- -
- 100%
- +
His father picked that moment to hobble across the hallway behind Stephanie. He paused and gave Drew two thumbs-up, grinning and wagging his bushy gray eyebrows for emphasis.
Apparently he approved of her—which was an absolutely frightening thought. Whoops. Drew hadn’t thought of that particular ramification of hiring Stephanie. Pop wasn’t viewing her as a nanny for his grandsons, but as a potential future wife for his son. Drew had seen the impish light in his father’s eyes before, and it never boded well.
He couldn’t imagine how ghastly it would be once his father put his head together with his best lady friend and cohort in mischief, Jo Murphy, the gregarious owner of the Cup O’ Jo Café and the town’s chief matchmaker.
Nanny or not, his pop and Jo Murphy would see romance where there was none. Before he knew it, they would be pestering him half to death. Stephanie, too, for that matter, and she certainly hadn’t signed on for that.
“I hope my father won’t be too problematic for you,” Drew said. “The twins love the gruff old guy, but the simple fact of the matter is that he is getting up in years and he can’t do everything he thinks he can. He doesn’t require any special physical care or anything. For his age, he’s as fit as a fiddle. But he has a tendency to involve himself in matters that don’t concern him. You may want to keep your eye out for him so he doesn’t cause you any trouble.”
He paused and chuckled, but it was a dry, nervous sound rather than a happy one. “Have I overwhelmed you yet? Made you change your mind about working here? I’m sure you’re ready to turn right around and hop on the next plane back to the east coast.”
“I think I can handle your father,” she assured him. “How ornery can one man be?”
“You would be surprised.” Drew cocked his head and twisted his lips in amusement. “He’s going to be in your way. Constantly. And he has an opinion about everything.”
She shrugged. “Doesn’t everybody?”
“Maybe, but my father is especially blustery when he gets into one of his moods. Which is often. Just so you know.”
“Not a problem,” she assured him. “I tend to get along with everybody.”
Somehow, he believed she did.
“Boys,” he stated firmly, addressing the twins, both of whom by that time were using Stephanie as playground equipment, swinging over her shoulders and sliding down her legs—not that she appeared to mind. The crystal-clear sound of her feminine laughter laced the air like stardust.
Drew gestured toward the hall. “Why don’t you two run along now and get ready for bed? I think Pop-Pop is waiting for you. I’ll be there in a minute to read another chapter of our story to you.”
At least that would keep his father occupied for a while, getting the two squirming, over-excited preschoolers into pajamas and tucked into bed. Drew ruffled their fair hair and kissed each of his boys softly on the forehead before urging them to the back hallway where their room was located.
“Sorry about the interruption,” Drew said once he’d herded the twins down the hall. “Bedtime is a real zoo around here.”
He returned to his seat and braced his elbows on his knees, ignoring the quivering sensation in his stomach as their eyes met.
He cleared his throat, wondering how to start the conversation. There was a lot she needed to know about why she was here, issues he hadn’t felt comfortable discussing over the phone, but that she ought to be aware of if she was going to be working for him.
And he had a few more questions for her, as well.
Like why she’d chosen a temporary position in Serendipity when she’d clearly had a successful career in child care on the east coast. It wasn’t What’s a pretty lady like you doing in a place like this? But it was pretty close. He wasn’t sure if he should be prying, yet it seemed an obvious question.
If it was none of his business, she would no doubt tell him so. But something about her expression gave him pause to consider.
With just the two of them in the room, she appeared uneasy—like a cornered animal, with wide, wild brown eyes staring back at him. Though she was trying to hide it, she was clearly uncomfortable sitting here with him.
Maybe she was just nervous about starting a new job in a new town, but somehow he thought it was more than that. He hoped she wasn’t reconsidering the position. It had been next to impossible just to find someone suitable for these circumstances the first time around. He didn’t know if he would find anyone else willing to do the job.
He fidgeted in his chair, which was unusual for him. Normally, he would just blurt what he was thinking outright. He’d been told on more than one occasion that he was too blunt and outspoken. This might be a good time to work on that defect.
But how did one ease into this kind of subject?
Before he could say a word, there was a knock at the door.
Stephanie jerked in surprise, as her gaze shifted to the door.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, rising. “I wasn’t expecting anyone this evening. It’s probably my father’s friend Jo, although she usually just lets herself in. I’ll only be a moment.”
Stephanie tried to smile, but the color on her face had faded into a serious shade of gray. She clasped her hands together in her lap until her knuckles were white.
“Are you all right?” he asked, concerned.
“I’m—yes,” she stammered. “I’m fine.”
Drew didn’t think she looked fine. She looked terrified. And it had something to do with whoever was potentially knocking at his front door.
Even though he barely knew Stephanie, his deep-rooted protective instincts flared. She had nothing to fear. He wasn’t going to let anyone hurt her while she was in his house, though he couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to. And like he’d said, it was probably Jo Murphy, come to see his pop.
Only it wasn’t Jo Murphy.
Drew opened the door to a lanky young man he’d never seen before, certainly not a resident of Serendipity.
A friend of Stephanie’s? Or worse yet, an enemy?
“Andrew Reid Spencer?” the boy asked, obviously trying to sound official despite the crack in his voice.
Drew’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Why was the young man asking for him?
“Yes,” he replied cautiously. “I’m Drew.”
The boy shoved a manila envelope at Drew’s chest and was backing up before he even spoke. Drew instinctually reached for the envelope, clutching it to his side as the young man made his pronouncement.
“You’ve been served.”
Chapter Two
Stephanie didn’t hear the actual conversation between Drew and his guest. Adrenaline made her heartbeat pulse and pound in her ears in a fierce rhythm, like a roofer hammering nails, drowning out the sound of the men’s voices.
At the knock, she’d experienced a startling moment of panic where she’d actually considered hiding behind the couch. She’d been certain that the man at the door was Ryan, that he’d already tracked her down, determined to charm or intimidate her into going back with him.
Which she would never do.
She wondered how long this indeterminable fear would follow her around. Would she ever not jump when someone knocked on the door?
She was more relieved than she could say when she realized the visit had nothing to do with her, but she felt guilty that it was at Drew’s expense—it didn’t take a genius to figure out something had gone wrong in his world.
He slammed the door and returned to his chair, a crumpled manila envelope clenched in his fist. His breath came in ragged gasps and his face was an alarming shade of crimson. Stephanie braced for the detonation she was sure was to follow, for the man was clearly a ticking time bomb.
The explosion never came. Drew yanked at the knot in his tie and stretched his neck from side to side, but he didn’t yell, or sulk, or throw anything, which is what Ryan did when things didn’t go his way.
Instead, Drew quietly reached into his shirt pocket for his reading glasses and removed from the envelope a crisp white set of legal documents. He released a long, unsteady breath as he silently perused the papers, the worry lines on his forehead deepening. When he was finished, he bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. Stephanie thought he might be praying, but she wasn’t certain. Probably staving off a headache, as well.
The pressure in the air around her seemed to intensify as her mind thought up a number of scenarios that Drew might be facing. She wanted to reach out to him but wasn’t sure how. When she laid a comforting hand on his forearm, his muscles rippled with tension.
“My ex-wife is suing me for full custody of the twins.” The statement was matter-of-fact, but his expression was anything but. Agony flashed through his eyes when he spoke of the woman, and Stephanie winced. She could relate to that kind of pain—of having the person you had expected to spend your life with let you down.
But there was more injury than anger in Drew’s gaze. Stephanie couldn’t claim to be as noble. She despised what Ryan had done to her, and she hated herself even more for having let him, for getting her priorities so mixed up she couldn’t see what was happening to her until it was too late.
But for her, at least, what was done was done, and she was moving forward with her life, starting now.
For Drew, however, it looked as if his troubles were just beginning.
He cleared his throat, his lips moving silently as he searched for the right words. “Obviously, I’m pretty desperate to find adequate child care for the twins,” he began, leaning his forearms on his elbows and clasping his hands together. “The boys were in day care with a local woman, but she had to move to Chicago to be near her ailing sister. Her leaving left a big gap in Serendipity, especially for me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she replied, though in truth she wasn’t exactly sorry. If the woman hadn’t left, she wouldn’t have a job. “The boys are three years old, right? Do they attend preschool yet?”
He shook his head. “Unfortunately, Serendipity doesn’t have a preschool.”
“Oh, my,” she responded, her surprise showing in her voice. She would have thought that even as tiny a town as Serendipity would have a preschool to help the little ones with learning readiness.
“I know. It’s a huge issue, right? I’ve been in mediation over custody of the children with my ex-wife, Heather, for some time now, and being able to send the twins to a preschool might have worked in my favor. Right now, I have temporary custody. Heather sometimes visits the kids on weekends. Right after the divorce, that was how she wanted it, but now, inexplicably, she’s changed her mind.”
He sighed. “I hired you in the hopes that she and the mediators would see how serious I am about taking care of the twins and would grant me primary custody without getting the court involved.” He slapped the legal document with the back of his hand. “As you can see, that’s not working out so well for me.”
He scrubbed his free hand over his scalp, making the short ends of his hair stick up every which direction. “If my ex-wife has it her way, I won’t get to see the twins at all, except for maybe supervised visits. She’s claiming I’m an unfit father.”
“Why did she change her mind? And why would she be so unwilling to share custody?” Granted, Stephanie had just met Drew, but she’d appreciated what she’d seen so far. No one could fake the kind of love shining from Drew’s eyes when he was around his boys, or even spoke of them. He appeared to be a patient and tender father. He was even willing to hire a nanny from out of town to make sure the twins were adequately cared for full-time. If that wasn’t devotion, Stephanie didn’t know what was.
Besides, the boys needed their father in their lives.
“Two years ago, Heather left me and the kids because she didn’t like being tied down as a wife and mother. She’s a party girl, and always has been. Staying home on Friday nights just didn’t suit her.”
“Then why does she want custody of the boys now?”
He scoffed and shook his head. “There’s the rub. I don’t know. She doesn’t want to be tied down with the twins, so it only makes sense that I maintain primary custody. I’m guessing she just doesn’t want me to have them, because she wants to hurt me. I had no idea she felt so much hostility against me.”
His voice was raspy with emotion, and his gaze didn’t quite meet hers. “If she wins in court, the twins will be raised by various relatives and an absentee mother. I’m afraid for them. That’s why I have to fight.”
“Wow.” Stephanie didn’t even know what else to say. She’d grown up in foster care. She knew firsthand what it meant to be unloved, to be shuffled from house to house with no stability. She couldn’t imagine using those two precious boys as pawns in what was essentially a vindictive game.
“According to this summons, I’ve got a CFI—a Child and Family Investigator—from the court coming to the house sometime in the near future to scope out the family situation. With all your credentials as a nanny for the twins, I can only hope it will help my case.”
“It certainly can’t hurt. I’ll do whatever I can,” she vowed.
“I know I have to trust God with my boys. But sometimes I find it hard to put my circumstances in God’s hands. Their whole lives may be affected by what happens next.”
That, Stephanie thought, was the closest he was going to get to saying he was frightened, both for himself and for his sons. And she couldn’t blame him. She’d heard the stories of court cases gone wrong, where children had been hurt and even killed by misinformed decisions from the judges.
Compassion and resolve welled in her throat. She’d only known the twins for an evening, but that didn’t lessen her determination. She would help in whatever way she was able. She wasn’t going to let anything happen to those boys—or Drew, either, for that matter, if it was in her power to stop it.
She’d been praying for purpose in her life. Maybe that’s why God had sent her here—for a set of darling twins and their handsome, dedicated father.
* * *
Being served legal documents had shaken Drew up more than he cared to admit, and he was a little embarrassed that Stephanie had been there to witness his private humiliation. He made a quick decision to mentally shelve his emotions for now, until he had time to consider his next steps.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized, suddenly noticing that Stephanie’s eyes were darkened with fatigue. “I’m being insensitive. I should have postponed our conversation until tomorrow. You must be exhausted from your trip.”
“I am a little tired,” she admitted. “It’s been a long day.”
“Then let’s table this discussion for now and pick it up tomorrow morning. I’ll see you to your room and get your bags for you so you can settle in for the night. It’s nothing fancy—just a furnished room over the garage—but it has its own entranceway so you won’t be stumbling over Pop and the twins when you need some privacy.”
She smothered a yawn, making Drew feel even guiltier for keeping her from her rest. Studying her face thoughtfully, he realized that her eyes were puffy and shaded by dark circles, as if she hadn’t been sleeping well.
He definitely didn’t want to push her when she was already exhausted, but he was still curious about her situation. It occurred to him that moving out here to be a nanny for his twins might have been a last resort for her. No one else had answered the advertisement he’d placed, and with good reason. He wasn’t offering much in the way of a salary, especially for someone who’d been a successful nanny in a large east coast town. Who would want temporary employment in the middle of nowhere?
Stephanie Cartwright, apparently.
The question was, why?
“Drew!” His father’s loud, gruff voice echoed down the hallway. “The boys are waiting on their story.”
“Coming,” Drew called back. “Give me a second. I’m sorry,” he apologized to Stephanie. “Would you mind waiting a few more minutes while I tuck the boys in?”
She chuckled and gestured with her hands. “I see what you mean about your father. Go. I can wait.”
“Bring Stephanie with you,” the old man hollered, almost as if were eavesdropping on the two of them.
Drew tensed and turned back toward Stephanie. “Do you mind?” he asked with a quirk of his lips. “Pop’s not going to stop until he gets his way.”
“No problem, really,” Stephanie assured him. “I’d love to spend a little more time getting to know the twins, and I’m sure they’re anxious to have their daddy tuck them in.”
“Probably,” he agreed. Their bedtime ritual had become one of Drew’s favorite parts of the day, when his two sleepy boys were all quiet and cuddly. Tonight, however, he doubted they were either, what with all the excitement in the household. Getting them to calm down enough to go to sleep might be easier said than done.
Then again, Stephanie was a nanny. Maybe she had some fresh ideas for rustling rowdy preschoolers into bed and under the covers.
“Drew,” his father called again. Impatiently, in typical Pop fashion. Stephanie might run for the hills yet.
“Yeah, yeah,” Drew replied, winking at Stephanie. “What did I tell you?” he concluded in a mock whisper.
She giggled lightly, which erased some of the weariness from her countenance.
He felt her eyes branding into his back all the way down the hall, and unease once again bore down on his shoulders. He couldn’t help but be uncomfortable. What was she thinking about?
How he’d just been served? His apparent failure as a father?
He hoped she could see beyond the legalities to his heart. Being a dad was everything to him, and he wanted to keep it that way. Having her on his side would definitely be a positive factor, especially now that this was going to court.
The moment the twins realized Stephanie had entered the room behind him, they squealed and bounced on their beds. In Drew’s opinion, it didn’t help matters that she jumped right into the fray, laughing along with them and stirring them up to even greater noise and excitement. The idea here was to calm them down enough to go to sleep.
“Settle down, boys,” he instructed gently. “It’s already past your bedtime. If you guys want me to read you a story, you need to lie down and cover up. Right now, no excuses.”
“But, Daddy,” Matty whined, rubbing his bright blue eyes with his little fists. “We’re not tired yet.”
Drew smothered a chuckle as Matty’s objection was punctuated with a big yawn. The boys weren’t tired—they were overtired.
“We want to stay up and play with Miss Stephie,” Jamey protested.
“It’s Stephanie,” Drew gently corrected, ruffling Jamey’s hair with his palm. “And she’ll be here when you wake up tomorrow. She’s your new nanny. She’s here to take care of you.”
Stephanie placed a hand on Drew’s arm. “My name is hard to pronounce when you’re just learning how to speak. Stephie is just fine.”
“Steph-eee,” Matty said proudly.
“Very good, Matty,” Stephanie praised, causing Matty to straighten his shoulders and sit an inch taller.
Okay, that was weird—or incredible, depending on how he looked at it. She’d only spent a few minutes with the boys, and she already knew Matty from Jamey—and quite confidently, at that. How had she known which twin she was addressing?
He wasn’t able to ask how she’d done it, for at that moment the boys launched off their beds onto the floor and began dancing around Stephanie.
“Boys,” Drew warned, trying to sound stern. “Bedtime. I’m not going to say it again.”
“Grouch,” his father grumbled under his breath. Drew and Stephanie exchanged a look.
What did I tell you?
Drew didn’t speak the words aloud, but he was pretty sure Stephanie correctly read his expression. Pop was going to be interesting at his best and exasperating at his worst.
Her lips twitched. He thought she might be smothering a laugh. At least she was good-natured about it.
The twins groaned in unison at his spoilsport pronouncement, but they both returned to their beds and crawled underneath the covers. He hated to be the bad guy, but someone had to take control here.
Drew set a chair between the twins’ beds and pulled out the Bible storybook they were currently reading together. The book included little finger puppets which Drew manipulated as he told the stories, delighting the boys with his silly moves and goofy voices. At the very least, it usually captured their attention enough to settle them down; but tonight, to his chagrin, their primary focus seemed to be on Stephanie.
“Stephie do it,” Jamey announced.
“Yeah,” Matty agreed. “Let Miss Steph-eee read to us.”
“What a good idea,” his father added in a coarse voice. “Ladies first, and all that.”
Stephanie’s eyes widened at the prospect. She hesitated and cast Drew an enquiring look—ready to step in and read, but not willing to step on his toes.
It was kind of her to think of him, even though he was clearly outnumbered. He had mixed feelings about relinquishing his nightly reading to Stephanie, even once. This was his special time with the twins, their bonding time.
But this was about what was best for the boys.
Overpowering love for his sons billowed up his chest until he thought he might burst from it. By God’s grace, the twins had kept him anchored in this world when he might otherwise have drifted away. They filled his life with purpose.
He turned his face so Stephanie and the twins couldn’t see what he was feeling as he faced the truth. He was in no mental condition to read out loud, and he didn’t want the boys picking up on his concern. Stephanie was their new nanny. It would be good for her to start bonding with Matty and Jamey as soon as possible.
Who knew when that case worker was going to visit? His shoulders tensed and sent sharp jabs into his neck just thinking about it. The relationship between Stephanie and the boys had to look natural, without pretense.
Which actually made it pretense. He felt mortified even to think that way.
In any case, the boys were clearly anxious to enjoy her interpretation of the present story, perhaps even with the finger puppets, if she was willing.
“I guess it would be all right for Miss Stephanie to read to you,” he conceded, surrendering both the chair and the book to her.
“Okay,” she agreed, her dark eyes shining and a sweet smile on her face. “But only this one time. You like it best when your daddy reads to you, right?”
Both boys nodded in response to her animated question and Drew shook his head in amazement. Stephanie had somehow managed to put an enthusiastic spin on something that would otherwise have been uncomfortable and demoralizing for him.
It was almost as if she’d been able to read his thoughts and empathize with his feelings, which was an uncomfortable notion. The last thing he needed right now was a woman in his head.
“So, where are we?” Stephanie asked brightly.
Not you. We.
The way she instantly and effortlessly integrated herself into the family was unsettling, to say the least.
“Uh, Noah, I think,” he answered, smothering the catch in his voice by feigning a cough.
Stephanie might not have noticed his forced enthusiasm, but his father raised a suspicious eyebrow. Drew pretended not to notice.
He sat on the edge of Jamey’s bed and pulled the little guy into his lap, and then urged Matty to come cuddle with him, as well. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad, after all, being able to sit here with the boys in his arms.
“A long, long time ago, there was a man named Noah. God told him he had to build an ark—that’s a big boat,” Stephanie began, holding the book so everyone could see it.
Drew had to admit Stephanie was a good storyteller. Even his father was enthralled, hobbling over and perching on the edge of Jamey’s bed next to Drew so he could watch the story in action.