Falling for the Nanny (2 page)

“How's it going?” Mark asked. “On schedule, I hope.”

The fertility program's opening was set for September, although they'd be seeing patients informally before then. The hospital, which had been remodeled in recent years to specialize in maternity and other women's medical issues, already had a number of obstetricians on staff.

“Things are right on track.” Alec leaned back in the swivel chair and glanced out his window. In the distance, he caught a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, a reminder of lazy childhood summers when his path through life had seemed clear-cut.

“How're you settling in? Relocating from the East Coast can't be easy on you and your daughter.” Mark lingered in the doorway. Alec would have offered him a seat, but so far his office furniture didn't include a guest chair. “You must have a few old friends around here, though.”

“Aside from my mother, I haven't stayed in touch with anyone.” Especially not Patty, the girl he'd once loved. He'd heard from Darlene that she'd become a police officer, and didn't look forward to the inevitable moment when he ran into her again. At the very least, she'd probably slap him with a ticket.

“You haven't run into any classmates? Seems like half our staff graduated from Safe Harbor High.”

“Now that you mention it, yes. Several.” When one former schoolmate, a nurse, had invited him to accompany her to an upcoming wedding, Alec had agreed as a friendly gesture.
She didn't seem to consider it a date; mostly, she was eager to talk about her efforts to get pregnant as a surrogate for her sister. It was amazing how much private information women divulged when they discovered he was an embryologist. The fact that he had a PhD rather than an MD didn't seem to dissuade them.

“I'm sure you'll fit in,” the administrator said. “Let me know if there's anything I can do.”

“Absolutely.”

As Mark departed, Alec's phone jingled with a melody that sent him on full alert. It belonged to Fiona's nanny, who'd moved with them from Boston. She almost never called unless it was urgent. “Tatum. Anything wrong?”

“Fiona's fine,” she reassured him. Judging by the background noise, she was calling from her car. He'd made sure she had a hands-free phone, in accordance with California law. “It's your mom.”

That jolted him. At fifty-eight, Darlene was an active community volunteer and a force of nature. He'd never worried about her health. “Is she all right?”

“At the park, she fell off the monkey bars and hurt her ankle.” Playing with Fiona, obviously. How typical of his mother. “We're not sure if it's sprained or broken. I'm taking her to the doctor.”

Faintly, he heard a voice call, “Tell my son not to worry. I'll be fine.”

And another voice: “Is that Daddy? Hi, Daddy!”

A surge of tenderness flooded Alec. He'd never imagined he could love anyone so intensely or completely as he had from the moment he'd first held his daughter in his arms. “How can I help?” he asked Tatum.

“Her doctor's in the medical building next to the hospital. I'm sure he'll want X-rays, and her housekeeper's out sick again, so I should stay with her.” For a twenty-three-year-old,
the nanny was highly responsible. “Fiona's likely to get bored. Any chance you could take her?”

While Alec didn't like to leave the office early on a Thursday afternoon, he could read reports at home tonight. And if his daughter needed him, even to save her from a few hours of restless tedium, he'd be there. “You bet. I'll meet you in front of the office building.”

“See you in a couple of minutes.”

Before he could click off, his mother announced, “We're out of milk and breakfast cereal, and we could use a dozen eggs. Oh, and a loaf of bread.” She lived downstairs in the same condo building, so they often shared meals.

“I'll pick them up on the way home,” Alec promised.

“See you in a few,” Tatum said.

“Bye, Daddy!” called the voice that always wrapped a warm blanket around his heart.

“Bye, sweetheart.” Although his words probably went into Tatum's ear rather than Fiona's, he couldn't resist answering.

Alec packed his gear and made his way out. To the temp secretary holding down the fort, he explained that he was leaving for the day but reachable on his cell.

He took the stairs, since climbing up and down those five flights often constituted his main form of daily exercise. On the first floor, Alec caught a whiff of grilled meat from the cafeteria, and added a roast chicken for dinner to his mental grocery list.

Exiting through the staff door, he strode along the walkway between the two buildings, past flower beds brimming with pink and purple petunias. The air carried a hint of ocean brine.

Alec had loved Boston's intellectual ferment and the sense of being surrounded by history while feeling vitally involved in the future. Coming back to Southern California was like
touring a past that belonged to someone else. Of course, he'd visited his parents on occasion, and had helped arrange his father's funeral two years ago, but the trips had been tightly scheduled affairs. He'd deliberately skipped his ten-year high school reunion.

In the weeks since his return, Alec hadn't had much of a chance to slow down and breathe the salt air. He was almost glad events had conspired to give him an afternoon alone with his daughter—not that he would have wished Darlene an injury.

Climbing on the monkey bars. She'd certainly changed since his own childhood days.

Ahead, he spotted a threesome emerging from the parking garage. Darlene Denny was limping as she leaned on the taller, thinner nanny. Then a little girl skipped into view from behind them, her light-brown hair woven into a thick braid like Tatum's.

“Daddy! Daddy!” She pelted down the walkway, straight into Alec's arms. He whirled her around, relishing the solid feel of her little body and the delicious way her face burrowed into his neck.

“Hey, pumpkin. Kind of rough on your grandma today, huh?” he teased.

“She hurt her ankle.” Fiona clung to him.

He carried her to meet his mother and the nanny. “Mom, you don't need to walk. You could have gotten out right in front of the building.”

“I offered to let her off,” Tatum told him.

“Nonsense.” Darlene grimaced. “It's only a bruise.”

“Tatum, thanks for handling this.” Alec couldn't help noticing a hint of strain on the nanny's face. She'd done him and Fiona a huge favor by relocating, leaving behind friends and family, and now she was going way beyond her job description.

Although Tatum got regular time off—when Alec happened to be tied up on an evening or weekend, his mother handled babysitting duties—the housekeeper he shared with Darlene had been ill a lot lately. Often one of her nieces filled in, but when they weren't available, Tatum grabbed a vacuum and set to work, despite Alec's urging that she leave the chores to him.

“I'm glad you can spend a few hours with Fiona. She's been restless today.” The young woman guided Darlene toward the automatic door. “I guess we'll see you when we see you.”

“I'll have dinner ready.” He shifted his grip on Fiona, who still hung on him. “You okay to walk, cutie, or are you crippled like Grandma?”

His mother laughed, and Fiona wiggled to the ground so fast he nearly lost his balance. “Let's go, Daddy. Can we buy ice cream?”

“The low-sugar kind,” Tatum warned.

“Got it.”

His mother and the nanny disappeared into the building. Holding tight to his little girl's hand, Alec walked her to his reserved space on the lower floor of the garage. There, he strapped her into the booster seat in the back.

Grocery shopping with a child, he reflected as he put the engine in gear, wasn't a simple toss-it-in-the-cart-and-check-out procedure. When he was in a hurry, it could be frustrating.

Today, though, shopping with Fiona felt like an adventure. He looked forward to it.

To lure upscale shoppers, the recently remodeled Suncrest Supermarket greeted customers with a vibrant array of cut flowers and mounded displays of fresh peaches, tomatoes, cherries and watermelons. The meandering pathway between bins, no doubt intended to encourage a leisurely pace, merely annoyed Patty.

If she had her way, stores would put their bathrooms right in front, possibly in large kiosks by the check stands. And they wouldn't clutter the aisles with cardboard displays of specialty items. Who needed a slicer-dicer-ricer anyway?

Ahead, she gauged that she could just squeeze between a couple of older women examining the English muffins. Beyond them, in a cart, a small girl sat swinging her legs and complaining, “Daddy! I need to go potty!”

“That makes two of us,” Patty muttered as she angled past. She didn't realize she'd spoken aloud until a man, apparently the kid's father, turned from the shelves with a loaf of bread in hand and said, “Fiona, can't you wait a—?” And broke off abruptly.

Time stopped. The rattle of carts, the buzz of voices and the canned music faded. Patty was seventeen again, one big raw throbbing wound, gazing into the milk-chocolate eyes of Alec Denny as he told her that, after three and a half years together, he was breaking up with her. It had been right after
the homecoming dance, and she hadn't believed him at first. She'd thought it must be a joke.

Now here he stood a dozen years later, the intense boy having matured into a heart-stopping sculpture of a man—
stop exaggerating, Patty
—okay, a well-built guy with thick hair that barely stopped short of his eyes, and an expression that could melt and scald her at the same time.

“Oh, hey, Alec. Long time no see,” she said. “Sorry, gotta run.”

“Patty! Thank goodness. I could really use your help.”

That stopped her. She hated letting anyone down. Even Alec.

“I can't take my little girl in the men's room. I mean, I could, but it doesn't seem right.” He lifted the kid out of the cart. A cute child with brown hair and an elfin face, she looked as if she could stir up her share of mischief. “Would you mind? I know it's a lot to ask, but I'd really appreciate it.”

The tot in question hopped up and down on the linoleum, squealing, “I gotta go
now!
”

“Fiona, this is Daddy's old friend Patty.” He gazed at her appealingly. “Please?”

Patty had never spent much time around kids, and she never knew what to say to them. But it was faster to yield than to argue. “Sure.” She grabbed the child's hand. “Come on.”

They made a break for it, dodging carts and skimming around displays. By some miracle, the ladies' room had a pair of stalls available. Patty figured Fiona was too old for diapers, but beyond that she had no idea what to do. It was true she had a sister six years younger, named Rainbow courtesy of their ditzy parents, but she and her brother, Drew, had grown up with their ex-military grandfather, a mechanic nicknamed the Sergeant after his former rank. To earn pocket
money, she'd mowed lawns and cleaned out garages rather than babysitting.

“You need any help?” she asked.

Fiona's face scrunched in disgust. “I'm nearly five!”

“Great,” said Patty, and dodged into one of the stalls.

She emerged to find the little girl scrubbing her hands at a sink. Patty gave her own a quick once-over.

“You didn't do it long enough.”

“Excuse me?” She paused, wrists in the air, dripping water.

“To kill the germs,” the child declared. “You have to sing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' all the way through.”

“Every time you wash?” Again, figuring it was easier to comply than complain, Patty stuck her hands under the faucet. “What's your mom, some kind of clean freak?”

“My dad's a 'bryologist,” Fiona announced proudly. “That's a scientist.”

“What's your mom do?”

The child's forehead puckered. “I don't know.”

“Does she stay home with you?” While being a full-time mom was Patty's idea of extreme boredom, she respected individuals who made that choice.
If the world were full of women like me, the human race would be in big trouble.

“No. She doesn't live with us.”

“Your folks are divorced?”

“Yeah.”

Now, there was a surprise. What had gone wrong between Alec and his beautiful bride? Sabrina, that was her name. Patty had heard her praised by a classmate who'd met her through Darlene Denny. But that had been quite a while ago.

Divorce must be tough on the kid. It seemed odd that the father had custody, though. “How come you live with Daddy?”
Patty blurted, before reflecting that interrogating a four-year-old on her family situation might not be appropriate.

“My mom is unstable.”

That didn't sound like the kind of remark a child would make. “Who told you that?”

“Grandma.”

Hmmm.
Apparently the perfect wife hadn't scored such a hit with Darlene, after all. While that might say more about Grandma's rigid standards than it did about the younger woman, Patty sympathized with the little girl caught in the middle. “So, who takes care of you all day?”

“Tatum.”

“And she is…?” Might as well finish satisfying her curiosity, since Alec had sent her blithely off with this tiny fountain of information.

“My nanny. She took Grandma to the doctor,” Fiona explained. “Okay, you washed your hands enough.”

“Right.” They were getting chapped, but it had been worth it.

They found Alec waiting for them outside the restroom. If only her gut didn't do this instinctive lurch when she spotted him, Patty thought, and her brain didn't pop out a memory of a day umpteen years ago when they'd gone grocery shopping together for a beach picnic. She hadn't paid much attention to what they'd put in the cart. All she'd been able to think about was plunging through the surf with him, playfully tussling in their skimpy swimsuits and then getting him alone after the sun went down….

“Everything all right?” he asked.

“She did great,” Patty told him. “Made me scrub the skin off my hands. Guess that's your influence.”

He beamed at Patty in a loopy way. “She bossed
you
around? That's amazing.”

“Why?” Fiona grasped the handle on the cart and gave it a push.

“Did Patty tell you what she does for a living?” Alec halted the cart inches from a display of spaghetti sauce. “She's a police officer.”

Now, where had he heard about that? “Well, until a month ago.”

Placing his hands outside his daughter's on the bar, he helped guide the cart as they lurched toward the checkout. “What happened a month ago?”

“A friend of mine bought a detective agency and I decided to give it a try,” she told him. “I got passed over for a promotion, which was fine, because my partner, Leo, deserved it. But I didn't like the idea of patrolling with anybody else, and I needed a challenge.”

That wasn't the whole story. The truth was, she'd let herself down by not pursuing the promotion hard enough.
If you don't develop more ambition, girl, you'll end up a mess like your parents.
How many times had Grandpa said that?

“So you're a detective.” He sent her an amused grin. “In a T-shirt and jeans?”

She hadn't bothered to put the blazer back on, although she
had
removed the cap. “I nailed an insurance cheat just a few minutes ago.” As they reached the check stand, it occurred to Patty that the other shoppers probably figured the three of them were a family. Man, woman, kid, cart full of food. How strange to think that if they hadn't broken up, they might actually be… Nope. Not worth thinking about.

“Nailed a guy?” Alec repeated.

She pulled out her camera. “I'll show you.” When she was with the force, she'd never have revealed evidence, and she didn't intend to provide any identifying information. But that scene with Stanley begged to be shared.

“Can I see?” Fiona demanded.

“You bet.” As she got the video running, Patty realized that while she was at the market, she, too, should buy something for dinner. Well, no point in making a fuss about it, when they sold candy bars right at the counter.

 

A
LEC COULDN'T REMEMBER
when he'd laughed so hard. Man, that was funny, the shaggy cheater zooming up on the skateboard and realizing he'd been outed.

Then anger flashed across the guy's narrow face. Suddenly Alec didn't feel like laughing. “He might have attacked you.”

“Yeah.” Patty turned off the camera. “Kind of a tense moment there. But he just mouthed off a little.”

“Did you arrest the bad man?” Fiona asked.

“Private detectives don't arrest people,” Patty explained. “I'll write up a report and copy the video for the insurance agency. They'll take it from there.”

“Won't he go to jail? He's committed fraud,” Alec said.

She shrugged. “Somebody would have to report this to the police, and we leave that to our client. I expect they'll use the possibility of criminal charges as leverage to make him drop his claim and repay the money he's received. That's all they really want.”

To Alec, she seemed to be dismissing the danger too easily. “That leaves this guy running around loose. What if he spots you on the street and decides to take revenge?”

Her chin came up, a familiar motion he'd seen countless times in high school when she was dead set on pursuing some escapade. He'd never been able to resist joining her. “Then I might have to teach him a lesson.”

“Are you a teacher?” Fiona gave the cart a shove to keep up with the line.

“I teach lessons to grown-ups who forget their manners.”
Patty indicated the carton of eggs wedged in the cart. “And I hear your daddy's really good with eggs.”

“He makes omelets,” Fiona agreed.

“She's referring to what I do for a living,” Alec told her.

“You make babies for lots and lots of mommies!” his daughter proclaimed, loudly enough for people in the adjacent lines to turn and stare.

He flushed. “That's right.”

“I'll bet you make lots and lots of mommies happy and satisfied,” Patty added at approximately the same volume.

Alec considered poking her in the ribs, but decided against it. “That's my job, all right.”

They'd reached the conveyer belt. She set down a couple of chocolate bars, stuck a rubber divider in place and watched as Alex began unloading his groceries. “Ice cream, yeah. Glad to see you didn't waste your money on fruits and vegetables.”

He felt a guilty twinge. “My mother didn't mention those.”

Patty's forehead puckered. “Fiona said your mom had to go to the doctor. Is she all right?”

“Injured her ankle. She fell off the monkey bars.”

She stared at him. “Is this the same Mrs. Denny who glared at me for putting my feet on the coffee table?”

“I have only one mother.” Alec had to admit, Darlene hadn't been thrilled at his choice of girlfriend. Now, after his fiasco of a marriage to a woman who'd initially charmed and dazzled his parents, he wondered if his mother had rethought her criteria.

Too late to do anything about that now. Running into Patty had been fun, but they'd both moved on, into different worlds. Or perhaps they'd always lived in different worlds and his teenage self simply hadn't noticed.

Fiona tugged his arm. “Daddy, can I have candy bars like Patty?”

“We already bought dessert.” He indicated the ice cream.

Ahead of them, Patty handed the cashier a couple of bills. “I'm having these for dinner.”

Fiona stared in awe. “Can you do that?”

“She's joking.” Alec narrowed his eyes at Patty.

“Sorry. I forget I'm supposed to set a good example.” To Fiona, she said, “I eat 'em fried, roasted and grilled with pepper sauce.” She winked at the little girl. “See you.”

Off she strolled, as if she hadn't a care in the world. Alec had never known anyone who lived as strongly in the moment as his old girlfriend.

“She's cool,” Fiona said.

“Very cool,” he conceded.

But he'd made a choice a dozen years ago, and even if he could go back, he wouldn't change it.