The Nanny Proposal

“Something’s wrong, Uncle Aaron. Daddy always calls me and it’s been so long.”

Tears just made the green of her eyes more brilliant.

Aaron reached up and touched her cheek with the back of his knuckle. “I know, honey. I’m worried, too.” He gestured to his phone, conscious of Kasey standing a few feet behind Savannah, her body stiff with tension. Did she think he should be more upbeat? That he should be more optimistic? Was this one of those times when he should be lying his ass off?

He met her eyes and saw her concern for Savvie. She was clearly holding herself back, resisting the urge to sweep the little girl into her arms and soothe away her pain.

Aaron was grateful for her reticence. This conversation, as hard as it was, was the first real conversation he’d had with Savannah since she’d moved in full-time.

He picked up his phone and tossed it from one hand to another. “The man I was just talking to? His name is Mr. Sullivan, and his job is to find people who have gone missing.”

“Will he find my daddy?”

Aaron lifted his broad shoulders in a weary shrug. “He’s trying, honey. I just called him to ask him if I could help him, but there’s nothing I can do. I would if I could, but this is his job.”

Savannah moved so that she was standing between his legs. Aaron slid his arm around her, being careful to keep his touch gentle. His eyes burned when she laid her head on his shoulder. “Your job is to look after me... I heard you saying that to Kasey.”

“It is my job. Nobody is more important to your dad than you and he’d want me to make sure that you are safe.”

Savannah pushed her face into his neck and he felt her warm breath on his skin. “I miss him, Uncle Aaron.”

“I do, too, Savvie.” Aaron rested his cheek against her head and closed his eyes. God, Jay, where the hell are you?

He heard Kasey’s footsteps and lifted his head to look at her. Her expression was pure sympathy and he managed a quick, half-baked smile.

Kasey placed a hand on Savvie’s shoulder. “Hey, sweet pea, if you don’t run upstairs now to change, you’re going to be late for your ballet lesson.”

Savannah pulled back and her eyes widened. “And if anyone is late, Mrs. Pitman goes red and her mouth goes all funny.” Savannah made a face and both he and Kasey laughed at her squinty eyes and pursed lips. “I’m going to change real fast, Kasey.”

“You do that, Savvie. Aaron is going to take you to your lesson and he’ll pick you up, okay?”

Savannah looked at Aaron and, for a long moment, he thought she might demand that Kasey take her. “’Kay,” she said before running across the outdoor living area and into the house.

Aaron stood and looked at Kasey, who was wrapping a piece of gauzy fabric around her hips and looking thoughtful.

“Should I have patted her on the head and told her that everything is going to be okay?” he demanded as Kasey pulled a strapless T-shirt over her bikini top.

He was annoyed to find himself holding his breath, waiting for her answer. He didn’t want to mess this up and he didn’t want Kasey to think that he had. Why was he concerned about her opinion? He didn’t, generally, give a rat’s ass about what people thought about him. But he respected Kasey...

“I think you did the right thing,” Kasey said softly and his stomach unraveled an inch or two. “I’d far prefer that you hurt me with the truth rather than comfort me with a lie.”

Aaron sent a glance to the empty house. “But she’s so little...”

“Kids respect honesty, Aaron. You made progress with her by telling her the truth.”

“Honesty is a big deal for me,” Aaron said, looking into her lovely face.

“It’s a big deal for me, too,” Kasey replied, picking up the towel Savvie had left on the patio floor. When she straightened, Aaron caught the flash of deep-seated pain in her eyes, in the way her lips thinned, and wondered who’d lied to her and why. He opened his mouth to ask her but then remembered he had no right to go digging into her life. For eight months he’d managed—just barely—not to cross that line from business to personal, but since he’d kissed her in her bedroom, that line was out of focus and fuzzy.

Aaron picked up his T-shirt and pulled it over his head. “I’d better change.”

Kasey folded the towels she was holding, paying the menial task much more attention than it deserved. “And I need to catch up on my day job.” She turned away but Aaron caught her elbow and sighed at her soft skin, the scent of her perfume mingling with the chlorine smell of the pool. “Kase?”

Whiskey-honeyed eyes threatened to buckle his knees. “Yeah?”

He wanted to kiss her, to yank her to him, to plunder her sexy mouth and fill his hands with her plump breasts. He wanted to strip her out of her clothes and lay her down on that lounger and make love to her in the afternoon sun. Then he wanted to take her into the pool to see if pool sex was as good as he remembered.

Aaron noticed the tremble in Kasey’s fingers, the way her pulse fluttered in her neck. She’d let him. He knew this as well as he knew his own handwriting. It was a fantastic fantasy but it was a crap idea. “Nothing. I’d better go.”

Kasey nodded, started to speak, but then gave the tiniest shake of her head, clamped her lips shut and headed into the house without saying another word.