The Single Dad's Virgin Wife

“Yet I heard he’s had a whole lot of nannies for the children. That’s change.”

“That’s where the lack of patience comes in, I think. The whole interviewing and hiring process is too tedious, so he takes the quickest route.”

“Does he date?”

“Not that I’ve heard.” Valerie had just taken the salad out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter. She half smiled at Tricia. “These Falcon men are hard to resist, aren’t they?”

Tricia straightened. “What do you mean?”

Valerie peeked around the doorway, making sure they were alone. “I started falling for David the first day I worked for him, too.”

“‘Too’? Oh, no. Not me. Uh-uh.” Tricia held up both hands. “I’m out of here in three months.”

Valerie frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I’m temporary. David hired me to buy time for Noah to find someone who will be permanent.”

“Does Noah know that?”

“I’m sure David told him.” And she’d mentioned she was selling her house, and that her room here was fine for the short term. He hadn’t flinched at either point. “So, tell me. What’s this about you falling for David on the first day?”

“I didn’t want to, but there it was. He makes me very happy. My daughter, too.”

“Why the rush to get married?”

Valerie took out the fragrant, bubbling lasagna and slid the bread under the broiler. Almost immediately the pungent scent of garlic filled the air. “Why wait? It’s right, and we both know it. Plus I won’t move into his bedroom until we’re married. I want to set a good example.”

“You mean, you haven’t slept together?” Tricia couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice.

Valerie laughed. “Well…David often works from home. And Hannah does go off to school.”

“Oh. Okay. Good.”

“Good?”

Tricia nodded. “I’ll tell you why some other time.”

“I hope you’ll come to the wedding.”

“I’m not going to be here on the weekends.”

“Make an exception, please? I don’t have many girlfriends here. I’d like for us to become that. I’ll introduce you to my friend Dixie, too. She’s my maid of honor. You’ll love her. And there’s the bachelorette party, of course. You have to come to that.” She poured dressing on the salad. “Maybe you could tell the gang that dinner’s on? I’m sure it’ll take them five minutes to actually get to the table.”

Tricia stopped just outside the family room door and observed the activity. Noah sat with his back to her, watching David and Adam play a video game, complete with hoots and hollers and threats of maiming. Ashley and Hannah were intent on a second television, but Tricia couldn’t see the screen, so she didn’t know what held their interest. Zoe bounced a soccer ball from knee to knee, not an indoor activity, but Noah wasn’t objecting, which seemed odd.

Then there was Zach, who sat cross-legged at his father’s feet, not communicating with any of them, but taking in everything.

He spotted her and smiled. She smiled back. “Dinner is served,” she said to the room at large.

“You’re doomed!” Adam shouted to his uncle, who shouted back, “Not yet, I’m not!”

Noah got up. Ashley stood right away, too, and turned off the television. She and Hannah made their way to the door, grabbing Zoe by the arm and pulling her along. Zach held back, putting himself between Tricia and Noah.

“Dinner smells good,” Zach said.

“Looks like your uncle got himself a chef in the bargain. Do you like lasagna, Zach?” Tricia asked.

He nodded.

“We eat a lot of pasta dishes and casseroles,” Noah said. “It’s an easy thing for Cora to fix that will keep and reheat well. Sometimes my other brother, Gideon, comes over on the weekend and we barbecue.”

They came into the dining room. It was obvious Noah sat at the head of the table, with David at the other end for tonight. Zach found his place farther down. Which left one empty seat, next to Noah.

Tricia expected at least a small amount of chaos with so many people, but it was all very…civilized. As an only child, Tricia had craved the noisy family dinner table she observed at some friends’ houses. Here there were five children and four adults and little conversation. David asked questions, and the children answered, but no one took it further.

After the dishes were done, Tricia excused herself to put away her things and then to look over the children’s past work. The third-floor classroom was huge. Each child had a desk. A computer workstation held two computers, but only one was connected to the Internet and was password protected so that the children couldn’t log on privately. Areas were set aside for art and music, and worktables for science projects or other messier tasks. The room was tidy and spotless.

The view was spectacular, as the room was made up almost entirely of windows that faced the surrounding woodlands, and no neighbors in sight.

After a while, Ashley came up the stairs, dressed in her pajamas.

“We’re going to bed,” she said. “If you’d like to say goodnight,” she added hesitantly.

“Yes, I would, thank you.” She put an arm around the girl’s shoulders and walked down the stairs with her. “I’m looking forward to starting class tomorrow. Do you enjoy your schooling?”

“Sometimes. It kind of depends on the teacher.”

“I’ll do my best to make it interesting and fun, Ashley.”

“I know you will,” she said with a smile as they walked into her bedroom. Zoe emerged from the bathroom, her strawberry-blond hair damp and tousled, a dab of toothpaste above her lip. She hopped right into bed and pulled the blankets up to her nose.

“What time do you get up in the morning?” Tricia asked Zoe.

“When Ashley pulls the covers off and won’t let me have them back.”

Tricia smiled. “Who wakes you up?” she asked Ashley.

“My head. I wake up early on my own around seven. Then I wake up everyone else. We go to the classroom at eight. Zoe’s usually the last one there.”

“Do you make your own breakfast?” Tricia knew that Cora didn’t come until eleven-thirty.

“I don’t like breakfast,” Zoe said. “It makes me sick to my stomach.”

Ashley rolled her eyes. “We eat cereal or peanut butter on toast. And a banana or apple. We fix our own.”

“What time does your father leave for work?”

“He’s gone before we get up.” Ashley climbed into bed and settled the bedding over her.

Tricia leaned down for a hug from her, then moved on to Zoe, whose body language said, “Don’t come too close,” so Tricia just smoothed back her hair and said good-night.

She encountered the same situation with the boys. Adam hugged her. Zack retreated from contact. She wondered where Noah was. She couldn’t hear any sounds within the house.

How did he spend his evenings? Working? Watching television? Should she track him down and find out?

She decided to return to the classroom and finish reviewing the children’s previous work. Thank goodness none of them were in high school yet and taking chemistry or something else she hadn’t studied in years.

After a while she heard someone coming up the stairs, the footsteps heavy enough to be only Noah’s. He called her name, alerting her that he was about to enter the room.

“How’s it going?” he asked, standing at the top of the staircase, his hands shoved into his pockets.

She leaned back in her chair. “I’m making headway. At least it’s early in the school year. They seem to stick to a fairly rigid schedule.”

“That’s my preference.”

So, it was his doing that the children’s class work was so highly structured. “I’ll make an appointment to see their—What is the title of the person who oversees the children’s schooling?”

“Educational Specialist, but everyone calls her an E.S. Cynthia Madras is her name.”

“Thanks. I’ve read the rules and regulations on homeschooling, but I’d like her input on the children individually.”

He dragged a chair closer to her desk and sat. “She’ll tell you that Ashley is a visual learner who studies more than the others and worries if she doesn’t do very well on tests. Zoe and Adam are kinetic learners who have a hard time sitting still and like to have a noisy environment, which drives Ashley crazy. And Zach is an auditory learner with an exceptional memory. He studies the least and absorbs the most.”

Tricia liked that he knew so much about his children’s learning styles. “I appreciate the summary.”

“I keep a close watch on their education. I meet with each of them individually every evening to—” He stopped, hesitated. “I used to meet with each of them. I’ve been working so late the past year that I haven’t gotten home in time most nights to have one-on-one time with them.”

“So, you’re not home for dinner?”

“Rarely.”

“I see. Well, maybe you’ll be able to incorporate the individual time into your schedule again soon.”

“Maybe.”

A long pause ensued. She knew she needed to change the subject. “Who cleans up the dishes at night?”

“No one. Cora takes care of it when she comes in.”

“Do the children have any chores to do?”

“School is their job.”

She decided not to start an argument with him on the value of responsibility through chores. Not yet, anyway. “Your future sister-in-law and I had a nice talk,” she said instead.

He was obviously happy about the change in subject, because his expression smoothed out. “What do you think?”

“I think Valerie is head over heels about your brother, and yet very down to earth. I like her a lot. I expect I’ll learn even more about her when I attend her bachelorette party.”

His brows went up. “I’m sure you will. I guess as his best man I need to figure out a bachelor-party plan myself.”

“Definitely. Next weekend. You don’t want to have the party the night before the wedding. Saturday night, since Friday is Halloween.”

“Right.” He stood. “You’re all set here, then?”

“Yes, thanks.” A little nervous, but excited. “Are you ever gone overnight? For work,” she added, realizing he might think she was wondering if he had a girlfriend or someone he visited when he had…needs.

“Not for the past few years.”

“Good.”

“Why?”

“I’ve always lived in the city. Being so isolated out here is kind of creeping me out.”

He watched her for a few long seconds. “Come with me,” he said, then he went down the stairs.

She followed because he gave her no choice. He waited at the foot of the last staircase, then they walked into the dining room, through the kitchen, into the utility room. He grabbed two jackets from the rack there, passed one to her, then he held the door open. She went down the stairs, putting on the jacket as she went. His jacket; she could tell from how the cuffs hung past her fingers.

The night was quiet and dark. Moonless. She couldn’t see the lights of another house or building, just stars. Millions of stars. She hadn’t paid attention to them Friday night, hadn’t paid attention to anything but him, and how he talked about his father.

Gravel crunched beneath their feet as they walked down the driveway to the four-car garage. She’d seen him drive a fancy black sports car, but had no idea of the brand. She figured it was his commute car. A large SUV was also parked in the building, a Cadillac.

“I’ll give you a garage door opener,” he said. “You can park in the garage. I want you to use the Caddy to drive the kids around.”

“Okay.” She tugged her collar up against her neck. “I don’t even know what you do for a living, except that you and David are in business together.”

“We own Falcon Motorcars, custom-made automobiles. We’ve been strongly in the European market for a long time but are moving more toward American business now. It’s a big transition for us—David’s brainchild, so that he can stay stateside more.”

“So that shiny sports car you drive is one of your own?”

“The latest model. At this point we only produce the two-seater sports car, a four-door sedan, and made-to-spec limos. I’d like to incorporate an SUV, but that’ll be a few years down the road, I think. We’re headed to the American LeMans circuit first.”

“You’ll be making race cars?”

He nodded, then cocked his head as they heard a noise. “That’s an owl.”

“I’m not a complete idiot,” she said with a smile. “What else is around?”

“Deer. Dogs and cats, wild and tame. Raccoons, fox, skunks, all the usual small wild animals. A variety of birds. Early in the morning you can sit at the kitchen table and see quail. There are grouse and mourning doves and hawks. None of them is your enemy, Tricia, although the deer eat the vegetation, which is annoying sometimes. And if threatened, any animal will protect itself. You really shouldn’t worry about them.”

At the moment she wasn’t worried at all, because he was there with her. But on her own? She really, really hated the great outdoors.

“Is that why you don’t have a garden?” she asked. “Because of the deer?”

He glanced toward the open space. “We used to have a garden. It was Margie’s thing. She was into organics.”

“Margie is your late wife?”

“Yes.”

“How long were you married?”

“Eleven years. We met in college.”

“You were happy,” she said, hearing it in his voice, even layered with grief.

“Yes. Very.”

“How did she die?”

“Pancreatic cancer. Very quick. Very painful.”

His brief answers indicated he was done talking about it. “I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks.” He touched the small of Tricia’s back, urging her toward the house.

That touch, that single, glancing touch through the layers of the jacket, rattled her. She was already worried about falling in love with the children and not wanting to leave in January. She didn’t want to be worried about falling for the father, too.

It’s just hormones, she decided. Long-repressed hormones coming out of years of hibernation, something she’d been hoping would happen—just not with her boss.

Inside the house, she slipped out of the jacket before he could help her, not wanting his fingers to accidentally graze her skin.

“Any questions?” he asked as they moved through the rooms to the staircase.

“Am I free to call you at work if I have any problems? Even ones that aren’t an emergency?”

“Of course. My assistant’s name is Mae. She’ll know to put you through. Better yet, just call my cell. I’ll always answer if it’s you.”

“Okay. I think that’s all for now. We’ll probably have things to talk about tomorrow. I would appreciate your letting me know if you’re joining us for dinner, so I know whether or not to wait for you.”

He looked annoyed. “I have business in many time zones. Sometimes I have to stay late for a call. I’ll try to be here. That’s all I can say.”

Based on what David had told her, and on her own observations so far, Tricia knew Noah did his best to avoid being at home. That needed to change. “Your children miss you, Noah.”

He looked about to fire back then smiled instead. Sort of. As if someone was making him. “I will try,” he said quietly but resolutely. The boss, after all.

She didn’t like his answer, but took it no further. However, she wouldn’t hesitate in a week to remind him again of his responsibility to his children.

Tricia waited to be dismissed. Since she hadn’t held this kind of position before, she wasn’t sure of protocol, but she figured he would be the one to end the discussion.

“All your questions are answered?” he asked.

“For now.”

“Then I’ll say good-night. I hope you’ll be happy here, Tricia.”

“I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun together. The children and I, I mean.”

“I know you’re used to kindergarteners, who mostly just play.”

“Please don’t insult me,” she responded. “You won’t find their education lacking because of my teaching skills.”

“I didn’t mean—” He stopped, took a step back. “Good night.”

As she climbed the stairs, she watched him walk toward his office. Sympathy rose inside her. For all that he was successful in his work and had four beautiful children, he was not a happy man. And not just because he still grieved for his wife, she decided. Maybe he’d never been happy. Obviously his childhood hadn’t been good, his father no kind of role model, although Noah didn’t seem to be anything like his own father.

Tricia shut her bedroom door and leaned against it. She was in a tough spot. Three months to help them as a family—because that had become her primary goal now that she’d met them—and still be able to walk away.

Get out now, she told herself.

The shouting in her head got louder and louder. She should heed it. She knew she should. But superimposed over it were the faces of the children, who needed her.

And Noah. Who perhaps needed her even more.

Life’s short. Make it an adventure. Her brand-new mantra began shouting even louder, reminding her of her own needs, which she’d promised herself she wouldn’t forget. She was entitled, too.

But for the moment, she needed to be here, with this family.

Having an adventure.

Chapter Five

Noah pulled into the driveway the next night at six-thirty. He hadn’t called when he left the office, and he could’ve called from his cell phone at any time, yet he hadn’t.

He didn’t know why. He wasn’t rude, generally. Oblivious, maybe at times, but not intentionally rude. And it hadn’t slipped his mind, because she hadn’t slipped his mind. Tricia. He hadn’t even been working, but reading trade magazines so that he wouldn’t get home until a half hour after the usual dinnertime, although it was two hours earlier than his norm for the past year.

If he really wanted to figure out why he’d deliberately stalled, he could call his brother Gideon, who wasn’t a psychologist but understood human nature better than most people.

Noah didn’t want to know why.

He made the long walk from the garage to the house. No one opened the back door to greet him, although the dining room lights were on, and they all would’ve seen his car turn into the driveway, his headlights arcing across the window. Maybe they were done eating.

Margie would have had the kids racing to the back door to greet him.

He reached for the door handle, then stopped and reminded himself that his world had changed forever. There was no Margie. No wife. Even though the At Your Service agency where David had found Tricia was nicknamed “Wives for Hire,” Tricia wasn’t his wife. Except she was doing an admirable job of filling many of Margie’s roles….

But no sex, of course. That was in the contract they both signed, although he wouldn’t have gotten involved with an employee, anyway. It hadn’t been an issue with any of the other nannies, contract or not. Tricia was the first one to even tempt him.

Noah entered the kitchen just as they were carrying their dirty dishes in, Ashley leading the way. Accusation and disappointment hit him full force from her expression alone. Why? He hadn’t made it home on time for at least a year.

“Hi,” he said, setting his briefcase on the counter.

“Hello.” She turned on the faucet and rinsed her plate. She opened the dishwasher and slid her dishes inside then left the room.

“Dinner was good,” Adam said. He put his dishes in the dishwasher without rinsing.

Zoe followed suit. “Beef stew,” she said in way of greeting.

Then Zach, whose expression was even more accusatory than Ashley’s. Why? What had he done?

Zach took his time rinsing his plate, using a cloth to get every bit off the plate and silverware, then loaded them. Finally he looked at Noah. “You promised to be nice,” he said, then left.

Ah. So part of being nice was being home for dinner. Okay. Noah understood now.

“Hello, Noah. Did you have a good day?” Tricia said as she brought her own dishes in.

He was not in the mood to be chastised, directly or indirectly, and her tone indicated she was doing exactly that. He was especially annoyed because she’d been intruding into his thoughts all day already. “This is your doing, I assume.”

“My doing?” She rinsed her dishes, avoiding looking at him. “Your children seemed to think things were going to change. I have no idea what or why. All I know is, you didn’t call to say you were on your way home, so we ate without you. What’s wrong with that?”

“I meant having the children doing dishes.”

She looked startled. “That’s what you’re mad about?”

No. He was angry that his children were barely speaking to him, but he couldn’t blame Tricia for that. “I don’t want them doing chores.”

“Why not?” She propped a hip against the counter and crossed her arms.

“Because you only get to be kids once.”

“Home is where we are prepared for life. Doing chores is part of life.”

“Not in my house.”

“Noah,” she said quietly, “the children want chores. They want responsibility.”

“How do you know that?”

“They told me.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. He’d only meant to save them from the kind of childhood he’d had—babysitting his two younger brothers while his father and one stepmother, then another, worked full time. He was ten years old when he was first put in charge of seven-year-old Gideon and three-year-old David. As the years passed, Noah had supervised homework and cleaned the house, including doing laundry. The only way he’d gotten out of cooking duty was to be really bad at it, on purpose.

“I assume they didn’t tell you without prompting?” he asked, heading to the dining room to eat.

She followed. “Not exactly.” She made a move to grab the pot of stew. “I can heat this for you.”

“It’s fine.” He served himself the remainder of the salad, rolls and stew, then glanced up as she hovered. “Not exactly?” he repeated.

“One of the things we did today was discuss their schedules, not just their academics but extracurricular activities. In the grand scheme of things, we talked about responsibility. I sort of tossed out the idea that they could make their own beds and do their own dishes rather than letting them sit in the sink all night.”

He gestured she should sit. “And they jumped at the chance to assume that responsibility?”

She hesitated. “Not all of them.”

“Let me guess. Ashley and Zach were gung ho. Zoe got huffy. And Adam…”

“Said they’d be putting Cora out of work, and how could we live with that?”

Noah laughed, which made Tricia laugh, too. “That’s my boy.”

“Is he the most like you, out of all of them?”

The stew was lukewarm but tasty, the salad lukewarm and wilted, and the rolls cold but still crunchy. “I think Zach’s the most like me. How’d your day go?”

“Great,” she said. “They’re certainly all individual, and yet the twin thing is strongly at work.”

“They used to have secret languages when they were very young, but not anymore.”

“Maybe not spoken, but they know how the other feels. I’ve never had a sibling, so I have nothing to compare it to.”

“And I only know my brothers and I didn’t have it. So, everyone got all their work done?”

“Yes. If you’d like to see it, I can bring it to your office later. Or I can meet you in the classroom.”

“I’d like a summary, but I don’t need to see the actual work. If you can come to my office right after the children go to bed, that would be great. I won’t take up much of your time.”

“All right.” She stood. “For now I’d like to go to my room. I’ve been on duty for almost twelve hours.”

He hadn’t considered how long she worked. No wonder he lost nannies all the time. But Cora was supposed to keep an eye on the kids during lunch, giving the nan—teacher a break before afternoon activities. “Cora didn’t relieve you for a while?” he asked.

“She offered, but I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the day. I’ll let her from now on. I hadn’t realized how tired I would be without a break.”