An Unexpected Father

by Marie Ferrarella

  He was about to make another disclaimer about the situation when his front door suddenly flew open and both of the twins came racing out.

  Toby and Tyler made a direct beeline for Brady till they spotted the person standing next to him and abruptly stopped short.

  “Who’s this?” Toby wanted to know. He looked Harper up and down and apparently tried to size up the situation. Putting his little hands on his hips, Toby turned toward Brady and demanded, “Did you get married?”

  “Is that why you had Unca Kane pick us up?” Tyler asked, not to be left out. “’Cause you were getting married?”

  Kane came out, one hand wrapped around the hand of the brand-new addition in his life, a sweet little girl named Erin. “They heard the sound of your voice and got away from me before I could stop them,” his brother admitted, slightly embarrassed.

  “You don’t have to apologize,” Brady told him. “I appreciate you picking them up for me.” Aware that everyone was looking at the woman with him, he quickly made the introductions. “Harper, this is my brother, Kane, and Erin. Kane, this is Harper Radcliffe.”

  While Erin hid behind Kane’s legs, Kane leaned over and extended his hand to the young woman with his brother.

  “Nice to meet you, Harper. I take it you’re the one Brady thinks is going to bring order back to his chaotic life. Bless you for that,” he added with a wide smile that Harper thought made him look a great deal like the man she had followed here.

  “And these are the twins, Toby and Tyler,” Brady told Harper, pointing at each of them in turn. “Boys, this might be your new nanny.”

  For just a moment, the twins were almost well behaved—and then they started firing questions at her, their young, high-pitched voices blending into a cacophony of dissonance.

  Not wanting Harper to feel as if she was being hemmed in, not to mention overwhelmed, Brady said, “She hasn’t made up her mind about the job yet, boys.”

  He was secretly pinning part of his hopes on the twins being able to tug at her heartstrings, and part on his own charm wearing her down. Although, he was ready to admit, that charm was beginning to wane somewhat. He just hoped that it was still strong enough to convince Harper to take on something she had supposedly professed to love doing.

  Mentally crossing his fingers, Brady looked at her and asked, “Right?”

  “Right,” Harper answered, her expression giving nothing away.

  Tyler still appeared to be stuck in first gear. Tugging on the bottom of Harper’s blouse, he asked, “If you marry Unca Brady, does that mean you’re our mommy?”

  Toby frowned, taking on a superior air. “No, stupid, that makes her our aunt, right?” He looked up at Harper to back him up.

  As Brady watched her, he felt as if he was observing Harper diving into the deep end of the pool. Squatting down to be on the same eye level as the twins, she addressed Toby. “Well, number one, I’m not marrying your Uncle Brady, and number two, you should never call your brother stupid.”

  “Why not?” Toby wanted to know. It was clear that the boy didn’t like being given any sort of restrictions, even when it came to using words.

  “What’s number three?” Tyler piped up so as not to be ignored.

  These boys were clearly going to be a test to her abilities, Harper thought. She could feel it. They were bright. Very bright.

  Well, she did enjoy a good challenge, Harper mused philosophically. It made the whole experience that much more interesting.

  Rising to her feet, Harper placed a hand on each small shoulder. “There is no number three,” she told Tyler, then qualified, “—for now. But I’m sure there will be. Eventually. And you shouldn’t call anyone stupid,” she told Toby, “because everyone is smart in their own way.”

  Toby’s frown deepened. “Stevie Jordan isn’t smart,” he told this new nanny.

  “Oh, I think you’re being too hard on this Stevie, Toby,” Harper told him. “I think if you try, you can find something that Stevie is smart about or good at. You just have to think about it.”

  “Naw,” Toby said, shaking his head as he waved a dismissive hand at the idea.

  “Would you try?” Harper coaxed, looking into the boy’s eyes. “For me?” she added, lowering her voice, one friend to the other.

  And as Brady looked on, the twin he considered to be the more rambunctious one of the duo seemed to puff up his chest as he pretended to consider the pretty lady’s request.

  Brady realized that Toby was almost blushing as he replied, “Well, okay. For you.”

  Dumbfounded as well as very impressed, Brady looked at Harper. “Wow, I think I just witnessed a miracle.” Unabashed admiration filled his eyes. “Anything you want, I’ll pay it!” he promised the woman with heartfelt enthusiasm. “You have to take this job. Anything,” he repeated. “Just name your price.”

  “I think he means it,” Kane said as he began to make his way toward the truck, still holding on to Erin’s hand. “I’d hold out for top dollar if I were you,” he told Harper with a wink. “If Brady here can’t pay it, the family will take up a collection.

  “Really nice meeting you, Ms. Radcliffe,” Kane told her again, shaking Harper’s hand before he opened the rear door of his truck. “I hope I’ll be seeing you here again,” he said as he hoisted Erin up in his arms, then placed her in her car seat. He carefully made sure all the belts were secured. “Good luck, Brady,” Kane called out to his brother before getting in behind the truck’s steering wheel.

  Nodding, Brady said, “Thanks again.”

  The next moment, his brother forgotten, Brady was looking at the woman he was trying to hire. Counseling himself to put one foot in front of the other, he crossed his fingers and looked at Harper.

  “Why don’t we go inside and you can get to know Toby and Tyler a little better?” he suggested. Everything was riding on this and so far, the twins hadn’t blown it. He was hoping for another miracle.

  Brady pushed the front door open a little wider. It was a not-too-subtle invitation to the woman who he was hoping would come around to seeing things his way.

  “I’ll go in,” Harper agreed, “but I don’t think I really need to get to know Toby and Tyler a little better,” she told Brady.

  What did that mean? Brady wondered, getting a sinking feeling in his stomach.

  Oh damn, the twins have managed to somehow torpedo this in record time, he thought. Back in New York, it had taken at least a day, and sometimes even more time, before the twins succeeded in doing something to make a babysitter or a nanny go running for the hills. But this, this had happened before Toby and Tyler even gave the woman any time to walk in the door.

  “Are you sure?” Brady asked her, struggling to tamp down a desperate feeling. There had to be something he could say or do, he thought.

  “Yes, I think so,” she replied.

  He could feel his heart sinking down to his toes. “Isn’t there anything I could do or say to make you change your mind?” he wanted to know.

  She looked at Brady, clearly confused. “Why would you want me to change my mind?”

  Brady went for broke, feeling that at this point, he had nothing to lose. “Because, frankly, I need you, Ms. Radcliffe.” Then realizing she might get the wrong idea—even though he did find himself attracted to her—he gestured toward the twins. “They need you,” he said with emphasis.

  “And?” she questioned.

  “And?” Brady echoed quizzically, at a loss as to what was going on. “There is no and,” he told her. “We all need you,” he stressed. “It’s as plain and simple as that.”

  Harper nodded her head. “I understand that.”

  “And you’re still not going to take the job?” he asked, desperation gnawing at his insides.

  Harper stared at him. “When did I say that?” she wanted to know.

  He felt like som
eone who was doomed to go around in circles. “When you said that you didn’t need to get to know them better,” he pointed out.

  “I don’t need to get to know them better,” Harper insisted, “because I’ve made up my mind.”

  The way she said it gave him a glimmer of hope, but he wasn’t going to jump to any conclusion because it might be the wrong one in the end. It might wind up jeopardizing any chance he had left to get her to agree to work with the twins and turn them into little people. Little people who he had a prayer of ultimately helping nurture—safely—into adulthood.

  So he asked, “To—?” and waited for Harper Radcliffe to say the right words. Words that would put his life back on track.

  “—to accept your offer to become their nanny,” Harper concluded.

  “You have no idea what that means to me,” he cried. Then, thinking that what he had just said might scare her, he quickly backtracked on his enthusiasm.

  Or at least tried to. “I mean—”

  Harper took pity on him and stopped Brady before he could continue. “That’s all right, I think I know what you mean and you’re right, I do think that I can do some good here.” She made eye contact with Toby and then Tyler in turn. “If you boys will let me,” Harper told them sincerely.

  It was obvious that Toby and Tyler weren’t sure exactly what this new lady with the bright smile wanted them to do. But Harper could tell by the expression on their small, animated faces that they were willing to go along with almost anything—which was why she felt fairly confident that this would all go well once she and the boys became used to one another.

  Brady knew that he was risking having this all fall apart on him, but he needed to make sure that this woman who had the power to turn everything around in his life understood exactly what was involved.

  “You do realize that this is supposed to be a live-in position, right?” he asked her.

  “It is?” He hadn’t mentioned that earlier. Her last position had been a live-in one and that had ended badly. She didn’t want a repetition of that.

  “Is that a deal breaker?” he wanted to know, then started talking fast. “Because if it is, we can come to some sort of an arrangement for the time being,” he said, desperate not to have her change her mind.

  Harper looked at the twins’ upturned faces, thinking over what Brady had just said. He was willing to be flexible. She could be the same.

  “Why don’t we do that?” Harper suggested. “We’ll play this by ear to begin with. I’ll come in every morning and stay until the twins are in bed and asleep,” Harper told her new boss, smiling at the twins as she cupped each of their faces with one of her hands. “After that, we’ll see how it goes.”

  “Is something going somewhere?” Tyler asked, perplexed.

  “My sanity if your new nanny changes her mind,” Brady said, looking at Harper with unabashed gratitude in his eyes.

  “You’re gonna stay?” the boys asked in unison.

  “I’m going to stay,” Harper confirmed.

  The twins cheered, warming both her heart as well as Brady’s.

  Chapter Eight

  “You wanna see my room?” Toby asked, although as far as he was concerned, it was a foregone conclusion that this new nanny did.

  Not waiting for an answer, Toby wrapped his small and surprisingly strong fingers around Harper’s hand and enthusiastically began pulling her toward the winding staircase.

  “It’s our room,” Tyler told Harper indignantly, making a face at Toby as he corrected his twin. His small eyebrows drew together in an irritated V.

  “He only sleeps there ’cause he’s afraid of sleeping alone,” Toby told Harper.

  It was obvious that Toby didn’t want this new mother figure in his life to think that he was the baby of the pair.

  “Am not!” Tyler insisted, clearly upset that Harper might believe Toby.

  Rather than distance herself from this brewing argument, the way he would have—and had on occasion—as Brady watched the events unfold, Harper got into the middle of this scuffle quickly. And then managed to quell it.

  “I’m sure your uncle Brady put you both in the same room so that you could keep each other company,” Harper told the twins. “Trust me—it’s really nice to have a brother around you can talk to when you have something you want to share.”

  Tyler slipped his hand into Harper’s other hand, not wanting to be left out. He wanted to lead her up the stairs just like his twin.

  “Do you have a brother?” he asked her eagerly. The more sensitive twin clearly wanted to learn everything there was about this new, special nanny his “unca” Brady had brought into their lives.

  “I do. He’s a soldier and halfway around the world right now,” Harper replied. “But when we were kids, growing up, we would share secrets together.” She smiled nostalgically. “You two are very lucky to have each other,” she told the duo as she allowed them to take her up to their room.

  “How come you think that’s so special?” Toby wanted to know, making a face at Tyler. “I don’t.”

  “Oh, you don’t mean that,” Harper told Toby. “And you’re particularly lucky because you were each born with your best friend right there by your side. I think that’s really special,” she said.

  Toby’s lower lip curled. “Yeah, well, maybe,” he was willing to guardedly admit.

  For his part, Tyler shrugged a little too carelessly. “Toby’s okay, I guess,” he said.

  Standing at the bottom of the stairs, watching this unfold, Brady could only marvel at his good luck. After what felt like an endless parade of countless nannies who had passed through his life, it looked as if he had finally, finally struck gold.

  This woman was nothing if not the answer to a prayer, he thought.

  Very honestly, part of him was afraid that he was dreaming. Brady was even tempted to pinch himself just to make sure he wasn’t.

  But then, if he was dreaming, he really didn’t want to wake up.

  The next moment, Brady thought of going upstairs just in case Harper ran into any trouble.

  But then, he told himself that maybe it was better this way.

  Barring any screams or cries for help, Brady decided to keep out of this, at least for the first couple of minutes or so. As much as he wanted this woman to stay—she gave off a competent air, the twins seemed to take to her instantly and added to that, Harper Radcliffe was extremely easy on the eyes—Harper needed to know what she was up against.

  In all fairness, Toby and Tyler didn’t mean to do half the things they did. He’d learned that about them. They were just being...boys, he thought with a resigned sigh. Then again, when he thought about some of the escapades he and his twin brother Brian had gotten into as kids, he supposed he should consider himself lucky.

  It was up to him to make sure they didn’t kill themselves while they were doing it. And an important part of that involved having him find the right person to be their nanny. He couldn’t be with them 24/7. He needed to earn a living so that he was able to pay expenses for the three of them.

  Brady glanced at his watch. It had only been five minutes, but it was way too quiet up there. Quiet made him even more nervous than the sound of screaming and the loud, jarring noises of things falling or being thrown.

  Okay, he told himself. They had had enough time together. It was time to rescue Harper while there was hopefully still someone left to rescue.

  Brady took the stairs two at a time, a sense of urgency mounting inside him with every step.

  By the time he reached the landing, Brady was braced for the worst. He had once walked in on the twins tying up one of their nannies. The furious words that came flowing out of that woman’s mouth were very far from PG rated.

  The moment he managed to free her, the woman had stormed out of the apartment, threatening him with a lawsuit.

&nbs
p; The lawsuit never materialized and he could only think that angry nanny wasn’t able to find a lawyer who would stop laughing at her long enough to take on the woman’s case.

  He’d lucked out then, Brady thought. But there were only so many miracles allotted to a person and he couldn’t separate himself from the idea that he had already exhausted his supply.

  Still, it didn’t keep him from hoping.

  The door to the twins’ room was open.

  As he drew closer, Brady heard the sound of Harper’s voice. She wasn’t yelling or even telling the twins that they had to stop doing something.

  She was reading, he realized. Reading a story to the twins. And for once, neither of the boys was offering a running commentary or their own version of what was being read to them.

  The twins were actually being quiet—without being gagged, he thought in amazement.

  Brady reached their room and saw that the twins were sitting on their beds, looking totally enthralled with the story that Harper was reading to them.

  Gina had bought that book for them, Brady suddenly recalled. It was one of the last things the twins’ mother had done before she had ridden off on the back of Gord’s motorcycle, along with her husband, into eternity.

  Brady remembered attempting to read the book to the twins just once, only to be stopped by Toby who refused to be quiet long enough for the story to be read.

  Even Tyler had piped up, crying out, That’s mommy’s book. You can’t read it. Nobody can read it. Just Mommy, he had tearfully insisted.

  Brady had left the book on the shelf then, thinking that when the boys were older, maybe one of them would want to read it, even though it was clearly a fairy tale written for children and they, by then he assumed, might be a good deal older.

  Suddenly he heard Tyler asking, “Why would that guy give Jack some old beans for his mommy’s cow?”

  Toby, ever practical in his own way, had a more immediate question. “Why didn’t the beans squish in his pocket?”

  “That’s a very good question,” Harper told Toby. “Why do you think they didn’t squish in his pocket?”