Glynna Kaye - The Nanny Bargain

Sawyer frowned. “You walked? On a bitterly cold night like this?” Hunter Ridge wasn’t that well lit either. Not once you got away from the business district along the main road through town.

She nodded almost guiltily. “I didn’t feel comfortable at night driving or trying to park the big SUV that Therese and Ray left for my use. It has car seats for the boys, but they look complicated and by the time I realized that, I knew I’d never figure out how to get them moved to my car in time for the play.”

He helped her into her coat. “Let me give you a lift home, then.”

Her expression brightened. “You have booster seats?”

“No, but—”

“Then we’ll walk.”

Stubborn little thing. Yeah, he knew the state laws, but it wasn’t that far of a drive and it wasn’t like he’d be hot-rodding. “Well, then, you won’t be walking alone. Come on, boys, get those coats and mittens on.”

She lightly touched his arm. “You don’t have to do this, Sawyer. We’ll be fine.”

“I’m sure you will be, but there’s no harm in keeping things on the safe side, is there?”

She gave what he took to be a resigned sigh. Too bad. As he held open an exit door to the fellowship hall for Tori and the boys, his friend Kyle caught his eye and gave him a thumbs-up.

Sawyer let the door slam shut behind him.

Outside, the kids scampered across the dimly lit parking lot, pausing only long enough to skim across frozen puddle patches as Tori attempted unsuccessfully to keep up, her warnings to slow down unheard by squealing four-and-a-half-year-olds.

He shook his head, then let out a piercing whistle that stopped all three in their tracks.

“Put the brakes on it, boys. Slow it down.”

Although the twins grumbled, they obeyed, waiting for Tori to catch up and for Sawyer to join them. Then the foursome headed off again, the boys leading the way.

“You’ll have to teach me how to whistle like that.” Tori’s tone held a note of admiration. “I think it may come in handy in this job.”

“Easier to buy you a whistle, I imagine.”

“Probably.”

As they left the parking lot, overhead light diminished considerably despite the rising round-faced moon, and Tori switched on a pocket flashlight.

“You’ve come prepared.”

“I gave ones to the boys, too, if they’d remember to pull them out.”

“What’s the fun of that when you can run blindly into the dark and fall into a snowbank?”

“True.”

They walked in silence for some distance, the voices of the boys, not far ahead, chattering about the nighttime adventure.

“So, how’s your first week on duty been?”

“Pretty good. Not a whole lot of time to myself right now—the boys seem to find their way to my apartment quite frequently.”

“I can see how that might be a problem.”

“I think once they get used to me being there, I’ll be less of a fascination.”

He doubted that, but he’d let her think what she wanted to. “If you can find the time next week, you should practice driving the Selbys’ bruiser of an SUV in the daylight. You may need it the next time a winter storm system moves through. Depending on where you have to go, that compact of yours might not be able to handle it.”

Her chin lifted as if she didn’t like to be told what to do.

“At any rate,” he continued, not giving her a chance to argue, “you need to tell the Selbys to invest in an extra set of booster seats that you can keep in your car. The boys are big enough that the backless kind should suffice now. Ray and Therese’s can probably be converted, too.”

They’d run out of sidewalk, had shifted to walk along the edge of the road, and Tori called out a reminder to go single file. At least the snow had melted enough that they didn’t have to walk in the roadway itself. The boys had pulled out their flashlights, too, sparring as though with lightsabers.

“Does it seem funny, Sawyer, to have brothers—half brothers—so much younger than you?”

He figured it wasn’t anyone’s business what he thought of it, since Dad had never asked his opinion on the subject. But he sensed Tori’s question was sincere interest, not prying.

“I have two other brothers not too many years older than me. But yeah, it does feel funny at times. I’ve had people think Cubby and Landon are my kids.”

“I can see why. They resemble you. Your dad, he was divorced? Widowed?”

“Widower. When he moved to town to work with me at the Outpost, he met Vanessa Selby—Therese and Ray’s youngest daughter—who was fifteen years his junior. She’d spent most of her adult life on a mission field in South America. Never married. No children, but still young enough to have them and—” he chuckled, still marveling at how excited Dad had been when Vanessa announced she was pregnant “—lo and behold, that’s exactly what Anderson and Vanessa Banks did.”

“How old was your dad when the twins were born?”

“Fifty-three.”

“Brave man.”

“That’s my dad, alright. But after he’d lived alone for so many years, I could hardly begrudge him a little happiness.”

“It’s a shame it was short-lived.”

“Yeah. It is.” More than anyone knew.

“There are so many things I can’t pretend to understand,” she said softly, “and this is one of them.”

He didn’t understand it either. Oh, he understood the free-will part, that he’d used his to mess up and there had been deadly consequences. But just as when his mother died from a series of strokes when he was eleven, where was God when Dad arrived home to find the house on fire? Where was He when Dad got the boys out, but couldn’t save Vanessa, too?

A muscle tightened in his throat. No, he didn’t understand it at all.

“I’m sorry if I’ve stirred sad memories.”

She’d picked up on that, had she?

As they approached the Selbys’ place and the boys raced ahead, the porch light softly illuminated Tori’s face, her compassion-filled eyes. She halted at the edge of the yard. “You lost your father like your little brothers did.”

“But I had him for a lot of years,” he reminded her quietly. “I have real memories of the greatest mom and dad in the world. Memories my younger brothers will never have.”

“No, but you can make your memories of him come alive for them, can’t you? Teach them about the man their daddy was? You can show them by example the way he lived and how he’d want them to live, too.”

That sounded nice, but he hadn’t lived the way his father had. Not by a long shot.

Before he could respond, an approaching car slowed and turned into the driveway, headlights briefly flashing over them. The Selbys were back, and they probably weren’t overjoyed to see him standing in the shadows with Tori.

“Thank you for walking us home, Sawyer.”

“Anytime.”

As their grandparents exited the vehicle, the boys dashed off the porch and into their open arms.

Sawyer caught Ray’s pointed stare in his direction. No doubt the boys’ grandfather would be having a heart-to-heart with Tori tonight.

Warning her to keep her distance.

Chapter Five

“The way you talk, you kids must think your mom and dad are ready to be put out to pasture.”

At the sound of Therese’s brittle laughter, Tori paused in the doorway to the kitchen Thursday morning. She was on the phone, pacing the floor, but motioned Tori to come in. In the two weeks since Tori started the job, she and the boys’ grandmother had fallen into taking turns preparing lunch on weekdays. Never anything elaborate or time-consuming. Healthy and light. But it was an enjoyable family time for the five of them. Today was Tori’s day as chef.