Professor and The Pregnant Nanny. Emily Dalton
brought over as soon as she’d appeased her sweet tooth. But her mom liked fussing over her, and it made Melissa feel cherished. She definitely enjoyed that feeling these days, and it made her mother feel good, too.
Melissa’s parents had wanted her to move in with them when she and Brad had split and she’d been faced with so many financial challenges, along with the pregnancy. But Melissa withstood their heartfelt entreaties to let them take care of her for a while. She knew she needed to get on with her life as independently as possible. Besides, they still managed to help her a bunch, especially with her business. She’d have never been able to take care of the physical demands of carting her product to stores and putting up displays without the help of her parents and her older brothers, Kent and Craig.
“Thanks, Mom,” Melissa said with a smile.
Pam’s eyebrows lifted. “For lecturing you? That’s a first.”
“No, Mom, for everything.” Melissa was embarrassed when her eyes filled with tears again.
“Missy, what’s the matter?” Her mom was instantly beside her on the sofa, her hand on her knee, her worried gaze searching Melissa’s face. “Don’t you feel well? Was this professor a tyrant who made you work like a dog, then sent you away without eating?”
Melissa gave a watery chuckle, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. “Oh, no. Charles Avery is anything but a tyrant. It’s just pregnancy hormones. I’ve been emotional all day.”
Pam sat back and gazed intently at Melissa. “Charles Avery? This professor you’re working for isn’t by any chance the Charles Avery who helped you pass your trig class, is he?”
Melissa was surprised. “You remember Charles Avery?”
Pam shrugged. “Of course I do. I was very impressed by him. And he was doing a good deed for my daughter—a mother never forgets something like that. Besides, he had beautiful green eyes.”
Melissa stared at her mother, her surprise increasing with each sentence she uttered. “You noticed his eyes were beautiful behind those thick lenses he wore? How come I didn’t? Heck, I didn’t even remember him after he told me who he was this morning…at least, not right away. I really felt stupid. But then he doesn’t look the same, so—”
This time Pam lifted just one brow, her expression sly. “So how does he look?”
Melissa felt the heat climbing her neck and, no doubt, staining her cheeks bright red.
Pam laughed. “Missy, you’re blushing! I gather he’s gotten pretty cute. Too bad there’s a Mrs. Charles Avery.”
Now Melissa felt the blood and the color draining out of her face as she recalled her horrible lie. Pam watched with alarm as her daughter went from red as a rose to white as a ghost. “Missy, you’d better tell me what’s going on. And don’t fall back on the pregnancy hormones as an excuse.”
Melissa blew out a long breath and told her mother about the lie she’d told Charles. At the conclusion of her story, after recounting the highlights of the day from her arrival to her departure, she stressed, “I would never have told him that Brad was dead if I’d known his own wife had died, Mom. It’s just that I—”
“It was wrong to tell him Brad was dead, even if his wife was still alive…but you know that. But I do understand how it happened, Melissa. Brad hasn’t exactly been good for your self-esteem, has he?”
Melissa’s chin jutted out slightly. “No, but I’m not going to blame him for the rest of my life for decisions I made of my own free will. I know I was mostly just naive and too in love to see things straight, but Brad and I are divorced now and he’s living happily—I assume—in California.”
“I just wish he was farther away. Possibly Yemen?”
“That part of my life is over, thank goodness. I’m doing just fine, and feeling better about myself everyday. I’m just sorry I didn’t have the strength of character to be honest with Charles from the beginning.”
Pam sat back against the sofa cushions, took the brownie container from Melissa and peered inside, mulling over which one to choose. “You can still be honest with him, you know.”
“What for? He might fire me, and I won’t see him again after this week anyway.”
“If he’s the nice guy you say he is, I doubt he’d fire you. He’s lived long enough to know that people make mistakes. He’ll understand. And what makes you think you won’t see him again after the job’s over? Don’t you want to see him again? Heck if it was me…”
Melissa recognized her mother’s matchmaking tone and immediately nipped that flowering idea in the bud. “Mom, even if I admitted to the truth and he forgave me, there’s no chance Charles Avery would be interested in me.”
Pam gave Melissa a disapproving scowl. “I can’t stand it when you talk like that. Brad really did do a number on you, didn’t he? Don’t you realize how beautiful and special you are, Melissa Richardson?”
“You’re my mom. You’re prejudiced. Besides, Charles could have anyone he wants, believe me. Why would he want me?”
“He wanted you in high school. Give him some time! The week has just begun and—”
Melissa gave an uncertain chuckle. “What do you mean, he wanted me in high school?”
“He had a crush on you, Missy. Didn’t you know? It was patently obvious to me and your father, I can tell you. The way he looked at you, the way he blushed and stared and—Well, we just knew. He probably thought he’d died and gone to heaven when you took him those cookies to thank him for tutoring you.”
Melissa felt her heart sink. “Oh…now I understand.”
Pam finally chose a brownie and took a nibble. “Well, at least we’re getting somewhere. What exactly do you understand, Missy?”
“Why he bristled when I offered to bake him cookies tomorrow. He was remembering that I’d promised him cookies for helping me with my math and—”
“And what?”
“And I never delivered,” Melissa admitted with a sigh. “I’d forgotten about that, but it’s all coming back to me now.”
Pam frowned. “But I remember you baking cookies.”
“Yes. And I had every intention of taking them to Charles. But Brad and some of his buddies showed up while I was baking and ate almost the whole batch. I meant to bake more, but somehow it slipped my mind. Maybe if I saw Charles at school, I’d have remembered, but he was never around.”
“He might have been around, only you didn’t notice him,” Pam suggested. “You had tunnel vision in those days, Missy, and Brad was the ‘light’ at the end of the tunnel, blinding you to everyone and everything else.”
“Great metaphor, Mom,” Melissa said drily. “But so mortifying.”
“Bake him cookies tomorrow, like you told him you would,” her mother said bracingly. “Bake him a batch for being nice now, and bake him a batch for being nice thirteen years ago.”
“I don’t know, Mom,” Melissa said hesitantly. “He might think I’m…you know…flirting with him or something.”
Pam laughed. “What’s wrong with that?”
“He might have a girlfriend.”
“He might not. If he had a girlfriend, he or one of the children would probably have mentioned her today.”
“Even so…were you listening when I told you I lied to him, Mom? That I told him Brad was dead?”
“And were you listening when I told you to tell him the truth?” Pam countered, gesturing with the hand that held the brownie as she stressed her point. “Do it, the sooner the better. And quit overanalyzing and worrying about everything and