Falling For The Nanny: The Billionaire's Baby SOS / The Nanny Bombshell / The Nanny Who Kissed Her Boss. SUSAN MEIER
his love life.
And his traveling.
And his staff.
Good God! The housekeeper, Mrs. McHenry, would have a fit when she discovered they were going to have to add a nursery and a nanny to his already-busy household.
He followed the sound of the giggles to an office at the end of a short hall. Her back to him, a slim woman held a baby in the crook of her arm. Her glossy chestnut-brown hair was swept up in a neat, professional chignon and her red dress rode her curves like an Italian sports car took the turns at Le Mans.
His eyebrows rose. “Somehow I’d always pictured the women who worked at adoption agencies as gray-haired old maids in tacky white blouses.”
The baby stopped laughing. The woman at the window spun around.
For the first time Matt could remember, he was speechless.
Huge round brown eyes dominated her face. High cheekbones showcased a pert and proper nose and full, lush lips.
“Can I help you?”
He walked in slowly, his interest piqued. She was exactly the kind of woman he wined and dined, seduced and then left with the gift of a diamond bracelet. But before he could open his mouth to flirt, the baby in her arms squawked. Bella. Oswald and Ginny’s daughter. His, because he’d agreed to be godfather to his ex-wife’s baby.
Sadness stole over him. This time last week Ginny had called to make dinner plans for when he returned to Boston. Now she and Oswald were gone. He’d never again see Ginny’s pretty smile or hear Oswald’s goofy laugh. He’d lost the ex-wife he loved and her new husband, who had become a good friend.
Bella screeched again. The woman looked at the baby, then gasped slightly as her gaze jerked back to him. “I’m Claire Kincaid, Bella’s caseworker. Are you Matt Patterson?”
Shoving his hands into the pants pockets of his handmade suit, he ambled into the room. “Yes.”
“My God. In four days, Bella’s hardly responded to anybody. She doesn’t even cry. She eats and sleeps and laughs when I tickle her. But you’re the first person she’s spoken to.”
“Spoken to? Sounded like a squawk to me.”
She laughed. “Squawking is how babies talk.”
Her pretty brown eyes glittered with humor and his gut tightened. She was incredibly beautiful.
“She knows me.” He paused. “A bit.”
“Because you’re a friend of her parents?”
He nodded and took another cautious step toward the woman and Bella. Dark-haired, blue-eyed Bella strained toward him, reaching for him to take her.
Surprised, he jerked back.
Claire Kincaid’s smile faded. “She wants you.”
“Yes. And I fully intend to care for her but I—” He paused, sucked in a breath. His instincts insisted he should flirt with the beautiful woman. His brain, however, reminded him this wasn’t a pleasure trip and he’d better get his head in the game. Somehow or another he’d ended up with a baby and he didn’t have a clue what to do with her. “I can’t hold her.”
“Excuse me?”
He pulled his hands from his pants pockets and raised them in a gesture of total helplessness. “I don’t know how.”
She took a step toward him. “It’s really quite simple.”
Her sweet and polite voice matched her nearly perfect face and sent tingly warmth through him. But when she stepped toward him, offering the little girl, he backed up again.
She frowned. “This child is yours.”
“And I will take care of her. Next week.” He shook his head. “No. That doesn’t work for me, either. I have to go to Texas for some family reunion thing—”
The woman holding Bella stopped him with a wave of her hand. “I don’t care if you’re the king of the world and you have to hold court. Bella is yours now.” She smoothed a hand down the baby’s back. “Besides, there’s nothing to be afraid of. She’s such a sweetie that caring for her will come naturally.” She held the baby out to him, and again, Bella strained toward him.
His nervous system rattled like the old-fashioned ticker at the New York Stock Exchange. He’d known for four days that his ex-wife was dead and he was to be Bella’s guardian, and he hadn’t panicked. He’d handled it the same way he handled everything in his life. He took it one step at a time. But with the baby in front of him, it all suddenly became very real. For the next eighteen years, this child was his. He’d have to raise her. Get her through toddler years and preschool, then elementary school, middle school—teen years.
“I—” He wanted to take her. He really did. But this was Ginny and Oswald’s baby. A baby who deserved to be loved and pampered. He hadn’t loved or pampered anybody in—well, ever. That’s why he’d lost Ginny. He wasn’t the pampering, wine and roses, long walks on the beach and talks all night kind of guy. Worse, the people who might be able to help him—his staff—were all out of town.
“Really. I can’t take her now. I’ve been in London for three weeks. When I heard about Bella, I came home early. But I’d dismissed my household staff for the six weeks I was supposed to be away. They’re in places like Aruba taking a much-needed break. Even if I called them home, they wouldn’t get back before Friday. And I,” he said, pressing his hand against his chest, “have absolutely no idea how to care for a baby.”
“You don’t have nieces or nephews?”
He winced. “No, but even if I did, let’s just say I’m not much of a family man.”
Though Claire straightened as if she were about to rain down the fire of hell upon him, she protectively rubbed her hand along Bella’s back, soothing her. “You agreed to parent a child when you have absolutely no idea of how?”
“I agreed to be a godfather. I didn’t realize that also meant I’d be the baby’s guardian if something happened to her parents.”
“How could you not know that?”
“In some circles godfather is a purely honorary term.”
Her pretty face softened. “Apparently, your friends took it seriously because you’re named Bella’s guardian in their wills.”
“Yes. But they never told me that and I am just not ready for this.”
“You still have to take her.”
Disbelief and anger at the injustice of it all reared up in him. Ginny dead. Bella his. It didn’t make any sense. Mostly because he wasn’t qualified to do this—any of it. He couldn’t hold her, let alone change a diaper. And he was the last person who should be assigned to love her.
Bella began to fuss and Claire Kinkaid rubbed her cheek against the baby’s, comforting and quieting her.
Inspiration struck like a band of angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus. “You’re pretty good with kids. What are you doing tonight, Miss Kincaid?”
“It’s Claire.” She moved her gaze away from his, straightening the collar of Bella’s little pink blouse. “And I’m busy.”
His eyes narrowed. Busy? She was pretty enough to have a date on a Monday night. If she’d been able to hold his gaze, he might have bought that. “So what you’re really saying is that you don’t want to help us?”
“We’re an adoption agency, not a nanny service.” She walked to her desk, pulled out some business cards. “But these are the names and addresses of some well-respected agencies. You could get a stellar nanny from any one of them.”
As Claire held out the cards to Matt, Bella blinked slowly. Her long black lashes