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“It wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I should have known better than to talk so openly about his b-a-t-h in front of him.”
Lily grinned. “Doesn’t like the water?”
Chas thought a second. “Actually, I don’t think that’s it. I think Cody’s just stubborn, like my brother Grant.”
As he dashed out of the bathroom after Cody, a perverse part of Chas knew he’d added the afterthought because he didn’t like the idea of Grant being attracted to Lily. It hit him that he was jealous of his brother being attracted to a woman neither one of them could have, and he almost groaned. No! No! He couldn’t have lost his control this easily…and without warning. For Pete’s sake, he’d hardly looked at the woman!
He found Cody cooing to Taylor through the mesh of the play yard and scooped him up. “You’re a bad boy today.”
Cody giggled, playfully slapped Chas’s cheek and said, “Baboy.”
Though he knew the child didn’t understand what he’d said, Chas sighed. “You won’t get any argument out of me.” He swung Cody up to the changing table and began removing his clothes. When Cody remembered he’d been running because it was bathtime, he let out a high-pitched squeal.
“Shush!” Chas scolded softly. “Do you want the women to think you’re a coward?”
Cody stopped squealing and blinked up at his brother.
“Worse,” Chas said, not sure why his little impromptu heart-to-heart talk had caught his brother’s interest, but mightily glad that it had. “You’re making me look bad. Which means you’re making both of us look bad.”
Cody only peered at him skeptically.
“Trust me, Cody, most of the things you do in life you’ll be doing to please a woman….”
“What are you telling that poor, innocent child?”
Caught, Chas felt all the blood drain from his face, but when he peeked behind him and saw Lily smiling, he concluded she hadn’t heard enough of his conversation to grasp the real meaning, and he shrugged carelessly.
“I decided it’s never too early to start him on the facts of life.”
“Then at least tell him both sides of the story,” Lily said. After lifting naked Cody off the changing table, she nuzzled his cheek with her nose, then in her most earnest voice said, “Women do a hundred more things to please men than men would even think to do for women. We ask for a few basics like cleanliness,” she said, indicating the bathroom to the little boy who looked at her as if he really was trying to understand. “And honesty. Everything else is a matter of personal opinion.”
Chas actually thought about that, wondering if she meant what she’d said. He could be clean. He could certainly be honest. It would be the easiest relationship of his life….
Lord, what was he doing? Daydreaming about a relationship with her again? This was crazy. Sure, the woman was pretty, and she seemed to be easygoing and nice. But for the love of Heaven, he’d only met her yesterday. He didn’t even know her…and, more important, he didn’t want a relationship. He’d already had three that were the absolute pits. Besides, he had things to do…
Like get his sister ready for her bath, Chas thought, pulling himself out of his reverie. Then they could put the kids to bed and get into separate rooms before he drove himself crazy.
Chas saw to it that bathing the kids was accomplished quickly. He said good-night to each of the babies and tiptoed out of the room, leaving Lily to wait for the children to fall asleep.
Glad to be alone, he went to the den and opened a bottle of scotch and a file for a case sent to him by a large Philadelphia firm that had agreed to employ him long-distance for research and document writing. Since he needed sustenance until his own practice took off and since he knew nobody could ever have too much experience, Chas was more than willing to take on the low-level job.
“Excuse me, Mr. Brewster…Chas?” Lily said, sheepishly stepping into the den.
Flustered by her unexpected presence, Chas bounced out of his seat. “What’s wrong? Is something wrong with one of the kids?”
“No, no,” she said, laughing a little and batting her hand in dismissal. “They’re all asleep.”
“Oh.” Chas sat again. “So, what can I do for you?”
“Well, you said we’d discuss my salary and your expectations for me last night, but we never got around to it.”
He remembered. After she’d gotten settled, Grant announced that it was bathtime and that he would show Lily what to do. Together they’d gone to the nursery, and though Chas had determinedly stayed away, laughter had floated down to him until he rushed upstairs to chaperon.
Chas scowled at the memory.
“I’m sorry,” Lily said, obviously responding to the expression on his face. “If this is a bad time, I can come back.”
“No. This is a good time,” Chas said, putting the bottle of scotch back in the drawer. He was thirty years old and starting his own law practice. Three bad relationships had taught him several good lessons—lessons a man couldn’t toss aside for a pretty face. And over a year had passed since the last one. He’d finished law school, paid most of his debts, and kept himself out of trouble the entire time. If he couldn’t get a hold of himself long enough to have a conversation with the woman who was caring for the triplets, then he needed his head examined.
“In fact, I should apologize for not remembering to talk with you last night.”
“That’s okay,” she said, meekly making her way into the office. She took the seat on the chair in front of his desk, while Chas organized his thoughts, jotting down a few things on paper so he wouldn’t forget them.
As he calmly explained her salary and the Brewster expectations, Chas felt another stab of attraction, but he controlled it by reminding himself of the valuable lesson that he learned with Charlene—good looks were only part of the package. Absorbing that, really taking in the full meaning of that lesson, he realized this conversation could actually work to his benefit because he could use it to strengthen his resolve.
Sitting across the desk from him, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt, Lily Andersen was still more attractive than most women dressed for an evening on the town. Her sunny blond hair had been pulled into a loose knot at her nape and pointed out how beautiful, how perfect her face was. High cheekbones, bright with color, accented her large blue eyes. Even unpainted, her pink lips were full, generous. If this were any other place, any other situation, he probably would roll the dice one more time and try for a relationship with her. But because she was his employee and this was his house, having a relationship with her was out of the question. Since his libido couldn’t seem to understand that, Chas decided to try to get it under control by reminding himself that looks were frequently deceiving. In the past Chas had made the three biggest mistakes of his life after leaping into relationships with pretty girls, without first gathering enough information about them.
It was time to cure his libido of this affliction once and for all.
“So, Lily, I didn’t really get a chance to interview you yesterday, and there are still a few questions I’d like to ask you.”
She smiled. Her face lit with pleasure. Her blue eyes sparkled.
Chas’s libido went on red alert. There was no way a man could find anything wrong with that face…with that smile.
“Like what?”
Chas cleared his throat, telling his libido to cool its heels for a few seconds and he’d find a flaw, a reason not to like her. “Well, you talked about caring for your sister’s children, but I was curious about other child-care experience you’d had.”
“None, really,” Lily answered easily, truthfully.
Chas waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t. She sat with her hands on her lap, her soft smile firmly in place and her blue eyes clear and direct.
Chas’s libido laughed. She was honest and unpretentious. She didn’t try to fake or fudge her résumé. She was quite definitely a take-me-as-I-am person. No pretense or artifice here. Strike one on trying to make her unattractive.
“College?”
She shook her head. “I’m afraid not. I never wanted to go to college, I only wanted to get married and have a family.”
Chas mentally snickered at his libido.
“Really?” he said, getting comfortable in his chair, thinking he was finally on the road to proving his point. There was nothing more unattractive than a woman who needed a man to complete herself.
“Really,” Lily said, and gave Chas another pretty smile. “Frankly,” she said with a self-deprecating sigh. “I fell in love in high school. Everett was good-looking, smart and loved his family. He was everything a woman could possibly want in a man. I was so enamored I couldn’t see straight. I would have sacrificed anything for him.”
Chas’s libido didn’t say a word. It didn’t have to. Only a fool would have missed the sincerity in her explanation. She hadn’t needed a man to complete herself, she’d fallen in love. And she’d been loyal and trustworthy. If only one of his women had been loyal or trustworthy….
Strike two.
“So what happened?” Chas asked quietly.
“I waited for him while he went to college, forgave a couple of indiscretions, then suffered public humiliation when he left me at the altar a couple of weeks ago—white dress, bridesmaids, impatient minister and all.”
Chas and his libido tried to picture it and couldn’t. It didn’t make any sense that a normal, red-blooded man would leave this beautiful, charming, sweet, sincere woman at the altar. The man must have been an absolute fool.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?”
Chas didn’t realize he’d spoken aloud, but deduced he must have mumbled or she wouldn’t have needed a repeat. “I said that was absolutely cruel.”
“It was cruel,” Lily agreed softly. “And painful.”
“And that’s why you left Wisconsin,” Chas said, finishing her thought for her. It all made perfect sense to him now. A beautiful woman shows up on his doorstep with no purpose or direction in life, save that of wanting to help him with his kids. He should have known. She was rebounding from another relationship.
Even as Chas breathed a sigh of relief because he knew only a blockhead got involved with someone who had two weeks ago been publicly jilted, his libido didn’t seem to have any problem with her story at all.
Though he judged himself to be an honest, honorable man who would never take advantage of a struggling, vulnerable woman, he also knew he’d lost this battle, because his intellect and integrity weren’t the problem. His libido was.
Chapter Three
A beam of bright autumn sunshine woke Lily. Slowly, contentedly, she opened her eyes to the golden warmth.
As she stretched languidly, like a cat stirring from a nap on a sunny sidewalk, she recognized she was happy for the first time in weeks. She knew it was because she’d finally found a job. Then she suddenly realized that she should have been awakened in the middle of the night to help care for the triplets, and she should probably be feeding them breakfast right now.
Bouncing out of bed, she glanced at the clock and groaned. Nine-thirty! She was late. She couldn’t afford to be irresponsible. She needed this job too much. She had less than fifty dollars to her name, and not only did staying employed mean she had a source for a paycheck for an undetermined span of time, it also meant she was going to be fed and housed courtesy of Grant and Chas Brewster.
The very thought of Chas stopped Lily dead in her tracks. She remembered his lean, athletic body and the sensual grace with which he moved. She remembered his shrewd, assessing gray-green eyes. She remembered his thick, sandy brown hair.
Unfortunately she was directly in front of the mirror and saw that her own hair was going in every direction, she wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup, and her one-piece flannel pajamas were covered with skiing bears.
Confused, she blinked twice, waiting for her mind to refocus. Surely she didn’t care what she looked like. Because if she did, it could only mean that she cared what Chas Brewster thought of her. And she didn’t care what he thought of her…did she?
No, she couldn’t. Could she?
No. Absolutely not, she decided, drawing in a long, life-sustaining breath of air. For Pete’s sake, falling too hard for a man was what had gotten her into this predicament in the first place. She couldn’t even look at another man until she got her life straightened out.
Nonetheless, she needed to hide the bears.
Grabbing a robe from the chair on her way to the door, Lily hurried out of her bedroom. She put the robe on while still standing in the alcove, then entered the kitchen, yanking the drawstring belt.
“I’m sorry,” she said before she even said good-morning.
“That’s quite all right,” Chas said politely, scooping a bit of oatmeal from Annie’s chin and rerouting it to her mouth.
Before she could stop herself, Lily noticed how relaxed and sexy he looked in his jeans and sweatshirt. She also noted that although his haircut was neat, certain strands tumbled boyishly over his forehead. Unfortunately she simultaneously realized that she was paying attention to how handsome he was—again! Why was it she couldn’t be in the same room with him without this awareness of him?
“Everybody’s first day with the triplets is hard,” he said, still not looking at her. “I thought I’d cut you a break and let you sleep in today.”
“Because I’m going to be the one getting up with the kids tonight?” Lily speculated, walking to the coffee-maker on the counter beside the sink, telling herself to ignore her attraction to him. She was a mere two weeks out of a six-year relationship. It was too soon to think she was finding another man attractive—even though he was. In fact, that was probably the point. Chas Brewster was a commanding, regal, masculine man. He probably attracted women the same way cheesecake attracted dieters.
She found a cup and poured coffee into it, forcing her mind off Chas and on to her surroundings. The entire kitchen was immaculately white, as was a good bit of the rest of the house. From that alone, Lily surmised the place had been decorated before the triplets were born. She didn’t have a clue how the father of three grown men could end up with three infants, but she figured that wasn’t her business. When the Brewsters were ready, they would tell her the story behind their father and stepmother. If they never told her, she would consider herself lucky to be able to avoid village gossip.
“No, you won’t be handling the kids tonight. I can do it myself,” Chas said agreeably. “Mostly they sleep through the night, anyway, and if they don’t, I know how to keep them occupied until I can get each one fed, diapered or rocked.”
“But you’re not supposed to care for the kids alone,” Lily protested, realizing that not only were Taylor and Cody happily chewing on play toys, but all three babies were dressed. He hadn’t sought her help with the kids in the night. He’d taken care of morning detail. Now he was planning to assume night duty again. “I want to help you.”
“And you will,” Chas said, still agreeable, still concentrating on Annie. “I have a meeting in town in about an hour and a half. Once I get through here, they’re all yours.”
“This isn’t what I was hired to do,” Lily argued, fearing for her job now that Grant was gone. She’d completely forgotten Chas hadn’t wanted to hire her; Grant had. But Grant wasn’t here and Chas was acting as though he didn’t need her. This time tomorrow she could be back on the street. “We’re supposed to be working together.”
“We don’t have to work together,” Chas said breezily, but he stopped the spoon on its way to Annie’s mouth as if he’d suddenly thought of something. “Unless you don’t think you can handle the kids by yourself,” he said, finally turning to look at her.
Lily felt as if time had come to a screeching halt. Looking confused and shocked, he peered at her hair, her face, and the bear-covered pajama leg that peeked out from beneath the hem of her pink chenille robe. A noise sounding like a groan or a laugh erupted from the back of his throat, but before Lily could be sure, he brought his hand to his mouth and pretended to cough.
“You can manage the kids alone, can’t you?” he asked slowly, his voice shaking as if he were desperately trying to control it.
She suspected he was laughing at her, and her chin lifted. “Why don’t you just go and get ready for your meeting…or change clothes or brief yourself on your notes. I’ll take care of the kids.”
“No,” he said, then coughed to clear his throat again. “That’s fine. I’m fine. Why don’t you go shower or whatever and I’ll finish up here?”
“Because we’re supposed to be working together,” Lily insisted, determined to make her point. She didn’t care if he didn’t like her hair, her lack of makeup or her pajamas. She wasn’t losing this job without a fight. “What do the kids usually do now?” she asked, walking to Taylor’s high chair. Seeing that Chas had dressed all three babies in little sweatpants, T-shirts and tiny tennis shoes, she said, “If they’re going outside, I can take them outside. If they usually watch ‘Sesame Street,’ I can take them to the family room. I’m perfectly qualified.”
“You’re also in your pajamas,” Chas said, sounding exasperated. “You can’t go outside.”
Lily glanced down at her robe. “I could still take them into the family room to watch TV,” she mumbled indignantly.
“Or you could take your shower and really be ready to care for them when I leave.”
Lily saw she was being foolish and combed her fingers through her unruly hair. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay,” Chas said patiently. “Working with the triplets takes a while to get used to.”
“That’s not it,” Lily said, deciding she had to get this out in the open or she’d make herself crazy. It was hard enough to deal privately with her attraction to him. She couldn’t handle worrying about being fired, too. “I’m afraid you’re going to fire me, and I can’t afford to lose this job.”
Chas busied himself with Annie again. “I’m not going to fire you.”
Though it wasn’t a sweeping declaration of competency, Lily recognized that it had to be enough. She was justifiably insecure, because her ego had taken a real beating when Everett had left her at the altar. But more than that, she knew if she didn’t soon trust someone about something, she’d never reenter the real world. Chas might not be promising her a job forever, but he was backhandedly telling her he felt she was qualified to care for his three children, and that was a big, important deal. Knowing how much he and his brother Grant adored these kids, she understood they wouldn’t trust them to just anyone.
She nodded. “Okay. Then I’ll stop driving you nuts. I’ll shower and get dressed, and everything will go back to normal.”
Long after she was gone, Chas continued to stare at the alcove. He stared so long that it took two squeals from Annie before he came back to the present. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew that Lily would have some self-doubt from being left at the altar. Anybody would. But he still found her last statement incomprehensible. How could anyone as absolutely stunning as she was—a woman who brought him to groaning despair even without makeup, with sleep-tousled hair, and wearing pajamas covered with bears—ever think any house in which she lived would be normal?
Chas left the house about two hours later but not without making a big production about saying goodbye, leaving telephone numbers and giving Lily so many instructions she knew there was no way she could remember them all.
Particularly when she was having such a hard time concentrating on what he was saying.
It hadn’t occurred to her that he would have to dress for a business meeting, and when he walked down the spiral staircase, looking like someone off the cover of GQ she almost fainted. But it was the way he kissed each child goodbye, giving them individualized words of affection to make each one feel special, that really snagged her heart.
Before it was all over she could have hugged him for being so charmingly sweet to those babies. But thinking about hugging him tumbled into thinking about kissing him, and the mere thought of his lips touching hers sent a bubble of excitement through her, and she couldn’t get him out of the house fast enough.
