Lynne Marshall - Spellbound By The Single Dad

“So, you’ll take the job?”

“Thing is, this is more than a job—it’s my home too.” She tapped her fingers against her lips, drawing his attention to their softly curved shape. “What will happen to me once you know all you need to know? I have a stable job and home for my daughter here, and I’m sure Dylan would replace me fairly quickly so I wouldn’t be able to come back.”

“Even when you’ve finished coaching me in the role of parent, I’ll still need a nanny, at least until she goes to school. You won’t be kicked out on the street.”

She chewed on her lip, and he could see her mind going at a hundred miles an hour, thinking through all the possibilities. He liked that trait in his daughter’s nanny. Hell, he liked that trait in anyone.

Jenna rubbed a delicate finger across her forehead. “Can I think about it?”

“I’d prefer you didn’t. As you can see, I’m on my way home now. I only stopped in here to drop Dylan off and I wanted to try and settle her before the drive out of town. I’d like you to come with me and help with the feeding and bathing from the start.”

“Now?” she asked, blue eyes widening.

“Pack a bag and we’ll pick up Meg on the way. I’ll send a moving company over to grab the rest of your things tomorrow.”

“Hey, what about me?” Dylan asked, looking at them in bewilderment.

Liam waved the concern away with a flick of his wrist. “I’m sure you’ll survive without a housekeeper until you can get an agency to send over a temp.” He turned back to Jenna. “You’ll take it?”

She lifted a hand to circle her throat, looking from him to Dylan and back again. “But—”

“Don’t overanalyze it, Jenna. I have a job vacancy and you’re qualified to fill it. I’ll match the wage Dylan is paying you with a twenty percent raise, and the job comes with accommodation. Best of all, you can keep your baby with you during the day instead of having her in day care. Just say yes. Go on—” he smiled “—you know you want to. Say yes.”

Her eyes flicked back to his brother. “Go on,” Dylan said, clearly resigned to being housekeeper-less in the short term. “If you want the job, take it. I’ll be fine. My brother and my niece need you more than I do right now.”

“Yes,” she said, then bit down on her lip, as if surprised at herself. Then more firmly, “Yes.”

“Excellent.” Liam stood, ready to leave now the solution could be put into place. “How long will you take to pack a bag?”

“If you give me your address, I can throw a few things together and catch a cab over in about an hour.”

“I’ll wait.” He wanted her there when he and Bonnie arrived home. He was pretty sure Bonnie would need changing or feeding or both. “You and Meg can come with me and the movers can do everything else.”

“Now,” she said, a touch of wonder in her voice. “Okay, I’ll go and pack a couple of bags as quickly as I can.”

Liam let out a long breath as he watched his new nanny head down the hallway. There was something beautiful in the way she moved—he could watch her just walk all day. Having her under the same roof would be no hardship.

Before he could let that thought take hold, he gave himself a mental shake. He had bigger issues than attraction to a beautiful woman. In fact, attraction would be downright problematic. Now that he’d solved the problem of what to do with Bonnie, he wouldn’t jeopardize that solution by acting like a teenager ruled by his hormones. He knew how to behave himself, knew what needed to be off-limits. Nothing would jeopardize this plan.

Everything was going to be all right.

He glanced down at Bonnie, sleeping in his arms. No, everything would be better than all right. He’d make sure of it.

Two

The trip in Liam’s Jeep to his home in San Juan Capistrano was awkwardly silent after Meg’s babble as she played with a crinkly toy in the back subsided and she eventually dozed off. By the time Jenna had finished packing a couple of bags of her and Meg’s things, Bonnie had been hungry so they’d fed her before setting off. Now the baby was asleep too.

Behind the shield of her sunglasses, Jenna sneaked a look at her new employer. He sat tall in the driver’s seat—she knew he had an inch or two on Dylan’s six feet—and faint frown lines streaked across his forehead. Those lines were absent from his brother’s face. But minor differences to his brothers didn’t come close to explaining why it was this brother who’d always caught her eye. Why on those rare occasions his gaze had fallen on her at Dylan’s apartment over the year, her heart had beaten that little bit faster.

What did she really know about him—well, besides that he was a man used to getting his own way? She’d been swept along by the speed with which he’d acted. She was used to autocratic people—not only was her mother a ruling monarch, but her father and siblings were all princes and princesses who were used to having people, including her, obey them.

She’d needed that job with Dylan, the settledness of it, the security of it for her and her daughter, yet here she was after only a matter of hours, minutes really, being relocated to Liam’s house. Why had she let that happen?

As hard to resist as he was, she knew it was Bonnie’s plight that called to her. And Liam’s reaction to his new daughter—he was bumbling with his inexperience but so very protective and determined to do the best by the baby.

Most people had nine months to get used to the idea of parenthood. While she’d fed Bonnie at Dylan’s apartment, Liam had admitted he’d had less than twenty-four hours since being thrust into the role of instant father.

And it was her job to help him acclimatize. Time to step into her role.

“I’m assuming you don’t have any baby supplies at home?” she said, breaking the silence.

“Supplies?” He shoved one hand through his hair, then gripped the wheel again. “I have the car seat Dylan had fitted and the hospital gave me some things.”

“Oh, well that will do for a start, but you’ll need much more than that.”

“I will?” he asked, his dark brows drawing together above aviator sunglasses.

“Yes.” She fished around in her handbag, found a pen and scrap of paper and started making notes. They’d need everything from bedding to clothing to kitchen supplies.... “She’ll need a few pieces of furniture besides a crib. A chest of drawers or a cupboard for her clothes, and maybe a chair we can put in her room for night feeds. But we can use whatever you have.”

“I’ll show you around and you can take what you need from other rooms.” His voice was deep and business-like, as if he was organizing the logistics for a project. “Put everything else on your list and I’ll get a baby shop to deliver.”

“We don’t need all of this right away,” she said, looking down at the crumpled bit of paper in her hand. It was going to be a big delivery to get everything at once—she’d bought Meg’s things slowly, in batches. “With some things, we can make do or she can use Meg’s.”

“Don’t be shy about ordering new things for her. If Bonnie needs it, she gets it.”

“Okay. We’re going to need formula, diapers, bottles, a sterilizer, a crib, crib sheets, blankets, a diaper bag—”

Liam held up a hand. “What’s a diaper bag? Don’t they arrive in a bag?”

“It’s to put all her baby supplies in when we take her out. Actually,” she said, making a note, “we’d better get two.” She scanned to find her place in the list. “Monitor, high chair, baby wash, booties, onesies—”

Liam stopped her again. “All of this for one seven-pound baby?” he asked incredulously. “Seriously?”