скачать книгу бесплатно
Chas shook his head. “No. We recognized that each child needed individualized attention, and we’ve all more or less adopted a child to be our own. The kids stay together all day, then in the evening I take care of Annie, Evan and Claire will have Cody, and Grant gets Taylor.”
Lily shot him a confused expression, but Chas decided that was good. She might be sweet, she might be nice, she might even have honorable intentions about trying to care for kids, but he suspected she was only here temporarily. He wasn’t about to hire somebody who wouldn’t stay around.
“So, what you’re telling me, then, is that the job is more of a daytime thing?”
“And we’re planning to hire a housekeeper,” Grant said encouragingly.
“You simply want someone to care for the children?”
“Absolutely,” Grant said, grinning charmingly.
“Eventually,” Chas contradicted sternly. “For now the nanny will have to do basic housekeeping, and the job is at least ten hours a day,” Chas reminded, again bringing everything back to reality. “Because you’d be the primary care giver, there will be times we’ll expect you to baby-sit in the evenings. There will also be times you would be responsible for overnight duty. Grant’s in the process of bringing his construction company north and once it’s here he’ll need a full night’s sleep. I’m setting up my law practice. I won’t always have to get up first thing in the morning, but when I do, I’ll also need my sleep.”
“But the nanny will have a room upstairs for convenience in caring for the kids,” Grant put in immediately. “You’ll live here. Room and board is part of the package. Afternoons or mornings that you’re not needed will be your free time. We’ll try to work out advance schedules,” he added, skewering Chas with a look that dared him to try to throw water on that one.
“It sounds like exactly what I’m looking for,” Lily began, but Chas stopped her.
“That’s great,” he said, rising from his seat to walk around the desk. He placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her to the door. “Like I said, once I’ve completed all the first interviews, I’ll begin calling people back for second interviews. I do have a number where you can be reached, don’t I?”
“I’m staying at the bed and breakfast on Main Street,” Lily said, handing Taylor to Grant. “If you want me for a second interview, just call Abby, I guess.”
“Okay. Fine. That’s great,” Chas said as he directed her out.
He got as far as the door before Grant said, “What in the hell are you talking about first interviews and second interviews for? We are desperate. Desperate. I want somebody here tomorrow. I’m supposed to be in Savannah on Thursday. I’m not going to make it if we don’t get some help soon.”
Chas tried to silence Grant with a glare, and Lily took a step forward out of the way of the two tall, angry, obviously disagreeing men. Dressed in a plaid work shirt and jeans, Grant was frightening and imposing, but Chas was majestic. His sandy-brown hair was straight but cut short and styled in such a way that not even one strand was out of place. His green eyes were clear, direct. Even wearing casual tan slacks and an open-necked yellow shirt, tall, whipcord-lean Chas had the look of a person in power. It could have been the way he carried himself. It could have been the fact that he didn’t back down from his older, brawnier brother. Or it could have been because he seemed to be the one calling the shots.
Lily also wasn’t surprised Chas didn’t want her. She’d seen disapproval in his pale gray-green eyes the minute he opened the door to her. Men always had one of two reactions to her. They either thought she was a bubble brain or they thought she was riffraff.
Dignified, stately Chas apparently thought she wasn’t good enough for his family.
“Grant, why don’t we let Ms. Andersen go, and you and I will discuss this privately?” Chas asked.
“Why don’t we let Ms. Andersen wait in the living room while I convince you you’re an idiot, and that way I won’t have to drive to town to apologize to her and beg her to take this job,” Grant quickly countered.
Because Lily had been down roads like this one many times, she stepped in before the dispute became ugly. “Okay, look, I’m not going to pull any punches here.” She faced Chas. “You think that because I’m blond I’m stupid,” she said, opting for the nicer of the two choices for why Chas immediately disliked her. “Since I know I’m not, and since I know I’ll do a very good job as nanny for your children and you’ll be glad you hired me, I would be more than happy to work out some sort of a trial period.”
Lily watched Grant smirk cockily and cross his arms on his broad chest as if he knew her argument had won the battle, but she nonetheless held her breath waiting for Chas’s reply. She might be staying at the B&B tonight and maybe tomorrow night, but basically that was all she could afford. She had to find a job today. Because it was already three o’clock, nanny to the Brewster children might be her salvation.
Chas sighed heavily. “Ms. Andersen, it isn’t that I don’t think you’re capable of caring for the kids. I’m afraid you’ll only be temporary.”
She gave him a puzzled frown. “What do you mean?”
“Well, your home is awfully far away. What’s to say you’re not going to get homesick and just pick up and leave?”
Lily answered without a second’s hesitation. “I won’t.”
When he didn’t immediately respond, Lily knew her first guess was right on the money. Though he might truly question whether or not she’d stay in this town, that wasn’t the real reason he didn’t want to hire her. Since she couldn’t defend his possible opinion of her social status, she chose to defend her abilities.
“My sister is ten years older than I am, and she had three babies in three years. Not only did I live with her after our mother died, but I baby-sat while she worked.” She caught Chas’s gaze and held it. “I can handle three kids. I’ve already done it.”
“She’s got you, Counselor,” Grant said with a laugh.
“All right, a trial period,” Chas said as if he were doing her a supreme favor. “But these babies are very important to us,” he warned soberly. “If you don’t do an excellent job and I do mean excellent, you’re out. Do you understand me?”
“Oh, I understand you very, very well, Mr. Brewster,” Lily said, giving Chas a pointed warning look of her own, before she turned to walk out of the den. “I’m going into town to get my things from Abby’s. Please have my room ready when I return,” she said, then left.
“I guess she told you,” Grant said with a laugh after Lily was gone.
“I should punch you for getting us into this mess,” Chas said, striding back to his chair behind the big desk.
“Punch me? Punch me? You were about to let the only nanny to answer our ad walk out the door. We’ve had that ad in the paper for months, and not one person answered it until Lily.”
“Someone will come along eventually.”
“Oh, yeah, right,” Grant said and fell to the seat in front of Chas’s desk. “No one wants this job. Face it, Chas, you are in rural Pennsylvania now. This isn’t Philly. Nannies aren’t flocking here in droves.”
“Still, that doesn’t mean we have to take the first person who comes along, either. Do you know you hired her before I had a chance to get references?”
“So, we’ll get references when she returns.”
“And what if we find out she’s wanted for a felony in Wisconsin? What do we do then?”
“Then we let her go. That’s what trial periods are for.”
Chas dropped to his chair in exasperation. “All this is so easy for you because you’re going to be out of town. What if she’s careless or persnickety? What if she can’t handle all three kids alone?”
“She’s not going to be alone. It was never our plan to leave the nanny alone with the kids for long stretches of time. That’s why you’re setting up shop at the house, Counselor,” Grant reminded archly. “You volunteered to be the watcher and helper so that Evan would have the freedom to take over the mill.”
“Yeah, and what are you supposed to be doing while I’m the watcher and helper?”
“I’m supposed to be bringing my very successful construction company up from Savannah, remember?” Grant said, reaching out to lift Taylor from the play yard when she began to cry. He snuggled her against his neck, then sighed and said, “Come on, Chas, we need her. Period. End of story. At least until Evan gets back from his honeymoon. When Evan gets back we’ll hold another meeting, maybe regroup and change our plans, but for now it’s just you and me. And I have to go to Savannah.”
“So, go. I’ll take care of the kids.”
“I’m not leaving you with three babies and no helper. Besides, Lily looks very capable to me.”
Chas gave him an incredulous stare. “Oh, yeah. She looks capable, all right.”
“What? You think because she’s pretty she can’t take care of kids?”
“No, I think that because she’s pretty she’s got bigger fish to fry than being nanny for the children of two bachelors in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Use your head, Grant, she’s probably going to New York and we’re a convenient stop along the way. A place where she can rest and earn some extra cash.”
Having settled Taylor, Grant rose from his chair. “I don’t care if she is only temporary. She’s solving an immediate problem. As far as I’m concerned that’s good enough.”
He turned to walk out the door, but Chas called him back. “Grant, one of these days you’re going to have to start thinking about the future.”
Grant laughed. “Not as long as I have you around.”
Lily got into her car and drove down the winding road that led into town, not even noticing the September breeze that rippled through the multicolored leaves of the dense forest around her. She couldn’t stop thinking about Chas Brewster and had to struggle not to close her eyes in frustration, wishing for the one millionth time in her life that she’d gone to college as her sister had advised. At the time she’d thought Mary Louise had only been trying to be a good guardian, pointing out all Lily’s options before Lily committed to helping her sister with her boys. Now she knew Mary Louise understood that pretty blondes didn’t always get the respect they deserved. At least if she had a degree, no one could argue her abilities.
Lily sighed. But she hadn’t wanted a degree. She’d wanted babies. She’d wanted to marry Everett, settle down in a suburban home and be a mom. She’d wanted to car pool to Little League games and ballet recitals. She’d wanted to sew Halloween costumes and give out candy to children for trick or treat. She’d also wanted to be the respected confidante of a man who would be her best friend, her partner, her companion and her lover. She’d wanted to give advice, talk out difficulties, plan the futures of her children and enjoy every second of her life—good or bad. Because she had genuinely believed there was nothing better, nothing more wonderful or more important than spending your life giving love, receiving love and teaching others to love.
Lily sighed heavily and maneuvered her car around a particularly sharp curve.
What a fool she’d been.
Betrayal had quickly stolen all her dreams, and time hadn’t given her the opportunity to come up with an alternate plan. But she did know one thing, she would never base her dreams on something so delicate as another person’s affections. Not ever again.
She would take the job as the Brewster nanny and begin squirreling away her money, because eventually she was going to have to make some decisions about her life, some real decisions. If nothing else, she was going to have to find a way to support herself, because she didn’t think Chas Brewster was going to keep her forever.
In fact, she knew he wouldn’t.
Lily arrived at Brewster Mansion about two hours later. Her car was packed with every single thing she’d collected in her twenty-three years. Holding a suitcase in one hand and balancing a box on the other, she rang the doorbell.
Chas answered. “Come in, Lily,” he said, sounding more resigned than glad to see her, though at least he was polite. He led her through the marble-floored foyer, through the immaculate all-white kitchen with the butcher-block counter in the center and to the door of what was probably maid’s quarters.
He opened the door to a room that was twice the size of any living space Lily had ever had. “Oh, it’s beautiful,” she said before she had a chance to temper her reaction.
“I’m glad you like it. Go in, get settled, then come back to the den whenever you’re ready, and we’ll discuss salary.”
Smiling brightly, Lily nodded. With one curt bob of his head Chas turned to leave and ran smack-dab into his older brother’s broad chest.
“Why are you putting her down here?” Grant asked incredulously.
Lily watched as Chas directed Grant out of the small alcove in front of her room and closed her door, but he and Grant apparently didn’t get any farther than the kitchen because she could hear them talking.
“This is where we agreed she’d stay.”
“Yeah, I know, but I’m leaving, remember? I need my sleep tonight, which means you’ll need help with those babies.”
“I’ll take care of the kids.”
“I’m sure you’ll try,” Grant agreed, “but I’m also sure you’ll fail. So put her upstairs, as close to those kids as you can get her.”
Obviously exasperated, Chas sarcastically said, “What do you want me to do, put her in my room?”
There was a pause, a long one. When Grant replied, there was laughter in his voice. “Do you want to put her in your room?”
“Absolutely not,” Chas insisted angrily, and though all of Lily’s nerve endings began to crackle with indignation, Chas’s older brother burst out laughing.
“You’re afraid of her.”
Chapter Two
Chas pushed Grant out of the kitchen and into the foyer, not sure how much of their conversation could be heard by the woman in the maid’s quarters, and unwilling to take any chances.
“I am not.”
“Of course you are!” Grant insisted, laughing. “Look at you, you’re all but shaking in your shoes.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Chas said, and strode past his brother toward the den. “Why the hell would I be afraid of a five-foot, ten-inch woman?”
“I don’t know,” Grant admitted, following closely on Chas’s heels. “Let’s see. Why would you be afraid of her? Could it be because you find her irresistibly attractive?”
“No woman is irresistibly attractive,” Chas said, focusing his attention on straightening up the desk to get ready for his discussion with Lily about salary. To his horror, Grant burst out laughing again.
“Oh, Chas. Who do you think you’re talking to here? I know firsthand that you’re more susceptible than the rest of us to a pretty girl. But this time you’re not alone. All of us are like putty around someone as gorgeous as Lily.”
Chas pinned him with a look. “Then I guess I don’t have anything to worry about, since you’ve just admitted you find her attractive, too.”
“Of course I do,” Grant acknowledged with a hearty laugh, then he leaned over the mahogany desk and smiled cunningly. “But I’m not going to be the one alone with her tomorrow night.”
After dinner the following evening, Chas understood exactly what Grant meant. His brother didn’t even have to allude to the other mistakes Chas had made in his life. This situation had enough trouble of its own. With the kids fed and happy, the house was unusually quiet. The sun had begun to set, and sporadic lamps made cozy yellow arches of light and cast odd shadows.
All in all the whole place was too intimate.
He paced the living room, knowing he should go up to the nursery and start bathtime, but feeling it was far too dangerous. He convinced himself that Lily could handle the job alone, since Grant had taught her last night to bathe one child at a time while keeping the others entertained in the play yard.
Sighing, Chas sat on the worn office chair and leaned back. In a good many ways he was glad he’d been wrong about Lily. Like Evan’s wife, Claire, she certainly had a way with babies. Though Claire had gotten her experience by helping with her younger siblings, Lily hadn’t volunteered where she’d garnered her information about raising kids except for her one statement about babysitting for her sister. Chas hadn’t asked her to elaborate on the situation, though he supposed he should have since that would have been a normal question to ask on an interview…if his brother had let him interview her. But, now that she was here and working, if he asked for details, his probing could be construed as interest in her personal life, and Chas didn’t want Lily to think he was interested in her personal life.
Because he wasn’t. He really wasn’t in the market for a wife. If anything, a casual relationship was about as high on his agenda as a woman could get until his law practice was established and he had a better handle on being Annie’s guardian. Since Lily worked for him, a relationship with her was completely out of the question.
So that meant everything had to be aboveboard. Nothing personal between them. She was his employee. He was her boss. And that was that.
Oddly enough, Chas suddenly felt better, maybe more in control. Satisfied that he’d resolved this whole issue in his mind, he rose from his seat. He supposed he could help Lily after all.
Exactly as she had been instructed to do, she’d placed Cody and Taylor in the play yard. When Chas walked into the nursery, he immediately pulled Cody out of the colorful pen and stepped into the bathroom where Lily was bathing Annie.
“Hey, pumpkin,” he said, bending to tickle Annie’s chin. “You like the water, don’t you?”
Annie rewarded him with two swift splashes.
“She certainly is a water baby,” Lily agreed, reaching behind her for the towel she’d strategically placed so she wouldn’t have to leave Annie’s side.
Though Lily wasn’t struggling, Chas slid Cody to the floor, pulled Annie from the tub and placed her in the towel Lily held.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Anything I can do to help?”
Lily pointed to Cody with her chin. “How about undressing that one for his bath while I dress this one?”
“Sounds good to me,” Chas agreed, but as if Cody understood what had been said, he crawled around Chas’s legs and out of the room. Chas turned and tried to grab him, but he missed Cody’s T-shirt by a millimeter, and the little boy zipped off, giggling.
“Oh, great! We’ll be lucky to catch him now. He might only be crawling, but he’s a slick one.”
“I’m sorry.”
