Laura Altom - A Navy SEAL's Surprise Baby

Once his son’s cries had been reduced to occasional shuddering huffs, she held out her hand for Calder to shake. “I’m sorry. In all the excitement, I failed to properly introduce myself. I’m Pandora Moore.”

Still shaky, Calder shook the woman’s hand. This certainly put a new spin on the situation. How did his conscience justify sending her on her way when she’d literally saved Quinn’s life? Did he repay that debt by flat out giving her the job? “Nice to meet you. Calder Remington.” Pointing to his son, he asked, “Where’d you learn that—the baby Heimlich thing?”

“Basic Infant Care 101. Choking is a leading cause of infant mortality—which is beyond tragic considering most cases are preventable.” She took the bowl of grapes from the coffee table, placing them on the mantel.

“Yeah, well, you made me feel pretty stupid.” He rammed his hands into his jeans pockets.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean to imply you’re a bad parent.”

“I get it.” Whether she’d meant it or not, her words stung because Calder knew them to be true. He may be good at a lot of things, but raising a kid wasn’t one. He tried, but even after having had Quinn for a few months, nothing about it felt natural. Bottom line, Calder had wearied of the whole nanny search. Unable to shake the guilt telling him the least he could do for this woman who’d saved his son was give her a chance, he asked, “How soon can you start?”

Her eyebrows rose. “You mean you want me for the job?”

“Sure. We’ll give it a try.” He still didn’t wholly trust a woman named Pandora, but guys on his team were always giving him crap for his name. Didn’t seem fair for him to turn around and do the same. “Can you start first thing tomorrow?”

She pushed up her glasses and shyly smiled. “Sure. The agency said it’s a live-in position, right?”

“Yeah.” He gestured down the hall. “Follow me. I’ll show you your room.”

* * *

STANDING IN THE sunshine-flooded bedroom with its own private bath and even a bay window peering out on the grassy, tree-lined backyard, Pandora fought the urge to pinch herself. A hardwood dresser, nightstand and headboard all matched and the tan carpet was clean enough for the baby in her arms to crawl wherever he wanted—assuming there weren’t more grapes lying around. The queen-size mattress was bare, but new enough to still wear furniture-store stickers.

After all she’d been through, this felt surreal. As a bonus, Calder even seemed like a great guy. Though he possessed beyond steal-your-breath good looks, her gut told her he was a gentleman. As for the indefinable jolt of awareness stemming from just shaking his hand? She was determined to push that from her mind.

“Don’t blame you if you hate the color,” he said in regard to the mixed shades of lavender, orange and lime green polluting the walls. “The last owner went a little crazy with their sponge painting. We’ll pick out something more to your liking.”

“Yellow,” she automatically said. “I’ve always wanted a room the shade of lemon sorbet.”

He laughed. “You got it. As for the bedspread, towels, sheets and everything, I figured you’d be more comfortable using your own.”

“Yes. Thanks.” Only trouble was, she didn’t have her own. But she had managed to save some money. It wouldn’t hurt to spend a smidge of her precious savings on the perfect floral comforter set to match her soon-to-be newly painted walls.

Quinn had fallen asleep in her arms.

The sensation of once again holding an infant struck her as sublime.

For the past year, she’d held a steady after-school child-care position until the Norfolk naval family had been transferred overseas. Pandora’s charges had been two little girls aged five and seven. During that time and up to the present, she lived at a halfway house in a gloomy basement bedroom no bigger than some closets. The enormity of this job and all the secondary perks it entailed were too great to presently absorb, so she held them close as she might have a secret gift she wouldn’t open until she had some privacy. No, she wouldn’t even think about the full ramifications until Calder signed the agency paperwork that officially brought her dream one step closer to fruition.

“Want me to take him?” Her new boss nodded to his son before leading Pandora into the hall.

“Thanks, but I’m good.” And she was. Nuzzling the infant’s downy hair, she drank in his familiar baby smells of lotion and powder. If this angel were truly hers, she’d never let him go. “If it’s not too personal, where’s Quinn’s mom?”

Calder’s expression darkened as he said, “Not to be evasive, but that’s a long story best told over a few beers.”

“Oh.” He drank? She’d hoped he didn’t, but that was probably expecting too much.

“Come on. I’ll show you Quinn’s room and the rest of the house. We’ve only been here a few weeks. My schedule made it tough to nail down the closing date.”

“You work a lot of overtime?”

He snorted as he led the way into a surprisingly drab nursery. “Guess you could call it that. Sorry—I’m still off my game from the whole choking thing. I’m a navy SEAL. A big part of my job is being called out with little or no notice. Like, I might tell you I’ll be home for dinner, but then get assigned a mission and won’t be back for six months—granted, it’s usually not that long, but it can happen. Technically, for just that reason, my mom has shared custody of Quinn. But since she’s in North Carolina, I need you here for any and all immediate contingencies. That’s why it was important for me to hire someone through an agency. I need to know you’re not only reliable and great with my kid, but have the kind of stable history and experience in caring for children that allows me to be one hundred percent certain you’re doing a great job. That way, I can fully focus on what I do, which makes my life a helluva lot saner.”

Pandora wished she were as confident with the trust he placed in her as Calder. Though in her head, she’d put her past firmly behind her, in her heart the fallout still remained.

Rocking Quinn, she asked, “How can you stand being away from this cutie?”

For a split second, Calder looked blank. “I, ah, guess for what I do, I don’t have a lot of options. Come on, I’ll show you the kitchen.”

Pandora followed, trailing her fingertips along white walls. Had Calder already painted the hall? Somehow she couldn’t imagine the same person who’d attacked her room with color being satisfied with a vanilla thoroughfare.

In the kitchen, Calder said, “Nothing fancy here. I don’t expect you to cook for me. Just make sure Quinn gets decent meals. I set up a household account at the bank. You can use it for groceries, diapers—whatever else we need around here or for Quinn.”

She nodded, though inside, she felt as if she may be dreaming. How many nights had she gone to bed hungry because she had no cash for food?

You sure managed to scrape up enough dough for other things, her conscience was all too happy to point out.

Fighting fire with fire, she squelched the seemingly constant voice in her head, reminding her she was destined to fail, by saying, “Thanks again for this opportunity. I’ll care for Quinn as if he were my own.”

Wrong choice of words considering what had happened to her sweet Julia. She squelched that thought, too.

“I’m pretty sure I should be thanking you.” He fished a key from a meticulously organized drawer, handing it to her. “Everyone I know with kids says the agency you work for doesn’t fool around when it comes to hiring the most qualified people.”

Pandora knew that to be true. Her best friend, Natalie, put all of her employees through extensive background checks. She feared the only reason Natalie had hired Pandora was because of the friendship they’d struck up at the restaurant where Pandora waited tables. But no matter how many times Natalie assured Pandora that wasn’t the case, or how much additional training she’d done on her own, she never quite felt part of acceptable society—or worthy of receiving good fortune.