Bound by a Secret, page 19
“Good.”
“Very good. Because you need to hire some professional help, bro. Like I said just now, we’re all behind you, but the twins are hard to handle.”
“Hard’s an understatement.”
“I wish I could help more, but my job’s keeping me hopping these days.”
“I understand. And you and Maggie have your own families to see to. Plus, Maggie’s got the bakery to run.” Their foster sister was co-owner of Angelo’s, a local eatery. “And Ruby...”
“Yeah.” Logan frowned. “Ruby’s another issue. You and the boys living on the farm with her—I don’t want to hurt your feelings, and she’d kill me for saying anything, but—”
Ryder knew where this was going. He’d been thinking the same thing. “It’s not working out.”
“No, it’s not. I know you moved back in so she could help with the twins. She loved the idea, but Ruby’s not as young as she used to be, and these dizzy spells she keeps having...” Logan shook his head. “I’m worried about her. We all are.”
“I’m worried too. I’ll find someplace to rent in town.”
“I think that’s a good idea. Better put your salesman skills to good use and get this nanny on board. If you’re on your own, you’re really going to need the help.”
“You’re right about that.”
His brother clapped him on the back. “We’ll figure this out.” As he got into his patrol car, Logan shot him a look that was a mixture of tease and threat. “I meant what I said about Charlotte, though. I want my wife back in one piece.”
After Logan pulled out of the parking lot, Ryder headed inside, avoiding the reproachful gaze of Mrs. Bishop, who’d been the children’s librarian as long as he could remember. He took a table by the door where he could see when the nanny applicant came in.
Although, come to think of it, he wasn’t sure how he’d recognize her. The hurried emails they’d exchanged setting up the meet hadn’t included a photo. Quickly he took out his phone and tapped a message to his computer geek sister, Torey.
Ten minutes later, his phone chirped, earning another harsh look from Mrs. Bishop.
Torey had sent a picture. Meet Elise Cooper, the caption said.
A young woman looked out of the screen at him, her eyebrows arched. Good-looking, he decided, in an understated way. She wasn’t magazine-pretty, but she had a face that made you look twice. Maybe it was the eyes—wide and sweetly serious. He used his fingers to enlarge the photo, and leaned in close, trying to discern what color they were. Hazel, maybe?
Before he could decide, the door to the library banged open. Charlotte staggered in.
“Ryder!” She leaned against the door and beckoned to him, apparently too breathless to speak.
Uh-oh. He rose, shoving the phone into his pocket. “What happened?”
Something bad. With the twins it was always something bad.
“Shhhh!” the librarian fussed, but Ryder paid no attention. He’d noticed something else.
Charlotte’s hand was bleeding.
“Are you all right?” He snagged a couple of tissues off the circulation desk as he passed it and inspected her hand. “Did something bite you?” Oh, no. “Is it serious? Charlotte, did one of the boys—”
Logan was going to kill him.
“No, not the boys. Dog.” His sister-in-law was still struggling to catch her breath. “They chased this Chihuahua—” She stopped and shook her head. “Long story. She had a rabies tag, so it’s okay. Come on.” She tugged at his hand. “The boys are out front, and you’ve got to see—”
The boys. If Charlotte was in here, who was watching the boys?
“Oh, no.” No telling what trouble those two would get into while they were unsupervised. They got into plenty of it when they were supervised. He brushed swiftly past her, heading for the door.
“They’re fine!” she called after him. “You’ll see!”
He pushed out into the bright sunlight. “Benji? Tucker!”
“Over here.” The answering voice was calm and held the faintest hint of a British accent.
He turned. The twins were seated on a concrete bench under a large magnolia tree. Between them sat the woman from the picture. She looked different—her hair was down, held away from her face by a band and tumbling to her shoulders. She wore a slim-fitting gray suit and a dark pink blouse.
Benji and Tucker sat beside her, feet swinging back and forth. Their faces were dirty, and Tucker’s collar was ripped halfway off, but they seemed oddly calm.
The woman rose, tugging her jacket neatly into place. “Wait here, please,” she instructed the boys. She walked toward him, and the twins stayed on the bench.
They stayed.
Ryder stared, his mind struggling to make sense of what he was seeing.
She’d told them to wait, and they had. When he told them to wait, they usually took off in two different directions at full speed.
The woman cleared her throat, and he pulled his eyes away from the twins. She stood in front of him, one hand politely extended.
“Elise Cooper,” she said. “And you must be Ryder Montgomery. I believe we have an interview scheduled.”
She said scheduled the way the Brits did, with the sh sound. And her eyes turned out to be a pretty mixture of green and brown.
“Forget the interview.” He took her hand and shook it firmly. “You’re hired.”
* * *
Hired? Already? Was he serious?
Elise blinked at the handsome, dark-haired man who was shaking her hand so enthusiastically that her bracelets rattled.
He certainly seemed serious.
He was in his early thirties, she’d guess, with a strong face that was saved from perfection by a nose that had been broken at some time or other. He had a level way of looking her in the eye that she liked—and a take-no-prisoners energy that sent up a warning flare.
Her father had that kind of focused drive, too, and she’d learned to distrust it. Maybe it was an asset in the boardroom, but when he used it to bulldoze his daughter, it caused serious problems.
Like now, for instance. She wouldn’t even be here interviewing for this stopgap job if it weren’t for her father’s underhanded scheming.
Well, for once Andrew Cooper wasn’t getting his way. She straightened her shoulders and pulled her hand free.
“Mr. Montgomery—” she began.
“Ryder. Please.” He smiled, and a lone dimple twinkled in his left cheek. Just the one—which gave him a lopsided boyish charm. Quite appealing, actually.
Elise frowned and scolded herself. This man’s dimple was none of her business.
“Ryder,” she repeated. “I’m happy I’ve made a good first impression.”
“That’s an understatement.” He nodded at the boys. “Look at them. They’re just sitting there.”
She looked. “And?”
“And they’re doing what you told them to do.”
She looked again. “More or less.” They were squirming, and their foot swinging had ramped up. She gave it five minutes before they were into some sort of mischief.
Maybe less. She smiled.
She did appreciate a challenge.
“More or less is a major improvement,” their uncle was saying. “I’m serious. If you want this job, it’s yours.”
“Well, that’s very good to hear.”
She didn’t want this job. She needed this job. Otherwise her father was going to get his way and drag her back to his house in Charleston for the summer, and that, she was absolutely determined, was not going to happen.
Not this time. Not after he’d pulled strings to get her not only unemployed but homeless for three solid months. All so he could have the opportunity to fling yet another series of ambitious young executives at her, all anxious to date the CEO’s daughter and put themselves on the fast track to a promotion.
This time her father had gone too far. He’d interfered with her job—her livelihood. This was a new low, even for him.
“I’m very interested in this job.” Elise lifted her chin a notch. “But before we firm up our arrangement, we should probably sit down with your wife, don’t you think? And discuss all the details?”
She should have asked more questions ahead of time. But when her employers, the Shermans, had offhandedly mentioned that a friend of a friend was looking for a nanny for the summer, she’d jumped on it. Thanks to her scoundrel of a father finagling a working three-month vacation for Jon Sherman—in Paris, no less, with childcare conveniently provided —she couldn’t afford to be picky. Ryder Montgomery had been an answer to her prayers.
Right now her answer-to-prayer was looking at her oddly. “My wife? Come to think of it, we probably do need to go over a few details. Why don’t we—”
Before he could finish his sentence, a siren wailed behind them, and a sheriff’s car pulled up to the curb, lights flashing. A broad-shouldered officer jumped out and strode up the sidewalk.
“Here we go,” Ryder muttered.
“What’s going on?”
He sighed. “Let’s just say news travels fast in small towns.”
“One piece.” The sheriff bit out as he got closer. “One piece, I said. If you weren’t my brother, I’d—”
The door to the library banged open, and the woman she’d helped in the parking lot—the one she assumed was Ryder’s wife—hurried down the steps. She had a wad of tissues clamped around her wounded finger, and she looked annoyed. “Logan, leave Ryder alone. I’m fine!”
“You’re not fine. You’re bleeding.” The sheriff shouldered past them and went to her. “Animal bites can be nasty.” He gently unwrapped the tissue from her finger. “I’ll drive you over to the fire station. They’ll have all the first aid stuff there, and I’ll get one of the paramedics to look at it. He’ll know if you need to go to the emergency room.”
“Oh, for pity’s sake. Being nipped by a Chihuahua doesn’t constitute a medical emergency. I’m sorry I texted you. I thought you’d think it was funny. The dog was the size of my shoe and wearing a pink sweater. Ryder, talk some sense into your brother, would you?”
“Can’t help you,” Ryder said dryly. “Talking sense into Logan’s hard head is outside of my skill set. Particularly where you’re concerned.” He turned to Elise. “Would you excuse me just a second?”
“Of course.” She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and turned her head just in time to see one twin—Tucker, she believed his name was—give his brother a shove.
“Benji and Tucker, come here, please.” She issued the command in her nanny voice. Firm, pleasant—and non-negotiable.
The boys froze, each with a fistful of the other’s shirt. She watched them think it over, glancing at each other, then back to her, trying to decide if they were going to do what she said or not.
She arched one eyebrow.
That did it. As she’d hoped, she was still enough of an unknown that they weren’t quite sure how far to push her. They got up and trudged in her direction.
“Why don’t we go into the library and choose a book?” Maybe that would keep them occupied for a few moments.
“Can’t,” Tucker said.
“Why not?”
“’Cause we can’t go in the library no more,” Benji explained.
“Anymore.” Elise made the correction automatically. “And why is that?”
The two exchanged a glance. “We hit the lady librarian with a book, but we didn’t mean to. We was trying to chunk it in the trash can, and she was standing next to it.”
“I see.” This time both of Elise’s eyebrows went up. “And why were you trying to throw a library book into the trash can?”
Tucker shrugged. “Them books was boring. So we tore them up and throwed them.”
Both of the boys looked up at her defiantly, not a smidge of remorse on their faces.
Oh, yes. Plenty of work to do here. These two little rascals needed her desperately.
She glanced up to find Ryder walking in her direction as the sheriff led the still-protesting blonde woman to his patrol car.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “My brother can be a little overprotective. He’s taking my sister-in-law to get that bite checked out.”
“Your sister-in-law?” Her heart sank. Well, the situation with the overprotective sheriff certainly made more sense now. “The boys called her Aunt Charlotte, and I assumed—”
“That she was my wife. Understandable mistake, but no. I’m not married.” He frowned, scanning her face. “Is that going to be a problem?”
She was tempted to say no. She really needed this job.
On the other hand, that one rather spectacular—and humiliating—episode six years ago was quite enough, thank you very much. She’d set this particular rule for a very good reason, and she wasn’t going to bend it. Not even to checkmate her father.
“I’m terribly sorry,” she said. “But yes. I’m afraid it is.”
Copyright © 2023 by Laurel Blount
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ISBN-13: 9780369725417
Bound by a Secret
Copyright © 2023 by Jolene Navarro
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