by Peters, Liz
There had been something familiar about that expression. Raine frowned. She could have sworn she had seen it once, long ago…
Where could she have possibly seen it? Not in a magazine. The Mason Parker they showed looked nothing like that. And she had never had anything to do with the billionaire before now… so, where?
She shook the thought away. It was nothing. Just her mind making connections that weren’t there.
* * *
As she was getting ready for bed that night, Raine heard the soft murmur of voices across the hall in Oliver’s room. She poked her head out of her own open door, recognizing the sound of Oliver’s and Mason’s voices.
“Why do you have to go back to work?” Oliver whined.
“It’s important, Oliver,” Mason said. “A lot of people are relying on me, so it’s time for me to go back and help them.”
Raine smiled when Oliver huffed, obviously unconvinced. He was certainly stubborn.
“Besides, you won’t be here on your own,” Mason continued. “Raine is here now to help us out. I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun with her.”
“No, I won’t,” Oliver cried. “I don’t want Raine here! I hate her!”
Raine winced. That hurt.
“No, you don’t, Oliver. You didn’t even speak to her. Raine has agreed to come and help us out, and she’s a very nice woman. You need to give her a chance.”
“Don’t wanna,” Oliver muttered petulantly. “Why can’t she go to work, and you stay home?”
Mason sighed. “That would be nice, Oliver, but it doesn’t work that way. Look, Raine will be very nice to you, just wait and see. You’ll like spending time with her. And I won’t be gone for a long time. I’ll be back for dinner.”
“That is a long time!” Oliver protested. Raine heard him let out a small sob. “I want you here.”
“I know, buddy,” Mason said. “I know. But things will get better, okay? I promise.”
Oliver didn’t say anything.
Mason sighed again. “Goodnight, Oliver. I love you.”
Raine wondered if she should duck back into her room, but then it was too late. Mason appeared at the doorway and closed Oliver’s door behind him. He didn’t look surprised or upset to see her eavesdropping.
“He’ll come around,” Mason assured her. “It’ll just take time, is all.”
Raine nodded, and he gave her a half-hearted wave before he headed to his own room. She waited until his door clicked closed to move, groaning and rubbing a hand down her face before retreating to her room.
Every time she turned around, there was new evidence of just how strong the bond between Mason and Oliver was. She had begun to feel guilty for coming here with the sole purpose of tearing them apart; despite everything she had heard about Mason Parker, he was wonderful with his son. The man depicted by the tabloids was another person. Mason was just a single father who loved his son and wanted to do everything he could for him.
And the pain in Oliver’s voice… had he ever spent more than a few hours away from his father? No doubt Mason had worked while Emily was around, but that had been five years ago, probably before Oliver could remember.
Raine would have her work cut out for her, it seemed. Still, she wouldn’t back down from this. She might not know what would come next, but she did know she wanted to get to know Oliver. No matter what, she wanted her presence in his life to make him happy. Whatever happened after that could wait.
With new determination, she strode to her backpack and dug out an old, battered cookbook she had used when working with children in the past. If she wanted Oliver to like her, she needed to pull out all the stops.
Chapter 6
The sound of running feet startled Raine awake.
At first, she thought it was Oliver, but then she realized that the footsteps were far too heavy. When the feet ran back past her door, she frowned and dragged her robe over her shoulders, cinching it at the waist, and padded to her door.
She opened it in time to see Mason, adjusting his tie, flash past once more.
Curious, she followed him down the stairs and into the kitchen. He looked anxious and harried as he tapped his foot, impatiently waiting for his toast to pop up.
“Mason?” she asked.
He jumped at her voice, whirling around. “Raine! Sorry, did I wake you?”
“No, it’s fine,” Raine lied. “Is everything okay?”
“Not really,” Mason said with a tight smile, glancing at the clock; it was ten to six. “I was supposed to go to work at nine, but I just got a call; they need me to come in as soon as possible.”
Raine’s eyes widened. There went their plans for the morning: Mason would wake Oliver up, give him breakfast, and get him ready for the day before going to work—which would hopefully put Oliver in a better mood for a day with Raine. But now, Mason wouldn’t be able to do any of that.
“I know,” Mason groaned, seeing her expression. “I tried to ask them to wait, but they wouldn’t.” He shook his head. “You’d think they’d give me some leeway since it’s my first day back in the office.”
This didn’t bode well for the coming days, either. Mason had wanted to work a strict nine-to-five schedule while Oliver settled in with Raine, but it seemed his company had other thoughts.
“I’m sorry to leave you with this, Raine,” Mason apologized, grabbing the toast as it popped up and slathering it with a generous helping of butter. “Let him have Frosted Flakes for breakfast this morning; he usually only eats it on special occasions, but you have my full permission to bribe him with sugar all day if you have to—just as long as you’re willing to deal with him while he’s bouncing off the walls.”
“I’ll try not to go that far,” Raine said with a laugh. “It’s a shame you couldn’t have taken one more day off; it’s a Saturday, after all.”
Mason cleared his throat. “Yes, well, they were insistent. Okay, I just need to say goodbye to Oliver, and then I’ll be off.”
He sped off again, taking the stairs two at a time. She thought about following him, but she didn’t want to hear Oliver’s voice as he said goodbye to his father. So, she puttered around the kitchen instead, placing the butter knife and breadboard in the sink before finding a place for the butter in the fridge.
Soon Mason was back, his expression even more strained. “He’ll be fine,” he said; she wondered if he was trying to convince her or himself. “My cell number and my office number are on the fridge. Please call if you have any problems at all.”
“I will,” Raine promised. “We’ll see you this afternoon.”
He gave her a tense smile, and then he rushed from the kitchen. Raine listened to the door slam and then to his car start and pull away. She glanced around the kitchen, wondering what she should do with herself.
For lack of anything better to do, she headed back up the stairs. Oliver’s door was open now, and she peered inside; he was huddled under his covers, and Raine guessed he had either fallen back asleep or intended to hide from her a little while longer. Either way, he wouldn’t be moving soon.
She went back into her room, leaving the door open, and grabbed a book off her desk. She would have liked to go back to sleep, as it was still early, but she was far too awake now.
The hours slipped by as Raine read, half her concentration on the story, the other half on listening for any sound from Oliver. It was only after she finished a particularly engrossing part of the book that Raine looked up and realized it was after ten o’clock and she had heard no movement from Oliver’s room.
Frowning, Raine left her room and looked into Oliver’s room again; he was still just a lump under the blankets. Suddenly fearful that he had tricked her (he could have snuck out of his room between Mason leaving and Raine returning upstairs), she entered the room and laid a gentle hand on the lump.
“Go away!” came a muffled voice.
Well, he was still there, but it was getting late; she couldn’t allow Oliver to stay in bed all d
ay. On the other hand, she didn’t think ripping the blankets away would endear her to him at all.
“Oliver, it’s pretty late. Are you hungry?”
“No,” Oliver said, but his stomach rumbled loudly.
“Well, that’s okay. We can get something to eat in a little while,” Raine said, pretending she hadn’t heard the rumbling. “It was early when your dad left this morning, wasn’t it?”
Oliver remained stubbornly silent. Raine imagined she’d have found his petulance amusing if he hadn’t been directing it at her.
“I had some ideas about what we could do today,” she tried. “I have a recipe for cookies. Do you like to bake?”
No answer. She hadn’t expected one, but this was getting frustrating.
“I like to bake,” she continued. “But I don’t always have a lot of time. My dad taught me how to bake. A long time ago, he owned and ran a bakery.” She laughed. “It’s really funny because my mom can’t bake at all. I used to make cookies and cakes with my dad all the time, and my mom would be our taste-tester.”
Raine was just rambling to fill the silence, but, to her surprise, Oliver shifted, the blanket falling a little so he could peer over the edge. Heart thumping, she pretended not to notice.
“But my mom’s good at other things. She’s a pretty mean sewer.” Raine fixed her eyes on the opposite wall as Oliver sat up. “She fixed all my clothes when they ripped when I was a kid. And they were always getting ripped because I used to get in fights with boys when I was little. She always used to scold me for it, but then she would fix my clothes as good as new. And when I had a costume party, my costume was always handmade.”
“Can you sew?” Oliver asked in a small voice.
Raine tried to smother a triumphant grin.
“Not as well as my mom can,” she admitted, finally turning to look at Oliver. “I can’t make costumes, but I can make teddy bears and dolls. Once, I even made a dinosaur teddy.” His eyes widened. “Would you like me to make one for you?”
He looked a little unsure, and his small face scrunched in thought. Then, he nodded.
“I’ll make one, then,” Raine said decisively. “You can even help me if you’d like.”
It was the right thing to say. His face lit up, and she resolved to make sure all her pins and needles were in containers he wouldn’t be able to open easily.
“Can it be blue?” Oliver asked.
“Whatever color you want,” Raine promised.
“My daddy can’t cook or sew,” Oliver confided, kicking the blanket away. “He sewed my socks together once.”
Raine grinned at the thought, making Oliver giggle. “Well, not everyone is good at those things.”
“Mommy was,” Oliver said unexpectedly. “Daddy said she was a good cook.”
“Oh?” Raine couldn’t help but admit that she was curious about the mysterious Emily. “Does your dad talk about your mom a lot?”
“Nah,” Oliver said with a shrug. “He said she left a long time ago, but she loved me very much. One day she’ll talk to us again, and she’ll tell me that.”
He said it as though he was reciting something he’d been told without understanding the words’ meaning. Raine opened her mouth though she wasn’t sure what she should say… and then Oliver’s stomach rumbled again.
“Breakfast?” he asked hopefully.
Raine glanced at the clock; it was close to eleven now. An idea sprang to mind, and she smiled at Oliver. “It’s getting a little late for breakfast, so let’s have brunch.”
“Brunch?” Oliver’s nose screwed up at the unfamiliar term. “What’s that?”
“It’s a meal that’s too late for breakfast and too early for lunch.” Raine laughed. “But because it’s not breakfast, we can have something special. What do you say about having pancakes?”
“Yeah!” Oliver cheered, jumping up to his feet, and Raine reached out to steady him when he wobbled on the mattress. “That’s way better than toast!”
Raine decided not to tell him he was missing out on Frosted Flakes for breakfast.
“Let’s get dressed. Then, we’ll go downstairs and make them, okay?”
She dressed quickly and then returned to help Oliver. He chattered the entire time about his kindergarten, the other kids he knew, and his father as she helped him with the buttons, the angry, petulant child of before long gone.
Watching him like this… it was easier and easier to see herself in him. She had seen home videos of herself; she had been exactly like this as a child. With his curly brown hair and his wide smile, it was like looking at those old photographs and videos once more.
And it made her angry. Any compassion she had felt toward Mason last night disappeared. If Oliver was her son, then what right had Mason had to take him from her? Why had he denied her a life with her son?
She shoved these thoughts down, however; right now, she had a more pressing matter to deal with: the hungry seven-year-old to whom she’d promised pancakes.
* * *
The dumbstruck look on Mason’s face when he stepped into the kitchen to see the two of them covered in flour made Raine and Oliver laugh at him. He recovered, walking toward them as he eyed the now-white tiles.
“Cookies?” he asked, glancing at the oven.
“Yeah,” Raine said, watching as Oliver threw himself at his father. “You’re home early.”
“I wanted to make sure everything was okay considering how Oliver was when I left this morning,” Mason admitted. “Looks like I worried for nothing. You’re a miracle worker.”
Raine didn’t want to feel pleased at his words. But it was difficult to be angry at him while she watched him cuddle his son close.
“Why don’t you go clean up,” Mason suggested to Oliver, nudging him out of the kitchen. “Then, we can have cookies.”
They watched as Oliver sped off, leaving a trail of flour in his wake.
“I’ll clean that later,” Mason promised, turning back to her. “Thank you, Raine; I wasn’t sure how today would go.” He hesitated. “I… I didn’t actually have to start work today.”
“What?” Raine asked, startled.
“I wanted to give you a chance to get to know Oliver without me being here,” Mason said with a laugh. “I knew it could go badly, but I hoped it would help.”
Raine laughed with him. “Looks like your sneakiness paid off. Thanks for giving me the time I needed.”
“This just proves you’re the person Oliver needed” Mason smiled warmly at her, and she tried to ignore the way her insides fluttered. She hated how charming he was; it made it impossible to stay angry at him. “I’m glad you’re here, Raine.”
“I am, too,” she murmured, wishing it wasn’t so difficult to hate him for what he had done to her.
Chapter 7
“You’re off this afternoon?” Raine asked from her place at the counter where she was making sandwiches. “It’s Tuesday, isn’t it?”
“I worked both Saturday and Sunday,” Mason reminded her. “I think I’m entitled to a day off today.” He paused. “I haven’t messed up any plans, have I?”
“No, no,” Raine assured him. “Oliver and I were just going to hang around the house after I picked him up. Sorry if I sounded so surprised; I wasn’t expecting you home so early.”
Mason could tell; she had almost dropped her knife when he had walked into the kitchen and greeted her. He hadn’t meant to startle her, but her reaction had amused him.
It was a little strange that he was taking the afternoon off so soon after starting back at work, but he didn’t mind using his ownership of the company to get a few hours with his son. He didn’t want to admit it to Raine, but he had missed Oliver just as much as his son had missed him the past few days. Hearing Oliver chatter on and on about his day at dinner just wasn’t the same.
Raine covered the plate of sandwiches with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. Then, she picked up her bag and started toward the door. “Which car do you want to take?�
��
“I can drive.” he offered.
“Sounds good.”
The drive to Oliver’s kindergarten didn’t take long, and they arrived just as children began spilling out of the classrooms. It didn’t take long before Mason spotted Oliver in the midst of the crowd, almost hidden by the taller children.
“Oliver!” Raine called through the window before opening the door and stepping out, waving at the little boy.
Oliver beamed and dashed forward. To Mason’s surprise, he didn’t even notice his father as he crashed into Raine and hugged her around the middle. He had seen, of course, the way Raine’s and Oliver’s relationship had improved since Saturday, but Oliver was so intent on talking his ear off before bedtime that this was the first time he had seen how attached his son was getting to the nanny.
He was more surprised by the odd jealousy that stirred in his chest. Shaking the thought away, Mason stepped out of the car and smiled when Oliver shrieked happily and ran into his arms.
“Daddy, you’re here, too!”
“Yep,” Mason laughed. “I’ve got the entire afternoon off.”
Too excited to sit still, Oliver would have bounced around the back seat had the seatbelt not held him in one place. He swung his legs excitedly, talking non-stop. Mason missed half of what he said because he was talking so fast, but Raine kept shooting the boy indulgent smiles, humming and nodding occasionally.
“You understand him?” he muttered to her as they pulled into the driveway.
“Nope,” Raine murmured back. “But it doesn’t matter as long as he doesn’t notice.”
Mason choked back a laugh.
Oliver took off as soon as they got into the house, stopping only to grab Raine’s hand and drag her along with him. Mason listened to her laughing protests as she tried to explain to Oliver that lunch was in the fridge. He blinked, stunned at being left behind.
When he had hired a nanny, he hadn’t thought about what it would mean to share his son with someone else for the first time. He fought the jealousy, which rose stronger this time, and decided to grab the plate of sandwiches from the fridge so they could eat in the living room.
