Cowboy’s Temporary Nanny, page 3
His hesitation was as plain as the nose on his face, and Kaylee had a moment of doubt where she worried that she had crossed a line. Upon further inspection, however, he didn’t look annoyed, he looked unsure. From the looks of it, he needed something he wasn’t comfortable asking for.
“Seriously, Adam,” she pressed. “Tell me what you need. We made an agreement, and I intend to live up to my end of it. You don’t know me yet, not really, but I can assure you that I never do anything halfway.”
He sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter. “Look, if I’m being honest, ranch work isn’t a nine to five job. The hours are unpredictable. It won’t ever be a set schedule.”
“Sure, that makes sense. That’s why I’m asking what would work best.” Kaylee gently rocked Matty, who now wore the contented expression of a milk-drunk baby.
Adam looked at her for a long moment, searching her face in a way that made her breath catch in her throat. There was an intensity behind those eyes that she wasn’t used to coming up against. It was almost enough to knock her off of her game. Not quite, but almost.
“Best case scenario?” he finally said. “What would work best for me would be a live-in nanny. This is the busy season on the ranch and having someone here so I can head out first thing would make all of the difference in the world. That’s not to say I’d expect you to work twenty-four-seven!” he quickly added, as if worried he’d scared her off. “When I’m here in the house, Matty would be my responsibility. You’d still have plenty of time for your work. But not having to coordinate a hand-off every morning would be a huge help.” His words trailed off and he looked at her with wide, hopeful eyes, as if he was on death row and her next words could be a reprieve.
“You have Wi-Fi, right?” she asked.
“Um…” He looked confused for a second, but then answered. “Yes?”
“Good!” she said brightly, laughing a little at the look of frank shock that one word produced. “That definitely puts this place a cut above the local motel. I can only get online if I use the computers in the business center—or type everything out on my phone. So it’s settled. For the next month, I’m nanny on-call. Just point me to my bedroom, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Her pulse quickened at the idea of sharing a roof with a sexy cowboy, but she shoved that thought out of her head with ruthless efficiency. This had nothing to do with whether or not Adam was good-looking. It was a means to an end, just one more way to make sure that he would work to help her get what she needed. And if she got to live alongside of a little eye candy in the process? What harm could there be in that?
Four
Adam and Kaylee decided to leave the weekend for them both to get things ready for their temporary cohabitation. Kaylee alluded to all kinds of mysterious ends that needed to be wrapped up before she could make the move, and Adam was happy to give her the time. For his part, weekends were just more working days for him, but this time, he got Mrs. Flores—with some help from the Richardson teenagers—to agree to come over so he could plow through some of his piled-up work. That way, he’d have part of the end of Sunday free to help Kaylee settle in.
On that afternoon, he begged off of work early, making his apologies to his ranch hands and explaining the situation. He got a couple of colorful remarks about moving a female into his house, but he shrugged them off indifferently, stalking out of his barn without giving them the satisfaction of a response. Let them say what they wanted; it made no difference to him in the end. Unless his men were prepared to step in and become a nanny for the foreseeable future, their opinions didn’t matter to him at all.
Approaching his house, he saw that he was just in time to meet Kaylee arriving from her motel. She had some obscenely large suitcases with her, and he was gripped with a momentary worry that he had made a mistake by having her move in. What did he know about living with a woman? Or living with anyone at all, really? He’d been living on his own since his sister turned eighteen—twelve years ago. He’d had a handful or relationships over the years, but none of them resulted in the whole moving in with each other process. Now, here was this woman he barely knew with giant suitcases and those eyes he couldn’t seem to get out of his head. All at once, a month together seemed like a hell of a long time, and he found himself questioning whether this arrangement was going to be more trouble than it was worth.
Speeding up to meet her, he told that voice in his head to shut up. “Glad to catch you before you had to lug all of your stuff inside on your own. Let me help you with those?”
“I should probably make a show of telling you I can do it on my own, but I won’t lie. I would love some help.” She blew her bangs out of her face in exasperation, a gesture that struck him as oddly, inconveniently sexy.
He laughed and reached for one of her bags. “I’m happy to help you get settled in. I’m no fool. I know that Matty will have a much easier time adjusting to all of this with you around to help him.”
Kaylee smiled—the real version, not the work one—and Adam’s stomach jumped. There was something about that smile that just got under his skin. He needed to figure out how to stop that from being true. He had no interest in spending the next month tiptoeing around a woman who turned him on without even meaning to. Unwanted attraction would make it harder for him to put everything into his work, not easier.
He was relieved when they had her things safely stowed away in the guest room and could relieve Mrs. Flores of her duties. As absurd as it was, being with Kaylee in such close proximity to a bed made him feel like an awkward, fumbling teenager. He made a mental note to stick to neutral rooms until he could get ahold of himself, and sank down onto a couch tiredly as Mrs. Flores handed Matty over to Kaylee. He had no intention of going back to work now, even though it was earlier than he usually clocked out, and he was looking forward to an easy night spent largely with himself and his own company. This, it turned out, was a short-lived dream.
“So!” Kaylee said brightly, turning to give him an appraising look with Matty nestled safely in her arms. “You’re in for the night?”
He nodded slowly, a sense of dread creeping up the back of his spine. “That’s right. How come? I get the sense you aren’t just trying to make idle chit-chat.”
“No, you’re right about that,” she laughed. “I’m definitely not. When we discussed me moving in, we said that when you were here, I’d be off the clock. It’s a little earlier than what I imagine will be usual going forward, but since you’re done for the night, that means you can take it from here, right? He looks just about ready for bedtime, so…”
Adam only stared at her, dumbfounded. For the first time, it occurred to him that having someone there, in the house, meant having a witness to just how out of his depth he was in everything to do with caring for Matty. He had managed to get Matty down every night…but it had never actually gone well. In truth, it usually ended in tears all around. What would Kaylee’s reaction be? Sure, she wouldn’t be in the room, but she’d still be in the house. She’d hear it all.
Even so, he couldn’t exactly throw a fit about the idea of putting Matty to bed. That definitely wouldn’t make him look like guardian of the year—or boss of the year, since he’d told her that she wouldn’t have to worry about her childcare job when he was home. She placed Matty in his arms, wearing an expression Adam read as smug satisfaction as she turned away.
“Awesome,” she said breezily, already heading for the guest room that currently belonged to her. “Have a good night!”
Holding Matty closer and praying the kid didn’t completely lose it until they were out of Kaylee’s direct line of sight, he headed for the nursery. He didn’t know if something as simple as a baby’s room could cause PTSD, but if it was possible, he was definitely afflicted. By the time they were in the room behind an almost shut door, his palms were actually sweating with nerves.
He looked down at Matty apprehensively. “What do you say, little man? Think this is something we can handle—maybe without the screaming this time?”
Matty, of course, said nothing at all, but only stared back at Adam with uncertain fascination. He wasn’t shrieking, though, at least not yet, and that had to be placed firmly in the win column.
Okay, fresh diaper—that was the first step. Adam set about the task of removing Matt’s little onesie, as afraid this time as the first that he would accidentally break one of those tiny limbs. He was just so small, and so alone in the world. Knowing that he, Adam, was the only thing between Matty and the wide world, was an almost paralyzing thing. He was pretty sure Matty could smell the fear on him, too, just like one of the animals in the barn. Already, he was starting to squirm and make unsettled, fretful noises. In his mind’s eye, he could already see Matty losing it completely, thus proving to Kaylee that he was entirely incapable of a task as simple as bedtime.
He hesitated for a moment, then lifted Matty off of the changing table. “Come on, bud, we’ve got this. It’s just you and me, right? Which means we’re going to have to figure out how to do this thing together.”
Adam’s mind went back to the few interactions he had seen between Kaylee and Matty, and what tactics she had employed to keep the tiny boy calm. Mimicking her, he held Matty close, supporting him firmly with one hand and gently rubbing his little back with the other. Matty continued to fuss for a moment longer, and Adam was sure it was all a lost cause. But then, miraculously, he felt Matty’s breathing slow and even out. When the boy rested his little cheek on Adam’s shoulder, Adam was briefly sure he was going to cry—but in a good way this time. It was a simple, small moment, and one that most people likely wouldn’t notice at all. For Adam, though, it was the first piece of evidence that he might be able to figure this out and become the kind of guardian Matty deserved. It was an interaction he knew he would remember for the rest of his life, and at the end of the day, he had Kaylee to thank for it.
Adam backed out of Matty’s nursery slowly, actually walking on tiptoe to limit the possibility of waking his nephew. He would never admit it to another living soul, but he was beyond proud of himself for pulling that task off. For the first time since realizing that Matty’s care legitimately rested on him, he saw a way through and out of the dark. Maybe it wasn’t completely impossible for him to act as Matty’s dad. He might even do a good job of it, eventually.
He moved quietly towards the living room, still acutely aware of Matty’s as yet tentative grip on sleep. He was going to cut through and head to the kitchen, get a bite to eat, when he realized he could hear Kaylee’s voice. Apparently, she’d decided to work in the living room rather than her bedroom.
It took him a minute to understand what he was listening to, and even then, he felt like he had been thrust into the middle of a movie the beginning of which he had never before seen. Peering into the room, he saw Kaylee sitting in front of a tape recorder, an intent, focused look on her the face.
It was one of the interviews she was in town to conduct. It had to be, since he recognized the voice of the person answering the questions—a local man who he’d known in passing for years, sounding more formal than Adam was used to as he answered the questions. Knowing that he was eavesdropping on one of those interviews to begin with was enough to turn his head, but when he started to really listen, he was beyond shocked. He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting from the interviews she was in town to conduct, but it certainly hadn’t been this.
Kaylee’s questions started out reasonably enough. She wanted to know the participant’s full name, where and when they were born. They were questioned about their level of education, and that went off without a hitch, too. There seemed to be a general understanding of what an interview should consist of, and so far, everyone was playing by the rules. But as Adam continued to listen, the interview began to take an unexpected turn. Kaylee began asking far more personal questions. She wanted to know about the interviewee’s childhood, whether or not it was a happy one, and if that had influenced decisions made as an adult.
With this new direction, the interview seemed far more personal than he’d expected, and it irked Adam beyond all reason. Without being sure if he even had the right, he felt like he had been duped. He had agreed to help Kaylee navigate her interviews without demanding a look at what those interviews would include, and without really considering what that task might entail. Now, he couldn’t help wondering if the Klines—the couple who lost their land to the bank—had been subjected to a similar kind of thing. Maybe they had been foolish enough to trust the first pretty, charismatic person to come along and had said too much, revealed too many things that could be used against them, and because of that, they had lost everything.
“What’s going on here, Kaylee?” He asked his question abruptly and felt a mean sort of satisfaction when she jumped in surprise.
She swiveled in her chair to look at him. “I’m not sure what you mean. What’s going on where?”
“Your interview,” he shot back, fully prepared for the question and already one step ahead of the answer. “What’s with that? What possible reason can the Neocyber people have for wanting to know about the childhood of the people of Whittier Creek? Don’t see what that has to do with land. Don’t see how the two are related at all.”
Kaylee frowned and seemed to shrink back into her chair some. “Well, it’s like I told you—the company wants to get a sense of what the culture here is like. The questions I’m asking are all relatively standard, honestly. They’re off a template—I’m not the one who wrote them. So, if you need to be angry with someone, I don’t think I’m the right target.”
It was a fair answer, but for some reason, it only made him feel more agitated. “Right, so knowing about what made a rancher tick when he was a little boy; that’s imperative to your research?”
“Actually, yes,” she answered, and Adam sensed her readying for a fight. “They’re going to be sending not just their workers here, but their workers’ spouses and kids. They want to know how those people will fit into the town and what it will be like for them to settle here. That makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Adam’s jaw tightened as he considered what to say next. He badly wanted to go off and list all of the reasons that it didn’t make sense at all. The problem was, she was making it virtually impossible to fight with her. Her responses were measured and reasonable. He didn’t get the sense that she was trying to pull the wool over his eyes in any way.
And yet, he couldn’t get rid of the uneasy feeling sitting in the pit of his stomach like a stone. He had checked Kaylee’s childcare references, of course, but he hadn’t bothered researching the company she worked for now. Even if she had good intentions, how could he know that the company would use the information she’d gathered responsibly? He had agreed to help her get her interviews blindly, without ever once considering that he might want to know what kinds of questions she would be asking. It was a mistake he would never have made if he weren’t so tired, but that didn’t change where he was now. He had made a promise, and that wasn’t something he took lightly.
“Adam?” she asked with an infuriating level of control. “Are we on the same page?”
Adam swallowed down bile, and with it the urge to push them further into a fight. A deal was a deal and fighting about it wasn’t going to do either of them a lick of good. The only thing he could do now was walk away, and he did so gladly now. Forget grabbing something for dinner—he’d lost his appetite. He’d just head to his room for an early night. If he stayed, then in his current state, it would be far too easy to say something he would regret, and that just wouldn’t do. They had a whole month to get through without killing each other, a task that seemed far less attainable now than before.
Five
Adam spent the rest of the night hiding out in his room and stewing over the piece of Kaylee’s interview he had overheard. It was childish, and on some level, he knew it. It made him feel like a fool, but instead of helping him to calm down, that feeling only made him more agitated, wondering what he’d gotten himself into.
It was a long time before he could get to sleep, and when he finally dozed off, it was with the intention of slipping out of the house even earlier than was necessary, just to avoid any unnecessary contact with Kaylee.
In the morning, however, he was surprised to find that he saw things a little differently. Did he really have the right to judge her for doing her job? He didn’t trust the company she worked for—but he didn’t actually have any reason to distrust it, either. He simply didn’t know enough to say one way or the other. All he knew for certain was that Kaylee had been honest and direct with him from the start…and maybe assuming the worst of her was not the best way to repay that.
“Way to go,” he chided himself as he tiptoed around his room getting ready for the day. “She’s barely been here for twenty-four hours, and you’ve already behaved like an utter jackass.”
Because, unfortunately, he was pretty sure that was exactly what he had done. She’d moved in with him just to make his life easier. She hadn’t needed to say yes to the new living arrangements—he’d already agreed to help her with her interviews based on the idea that she’d handle childcare over much more limited, regulated hours. She was the one who’d gone above and beyond by moving in. She’d be taking care of Matty all day, and all she’d asked in return was for a little help with introductions so she could ask people questions that they could decide for themselves whether or not to answer.
In all honesty, he was coming out ahead in this deal. Way ahead.
Instead of avoiding her, he should probably be doing something to make up for his behavior. He wasn’t a man who had an easy time saying, “I’m sorry,” but that didn’t mean he couldn’t atone.
