Rebecca Winters - Out of Hours...Enticing the Nanny - The Nanny and the CEO / Nanny to the Billionaire's Son / Not Just the Nanny

She folded the cots back up and put them away so there was room for the chairs. When she sat down next to him and the baby, the sun had come up. Though the blinds were closed, light illuminated the room.

Reese checked her watch. “Nick—do you realize he hasn’t thrown up for twenty minutes?”

His head lifted. “That’s definite progress.” He sounded elated.

“It is!” she cried.

The nurse came in a little while later. “How’s he doing?”

“It’s been a half hour since he last threw up.”

“Terrific.” She took the baby’s temperature. “It’s down four-tenths. I’ll call Dr. Wells and tell him. Let him sleep now.” She hurried out of the room.

Nick stood up and lay the baby back down in the crib.

Reese followed him over. “The worst must be over.”

They both heard the door open and Dr. Wells came back in to examine the baby. “He’s going to be fine. For the rest of the day give him formula when he seems ready for it. We’ll keep the IV going. This evening I’ll come by on rounds. If all is well, he’ll be able to sleep in his own crib tonight.”

“That’s wonderful!” Reese cried as he left the room. Luckily her mask muffled its full intensity.

Nick turned to her. His hands shot out to grasp her arms. “You’re wonderful. I don’t know what I would have done without you.” Between his husky voice that sounded an octave deeper and those dark fringed eyes that were looking at her with such gratitude, she was overwhelmed by the feelings he engendered. But growing alongside her great happiness was a new fear clutching at her.

Last night he’d talked about the lines between nanny and employer getting blurred after living beneath the same roof. Try spending the whole night together in the same hospital room with the little baby they both adored.

This morning she couldn’t find the lines anywhere .

“IS THE diaper bag packed?”

“All done.”

“Don’t forget your new bathing suit.”

Reese blinked. “We’re going swimming?”

“We might.”

“In your in-laws’ pool?”

“Maybe. They have several.”

She’d been swimming in the pool on the terrace every afternoon while Jamie was napping. He’d had a slight cold since they’d brought him home from the hospital last Saturday night, but Dr. Wells said it was to be expected. A week later Jamie was well and beaming. Next week she’d be able to move him around on top of the water and see how he fared.

“Ready?” he called out.

“Just about.”

While he was moving around in the apartment, she hurried back to her bedroom and stashed the new suit inside her purse. After breakfast she’d gotten dressed for the drive to White Plains. She’d chosen to wear a rose-colored sundress with a white, short-sleeved bolero jacket. It was a step up from jeans, more presentable for a nanny who was about to face the Hirsts again. A white ribbon for her ponytail to match her sandals, and she left the bedroom.

“Let’s go!”

After putting the freeze pack with the milk into the diaper bag, Reese met him in the foyer. Nick had dressed in cargo pants and a tan crew neck shirt. Even though he’d shaved, there was that hint of dark shadow that gave him a slightly disreputable look, adding to his sensuality. The sight of him looking beyond handsome with his wavy black hair and the relaxed look on his face took her breath.

She quickly switched her gaze to his son strapped in his carryall. Nick had put him in his white outfit with the tiger on the front. The baby was three months and a week old now. He was bigger and looked so healthy you would never have guessed he’d been ill a week ago. Unable to resist, she kissed his cheek several times. His little mouth curved into a smile that reminded her of Nick. It turned her heart right over.

She tickled his tummy. “We’re going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship.” She sang the song one of her friend’s four-year-old loved. Jamie loved it, too.

He laughed out loud, provoking a grin from Nick. His gaze found hers. “You sound happy.”

“Who wouldn’t be? When I think of last week…”

“Don’t remind me.”

They left the apartment. Soon they’d climbed in the limo and were headed out of the city under a semicloudy sky, but nothing could dim her elation at being able to spend the whole day with Nick and Jamie.

Since that night in the hospital when he’d told her about his background and failed marriage, she wasn’t as nervous to meet Erica’s parents. Forewarned helped her to be forearmed.

Nick’s decision to break from tradition and bring on the condemnation of two families had been made because of his love and need of Jamie. It took an incredibly strong man of amazing character to do what he did. It couldn’t have been easy and she didn’t envy him having to deal with his in-laws today. For that reason Reese intended to be his support.

In some way things had been easier since the hospital. The bonding that had taken place with Jamie made everything they did seem more natural when the three of them were together. Nick had come home around four every afternoon. She understood his need to spend as much time as possible with his son.

Reese felt as if the penthouse had become a happy place for Nick. Nothing could mean more to her when she realized how much of his past had been marred by the weight of a painful childhood as well as a difficult marriage. Nick still hadn’t told her all that had gone on between him and Erica to drive them apart, but then Reese was only the nanny. Every once in a while she had to remember that, but it was getting harder and harder.

On this trip she sat next to Jamie, who loved his pacifier and blue rattle. With Nick sitting straight across from the baby, he could talk to him and keep him entertained, but it was Jamie who entertained them. Every time he laughed, his pacifier fell out and Nick put it back in. Jamie thought it was a game and kept doing it. Maybe he was too little to realize what was going on, but it was hilarious and they laughed all the way to White Plains.

When they came in sight of the Hirst estate, Reese understood even more the dividing line that separated people with lifestyles like Nick’s and his former wife’s from the rest of the world. They drove past a sign indicating public parking around the west side of the twostory mansion. Paul took the tree-lined driveway to the front entrance and helped Reese out with the diaper bag. Nick followed with Jamie and the three of them started up the steps. By the time they reached the front door, Walter Hirst had opened it. The older man couldn’t hide his surprise at seeing Reese.

“We’re in the dayroom.”

If it had been Reese’s father who’d opened the door, the first thing he would have said was something like, “There’s my grandson! Come here and say hello to your old granddad.” He would have reached for the baby and walked him through their house to show Grandma.

Reese had thought she was prepared for this, but even with the explanations Nick had given her, to see and feel the continued lack of personal warmth and affection coming from Erica’s father disturbed her.

The interior of the mansion might be an architectural triumph of nineteenth-century elegance, but the only life Reese could see came from Jamie, whose head kept turning as they followed Mr. Hirst to a room with a surprising contemporary decor. His grandmother, wearing a stylish two-piece suit in lime-green, was just walking through the doors leading in from a beautiful flower garden Reese could see beyond her.

“We didn’t expect you this early. I take it Jamie’s better now.”

“He’s fine,” Nick stated. “In fact you’re perfect, aren’t you, sport.” He kissed his cheeks while he undid the straps and lifted him out. “You’ll notice he’s grown.”