She sat back and popped another kernel into her mouth. “I dunno. I’m kinda into this one now.”
“You just want to torture me.”
Definitely. “Not at all.”
“So?”
She glanced over at him and frowned. “So what?”
“What were you thinking about? Don’t tell me nothing, ‘cause I could see the wheels turning in that pretty little head of yours.”
About how you’re annoyingly handsome and intriguing? “I was just thinking about the difference between Hans and Kristoff.”
“Interesting. Besides one being a fraud and the other being a strong guy with a good work ethic?”
Mari smiled. Brandon was definitely Kristoff. “Yes, besides that. I always liked Hans, aside from the whole backstabbing weasel thing.”
“Of course.”
“But Kristoff is growing on me. He can be a doofus sometimes, but—I don’t know. He’s not as bad as I thought he was.”
“Huh. That’s interesting because I was thinking the same about Anna and Elsa.”
She shifted in her seat to face him, her elbow on the back of the couch. “What did you not like about Anna or Elsa? I mean, I guess Anna can be pretty flighty and clingy, but her heart is good.”
He reached for the remote beside him, clicked down the volume a few notches, then turned toward her as well, his face illuminated only by the light of the snow from the movie. “On the contrary, it was Elsa I never really liked.”
No. Way. “Elsa? Poor thing was plagued with this magical curse and gave up all the fun parts of her life to prevent the ice from hurting anyone else. It was her stupid parents who told her that conceal don’t feel nonsense. She was a victim, for goodness sakes. How can you not like her?”
“She’s an ice queen, Nanny Mari. She ruined her sister’s life and refused to talk to her. I never thought of her as selfless, just mean.”
“I do hope there is a but in there somewhere.”
“But—I’m coming around to her. She’s the strong silent type. The older sister, the one who has to be responsible for everyone else. That’s a hard job, and honestly, I’m not sure Anna, as much as I like her spunk, could handle it. And in the end, Elsa does let it go a little with the whole town ice skating rink. Which if you recall—”
Mari held up a hand. “Don’t you dare mention your crazy ice rink in the backyard idea again. Even Natalie thanked me for vetoing that.”
“You gotta admit. Would’ve been fun.”
The schoolboy grin that lit up his face was hard to resist, especially with the giant black and blue knot still shining from his forehead. “Fine. Yes, it would’ve been fun, until someone split open their head.”
“Nanny Mari, always finding the tiny cloud in the clear, blue sky.”
“Uncle Brandon, always finding the shiny penny in the bucket of rusty nails.”
“What made you want to become a nanny?”
Talk about an abrupt change of subject. She glanced at the movie, but it had long lost its appeal. “Uh, nothing, actually.” In truth, she’d made a long list of why being a nanny was not what she’d wanted or had planned, but in the end, the pros had far outweighed the cons, especially the pro that included her own apartment, rent free. Until yesterday when she found out it included a roommate. “Being a nanny was never a career aspiration for me. I graduated from UT Chattanooga with a degree in psych. My plan is to go back for my master’s degree in a few years, with the goal of becoming a school counselor. I was looking for a job when Natalie approached me at church with this proposal. She just needs a nanny for a year and a half until the girls start school, so I thought it’d be a great opportunity, especially with the apartment downstairs included.”
“Which you now have to share with a loud, obnoxious drummer.”
She grabbed a fuzzy throw blanket from the side of the couch and draped it over her lap, then tossed him a smile. “I never said you were loud.”
Brandon glanced at the blanket then at her. “I suppose it’d be obnoxious to ask to share the blanket, huh.”
Oh, he was good. Very good. “Yes, but you’re in luck because it’d be rude for me to say no.” She shifted an inch closer and gave him half the blanket. “Happy?”
He flashed her a smile and turned back to the movie. “Very.”
She settled in beside him, their shoulders somehow now just an inch apart. She was dying to know about him and the gig with Andrew, but would asking him be too weird?
He’d asked her personal questions. Turnabout was fair play, right? “You going to tell me how you came to be the drummer for the man of my dreams?”
His hooting laughter filled the room.
She swatted at his arm. “Quiet, you’ll wake the girls.”
He wiped pretend tears of laughter from his eyes with his shirt sleeve. “Phew, sorry, that was a good one. Andrew’s the man of your dreams? How’s that?”
“Hey, no turning the question back on me.”
“Sorry, but you do realize the guy’s engaged?”
“You do realize I meant that in the same way some girls say Channing Tatum is their dream guy, right? I completely understand he’s way out of my league.”
Brandon shook his head. “Not out of your league by a long shot. Just off the market and not really your type.”
Ha. Andrew was exactly her type. “What are you talking about? Andrew is pretty near perfect.”
“Andrew is—Andrew. Tall, dark and boring when it comes right down to it. Sure he has a presence on stage, but offstage he’s all business. You should’ve seen him when the doctor said he’d need surgery and would have to cancel part of the tour. I thought he was gonna have a stroke, he was so upset. You two would go together like peanut butter and—peanut butter. You’d bore each other to death. You need someone to help you throw away your schedule now and again, not feed your addiction to it.”
That was the stupidest thing she’d ever heard. Addiction? She was organized, and that was a very good thing. Besides loving Jesus, it was her second most wanted item on her list for a spouse. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I think I do. Take Izzy, Andrew’s fiancee, for example. She’s everything he needs. Spunky, carefree, helps him loosen up a bit. The Minnie to his Mickey. The cheese to his burger. The snare to his cymbal. You know what I mean.”
“So, the jelly to his peanut butter?”
“Too cliche, my dear. You make my point for me. You need someone to add some color to your life.”
“You mean someone like you?” The second the retort escaped her lips, she longed to snatch it back. Maybe—maybe he’d think she was making another joke. She’d said it nonchalantly, right? And it really was a joke.
Then why was her heart racing as if someone was using it as a snare drum?
After he failed to respond immediately with a joke, she chanced looking at him.
His gaze caught hers, and his eyebrows lifted. “Is someone like me so bad?”
Oy. She never should have looked at him. “Not bad, per se.”
Under the blanket, his hand shifted to hers, slowly, carefully, linking his fingers between hers. “Then—good? Maybe?”
Her gaze dropped to his lips, then back to his eyes. “Yeah. Maybe.”
The world seemed to hold its breath in a prolonged pause as Brandon’s head dipped closer to hers until their lips were but a sliver apart. His eyes crinkled in a smile. “I’ve never kissed a nanny before.”
He was giving her an out. A moment of levity to back out.
She should take it and run far, far away.
But oh—oh how she didn’t want to. For just this one moment, she longed to dump caution at the curb and do what made no sense at all.
Squeezing his hand, Mari matched him, smile for smile. “I’ve never kissed a drummer before.”
His smile widened. “We should change that.”
A moment later, his lips melted into hers, gentle and sweet, cherishing her as if sh
e were a precious, fragile glass. His fingers squeezed her hand, his thumb rubbing a circle above hers.
The kiss was over as quick as it started, but Brandon didn’t move much. He kissed the side of her mouth one last time, then withdrew his hand and put his arm around her, tucking her in beside him. “Let’s finish watching the movie.”
She curled her legs up and snuggled in, but she was new to this whole thing. Where should she put her hand? It felt weird just laying it on her legs, but she tried it anyway.
Ugh, no, definitely awkward.
Maybe just in her lap, but then it would be close to his leg, and that seemed too forward. Maybe she could just flop it on the blanket and—
Brandon snatched up her hand before she could decide and brought it to his lips for a kiss, then clasped it in his, resting on his leg.
Ah yes. Perfect.
She let out a breath and tried to relax, but that feat was nearly impossible.
For years, she’d put up boundaries. Strict ones that allowed for zero errors, because the past had a sneaky way of repeating itself, and she wouldn’t let the sins of the mother be passed on to the daughter.
She wanted better for herself and didn’t need her plans getting disrupted like her mom’s had.
But she’d let down a big wall tonight, and oddly enough, while she told herself she should start rebuilding it immediately, she was happy to leave that task for tomorrow.
Because tonight, right or wrong, she’d just had her very first kiss, and she was determined to savor the moment.
Chapter 10
Brandon blinked away the darkness of sleep.
Where was—
A cramp shot through his neck as he glanced around the room.
He was laying down—or was he? No, he was half sitting, half laying down, his feet propped up, but something heavy pressed against his thigh.
Shifting, he moved his hand that rested on—
Mari. Mari was snuggled in close to him, her head practically in his lap, his hand draped across her side, resting near her stomach.
The home screen for the Frozen DVD still projected on the TV in front of them. They’d fallen asleep while watching the movie.
After he’d kissed her.
Oh man.
What had he done?
He’d kissed the nanny.
And then evidently slept with her all night. Well, not slept-slept. But this was bad enough.
Leaning back, he winced at the ache in his neck and closed his eyes. What had he been thinking?
He hadn’t been, that’s what. Jealousy had coursed through him at the idea of her preferring Andrew over him. Of course, the guy was an award-winning country star who had girls falling all over him daily, but that was beside the point.
When she’d turned those eyes to him—
They’d been filled with innocence and desire. Fear and want. He’d felt her hand tremble under his, making him want nothing more than to calm her and fulfill her, all at the same time.
So he’d tried to keep it light and fun, a simple kiss to assuage their curiosity, but inside he’d felt anything but simple. Every ounce of him had wanted to pull her to him and show her how a woman should be kissed.
And something in the hesitation of her lips told him she definitely hadn’t been shown before.
In the light of morning, though—what was he going to do?
He could laugh it off, pretend it had been just the simple kiss it was, no strings attached. He was good at that, had been playing that game for years, at least since Becky. His high-school sweetheart had taught him that love was what you put into a relationship, not just what you got out of it. And being on the road so much was no way to build any kind of meaningful relationship.
So he aimed to keep things fun and light until he was ready to settle down.
But all his girlfriends since had been—well—jelly to his jelly. Carefree, not ready to settle down, just dating for fun, not for keeps.
None of them had been Mari.
Something told him that kiss meant much more to Mari than it ever would have to any of the other girls he’d kissed.
And if he were honest with himself, it’d pierced his own heart in a way he hadn’t experienced since Becky.
Mari’s head shifted on his lap, and her arms came up in a stretch. He ducked out of the way to avoid being jabbed in the jaw. “Mornin’ Sunshine.”
Her eyes popped open, her face washed in shock. “What? Where am—oh no.” She sat up quickly, but the blanket around her legs caught, sending her plunging toward the floor.
Brandon reached for her, catching her under the arms just before she reached the ground. “Easy there.”
He helped her up, but she pushed him away once she was seated on the couch again, this time upright. “What are we doing here? Where are the girls?”
He bit the side of his cheek to keep from laughing. It wouldn’t help right now. But her shirt was twisted, her hair was perfect on one side and sticking out in all directions on the other, and a crease, presumably from his sweatpants, went straight down the middle of her adorable cheek.
His Elsa was looking a little more like Anna every minute.
Man, he wanted to kiss her again.
“It’s fine. We must’ve fallen asleep during the movie. The girls are still asleep.”
She jumped up and peeked over the couch. “No, they aren’t.” Her eyes darted to him, then back to the couch, her voice pinched with panic. “They aren’t here, Brandon. Where are they?”
He could have sworn—but then again, he’d just assumed since they hadn’t woken them up— “They probably just went back to their rooms.” And had seen their nanny sleeping with her head in their uncle’s lap. Lovely. Natalie was going to have a cow. “Everything’s fine, I’m sure.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her up the few steps to the hall.
Both the girls’ bedrooms were empty.
Mari patted her pants pockets frantically. “I need my cell phone. We have to call—someone. We have to find—”
“Hold on. Maybe they’re downstairs watching cartoons. Let’s not call in the SWAT team just yet.” Although if they didn’t find them in about the next thirty seconds, he might beat her to the phone.
Halfway down the stairs, the sweet sound of giggles met his ears.
He blew out the breath he’d been holding and squeezed Mari’s hand. “See? Nothing to worry about.”
The nanny sagged against him with relief. “Let’s go get breakfast. I think waffles are in order this morning.”
“Sounds great to me.” He tugged her along, relishing the fact that she hadn’t pulled her hand away yet. That would probably change as soon as the girls came in sight, but he could enjoy it for the moment.
They reached the bottom of the steps and crossed the hall to the kitchen—
Brandon halted in his steps and pulled his hand back as nonchalantly as possible.
Because there, in the middle of the kitchen flanked by two four-year-olds in aprons, was his sister.
Chapter 11
Fired.
She was going to be fired.
Not only had she allowed the kids to sleep in their clothes and skip brushing their teeth, but they’d also slept in the theater of all places and had evidently woken up to see the nanny asleep on their uncle’s lap.
If that wasn’t grounds for sending her packing, she wasn’t sure what was.
“Morning, you two. Sleep well?” Natalie stood over a skillet, looking as dazzling as ever in her diamond earrings and Kiss the Cook apron while she helped Trinity flip a pancake.
Mari crossed her arms and took a step forward. “I—can explain.”
But the woman just smiled. “We have a plate full of hotcakes on the table already, along with sausage. Go ahead and dig in. We’ll be done in a sec.”
Brandon, seemingly unaffected by his sister’s appearance except for that initial moment of wide-eye and hand-dropping, smiled and walked behind them, snatching Serenity
up and slinging her over his shoulder. The little girl responded with more giggles as he set her down in a chair at the table. “Breakfast looks great. When did you get home, Nat?”
“About six this morning. In typical Nashville fashion, the weather’s already starting to warm back up, so the roads are getting better by the minute. I just took it slow. I didn’t want the girls to wake up with me not here on a Saturday morning. They got up not long after, so I convinced them to let you both sleep so we could surprise you with breakfast.”
Either Natalie was a stellar actress, or she wasn’t bothered by the fact that her nanny had totally fallen asleep on the job—with Natalie’s brother. Either way, it was obvious she didn’t want to talk about it in front of the girls, and Mari was happy to oblige. She sat down next to Serenity and served herself two steaming hot pancakes from the stack on the platter. “That was sweet, thank you.”
The little girl looked her up and down, then frowned. “Miss Mari?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“Your hair looks funny.”
Natalie gasped. “Serenity Jane. You apologize this instant.”
Mari’s hand flew to her hair as the little girl mumbled an apology.
She could feel the heat on her face as she stood. “It’s okay. I think I’ll run downstairs and freshen up before breakfast, though.” Before anyone could respond, she crossed the room and hurried down the basement stairs.
Oh, please don’t let it be as bad as I think it is.
A moment later, she was in her room and staring at the train wreck in the mirror.
It was worse than she’d thought.
And Brandon had seen her like this.
Natalie too.
She wasn’t a vain person by nature. But—this was horrible. She looked like she had a sideways mullet. One-half of her hair was completely smashed against her head, while the other half stuck straight out.
A throat cleared at the doorway. “It’s not that bad.”
She didn’t even bother to glance at him as she picked up a brush from the dresser and started to feverishly comb out the knotted hair.
“You’re going to pull out all your hair if you’re not careful, not that you couldn’t rock the bald look.”
Love at First Laugh: Eight Romantic Novellas Filled with Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever After Page 53
