The Bridal Quest

She looked less tense, less annoyed. “That was nice. Thank you.”

“But that didn’t help, did it?”

She shook her head. “’Fraid not.” As a breeze whipped around her and tossed her hair, she raised a hand to brush back strands.

Sam saw no point in beating around the bush. “Did Herb fire you?”

As if sensing it was pointless to pretend she had no problem, she admitted, “Yes, I don’t have a job anymore, but I can’t blame Herb. I dumped spaghetti on the lap of the mayor’s wife.”

Despite the seriousness of her personal dilemma, a laugh tickled Sam’s throat. He would have loved to have seen that. Eunice Wilson was big on herself—too big. In her opinion, her husband’s political office had made her one of Thunder Lake’s most prestigious citizens. “What are you going to do now?”

When her eyes darted to him, he swore he saw panic in them. Hell, he’d been a cop too long. Shyness probably accounted for her quick looks away.

“I’m not sure.” Head down, in what he interpreted as a small show of nerves, she fiddled with the strap of her shoulder bag. “Tomorrow I’ll look for another job. Cory thought I’d find one without any trouble.”

He gave her credit. She hung onto that bright smile as if her life depended on it.

“And if I don’t find one here, I’ll go somewhere else.” She should have stopped then, but she rushed more words. To Sam, it was a sure sign she was nervous, maybe hiding something. “I like to travel, so I move around a lot.”

“Jesse. Jesse,” Annie yelled as she charged out of the diner and toward them. “Don’t you work here anymore?” Looking as if the world’s worries rested on her shoulders, she braked a few inches from them.

The smile she gave his daughter was meant to soothe. “No, I don’t.” Annie swung a distressed look from him to her. Obviously seeing it, too, she offered an excuse to ease away his daughter’s concern. “But it’s all right. I wanted to look for a different job anyway.”

When her hand fluttered to the handle of her suitcase, Sam couldn’t help wondering if all that she owned was in it.

“You did!” Delight sparkled in Annie’s eyes. “That’s good!”

Sam came to attention. What was happening here?

Looking as if she’d burst with joy, Annie bounced in place. “Daddy has a job for you, don’t you, Daddy?” There was no stopping her now. In the same breath, she declared, “Daddy’s looking for a mommy. He could give you a job.”

“A nanny.” Sam wondered when he’d lost control of the moment. “What she meant is I need a nanny, not a mommy.” Actually, seeing his daughter’s cheery, satisfied grin, he wasn’t sure what she meant.

Chapter Four

By the flash of humor in Jessica Scott’s eyes, Sam guessed he looked as stunned as he felt.

“Thank you, but I couldn’t,” she said, rescuing him.

Annie’s brows pinched together. “But—”

“Annie, we’ll ask around for her. See if someone is looking for help.” He touched his daughter’s shoulder. He would not let a six-year-old maneuver him into a corner. Before the conversation reverted back to her choice for a nanny, he urged her toward the diner. “Come on. We need to join your sister.”

“Why can’t Jesse be our new nanny?” She repeated that question at least five times during their dinner.

Aware of strength in numbers, Casey joined in. “Why can’t she, Daddy?”

“We like her.”

“Uh-huh.” Casey nibbled on a French fry. “We like her. Don’t you?”

“This isn’t about liking her.” Everyone knew nannies had gray hair and orthopedic shoes. “I don’t even think she’d want the job.”

Questioningly Casey tipped her head. “Why wouldn’t she?”

How innocent they were. Sam ran a finger down her nose to make her giggle. Not everyone thought they were angels like he did. “Drink your soda.”

“Who’s going to take care of us then?” Annie cut in.

Good question, Sam mused. The whole incident with Arlene could have been worse if Jess hadn’t helped. Jess. So he thought of her that way. Wasn’t that warning enough? He would be asking for trouble if he hired her. Only a dumb man willingly brought a woman into his house who stirred more feeling in him than any woman had in almost two years.

But she really was good with the girls. Oh, hell. He could stifle whatever attraction was simmering for her. More important was getting someone for his daughters.

Despite their certainty that she’d be perfect for them, he needed to know more about her than her name. “I’ll be right back.” He left them, scoffing down a favorite dessert, chocolate cream pie, and crossed to Herb.

Herb told him that he liked her. That’s what everyone said. After he asked Cory a few questions, Sam called the motel owner from Herb’s office phone. According to Josie Colten, Jess hadn’t charged the room on a credit card. Sam deduced that meant she believed in paying cash for everything, or she’d filed bankruptcy and had no credit. Who knew if she’d suffered hard times?

Herb believed she needed money but she’d refused when Cory had offered her some. Sam figured she was proud. He considered that a good trait. He believed if a person had one good trait they possessed others. He wasn’t naive, but he was a fair lawman, one who never judged everything in terms of black or white. To be too rigid was just plain stupid.

Both girls angled expectant looks at him when he returned to the booth.

“I’ll ask her,” he told them.

“Yippee!” Casey bounced up and down on the booth seat.

“We’ll try her.” He’d already listed reasons to offer her the job. Besides showing common sense for the girls as well as Arlene, he’d seen a gentleness in her touch with Casey. He considered himself a good judge of character, and felt the girls would be safe with her. They certainly liked her. And she needed the job. “Remember. She might not work out,” he reminded his daughters.

“Yes, she will,” Annie insisted.

“We’ll see.”

With no room, no money, and no job, for privacy Jessica strolled to the nearby gas station and the public phone instead of using the phone inside Herb’s Diner. She hated to admit defeat, but she had no choice. She had to call home.

Inside the phone booth, she left the door open and fished in her shoulder bag for coins. How much would she need for a long-distance phone call?

“Jesse, Jesse.” She heard the sweet little voices a second before Annie and Casey appeared at the door.

Through the glass, Jessica observed their father’s approach.

Casey squeezed into the booth as if needing to get closer. “Jesse, will you be our nanny?”

“Will you, Jesse?” Annie asked, crowding in, too.

Standing behind them now, their father gave her that killer smile again. “Girls, let me talk to her.”

Casey whirled around, inched out of the booth behind her sister. Halting beside him, she tugged on his hand, forced him to bend over. “Make her, Daddy,” she said in a low whisper.

“I’ll do my best,” he whispered back. “We’re serious,” he said when the girls stepped away. “We’d like to offer you the nanny job. It’s full-time. Live-in.”