”
While the little girl wouldn’t lie, it still didn’t sound right. Natalie? Working?
Mari’s lips curved to a grin. “You ready to sit now?”
He relaxed his grip on her arms. As the fight drained out of him, awareness of the beautiful woman he held took its place. A woman who was evidently not a threat to the kids, who was standing in front of him with her hands on his chest, smelling all sugary and spice and all things nice. If it weren’t for the fact that his head felt like he’d gotten up close and personal with a moving train, he might be tempted to let his gaze linger a little longer. But considering the dizziness was doing a number on his stomach— “Yeah. Sitting would be a good idea. I’m—I just need a minute.”
“I’m so sorry.” Her gaze darted to the little girls staring at them. “Serenity, please get your uncle a chair from the kitchen. He needs to sit down.”
“It’s fine. Just help me to the couch—”
“Of course.” She slid a hand behind his back and gripped his torso, pressing close to his side so he could lean his weight on her.
He wrapped his arm around her, letting his hand rest on her shoulder. She was just barely shorter than him, but that wasn’t saying much since he hadn’t been given the tall gene of the family. At 5’8” he was the shortest of the three siblings, including Natalie who
had a good inch or more on him.
They made their way to the great room, and he settled onto the black leather couch.
“Can I get you something to drink? Some aspirin? Are you sure you don’t need me to call for an ambulance or take you to the doctor? That goose egg looks mighty big.”
A goose egg? He reached a hand to his forehead to find the offending lump. So that’s what was throbbing so bad. “Drink and aspirin, yes. Ambulance and doctor, no. I’ll be fine. I just need to rest a minute.”
The nanny scurried away to the kitchen, and two little pipsqueaks took her place in front of him. “Uncu Bwandon, you okay?”
“I’m all right, Seri. I promise.” He forced himself not to say pwomise. Natalie had lectured him for an hour last time he was home about not encouraging her lisp by imitating it. He thought it was stinkin’ adorable, but he understood where she came from. And more than that, didn’t want to ruffle momma-bear.
Trinity climbed onto the couch beside him and snuggled into the side he offered. “Momma didn’t tell us you were coming home.”
“That’s ‘cause Momma didn’t know. Andrew got sick and had to have surgery, so we’re taking a little break.” The lead singer having a gall bladder attack and needing emergency surgery in the middle of his biggest tour yet was just plain unfortunate. It’d be a good four to six weeks before they could get back on the road. Rescheduling sold out football arenas was going to be a treat, but thankfully he was just the drummer. They had other people who would deal with the details.
Mari rushed back into the room, her arms full. “Okay, I have a bottle of water, some aspirin, and an ice pack. I also brought some snacks just in case and today’s paper and—”
The nanny was an overachiever. “Just put them there. Thank you.”
She deposited the pile onto the large bamboo and glass coffee table, then shook out two pills from the bottle and handed him the water. “Here. Take these.”
Bossy little thing. “Thanks.” He took them and swallowed. Hopefully, they’d do the trick, because right now, he was really tempted to flirt with this woman, and that had to be the knock on the head talking.
His dating rules were clear. Nothing serious. He was nowhere near ready to settle down, and until that changed, only casual dating allowed. He had no plans to be a chronic heartbreaker, and dating a friend of the family? Never. Too many complications.
So while sweet Nanny Mari might be drop-dead gorgeous and make him want to throw all his rules out the window, he needed to tread carefully.
Then again, there was nothing wrong with being nice to the nanny.
That was expected of him, right?
Although this particular one had just tried to clobber him with a fireplace poker. Speaking of— “What were you trying to do back there, anyway?”
Mari glanced up from where she was arranging the “goodies” she’d brought him on the table. “Uh, fending off an intruder?”
“I’m not an intruder. I live here.”
Her eyebrows arched. “You live here?”
“I travel a lot for work, so Natalie and Dave let me crash here when I’m in town. Saves a ton of money since I’m rarely home. And they have plenty of space.” Sure, he’d planned to get his own place this summer, especially since his side business was gaining some momentum.
She blinked and stood up straighter, her hands propped on her hips. “Oh. I—didn’t know. Natalie never said anything. But then again, I’ve only been working here for two weeks, so I’m still settling into the routine myself.”
He held back a shudder at the routine word—one he tried to keep out of his vocabulary, except when they were on stage. Something told him that messing with Nanny Mari’s routine was going to be the highlight of the next few weeks at home. “Listen, I don’t mean to be rude, but I think I’ll head to my room and get my stuff settled.”
“But your head—”
“Is feeling better by the minute.” A lie. But the room wasn’t spinning anymore, so that counted as better, right? “I’ll just get my stuff from the hall.”
“I was getting ready to make the girls lunch. Should we plan on you joining us? We’re having turkey sandwiches, grapes, and carrots. We might even splurge and add a few potato chips in the mix.”
“Walking on the wild side?”
Her pert little lips curled into a grin. “Something like that. We’ll be eating in about—” she glanced her watch. “Twenty-five minutes. At twelve o’clock. Should we plan on seeing you then?”
Oh yes. This was indeed going to be fun. “I’ll be there on the nose.” Give or take a half hour.
“Sounds good. Now, girls, let’s go wash up and start getting lunch ready. Your Uncle Brandon is going to eat with us.”
Two YIPPEE’s brought a smile to his face as he returned to the front foyer and hauled his duffel bag over his shoulder.
Ignoring the light-headed dizziness that threatened to return, he bypassed the front staircase, its curved banister leading to the upper floors and most of the bedrooms, and instead opened the door that led to the downstairs apartment he’d called home for the last three years.
He stopped at the bottom of the stairs with a hand to the wall until the room wasn’t quite so wobbly, then tossed his bag toward the bedroom door.
Shuffling to the small kitchen area, he opened the fridge to grab a—
Wait.
He could have sworn he’d only had a few sodas in there when he left. Was sure of it. Natalie must have stocked it for him since it was now half full of various types of food. Which was crazy, because he hadn’t been planning on being back for another three or four weeks. Half of it would have gone bad by then.
But who was he to complain?
Grabbing the half-gallon of milk, he twisted off the lid and put the carton to his mouth and chugged.
A few swallows in, he scrunched up his nose. What was this stuff? It tasted like—nuts.
He looked at the label.
Almond milk?
What was Nat trying to do to him? Kill him? Where was his 2%?
Shoving the offensive liquid back into the fridge, he wiped his mouth.
A shower. That’s what he needed.
He grabbed his bag on the way to the bedroom, then opened the door—
Brandon blinked, then blinked again.
The room was—clean.
And—frilly.
Okay, not frilly really, but his band posters were gone. The clothes that chronically decorated the floor were nowhere to be seen. The navy blue and white bedspread had been replaced by some light greenish bluish number with paisley designs all over it.
He had no idea where he’d even heard the word “paisley” from even. Probably Natalie, but still. It was there and most definitely not his.
A rustling behind him jerked his attention away from the girly bedroom.
Nanny Mari stood, fists balled and propped on her trim little hips, her eyebrows raised in question. “What do you think you’re doing in my bedroom?”
Chapter 3
The man had some nerve just walking into her bedroom like that.
Well, to his credit, he looked as shocked as she’d felt when he’d gone downstairs to her apartment instead of upstairs to one of the spare bedrooms.
“Your room? This is my room. Has been for three years. Although it didn’t look like this, that’s for sure. What happened to my stuff?”
“I don’t—” A beeping ringtone from her phone she’d retrieved from the foyer earlier interrupted her words. She dug it out of her pocket to see Natalie’s work number on the caller ID. “This is Natalie. Maybe she can clear up the confusion.”
He reached out his hand for the phone. “Let me talk to—”
She swatted him away and put the phone to her ear while sending him her best don’t-even-think-about-it glare. “Natalie. I was just getting ready to call you.”
“Oh Mari. I’m so sorry. I’ve got a load of bad news for you. I just got a second to check my phone and saw
a text from my brother. He’s headed your way now. I tried to call him, but his phone just goes straight to voicemail.”
“I, uh, he’s already here, actually.”
“Oh. Well, okay. The problem is, I hadn’t gotten a chance to tell him about you and—is he there now? Can you put him on the phone?”
She wanted to say no just so the man didn’t have the satisfaction of getting his way, but that made no sense. Why should she care? There was just something about the guy that got under her skin. But he was Natalie’s brother. She had to play nice. “Yes, just a minute.”
She handed him the phone. “She wants to talk to you.”
He snatched it from her, his eyes glowing with triumph. “Told you so.”
She opened her mouth to say Shut-up, but Natalie would hear her. And really—since when did she tell someone to shut up? She was acting like she had been the one to get a knot on her head, not the other way around.
“Hey, Nats. What gives?”
Pause.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Pause.
“And the apartment?”
Pause. Brandon shot Mari an annoyed glance, then looked away. “Yeah, I get it. I just wish you’d told me earlier.”
Another pause, longer this time.
“That’s fine. I will. Let me give you back to the nanny.”
She’d never minded the term nanny until the word came out of Brandon’s mouth. He made it sound like she was a crotchety old lady from the 1800s or something. Grabbing the phone, she cleared her throat. “Hey, Natalie.”
“I’m so sorry, Mari. I had no idea he was coming back so soon. I had meant to tell him but wanted to make sure it would—well, it doesn’t matter now. I told him he could have the other bedroom that’s downstairs where we stashed his stuff or one of the upstairs bedrooms.”
A bedroom down here? On the floor of the house she’d been told was her private quarters, one of the perks that convinced her to take the job? “I—”
“Oh, and are you watching the weather? It’s getting pretty bad out there. If it gets any worse, I may just stay with a coworker downtown rather than trying to navigate the interstate to get home.”
Love at First Laugh: Eight Romantic Novellas Filled with Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever After Page 50
