The Nanny Proposal

Years later she’d believed that she’d found her place, her permanent home with Dale. Yeah, that hadn’t turned out the way she expected it to.

Kasey walked over to the king-size bed covered in expensive, white Egyptian cotton and picked up her phone. There were two missed calls from Michelle, one from Dale. Knowing it was more of the same old, same old, she blew out a frustrated breath and tossed her phone back onto the bed.

Dale and Michelle were in a race to win her back. Both wanted to be the first to earn her forgiveness. They were both sorry...they’d made a mistake...could she forgive them?

Hell, no.

Their infidelity had not only left her unable to fathom being in a relationship again, but also riddled her with insane trust issues. She’d spent the last eight months rebuilding her life. She was starting to feel vaguely normal and she was so much stronger. She liked her job, she liked Royal and she liked not having to deal with their neediness and drama. At some point she’d have to meet with them, face them, but today wasn’t that day. Tomorrow wasn’t looking good for them, either.

“I’m ready, Kasey.”

Kasey turned and smiled at Savannah, who stood in her open doorway, dressed in a pink-and-purple swimsuit, her swimming goggles high on her head.

Savannah noticed that Kasey was still wearing her sundress and her expression turned to resignation, her face crumpling. “Okay, well...if you’re not going to swim, then I’ll just go to my room.”

So much pain, Kasey thought, her heart flipping over. Savannah was nearly six but she expected adults to disappoint her.

“Honey, I was just woolgathering. Of course I’m going to swim with you.” Kasey walked over to the dresser and pulled open the top drawer. Yanking out her swimsuits, she held them up. “The blue racer or the orange bikini?”

Savannah, because she was a mini fashionista, tipped her head, giving the question her complete attention. “The orange bikini.”

Damn, Kasey silently thought. The bikini was modest, but it was still four triangles and she didn’t feel comfortable showing Aaron that much skin.

A little too late, Monroe, considering the man once managed to kiss every inch of your skin.

But she wasn’t thinking about that, about him, about how his touch made her combust from the inside out... She remembered the taste of his mouth, his skin, how his fingers trailed over her—

No! Stop!

Enough. They’d had their one insanely hot night together and, as mind-blowing as it had been, it could never be repeated again.

She was permanently unavailable and he was her super-professional boss, so getting worked up about showing a little flesh was just...stupid. Apart from that kiss in her house days ago, Aaron never made any reference to what they’d done, how they’d done it and how hot it had been. He was so inscrutable that some days she even doubted that night had ever happened and she sometimes wondered whether Aaron naked was a very erotic, very sexy, figment of her imagination.

“Kasey!”

Kasey blinked and looked at Savannah, hands on her tiny hips, her green eyes frustrated. She clapped her hands and made a shooing motion. “You are wool-grabbing again.”

Kasey started to correct her but smiled instead. “You’re right, I am.”

God, she really, really liked this kid. She had to be careful. After her marriage imploded, she’d promised herself she wasn’t going to form emotional attachments again. She didn’t trust herself enough to do that. Because trust and attachment led to a shattered heart and hers was only just starting to heal.

* * *

Aaron sat on a pool lounger a few yards from the pool. Kasey and Savannah were sitting in the water, on the wide, first step of the massive pool. Nearly every doll Savannah owned was in the pool with them and Kasey was helping Savannah to teach them to swim.

Kasey, long-limbed and slim, flipped a chubby plastic doll onto its back to make it float. Savannah, sitting between Kasey’s legs, guided the doll through the water, her one hand on Kasey’s thigh. They were lost in their own conversation, oblivious to his presence.

At one point in his life, while he’d still been at college, he’d dreamed of this: a big house, money in the bank, a hot wife and a cute kid. He’d been happy to play the field, but in the back of his mind he’d always been on the lookout for “the One.” His perfect match. Instant recognition of his soul mate. God, for a guy who’d always had nerves of steel when it came to finance, he’d been such a damn romantic.

There was nothing romantic about being the direct cause of his parents’ car accident or having his fiancée run off with his client list six months after opening their investment firm together, nearly bankrupting him in the process. Kate had been six years older than him, sophisticated, and he’d hung on her every word. He’d believed her when she’d insisted he was bright enough to make it without completing his last semester of college, that he didn’t need his degree in finance and that he needed to concentrate on their business. So in love with her, he’d dropped out of college, breaking his parents’ hearts and ultimately causing their deaths.

Afterward he’d flung himself into their business, working crazy hours to get their company off the ground, to distance himself from the grief. How had Kate repaid him? The month after he’d made his first five-million trade, she’d visited every one of their clients and told them that she was the one reading the markets, that she was concerned about his emotional health, his youth. His clients, scared to risk their money on such a young trader, had moved their portfolios to Kate. He’d been left with the three clients she hadn’t been brave enough to approach: his brother, Will Sanders and Megan. He’d taken his life savings, Megan’s and Jason’s modest investments and Will’s larger investment, and made them all a damned fortune. His former clients, who had lost money with Kate, had reached out to him, asking him to manage their money again.

Because loyalty was everything to him, Aaron had refused. Besides, by that point—and thanks to Will’s word-of-mouth advertising—he had more, far richer, clients than he could handle.

God, if only his parents had trusted his decision. If only they hadn’t freaked and jumped into that car ten minutes after he’d told them he was dropping out of school. If only they hadn’t driven through the night to confront him at Berkeley. If they had trusted him, just a little...

His heart had splintered into a million pieces when his parents died and what was left had been decimated by Kate’s deceit. He would’ve given Kate everything. But she’d screwed him over, big-time, and, ten years later, his heart still wasn’t capable of giving or receiving love.

Did Savannah sense that? Was that why she was so reserved around him? Did she subconsciously realize that he had nothing to give? God, he hoped not. If Jason—God...if his brother didn’t come back, could he love Savannah the way she deserved to be loved, the way a little girl needed to be loved? He wasn’t so sure...

Dammit, Jay, you’d better be doing everything you can to get yourself back here! I can’t do this... Savvie needs you. She needs her dad.

And, hell, I need my brother.

He should be working, Aaron thought. There were markets to check, decisions to make. But he could take another five minutes to sit in the afternoon sun and soak up some rays. He tried to sit still but, feeling antsy, he reached for his cell and dialed Cole Sullivan’s number.

The private investigator had assured him that he was doing everything he could to find Jason. But surely there was something Aaron could do, as well? Because, sure as hell, sitting around in the sun while his brother was missing wasn’t it. Guilt, acidic and bitter, burned his tongue and the roof of his mouth.

“Sullivan.”

Aaron asked whether Cole had any news.

“Nothing concrete since the last time we spoke, Aaron.”

Nothing concrete... Did that mean Cole had found something? “Do you have a hunch about what happened?”

“I have nothing concrete, Aaron,” Cole repeated. “I make it a policy not to share my hunches or suppositions without anything to back them up.”

Crap. Aaron gripped the bridge of his nose and ignored the burning in his eyes. “What can I do, Cole? Just tell me. I need to do something...the waiting is killing me.”

“If there is anything, I’ll let you know. Hang tough, Aaron. I’m hoping to have some solid answers for you soon.”

“Okay. Keep me updated.”

“You will be the second person I call,” Cole promised him.

Aaron wanted to protest but remembered that Cole was working for Will. He wasn’t calling the shots, wasn’t Cole’s client, and that burned him. He liked being in charge, but he was somewhat pacified by the knowledge that he was in the loop, that he’d get the information as soon as Will did. Besides, he instinctively trusted Cole. He knew he was doing everything he could to track down Jason.

Aaron saw the tiny feet next to his size thirteens and slowly lifted his head to look into Savannah’s worried face. They shared the same green eyes, he thought, the Phillips chin.

“Were you talking to someone about my daddy?” Savannah demanded, fear and worry in her eyes.

Aaron felt like he was looking into his own soul. He thought about lying, then decided she deserved, and needed, the truth. “Yeah, Savvie, I was.”

“Is he coming home soon?” Savannah asked, her bottom lip wobbling.

Aaron took her hand in his and sat straighter. His gut clenched at the mixture of hope and fear he saw in her eyes. “I don’t know, honey. We’re trying to find him.”