The Nanny and the CEO (13 page)

His face closed up. “Then I'm afraid you'll be dining in here alone.”

“My parents should have thought of that before they tried to maneuver me into something that would hurt the Ridgeways. The fact is, no one consulted me. I intend to enjoy my dinner with my son and Ms. Chamberlain. You can tell that to Uncle Lew in private. What he tells father is up to him.”

Greg studied him through new eyes. “What's happened to you?” It was a genuine question, requiring a genuine answer.

“The truth? I became a father, but I discovered I want to be a dad. Ms. Chamberlain is teaching me how.”

His cousin seemed to have trouble articulating before he nodded to Reese and walked out of the room.

“Nick—”

The tremor in her voice was one of the most satisfying sounds he'd ever heard.

“The swordfish here is excellent by the way. If I order it for you, I promise you won't be disappointed.”

F
OR
five solid days starting the next Monday, Reese took Jamie with her every morning and afternoon to hunt for an unfurnished studio apartment near Miroff's located on Broadway and Seventh. She needed one close enough to walk to her job.

By midafternoon she finally found it six blocks away above a small bookstore with signs saying that it was going out of business. You had to enter the store and walk to the back where there was a circular staircase leading to the studio. Both were owned by the bank.

She couldn't allow herself to think about where she was living right now. Moving from Nick's thirty-million-dollar penthouse to the tiny hole-in-the-wall that had no AC would be like going from the proverbial sublime to the proverbial ridiculous.

In order to hold it, she arranged for a six-month sub-lease starting now, even though the two guys living there wouldn't move out until the end of August. She would buy a futon and use it for a bed. Reese wouldn't need anything else since she'd be slaving day and night at the brokerage. If she was careful, the salary Nick paid her would cover the rent through January.

The small stipend she received from Miroff's would
have to be enough for her food and any other incidentals. But at least she'd taken care of her housing problem and could spend the next week studying for her exam coming up a week from today. With a sigh of relief she phoned Paul and asked him to drive her and Jamie to the park.

“This is more like it, huh.” She gave him a bunch of kisses before carrying him over to the pond. “You like these sailboats?” In her mind's eye she could see the larger sleeker ones and yachts moored at Sea Nook. That night had marked another change in Nick. He seemed charged by a new energy.

Throwing off the yoke of his other self acted as some kind of catharsis. Twice this week he'd come home early, pulled on a pair of jeans with a T-shirt and made dinner. He put Jamie in the swing to watch him and held long conversations with him. When everything was ready, he'd invite her to eat on the terrace with them.

He cooked steaks and potatoes both times, reminding her of her father, who was a meat and potatoes man, too.

“Oh—my phone's ringing. Let's find out who it is.” She pulled out her cell, but didn't recognize the name on the caller ID. After a slight hesitation she clicked on.

“Hello?”

“Ms. Chamberlain? This is Albert.”

“Hi, Albert!”

“Sorry to disturb, but you have a visitor and I knew you'd gone out. He says it's urgent that he sees you. His name is Jeremy Young.”

Reese closed her eyes tightly. She didn't blame her ex-fiancé for coming all this way without telling her. If their situations were reversed and she couldn't let him go without trying one more time, she would do the same
thing. Her dad had probably told him about the internship and he'd made up his mind to talk to her again in the hope she wouldn't take it.

But it was no use. Their romance wasn't meant to be. Her plans for the future were set. She was so close now.

And then of course there was Nick. Every living moment with him meant falling deeper and deeper in love. She wouldn't be with him much longer, but it didn't matter. He'd colored her life forever. Nick and Jamie had her heart. All of it.

“I'm leaving for the apartment right now. Would you mind letting him in the penthouse? He's flown all the way from Nebraska and will appreciate freshening up before I get there.”

“I'll be happy to.”

“Thank you.”

She hung up. “Let's go home, Jamie. We've got company.”

When she pushed the stroller into the apartment a short time later, Jeremy stepped in the foyer from the living room.

“Reese—”

His was a dear face. Familiar, yet she couldn't conjure any feeling for him. Six months ago she couldn't have imagined not flying into his arms.

“It's good to see you, Jeremy.” He was an attractive six-foot blond with dark blue eyes. He wore jeans and a button-down shirt with the hems out, his usual style when he wasn't in a business suit. But the wide smile that had been his trademark was missing. She saw pain in his eyes.

“You're not angry I just showed up?” he asked with an edge.

“No. How could I be? I'm only sad that you spent your time and hard-earned money for nothing.”

“That's a matter of opinion. I've had some time to think since your dad told me you got that internship. I'd like to talk to you about it.”

“Of course. Come out on the terrace with me and Jamie.” She pushed the stroller through the apartment.

The second she opened the sliding door and they walked out, he let go with a long, low whistle. She watched him walk over to look out on the city. “My hell… I know there are people in the world who live like this, but to see it all up close makes me think I'm hallucinating.”

“I've done a lot of that myself.” She put Jamie on the lounger and changed him. Jeremy returned as she was snapping his suit.

“He's a cute baby. How old is he?”

“Four months.”

“How much longer will you be here?”

“Until the end of August. That's when I start at Miroff's.”

“Reese,” he whispered. “I'll move to New York and get a bank job. If you're determined to be a career woman, then so be it. I don't want to lose you.”

She hugged Jamie to herself, needing a minute to comprehend what he was saying. Reese could only imagine what it had taken for him to come to her like this. She needed to be so careful, but whatever she said, he was going to be hurt.

Taking a fortifying breath, she faced him. “I'll always love you, Jeremy, but I've had months to think about
everything, too. Your instinct is to be the provider and come home to a wife who takes care of you and your children. A lot of men are like that. It's a wonderful instinct.

“What's wrong is that you met a woman like me who needs intellectual stimulation beyond mothering. I'd like to believe that in time I can do both. If we did get back together again, I'm sure it wouldn't be long before you'd start resenting me and I'd get upset with you because I would know I wasn't making you happy. It just wouldn't work.”

“You're different than before,” he said on a burst of anger.

She pressed her lips together. “I've had to put you away. It wasn't easy.”

“But the point is, you
have
let me go.”

“Yes,” she answered honestly. This tearing each other apart was exactly what she didn't want to happen. “Jamie needs his bottle. I have to get it from the kitchen.” Jeremy followed her. She took it out of the fridge and warmed it in the microwave.

“Has the baby's father made moves on you already?”

“Jeremy—please let's not do this.”

“That's what you say when you want to avoid the issue.”

She took the bottle out of the microwave. “I think you'd better go.”

“No wonder you don't want to work anything out. There's nothing to stop you from staying on here permanently. You live in a virtual palace with New York at your feet. The money he's paying you is probably more than I make in a year at the bank.”

Reese held the baby in her arms and fed him, praying Jeremy would see the futility in this and leave.

“Anyone home?”

Nick's deep male voice preceded him into the kitchen. She was sure Albert would have told him Jeremy was up here. Nick had announced himself in order to warn her he was on his way in.

The look on Jeremy's face reminded her of the Hirsts' expressions when they'd walked in the kitchen and had come face-to-face with Reese. Nick was a breed apart from other men. His polish and sophistication couldn't be denied. Besides his compelling physical attributes, there was something else you felt just being in his presence.

“Nick Wainwright?” She tried to keep her voice steady. “This is Jeremy Young.”

Always the urbane host, Nick extended his hand. “It's nice to meet you, Jeremy.”

“Likewise, Mr. Wainwright. You have a cute son.”

“Thanks. I think so, too. Please excuse me for interrupting. I came to find him so we could play for a while.” His eyes darted Reese an enigmatic glance before he lifted Jamie out of her arms. The baby was still drinking his bottle. “We're going out to the terrace, aren't we, sport.”

Quiet reigned after his tall, hard-muscled body left the kitchen. Jeremy's eyes narrowed on Reese's upturned features. “Well…
that
just answered every question.”

“Jeremy—” she called after him, but he was out of the kitchen and the penthouse like a shot.

He'd given her no choice by showing up without having called her first. How she hated hurting him. But if meeting Nick convinced him Reese was involved with her employer, then it had to be a good thing. Otherwise
Jeremy would go on hoping for something that could never happen.

She rubbed her arms, feeling at a totally loose end. She was too tired from walking so much to go out again, but if she stayed in, she knew she wouldn't be able to study. Nick needed his time with Jamie. That left TV. Maybe a good film was on.

In the end she didn't bother to turn it on. Instead she flopped across her bed in turmoil. Five more weeks to go, but Reese was in trouble. The ache for Nick was growing intolerable.

She flung herself over on her back. Somehow she would have to find a way to be around Nick every day and not let him know the kind of pain she was in.

An hour later hunger drove her to the kitchen where she found him making ham-and-cheese sandwiches. She felt his gaze scrutinize her. “Do you and Jeremy have plans later?”

She shook her head. “He'll probably be back in Lincoln by tomorrow.”

“Did you know he was coming?”

“No. His arrival was a complete surprise. Albert called me while Jamie and I were at the park.”

He pursed his lips. “Then let's eat. Grab us a couple of colas from the fridge and we'll go out on the terrace.”

“That sounds good.”

He reached for a bag of potato chips. Together they carried everything outside to the table. After they sat down, she opened her cola and drank almost half of it, not realizing how thirsty she was.

Nick relaxed in the chair, extending his long legs in front of him while he swallowed two sandwiches in succession. “Leah and I had a conversation the other
day. When she chose you for the nanny, there were three other women who could have done the job. One of them is probably still available to work. But even if they've all found other employment, there'll be someone else.”

A sharp, stabbing pain almost incapacitated her. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you need to be free to work things out with Jeremy. The man didn't fly all this way unless he were still terribly in love with you. I saw the look on his face. He couldn't say what he had to say with me walking in on him. If you go home now, it's possible you'll straighten out your differences and end up getting married.”

Nick's last stab had dissected her heart. “You mean the way you and Erica straightened out yours?” Her pain had to find an outlet. He might just as well have been her patronizing uncle Chet patting her on the head and telling her she was too pretty to study so much. The guys would be intimidated.

He stopped eating and sat forward. “I was never in love with her.”

The bald revelation was swallowed up in her pain because he wasn't in love with Reese, either. Not even close or he couldn't have suggested she abandon Jamie and follow Jeremy home.

In a rare display of sarcasm she said, “Well, that's an excellent explanation for why your marriage fell apart. Jeremy and I have irreconcilable problems
now,
and would never make it to the altar.”

“Love is a rare thing,” he came back in a mild mannered voice, the kind that set her teeth on edge. “You had that going for you once. He hasn't given up. It appears to me that anything's still possible.”

“Not when he doesn't want a working wife.”

“Would it be so terrible if you compromised in order for the two of you to be together?”

“Terrible?” she cried. “It would be disastrous.”

“Why?”

“Because then neither of us would be happy.” She shook her head. “You really don't understand. Let me ask you something. After you'd studied all those years to make your place at Wainwright's, what if Erica had said, ‘You don't need to go to work now, Nick. Stay home with me. I have enough money to take care of both of us for a lifetime.'”

His lids drooped so the black lashes shuttered his eyes. “You can't use me or Erica for an example.”

The first sparks of temper shot through her. “Why not? Blue bloods still make up part of our world, albeit a tiny percentage of the population.”

She watched him squeeze his cola can till it dented. “Because for one thing, the kind of love that should bind a man and woman didn't define our relationship.”

“Supposing it had?”

Nick didn't like being put on the spot. It only made her more determined to get her point across.

“What if you'd both been crazy about each other and she'd told you she wanted you to be home with her and the baby. Several babies maybe. What would you have said?”

His hand absently rubbed his chest. “It's an absurd question, Reese.”

“Of course it's absurd to
you
. You're a man, right? And in the world you've come from, a man is better than a woman.” She jumped to her feet, unable to keep still.

A white ring of anger had encircled his lips, but she couldn't stop now. “It would be purgatory for you if you couldn't get up every morning of life eager to match wits against your competitors.

“I heard your whole genealogy the other night at the Yacht Club. You come from an ancestry that made things happen. Like them you live to pull off another million deal today, and another one tomorrow, and all the tomorrows after that. It's what makes you,
you
.”