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Impressions of Old World antiques, objets d’art and moiré silk period pieces flew at her like colors through a prism. There was a grand piano and a set of gorgeous Japanese screens in one section. Everywhere she looked, her gaze fastened on some treasure. A grouping of eighteenth-century furniture faced the fireplace. She wouldn’t know where to begin describing the layout or furnishings of this Park Avenue address.
Months ago she’d seen an article with pictures in the Times of a condo something like this one that had just sold for thirty million dollars. She supposed his wealth could have come through his business endeavors.
But his breeding gave her the sense that he’d been born into the kind of family whose wealth had been one of the mainstays of Wall Street for generations. Mrs. Tribe hadn’t let on. If Reese had been in her place, she wouldn’t have, either.
“Since you’re from Nebraska and the wide-open spaces, you’ll probably find the area out here more to your liking.”
She followed him across the living room’s velvety Oriental rugs to the span of rounded arched windows reminiscent of the Italian masters. He opened some sliding doors. When she stepped out on the terrace, she felt as if she’d entered a park complete with trees, hedges, a pool,and tubs of flowering plants placed around with an artistic flare.
As she walked to the edge, she had an unimpeded view of Park Avenue down to the Helmsley building. The whole thing was incredible. “I would imagine after a hard day at the office, this is your favorite room, too.” She saw a telescope set up at one end beyond the patio furniture. When Jamie was old enough, he’d be enthralled by everything he could see through it from this angle.
“It can be pleasant if it’s not too hot. I can’t say I’ve spent that much time out here lately, but I do use the gym every morning. It’s on the upper deck of my terrace. You’ll see the stairs. You’re welcome to work out if you want.”
“Thank you.”
She sensed he was in a dark mood. Lines bracketed his mouth. “Let’s go back inside. I’ll let you pick the bedroom you’d like, but perhaps you’d like to freshen up first. The guest bathroom is through that door.”
“Thank you. I’m pretty sure Jamie’s diaper needs to be changed. Could we go to the nursery first?”
He shot her an intense glance. “For now there’s only a crib in my bedroom that was delivered yesterday. I haven’t decided where he should sleep yet.”
So Jamie had been at his grandparents’ from the start. Why? “I see. Well, let me wash my hands first.” She slipped inside the bathroom that looked more like an arboretum with plants and flowers. After washing and drying her hands, Reese joined him just inside the sliding doors and trailed her employer through the fabulous apartment to the master bedroom with a decidedly all-male look.
It had been decorated along straight lines and contemporary furniture with accents of greens and blues. Some graphics on the walls. No frills, no sense of femininity. Above all, no family pictures. Too painful a reminder? Maybe he kept them in the living room and she hadn’t noticed.
The walnut crib stood at the end of the king-size bed. It had a crib sheet but no padding. The diaper bag had been put in the room along with her suitcase. Without hesitation she reached inside the bag for a diaper. Along with a dozen of them it contained a twelve-hour supply of small, individual bottles of formula, another stretchy outfit, a shirt and a receiving blanket. She pulled it out and spread it over the top of the bed.
“If you’ll lay him on this, we’ll change him.”
He walked over and put Jamie down. “Okay, sport. This is going to be a new experience for all of us.”
Mr. Wainwright wouldn’t be the first man who’d never changed a diaper. “The baby’s so happy with you, why don’t you undo his outfit. We’ll work on this together.”
Reese smiled to herself to see the good-looking, well-dressed executive bending over his son to perform something he’d never done before. He seemed more human suddenly and even more attractive.
It took him a minute to undo all the snaps and free his legs. Reese undid the tabs on the diaper. “Lift his legs.” When he did, she drew the old one away and slid in the new one. “Okay. Lower him and put up the front, then fasten it with these side tabs.”
The baby’s body was in perpetual motion. You could hear him breathing fast with animation. “He likes all this attention, don’t you.” She couldn’t resist kissing his tummy after his father had finished. In truth her physical awareness of Mr. Wainwright had caught her off guard.
“Great job, Daddy. You did it so fast, he didn’t have a chance to get you wet.” His quiet chuckle pleased and surprised her. She’d like to hear that sound more often, then chastised herself for having any thoughts of a personal nature about him.
“While you finish dressing him, I’ll get rid of this.” She took the soiled diaper and headed for a door she could see across the room, thinking it was the bathroom, but it led to an office where he could work at home. “Oops. Wrong room.”
“The bathroom’s behind me. I didn’t realize it was your destination.” By now he was holding Jamie against his shoulder again. They really did look gorgeous together.
Reese averted her eyes and moved past him before opening the door to the elegant bathroom. She put the diaper on the marble counter, madly compiling a mental list of all the things they would need to make his apartment baby friendly.
After washing her hands, she came out again and said, “Do you know my whole family could fit in there comfortably?” His lips twitched. When they did that, he didn’t look as stressed and was too attractive by far. “How many bedrooms are there besides this one?”
“There’s one across the hall from my room, and one at the other end of the apartment.”
“I’ve been thinking…Would it be possible to move your office to that other bedroom, or to somewhere else in the apartment entirely?”
He cocked his dark head. “Anything’s possible.”
“It’s just that your office is the perfect size for a nursery because it has a door leading into your room as well as the hall. If you put Jamie in there, he’d be close to you. I assume that’s what you want. As for me, I could stay across the hall where I could hear him, too. I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up, I didn’t like being isolated from my parents.”
He stared at her so hard, she couldn’t imagine what was going through his mind, but it made her worry she might have overstepped her bounds. “What do you think?” she prodded quietly.
“It’s a brilliant idea, one I would never have thought of.”
“Oh, good.” Reese was amazed he would admit something like that. Most men had too much pride. She liked that quality about him very much. To her alarm, she realized, there wasn’t anything about this man she didn’t like.
Why hadn’t his wife fixed up a nursery before the baby was born? Had they lived somewhere else? Maybe he’d only recently moved in here, but why hadn’t he brought everything for the baby with him?
Whatever the answer, you would have thought his wife would have taken on the job of getting prepared for a baby, but she was gone now. All he had was Reese.
“I tell you what. If you want to stay here with Jamie, maybe you could ask your driver to take me to a store where I can get all the things we need in one stop? It’ll take a limo to bring back everything we require in a single trip.”
When he didn’t respond she said, “Or else I’ll make a list for you and you buy everything while I tend the baby? Later we can move furniture and get everything set up. It’s kind of fun to do together. Jamie can watch us. He’s very bright and alert. By tonight we’ll have this place transformed and he’ll know he’s home with his daddy.”
She watched him reach in his pocket for his cell phone. “I’ll call Paul and tell him to meet you out in front. He’ll take you to a place where I have an account. Buy whatever we need. When you get back, the concierge will arrange to get everything upstairs.”
To not have to worry about money would be a first in her life. Since it was for Jamie, she would take his father at his word and enjoy her shopping spree.
“After you’ve returned I’ll ask the chef to send up a meal for us. Are you allergic to anything?”
Chefs, a doorman, a concierge, no ceiling on expenditures— One could get used to this instantly.
“No, but thank you for asking. Are there certain foods you can’t tolerate, Mr. Wainwright?”
“No.”
“What about the baby?”
“So far no problems that I know of.”
“Thank goodness. Excuse me for a minute while I freshen up in my bedroom.”
She reached for the suitcase and briefcase and carried them across the hall to the other bedroom done in an opulent Mediterranean decor. It had its own ornate en suite bathroom with two sinks. She would use one of them to bathe Jamie. Afterward she couldn’t wait to wrap him up in the plush lavender towels hanging from a row of gilded hooks.
Reese looked around, incredulous that this was happening. Her thoughts darted to her employer. How was is it possible she’d be sleeping across the hall from the most fabulous man she’d ever met in her life?
After Ms. Chamberlain left the apartment, Nick fed the baby another bottle. He’d watched the nurse burp Jamie and had gotten that part down right. Once Jamie fell asleep, Nick laid him in the center of the bed and put the quilt over him. In the process he noticed the time on his watch. It was after three. The day had gotten away from him completely.
He reached for his cell phone and called the office. “Uncle Stan?”
“Where have you been? I need to discuss the Grayson merger with you. I’ve run into a snag and want your help.”
“I’m aware of that, but it won’t be possible today or tomorrow. Can’t you talk to Uncle Phil?”
“He’s at the dentist getting a new crown this afternoon.”
“Then ask Greg.”
“He doesn’t know all the ins and outs. It’s too tricky for him.”
“Nevertheless I can’t come in the office until Monday.”
“That might be too late, Nicky.” His father’s younger brother had always been an alarmist.
“Sorry, but it can’t be helped.”
“Since when? I don’t understand.”
No. He wouldn’t. His uncle and aunt had been childless. “Today I brought Jamie home for good.”
There was a deafening silence. “I thought he—”
“He’s been with his grandparents too long as it is,” he broke in.
“But how will you manage?”
So far…better than Nick had thought possible. “I’ve hired a nanny.” A totally feminine, beautiful, unexpected young woman. The image of her clutching Jamie to her while they were still in the limo—as if she was the mother—refused to leave his mind.
“I had no idea you’d even been looking for one. Your father never said a word.”
“He and Mother were already in Cannes when I made the decision.”
“I hear a decent one is almost impossible to come by. Is she over forty?”
His patience was running out. “Why do you ask?”
“Because anyone younger who still has their eyesight will do whatever it takes to get set up with you.”
If Nick had inherited a cynical gene, it had to have come from his uncle. But in this case he wasn’t worried. Leah would have done a thorough check of Ms. Chamberlain’s background. He paid his secretary a salary that ensured mistakes like the one his uncle was talking about didn’t happen.
“See you on Monday, Uncle Stan,” Nick muttered before clicking off. Now to get busy dismantling his office. But before he did that, he changed out of his suit into something more comfortable.
To his relief, Jamie slept through the next two hours. By the time the concierge rang him at five and told him he was on his way up with Ms. Chamberlain, Nick had just wheeled the baby crib into the empty room.
He walked through the apartment to the entry and opened the door. Soon his nanny emerged from the elevator carrying bags in both hands. As she passed by him she said, “Merry Christmas.” She was intriguing and amusing at the same time.
Behind her came the concierge pushing a dolly loaded with cartons. Paul brought up the rear with more bags. He winked at Nick, who was still reacting to her comment. “This bag goes in the kitchen. Then we have one more load,” he whispered before heading for the other room.
“You’ve done the work of a thousand—” she exclaimed to Nick after the men had filed back out of the new nursery. “Jamie’s going to love this room once we’ve whipped it into shape. How’s he doing so far?”
She had such a vivacious personality, Nick was mesmerized. No wonder Leah had picked her. Ms. Chamberlain had to have stood out a hundred miles from any of the other nanny candidates.
“He’s still asleep on my bed.”
“I’ll just wash my hands and peek in on him.”
“While you do that I’ll ask the kitchen to send up our dinner.” He made the call, then started looking through the bags, curious to see what she’d purchased for one tiny baby. In a minute the concierge came through with even more cartons.
“Have fun putting all this together, Mr. Wainwright. Leave the empty boxes outside in the hall and I’ll pick them up.”
Nick thanked him and walked him out in time to ask the waiter to set up their dinner in the dining room. Halfway back to his bedroom he met her in the hall carrying Jamie in her arms. “This little guy was awake. I guess he could hear the noise and started to fuss. He needed a diaper change and let me handle it, but I think he wanted you to do the honors.”
“Well, now that the deed is done, our food is ready in the dining room.”
“That sounds good. If you’ll open the carton that says baby swing, we can set it up in there and he can watch you while we eat. It will be perfect for him when we go out on the terrace during the day.”
He hadn’t seen one of those at the Hirsts’. “You want to swing?” Nick gave him a kiss on the cheek before heading into the nursery. Reese followed him and waited while he opened the carton.
“There should be some batteries taped to the inside of the lid.”
“Batteries?”
“They make it swing and play music at the same time.”
Though he moved millions of dollars around on paper every day, the world of a baby and all its attendant necessities had passed him by completely. Whether his boy needed a swing or not, he had one now. Thankfully it wasn’t as difficult to put together as installing the base of the infant car seat in the limo. It had taken him several attempts before he’d managed to do it right.
“Let’s go try this out.”
“Your daddy’s a genius to assemble it so fast, Jamie.”
“Don’t speak too soon in case it goes crashing down, taking my son with it.”
“We’re not worried.”
He stared into her shimmering blue eyes, dumbfounded over Leah’s find. “Then you should be.”
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_a0fb1d33-76d6-5ca2-86b2-69dbbb989817)
WHEN Nick looked at her like that, Reese’s heart began thudding for reasons she didn’t dare explore right now.
She followed him back to the living room. The floor-to-ceiling French doors at the end had been opened to reveal a dining room that took her breath. First came the chandelier of Czechoslovakian glass. One of this kind and size was a museum piece. She thought the same thing of the massive Italian provincial hutch that lined the far wall.
Its shelving held handblown Venetian glass and stunning pieces of china no longer made. On the opposite wall was a long European hunt board with its distinctive stylized pheasants and peacocks. A still-life oil painting of fruits hung above it.
The window featured tapestries with tassels pulled halfway down depicting various pastoral scenes. When she could tear her gaze away, it fell on the rectangular table of dark oak dominating the room. She counted sixteen chairs around. The exquisite woodwork was complemented by the upholstery fabric, a blend of rich green and cream striping on velvet.
Two candelabras with lighted tapers flanked a breathtaking centerpiece of fresh flowers including creamy lilies and roses interspersed with greenery. The top of the beautifully carved table had such a highly polished surface, everything gleamed. Two places nearest the doors had been set where their dinner awaited them.
She finally looked at her employer. “I’m afraid whoever dreamed up this masterpiece of a room didn’t have that swing in mind.” He’d set it on a gorgeous Persian rug at the corner of the table.
“I have to give my wife credit for much of the apartment’s decor.”
