A Nanny In The Family

“I’m not sure I follow you.”

“Oh, I think you do, my dear.” She rooted in her bag, withdrew a mirrored compact and proceeded to touch up her already flawless mouth with a carmine lip pencil. “Your attachment to Thomas is unnatural. No one walks into a house and takes to a child as you apparently have to him—instantaneously, as it were—unless she has a hidden agenda.” Sunlight dazzled briefly in the reflection from the compact mirror as she snapped it closed. “Just between us women, Nicole, what is it you really want from this job?”

Despite the sun, Nicole went cold, afraid she’d somehow tipped her hand and that the other woman had guessed her secret. But then common sense prevailed. Louise wasn’t interested in Tommy; Pierce was her only concern. “There’s no hidden agenda, Miss Trent. I’m merely bringing to this position the same dedication I’ve brought to others I’ve held.”

“So the child is the drawing card?”

“Yes.”

“And Pierce?”

Certainly no one could ever accuse Louise Trent of skirting an issue! She delivered the question in the form of a challenge, her attractive hazel eyes laser sharp as they tracked Nicole’s face where the beginnings of a blush threatened.

Quickly, before it gave her away completely, Nicole sprang to her feet and began stacking the lunch dishes. “The Commander is merely my employer.”

It was true. He’d done nothing, said nothing, to lead her to believe otherwise. His primary consideration was making a home for Tommy and she was merely an accessory to that end. An entirely disposable accessory, should she not perform satisfactorily.

In the clear light of day, her nighttime thoughts about him showed up for what they were: ridiculous fantasies of the kind that junior nurses often harbored about doctors and which she liked to think she’d outgrown years ago. Louise Trent need fear nothing from her. “I love children,” she said. “I have devoted my entire adult life to them.”

“Very noble of you, I’m sure,” Louise replied silkily. “And very clever, too.”

“Clever?”

“Well, my dear, Pierce would have a difficult time justifying your presence here if Thomas shrieked every time he set eyes on you, now wouldn’t he? As it is, he’s indebted to you.” There followed a small, calculated pause. “As am L Your competence and dedication allow Pierce and me to pursue our private relationship without fear that Thomas is being neglected. We are both very grateful. I’m sure you understand what I’m saying?”

“Perfectly.” Nicole held the stare directed her way without flinching. “Three’s a crowd.”

Louise Trent’s smile was about as subtle as a tiger drawing back its lips to reveal its teeth. “Very good, dear! I so dislike having to belabor a point. You’re a perceptive woman, Nicole.”

I’m a liar, Nicole thought, watching Louise walk away. I’m lying to everyone, including myself. And I can’t afford to make an enemy of a woman who, if she ever uncovered my deceit, would cut me up in little pieces and serve me to Pierce on a platter.

“Hey, Nicole!” Pierce waved from the shallow end of the pool, his dark hair slicked down and gleaming with water. Tommy bobbed at his side, squealing with glee. “Somebody here wants your company.”

Temptation beckoned. Where was the harm, after all? And wasn’t this what she’d been hired to do: stand in as the mother figure for a little boy who’d lost both parents?

Yes, the voice of common sense agreed. But not if, in the process, you forget that Pierce Warner’s role stops short of being your mate. He’s seeing another woman. He’ll be spending the evening with her—maybe the whole night. Three isn’t really a crowd here. It’s just that, job description notwithstanding, you’re not the third member of the party. Louise Trent is, and she won’t willingly abdicate the spot.

“Come on, Nicole. What’s keeping you?”

Although the effort made her teeth ache, she smiled and picked up the lunch dishes. “I promised to help Janet pick raspberries for dessert tonight. I’ll take over later while you get ready to go out.”

He shrugged the broad, tanned shoulders which recently had occupied far too much of her attention. “If that’s what you want.”

It wasn’t. But what she wanted wasn’t hers to have.

He didn’t come home until after one the next morning. Not that Nicole spent the entire time clock watching, but Tommy had woken up crying and she just happened to be on her way to his room when Pierce appeared at the top of the stairs.

“What is it?” he asked in a low voice, striding down the hall toward her. “Is Tom sick or something?”

“I think he’s having one of his bad dreams. The monitor picked up the sound of him crying out.”

“Poor kid,” Pierce murmured sympathetically. “Want me to lend a hand getting him settled?”

“I can manage on my own.”

“I’m sure you can, Nicole, but he might feel better having both of us there to reassure him.”

Hunching her shoulders, she said, “Suit yourself,” and couldn’t resist adding, “if you’re not too tired, that is.”

He could hardly have missed the sarcasm in her voice but she didn’t give him time to take issue with it. Slipping past him, she hurried into Tommy’s room.

He lay in a tangle of covers, with his face flushed and damp with tears. “It’s too dark,” he sobbed. “I want my mommy.”

Nicole swept him into her arms and rocked him. “Tommy, darling, wake up. You were dreaming again, but I’m here now.”

“Mommy forgot me,” he wailed. “She left me by myself.”

“You’re not by yourself, darling. Uncle Pierce is here and so am I.” The tears were dribbling down her face, too; tears of grief and tears of helplessness. How could anyone hope to fill the awful gaping hole left in a child’s life when neither of his parents would ever come home to him again?