Teresa Southwick - Marrying The Virgin Nanny / The Nanny And Me

Still, she needed money. No matter how innocent she seemed, it was always good to have safeguards in place.

Maggie and Jason sat in the back of his town car with the baby strapped in between them sound asleep. His driver was taking them to the courthouse to get married.

Married.

Margaret Mary Shepherd, abandoned baby and almost a nun, was going to marry one of Las Vegas’s wealthiest and most eligible bachelors. It was absolutely and completely surreal. Long ago she’d rigidly and deliberately put any thoughts of a wedding day out of her mind. But when rogue dreams had managed to leak through, there had always been sunshine.

Not today on her actual wedding day. It was cloudy. The forecasters were predicting rain. In the desert. It never rained in the desert. Actually, it did, but when that happened flash floods were the result.

She swallowed any misgivings and reminded herself that there was a greater good here. The home was going to get the repairs so desperately needed, and she was going to be able to stay with the baby boy she’d fallen head over heels for.

And his father?

Jason was staring out the window at the buildings going by. His profile could have been carved from any one of the rocky mountains surrounding the Vegas valley. He hadn’t said anything since leaving Blake Decker’s office. His lawyer was a very handsome man—in her opinion not as good-looking as Jason, but they said beauty was in the eye of the beholder. If that was true, it pointed to her having a crush on her soon-to-be husband. She supposed that was better than not being able to stand him.

As far as the pros and cons in her decision to accept his proposal, all the checkmarks stacked up on the positive side. In a town with huge hotels and resorts that were built on losses, she was getting a legal commitment that would make her a winner. She couldn’t get tossed out in the cold. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous.

“Jason?”

He turned his head, his glance dropping on the baby first. His eyes softened and a heartbreakingly tender smile lessened the craggy angles of his face. “Hmm?”

“I thought Mr. Decker was very nice.” She’d felt the need to talk, but that was a lame thing to say. There was still time for him to back out. None of that paperwork meant a thing if there were no vows.

“Blake? Nice?” He met her gaze. “I’m not sure he’d think that was a compliment.”

“Why?”

“Most attorneys wouldn’t consider that adjective in keeping with their job description. And Blake Decker feels that way more than most.”

“But it’s just a job. I’m sure he’s a very nice person.”

Staring at her, he shook his head slightly. “Do you really believe that?”

“Of course.” She clasped her hands together. “I know lawyers are called all kinds of unflattering names. Shark. Snake. Weasel.”

“You forgot barracuda.”

“That, too. But it doesn’t define his true nature. It’s his job to know the law and advise the rest of us who don’t.”

A guilty look flashed into his eyes, then disappeared. Working with kids at the home she’d seen the expression a lot and was pretty good at detecting it. Although what he had to feel uncomfortable about she couldn’t say.

“Here we are,” he said as the car slowed to a stop. Was that relief in his voice?

Jason opened the door as she unhooked the baby’s car seat. He reached back inside for the handle and lifted Brady out without waking him.

Following him up the concrete steps outside the Clark County Courthouse, her heart started to race, and it wasn’t about hurrying up steps or going through the metal detectors. The official atmosphere was crystallizing. It was one thing to discuss marriage and another thing to walk into the halls of justice to speak legally binding vows.

Their footsteps echoed on the marble floor as they made their way to the elevator that took them to the clerk’s office. He’d explained this to her. In Nevada, no blood test was required, but both parties wishing to marry had to appear before the county clerk for a marriage license. After proper identification was verified, a fee of fifty-five dollars in cash was paid and a certificate allowing them to marry exchanged. Her stomach lurched, not unlike the way it reacted in the elevator.

But everything went as he’d said it would. Then she followed Jason down the hall and into a room with generic plastic chairs lined up in the middle. Jason set the still-sleeping baby down on the floor by the first row. She’d always thought that if she married, it would happen in church. She’d have been wrong. Her wedding was happening in the same building where criminals went on trial and justice was meted out. It was best not to dwell on that.

Maggie sat and looked at the other couples waiting to get married. One girl who hardly looked old enough to be here wore a strapless, long white gown. Her husband-to-be didn’t look like he shaved yet. A middle-aged woman, with the portly man of her dreams, was dressed in a black-and-white suit. Maggie’s beige dress with matching jacket couldn’t have been more unremarkable. This wasn’t an especially good time to realize she’d wanted her wedding day to be remarkable.

Strapless-wedding-dress girl leaned across the chair separating them and smiled. “Your baby is so precious.”

Maggie started to explain that he wasn’t hers, then decided not to go there. “Yes, he is. Thank you.”

“I’m going to have a baby,” she confided.

“Congratulations,” Maggie said.

“Thanks.” She looked at Jason who was speaking with the clerk. “He’s pretty cute, too.”

Maggie studied the dashing figure he cut in his conservative navy suit, dark hair stylishly cut and her heart pitched and rolled. “I couldn’t agree more.”

“You guys are an awesome family.”

Did that make her “awesome” by association? Before she could answer that question, Mr. Awesome returned. “We’re all set,” he said, picking up the car seat.

Maggie looked around at the couples who had been there when they walked in. “All these people are ahead of us.”

“Blake pulled some strings. A justice of the peace he knows pretty well managed to get us in right away.”

“Don’t you get thrown out of amusement parks for taking cuts in line?”

He laughed. “I told you nice wasn’t exactly the best adjective for my attorney.”

“Still, it feels wrong. Shouldn’t we wait our turn?”

One dark eyebrow lifted. “Are you stalling, Maggie? Maybe you’re having second thoughts?”

Second. Third. Fourth. But God had given her the means to a miracle, and now she decided it best not to think at all. “I gave my word.”

He nodded. “Then let’s do this.”

She sighed once, then squared her shoulders and followed him through a door. The room was an office, the man before them an officer of the court.

“Fred Knox,” he said, shaking hands with Jason. Then he glanced at the baby. “Nice-looking fella.”

“Thanks.” Jason’s voice was warm with pride.

“You’re here to make this family official.”

Jason met her gaze. “That’s the idea.”

“Let’s do it, then.” He opened a book and settled their marriage license on it. “Do you Jason Hunter Garrett take Margaret Mary Shepherd to be your wife for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health?”

“I do.”

When he repeated the words to her, Maggie said, “I do.”

“Do you have rings to exchange?”

Jason reached into his jacket pocket and produced a jeweler’s black-velvet box with two gold bands inside and handed them over. He’d thought of everything.

The man said, “These rings signify that love is enduring, without beginning or end.”