Читать книгу His Baby Agenda - Katherine Garbera - Страница 9

Three

“Everything Is Awesome” was blasting from the room next to hers. She had an idea that Conner was in there, but she doubted he was alone. She’d done a good job of avoiding being alone with Kingsley. But she had to admit it had been harder than she’d expected.

He’d followed her to her car and if Hunter hadn’t called just then perhaps she would have found herself on the patio under the moonlit sky having dinner with this complicated man from her past. But Hunter had saved her from that. She’d escaped into the house and then into a shower and avoided Kingsley for the rest of the night.

But at 6:00 a.m. everything didn’t feel awesome. As the nanny, she knew she needed to check on Conner. So she jumped out of bed and walked into his room. He was sitting quietly in his bed with a book open on his lap.

She turned the volume down on his radio before walking over to his toddler bed.

“Morning, kiddo. What are you doing?”

“Reading. Peri likes it if we start the morning quiet,” he said softly.

“I’m not Peri,” Gabi said, sitting on the edge of his bed and glancing over at the book. It was a picture book—One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss. She smiled as she noticed that he was rubbing his finger over the pictures and not really reading. But then he was only three, a little young for true reading.

“Do you like this one?” she asked.

“Yes. Daddy took me fishing in summer.”

“Did you catch a red or blue fish?”

He laughed at her. “Nope. They were brown.”

She ruffled his hair. “They usually are.”

His room was neat and she noticed that someone had laid his clothes out for the day on a chair facing the window. She suspected that Conner had opened the curtains because they were only parted nearest the floor.

“What do you want to do today?”

He looked up at her, and it was odd seeing the innocence in a pair of eyes that reminded her very strongly of Kingsley. King had never been that innocent. Never.

“Can we go to the beach? Daddy and I walk in the morning after breffest.”

She smiled and nodded. “Where do we eat breakfast?”

“In the kitchen with Mrs. Tillman. I have to finish my book first,” he said.

“Want to read it to me?” she asked.

He nodded. “Uncle Hun taught me a rap.”

Hunter was seemingly full of surprises. She chastised herself for thinking that. To be honest, she’d never really known Hunter, just his reputation, which prior to Stacia’s death had been one of a charming Romeo, playful, sexy and fun. It was only afterward that she’d started to have doubts about him.

“I’d love to hear it.”

Conner grinned up at her and then pushed the covers down and stood up on his bed. “Gimme a beat.”

She had no idea how to beatbox. She wasn’t too sure she’d have the nerve to ever try doing this if her audience was anyone other than a toddler, but he was waiting for her and she didn’t want to let him down.

She made some beat noises and heard laughter from the door behind her.

“Finally we find the one thing that Gabi can’t do,” Kingsley said from the doorway. His hair was damp, presumably from his shower, and he had on a pair of faded jeans and a faded Buffalo Bills T-shirt. His feet were bare.

“Daddy, can you gimme a beat?”

Kingsley nodded. Gabi pretended not to notice how his shirt clung to his thickly muscled arms or the way he walked over to the bed.

Conner started jumping and rapping Dr. Seuss’s timeless story. She had to admit she fell a little in love with Conner, and that cold lump in the pit of her stomach that had to do with old bitterness and resentment started to loosen.

For the first time since she left the jailhouse ten years ago she felt a spark of something like real emotion. She’d never been able to let a man get close to her after what Kingsley had done. Caution should be her watchword, but instead she wanted to throw it to the wind and find a little of the innocence she’d seen in Conner’s eyes in her own life and in Kingsley’s.

* * *

Every morning since his son was born Kingsley had woken with the desire to put the past to rest. This morning was no exception. As he’d lain in his bed watching the small bit of sun shining in through the crack in his blinds and realizing he was back in California, he’d felt the familiar anger and determination rise inside him.

He needed answers and if he were being totally honest, revenge against whomever had killed Stacia and set Hunter and him up. But rapping with his son and Gabi first thing in the morning brought peace to some long-forgotten part of his soul. A part he thought had died a long time ago.

As Conner finished rapping about the fish and did his “gangsta” pose, Gabi applauded. The little boy looked as if he’d swallowed the sun. He wasn’t immune to Gabi, either.

Kingsley’s entire life had been set on course by the actions of someone else. His silver-spoon existence had been taken away but he’d done his best to claw his way back, and having Conner made it all the more important that he succeed. But when he stood here near Gabi he had a glimpse of a life that might have been. Something he could have had if life hadn’t been so cruel.

Damn. He was feeling sorry for himself and he couldn’t tolerate that.

“I can get Conner ready if you want to get dressed and then we can go have breakfast.”

“Yippee!” Conner said, dancing around.

“Okay, but isn’t this my job?” she asked.

Kingsley nodded. “We need to get your schedule figured out. I have a meeting this afternoon with a potential client and I have to fly out for a few days after that. But we can discuss that over breakfast. I did promise you’d have time to do your work, as well.”

Gabi crossed her arms under her breasts. He was trying to ignore how sexy she looked in a sleeveless navy blue T-shirt and a pair of long, flowing pajama pants. But he wasn’t doing a great job. Frankly, he knew that it was a cliché to hit on his son’s nanny, but in this case he’d known Gabi way before she’d been Conner’s nanny.

Still, he knew that hitting on her wasn’t going to go over well. And he was smoother than that. Really, he was. No matter how kissable she looked. In fact, she looked like the woman he remembered from college. She wasn’t wearing any makeup and the tough, businesslike facade she had worn yesterday was gone, leaving in its place a woman he wanted to cuddle up to.

“Why are you staring at me?” she asked as Conner went over to his closet to find his beach shoes.

“Because I want to kiss you.”

“You aren’t going to act on that, because the contract I sent over prohibits fraternization between the nanny and anyone in the house.”

“That’s why I struck that clause out. Whatever happens between us started a long time ago.”

Conner came back out of his closet.

“We can discuss this later. You aren’t going to get your way every time we negotiate.”

“We’ll see,” he said.

Gabi walked away and Kingsley watched as she firmly closed the door between her room and Conner’s.

“I like her,” Conner said.

“Me, too,” Kingsley admitted to his son. He helped Conner change and then supervised him brushing his teeth and washing his face.

He was always struck by how quickly Conner was growing. It wasn’t that long ago that Kingsley would have had to do both chores for him. But now he was independent enough to do them himself.

“Daddy?”

“Yes?”

“Are you ready for breffest?”

“Yeah, Con, I am. Let’s go.” Kingsley reached out to his son and felt that tiny hand grip his so securely. Whatever went down in the next few months it was paramount to Kingsley that Conner—and by extension, Gabi—was protected. Obviously, some stray sparks had burned her when Stacia died. Finding Stacia’s real killer, clearing his name once and for all and making sure that justice was served...that was a tall order. But one that King and Hunter felt sure they were up to.

Hunter had heard that their old football coach had retired and was living in Carmel not too far from Kingsley’s new home. Hunter planned to visit the old man and see what he remembered. The party where Stacia was killed had been held at his home on campus.

“What time are you leaving today?” Gabi asked as he entered the kitchen. He noticed that she had a bowl of cereal and fresh fruit prepared for Conner.

Conner scampered up onto the bench seat and started eating.

“Not until this afternoon.”

“I need to run back to my office and sign some papers and I’d like to bring my assistant out here so she knows how to get here. It was a little complicated and Melissa isn’t the best with her GPS.”

Kingsley was irritated. He wanted Gabi here. That was what he’d paid for, but he was aware of how well saying something like that would go over. He needed her and he was willing to let her go for now. “Okay, but I want lunch, just you and me. Mrs. Tillman will watch Conner. We need to get a few details settled before I leave.”

“What details?”

“We can discuss it at lunch,” he said. He wanted to be alone with Gabi. He didn’t question it. He’d been operating by his gut for a long time and it hadn’t let him down—except for that one night with Stacia.

He was determined to put the past to rest and to make things up to Gabi. But he knew deep inside that it was her icy exterior that made him want to do it. He wanted to crack through it and find the young woman who’d been so in love with him that she’d come to visit him in jail.

* * *

Gabi had done her best to avoid Kingsley and she felt like a coward. But standing on the threshold of the terrace in the sun with the gorgeous view of the Pacific in the background, she was almost glad she was here. She’d come out here not just to be a nanny to Conner, but also to put the past to rest for once. Her mother was always keen to point out that she kept all men at arm’s length.

She dated.

She was a woman and had needs and got tired of her own company, so of course she’d been out on dates and even hooked up occasionally. But she had yet to be with a man for more than one night, and she had studied enough psychology to recognize that pattern for what it was. Kingsley had left a part of her scarred when he’d rejected her.

So she was here in part to heal. To somehow bring closure to that one-night stand they’d had and hopefully make it possible for her to have a real relationship and give her mom those grandkids she was desperate for.

“I wasn’t sure you’d come.”

“Why not? I like to eat just as much as the next person.”

“This isn’t just about the meal. You’ve been avoiding being alone with me since you moved into my house,” he said.

He wore a pair of perfectly tailored dress pants and a button-down shirt that had been cut to his size. Kingsley wore his wealth well. And she had to admit that she admired him for it. She was sick of seeing men in baggy jeans on the streets. Kingsley took pride in his appearance and she liked it.

She’d worn a sleeveless sheath dress in turquoise that her mother had told her brought out her eyes. Her mom spent a lot of her time making sure Gabi was presentable to the world.

Kingsley led the way to the table and held a chair out for her. She sort of regretted missing dinner last night. She’d feigned sleepiness and gone to bed early. But she’d needed time to shore up her barriers. To focus on what was important—the kids who’d get the playground that his fee was paying for. Conner, who needed a nanny focused on the job of caring for him and not his superhot dad. And rebuilding her shattered feminine self-worth. That was why she’d stayed away, but today, with the sun shining and Kingsley sitting next to her looking as though he’d stepped out of one of her dreams, it was hard to remember any of that.

“Why are you back in California?” she asked. Get to know him. Wasn’t that the first thing every Cosmo quiz told a woman to do? It was also what she had decided she needed to help herself get over him.

“I wanted Conner to grow up with the sea and the sun. Plus, my parents haven’t forgiven me for...”

“Stacia?” she asked. She wasn’t going to pretend he didn’t have that in his past. It was the incident that defined them as a couple. Three weeks of dating culminating in a one-night stand. And she suspected she needed some closure on that, as well. “What did happen that night?”

“I don’t... Are you sure you want to talk about it?” he asked.

“Yes. I thought... Well, that doesn’t matter. I remember that you took me home and stayed until my roommate came back and then you left. What happened next?”

He rubbed the back of his neck and took a long sip of his sparkling water before he put his elbows on the table and leaned forward. “I took a long walk around the campus. I didn’t want to go back to the frat house or the party. I needed to think.”

“What about?”

“You, Gabi. You were a freshman and I was a senior. My life was on track at that point. You know the draft was my next goal, but then you came along and things sort of changed.”

“How?”

“You were different and it made me think about something other than football for a while,” he said.

She wanted to believe him. There was no reason for him to lie to her at this moment, but if that was the truth, why had he been so cruel to her at the jailhouse?

“Yeah, right. Listen, we both know I was just some dewy-eyed coed that you saw as an easy score,” she said. “You don’t have to put a different spin on it. I was more than willing to go with you that night.”

“Believe what you will, but that night was special for me. You were different,” he said.

“Then why were you so mean when I came to visit you?” she asked. There had been no reason for that.

“I was protecting you. I had no clear memories of the night before. I only knew that I’d been found with Stacia and Hunter and that she had been killed. The cops were trying to implicate me in some sort of twisted sex game, and I wanted you as far from that as I could get you,” he said.

She swallowed hard. “Really?”

“Would I lie about that? I certainly didn’t leave you and go back to the party to kill Stacia.”

“What did happen? Do you know?”

“I don’t,” he said. “We’ve never found out anything other than they had no evidence to prosecute Hunter and me. Both of us can’t recall the night that clearly. What about you? Do you remember anything from that night?” he asked.

“Just being into you and around you,” she said. She tipped her head to the side to study him. Stacia’s death was still like a fresh wound to Kingsley. Gabi could tell by the way he was talking about it. Hear it in the anger in his voice.

“If you can remember anything from that night that seemed odd,” he said, “I’d like to know about it.”

“Why?”

“Hunter and I have been piecing together stories and memories of that night. Hunter and Stacia were serious about each other. He blames himself for her death.”

“Did he kill her?”

“No. He didn’t,” Kingsley said. “Enough about that. Tell me about your business. How did you go from college to being a nanny?”

She put her hand on his and squeezed it. That knot of anger that had been deep inside her since the moment she’d woken to hear that her lover had been arrested for killing another woman eased. It had been a long time in coming, but she finally felt as if she was seeing Kingsley as the man he could be.

She didn’t trust herself. Didn’t know if she ever would be able to again, but there was a little bit of hope inside her now.