Читать книгу The Rancher, the Baby & the Nanny - Sara Orwig - Страница 9

Stallion Pass

Oh, no!” Holding a baby in his arms, Wyatt Sawyer stood at the window of his Texas ranch home and watched a woman get out of her car. As she approached the house, his practiced gaze ran over her and he immediately scratched her off his list of possibilities for nanny. She looked like a child herself. Curly red hair was clipped behind her head with a few tendrils flying loose. Her lack of makeup and nondescript gray jumper and white blouse made her seem about sixteen.

“How many nannies will I have to interview for you?” he asked the sleeping baby and shifted her in his arms. He gazed at his five-month-old niece and warmth filled him.

“Megan, darlin’, we’ll find the right nanny. I’m going to take the best care of you I can.” He held her up and kissed her forehead lightly, then returned his attention to the woman approaching the door.

Bright May sunshine splashed over her, revealing a fresh-scrubbed look that only added to her youthful appearance. Wyatt wished he could inquire about her age, because it was difficult to imagine she was a day over eighteen, tops. Wyatt’s gaze ran over her again and dimly, he registered that she had long legs. He thought about two of the women he’d interviewed who were beauties. Both times, when they’d walked into the room, his heart had skipped a beat. Three minutes into the interview, he knew he could never leave Megan with either one of them.

He sighed. Why was it a monumental task to find good help? The pay he was offering was fabulous. But he knew the drawback—they’d have to live out on his ranch. Most women wouldn’t accept a king’s ransom to suffer such isolation. Those from ranching and farm backgrounds weren’t any more interested than city women. Either that, or applicants were looking for a prospective husband, and Wyatt had no interest in matrimony.

The doorbell chimed, cutting into his thoughts, and he went to answer it. He swung open the door and stared down into wide, thickly lashed green eyes that stabbed through him with startling sharpness. For seconds they were locked in a silent stare, a strange experience for Wyatt. He blinked and studied her more closely. Faint freckles dotted her nose.

“Mr. Sawyer, I’m Grace Talmadge.”

“Come in. Call me Wyatt,” he said, feeling much older than his thirty-three years. How long would it take him to get rid of her? He had gotten the interviews down to twenty minutes per nanny, but this time he planned to give her ten. She couldn’t possibly be over twenty-one.

“This is your little girl?” she asked.

“My niece, Megan. I’m her guardian.”

Grace Talmadge looked at the sleeping baby in his arms. “She’s a beautiful baby.”

“Thanks, I think so. Come in,” he repeated.

When Grace passed him, he caught the scent of lemons. Her soap? He closed the door and led the way down a wide hallway, his boot heels scraping the hardwood floor. He paused and motioned her ahead into the family room, following her.

She stood looking around as if she had never been in a room like it.

Wyatt glanced around the room, which he rarely gave much attention to. It was the one room in the house that had not been changed since his childhood, with its familiar paneling, mounted bobcat, heads of deer and antelope, all animals his father had killed. Also, shelves lined with books, bear rugs on the floor, the antique rifle over the mantel.

“You must be a hunter,” she said, turning to frown at him.

“No, my father was the hunter. He liked to bring down wild, strong things,” Wyatt said, knowing that after all these years he still couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. “Have a seat, please,” he said, crossing the room to sit in a rocker. He adjusted the baby in his arms and rocked slightly.

Grace Talmadge sat across from him in the dark-blue wing chair, her legs crossed primly at the ankles and her hands folded in her lap.

“So Miss Talmadge, have you any experience as a nanny?”

“No, I haven’t,” she replied. “I’m a bookkeeper for a San Antonio sign company. I’ve had my job for five years. The owner has decided to retire and he’s closing his business, so I need to find another job.”

Five years surprised him. Wyatt decided she must have gone to work straight out of high school. “Then why do you want to be a nanny? You realize it means living out here on my ranch?”

“Yes, I understood that from the ad.”

“If you’ve never been a nanny, what are your qualifications for this job? Have you been around children a lot?” Wyatt leaned forward, about ready to escort her out of his house. She had no experience, which made him cross her off his list of possibles immediately.

“Actually, no, I haven’t, but I think I can learn.” Her voice was soft, soothing to listen to, but Wyatt’s patience was frayed from too many interviews over the past few days.

He stood. “Thank you for driving out here. I know it’s a long way, but I need someone with experience for this position.”

She stood, too, and faced him. “Have you had a lot of experience as a father?” she asked, a faint smile revealing a dimple in her right cheek.

Startled, Wyatt focused more sharply on her. “No, I didn’t have any choice in the matter, but I’m a blood—” He bit off his words, realizing what he had been about to say. Being a blood relative was no guarantee of love or care.

“At least give me a little chance here, please,” she said.

“Why do you want this job if you have no experience? You might hate being a nanny.”

She glanced at the baby in his arms. “Oh, no. I could never hate taking care of a little child.”

“Are you familiar with children?”

“I have some young cousins I’ve been around a little, but they live in Oregon, so I don’t see them often.”

He was beginning to lose patience, but he was worn out with interviews. “You’re not here looking for a husband, are you? Because I’m not a marrying man.”

She laughed, revealing white even teeth, and her green eyes sparkled. “No! Hardly. I didn’t even know you when I applied for this. I have a friend in Stallion Pass, so I’ve heard a little about you. I suspect you and I do not have anything even remotely in common.”

He agreed with her on that one. “Sorry, but some women I’ve interviewed do have marriage in mind, and they’ve been more than plainspoken about it. So if you don’t know anything about babies and you aren’t interested in the possibilities of matrimony, why are you willing to live in isolation with only me and my niece? Why do you want this job?”

“I’ve been putting myself through college. I want to pay off my college loans. I have my degree now, but I want a master’s in accounting. If I have this job, I can save money, and when your little girl is in preschool, I can take classes while she’s away.”

“You’re talking years from now. She’s a baby.”

“Time flies, and by then I’ll have money saved. Right now, I’m paying back those loans.”

“So when you get an accounting degree, I lose my nanny?”

She smiled at him as she shook her head. “No, not at all. It’ll be something I’ll have if I need it. Perhaps I can do a little accounting work while Megan is in school full-time. And if I don’t do anything else with it, I already handle my own finances now and my family’s, so I’ll be better equipped to do that.”

“Tell me about your family. Do they live in San Antonio?” he asked, noticing that she had a rosy mouth with full, sensual lips. Making an effort, he tried to pay attention to what she was telling him.

“No. They’re missionaries in Bolivia. I have two sisters—Pru, in Austin, who’s a speech therapist and a volunteer reading teacher, and my oldest sister, Faith, who’s a nurse and does volunteer work with elderly shut-ins.”

The warmth that came into her voice as she talked about her family gave Wyatt pause. He remembered his childhood friends, Josh Kellogg and Gabe Brant, who had loved their parents and siblings and been loved in return. He still remembered the shock of going to Gabe’s home when he was a child and discovering that a family could be warm and loving.

“Here’s their picture,” she said, opening her purse and pulling out a photograph. She held it out to him.

“You carry a family photo around with you?” he asked in surprise.

“Yes, I like looking at it.”

As he took the photograph, his fingers brushed her hand lightly, and he was aware of the contact. The picture showed a smiling couple, hands linked, and two brown-haired younger women, also smiling. Behind them were lush green mountains.

“These are your parents?” he asked, studying the tall, dark-haired man and the slender, red-haired woman who looked too young to have three grown daughters.

“Yes. Tom and Rose Talmadge. They married young.”

“Fifteen?”

She smiled. “Hardly! They were eighteen. You’re off just three years. They were childhood sweethearts. My grandfather on my dad’s side, Jeremy, is a minister in Fort Worth.”

“Nice family,” he said.

She pointed at the two younger women in the photo. “Those are my sisters. They went to see our parents last year, but I was still in my last semester at school and I couldn’t go.”

“So you come from a family of do-gooders, but you’re going for an education in accounting and a good-paying job?”

“That’s right. My family says I’m the practical one. Actually, I have a mind for figures and I like to make money. Money means very little to the rest of my family.”

“Well, we have something in common there,” he remarked dryly. “I like to make money, too. But I don’t think your mind for figures will be a lot of help with a baby.” He held out the picture. “Your parents look nice,” he said.

“They’re very nice,” she said, taking the picture and replacing it in her purse. “I know you don’t think much of me, but I come from a stable, hardworking family and I have good references. I think I can learn to take care of your baby.”

Wyatt was intrigued by her. This soft-spoken, freckle-faced girl was getting to him. He knew why, though. Short of the tenuous bond he’d had with his older brother, Hank, he’d never known any kind of closeness in his family, and she was reminding him of his past in a way few people ever had. Clamping his lips together, he studied her, and she gazed back at him unwaveringly.

“Sit down and we’ll talk,” he said.

She sat down, crossing her ankles and looking as prim as before. She also looked as if she would run if he said boo, yet she had stood up to him with her question about his experience as a daddy. She’d nailed him on that one, all right. The first day it had taken him hours to learn to get a diaper on Megan the right way.

“The job means living out here on the ranch. It means living in this house with Megan and me,” he reminded her.

She nodded. “Is there any reason that should worry me?”

“For one thing, there’s the isolation.”

“I don’t mind that at all.”

“For someone young, that’s unusual. These are your prime years for finding a husband. Most women don’t like isolation.”

She smiled at him, her dimple showing and that twinkle returning to her eyes. “Getting a husband is not on my list of goals. I’ll have your niece and I won’t mind the isolation at all.”

“You don’t want to marry?” he asked.

“If it works out someday, but if it doesn’t, that’s fine, too. I have a busy life.”

He didn’t believe her for a minute, but he moved on to another subject. “I have a woman who is both cook and a housekeeper, and she lives on the ranch, so she’ll be close at hand, but if you’re nanny, you’ll live here in the house.”

She nodded as if it meant nothing to her.

“Since this will be your home during the week, I need to know if there’s a boyfriend.”

“No, there’s no boyfriend. I’ve been working to put myself through school and I’m busy and I don’t date.”

“Being busy doesn’t have a whole lot to do with dating.”

She shrugged and he saw the dimple again. “All right. I’ve never found anyone who really interested me. I don’t date.”

“When did you graduate from high school?” he asked in a polite and legal way to discover her age.

She smiled. “I’m twenty-five. I graduated seven years ago.”

Megan stirred in his arms, waking and beginning to cry.

“How’s my girl?” Wyatt asked, patting her back as he stood. “Would you excuse me for a minute while I change her and get her bottle?”

“Certainly.”

He left and Grace watched him go, a mixture of feelings seething inside her. Her best friend from college, Virginia Udall, had warned her at length about Wyatt, telling her of his dark past. How in high school he’d had to quit school and leave town in disgrace. She heard tales of his wildness, crazy pranks he’d done when he was growing up, the girls he’d seduced, drunken brawls in local bars. Virginia had an older sister who’d gone to high school with Wyatt. Grace had seen her high-school yearbook and Wyatt’s freshman picture. She remembered staring at a picture of a boy who, in spite of wild hair that fell over his shoulders, was still the best-looking boy in the entire high school.

Of all the things she’d heard about Wyatt, the one that she could agree with completely was that he was the handsomest man she’d ever seen. When he’d opened the door, she’d been frozen for a minute, looking at thickly lashed, coffee-colored bedroom eyes, prominent cheekbones that gave him a slightly rugged look, a straight nose, a sensual mouth and firm jawline. The long locks were gone, but his black hair was still wavy and unruly, curling onto his forehead. The man was gorgeous. Small wonder he had a reputation with the ladies.

If was difficult to relate the stories she’d heard with the caring uncle he seemed to be. She looked at the animal heads looming over her, the rifle above the mantel, the heavy leather furniture and the bear rugs. The room was masculine, lacking any feminine touch, yet she’d been told that part of the time, his brother and his wife had lived here. It was difficult to imagine a baby crawling over the bear rugs, and she wondered if the room had been that way since Wyatt’s infancy. It was even more difficult to imagine Wyatt as an infant.

Was she walking into a wolf’s den, as her friend had warned her? If she took this job, she would have to live here, alone with Wyatt Sawyer and a baby. Good looks couldn’t mask the rogue he had been. For a moment, as she had approached the house, she’d been tempted to turn around and drive back to town. Then she’d considered the rumor in Stallion Pass that Wyatt couldn’t find a nanny and was offering a huge salary. She had squared her shoulders and tried to ignore her qualms.

Wyatt strode back into the room, the baby tucked into the crook of his arm as he held a bottle for her. He sat in the rocker again, adjusting the baby and her bottle. Her tiny fingers moved over the bottle as she sucked. As he watched his niece, the loving expression on his face made Grace question the stories she had heard. The love he felt for the baby was obvious.

“Why don’t you tell me a little about the job?” she suggested.

He raised his head and looked at her as if he’d forgotten her presence. Grace wondered if he still planned to send her packing. She knew he’d intended to earlier.

“You’d live here in this house and take care of Megan. I’d be around at night, but gone most of the day. The person I hire will be caring for my niece daily, so it’s important that I have someone I can trust, someone who can give her tender, loving care and is competent with a baby.”

“I think I can do that.”

“It’ll be an isolated life in a time when you might rather be with friends or out on a date,” he said warningly.

She smiled at him. “Surely some time off comes with the job.”

“Yes, weekends. I’ll take care of Megan then. Frankly, Miss Talmadge, you’re young. I had someone who is more mature in mind, perhaps a grandmother with lots of experience handling babies. Someone who has no interest in dating. And that’s another thing—if you do date someone, I don’t want him out here at the ranch. No boyfriends allowed. I feel I need—”

Suddenly Megan shoved the bottle away and began crying lustily. Wyatt tried to feed her again and then he put her on his shoulder, patting her back and talking to her. When she screamed all the louder, he stood, jiggling her, talking to her and patting her as he walked back and forth.

“I don’t know if she senses something has happened or if she’s always been this way, but sometimes she’s fussy. The pediatrician said she’s in good health, though, maybe a bit colicky, or maybe she’s just unhappy with the world.”

Grace set down her purse and stood, crossing to him. “Let me hold her awhile and see if a change in people helps.” Grace reached up to take the baby from him. “You might get her more formula,” she suggested.

“I don’t think she’ll take more,” he said, looking at the almost empty bottle. “She doesn’t usually finish her bottles.”

Grace smiled at him and took Megan from him, settling the baby against her shoulder, walking around and patting her back as Wyatt had done. She walked to a window and turned so Megan could see outside if she cared to look, and then she moved around the room. Megan continued to scream, and Grace held her closer and began singing softly to her. In minutes Megan grew quiet and Grace continued to walk and pat her.

Wyatt returned with a half-filled bottle, watching Grace as she moved around the room with his niece. Megan snuggled against Grace, who walked to the rocker and gently eased herself down. “Give me the bottle and I’ll see if she wants more.”

Grace shifted Megan in her arms and held the bottle for her. To Wyatt’s surprise, Megan took it and began to suck while Grace rocked and sang to her.

With his hands on his hips, Wyatt studied the two of them. “For a woman who knows nothing about babies, you’re doing a pretty good job,” he said, still standing while he watched her with the baby. “Sometimes I can’t get her quiet for an hour. Nothing suits her. I’ve taken her outside, walked her, sung to her, rocked her.”

“Maybe she wants me for her nanny,” Grace said sweetly, smiling at him, and he had to laugh. Grace’s pulse jumped because his smile was seductive, irresistible, putting slight creases in his cheeks.

“I need to see some references before we go any further.”

“I have them in my purse,” she replied.

“Don’t stop with Megan!” Wyatt said hastily, grateful for the baby’s silence and apparent contentment.

“Tell me more about the job,” Grace suggested.

“I’ll be in and out. I have an office here and will have people out here sometimes when I’m working. Other times I’ll be in Stallion Pass or in San Antonio. I’ll have some trips to make. I don’t know whether you know anything about my background or not…” He paused and looked at her questioningly.

“Very little,” she replied.

“A brief family history so you’ll know why I have Megan. My mother died when I was a child. My father raised me and my two brothers. I’m the youngest. Jake, my oldest brother, was killed when he was in high school. Last year my father died.”

“I’m sorry,” Grace said.

Wyatt stiffened. “We weren’t close,” he said. “Megan is my other brother’s child. Hank and his wife, Olivia, were killed recently when their small plane crashed. They left wills appointing me as Megan’s guardian.”

“I’m glad she has you,” Grace said, and he shot her a curious glance.

“Did you grow up in this part of the country?” he asked. No one who’d known him in the past would be pleased that Megan had become Wyatt’s charge. Wyatt knew only too well the reputation he’d left behind.

“Yes. I’ve lived in San Antonio all my life.”

“And you have a friend in Stallion Pass who’s told you about me?”

“Yes, I do. Virginia Udall.”

“I don’t remember her.” Wyatt wondered to what lengths Grace Talmadge would go to get the job. “You must really want this job, Miss Talmadge,” he said, unable to keep the sharp cynicism out of his voice. “Most people in Stallion Pass aren’t happy that I’m Megan’s guardian. My deceased sister-in-law’s family is threatening legal proceedings to take Megan from me.”

Grace raised her head, and her green gaze met his with that unwavering look that held his attention totally. “I can easily see you love your niece and have her best interests at heart.”

“Well, you’re in a minority. You also have no idea how I deal with her. Maybe I take her to bars with me. You don’t know what I do.”

Grace smiled. “You would never take this baby into a bar, and I bet you put her first in your life. Am I right?”

The woman was challenging him in her own quiet way. He realized his first judgment about her immaturity was inaccurate—something that rarely happened where women were concerned.

“You’re right, I wouldn’t take her into a bar and I already love her as if she were my own. For a novice, you’re doing all right,” he observed.

Grace glanced at Megan who had snuggled down on her shoulder, her brown eyes wide open. “She’s a beautiful baby.”

“Yes, she is,” he said, a soft note entering his voice. “Want me to take her?”

“I’m fine and she’s happy. Go ahead and sit down.”

Wyatt was amused. Grace Talmadge sounded as if this was her house and he was the one being interviewed. As he sat, he arched a brow and tilted his head. “If you were to take this job and move in, since we’re both young, rumors will start. Are you prepared for that?”

She smiled at him as if he were a child with a ridiculous problem. “I have no worries about rumors. My grandparents and my parents are in Bolivia, a little far away to hear rumors. My sisters and my friends know me, and I know myself. I don’t care about anyone else or any silly rumors.”

“So you hadn’t heard wild rumors about me before you came out here?”

“I have heard some things. If you had lived up to them, I would have been gone by now, but you have been nothing but a gentleman.”

Wyatt had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. “You tempt me to throw the gentlemanly facade to the winds, but I have Megan to think about, so the order of the day is to keep this impersonal and professional. One more reason I was in hopes of finding someone older. She would be more settled. There wouldn’t be this temptation to flirt with you.”

“Oh, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that at all. Men like you aren’t tempted to flirt with women like me,” she assured him.

“If I’d kept this interview professional, I’d skim right past that, but somehow we slid out of professional a little while ago. Men like me?”

“You’re experienced and sophisticated. I imagine you like women who share your interests. I’m bookish, straitlaced and a lot of things that don’t attract sophisticated men. Flirting will be no problem, not for me and not for you. Now, how soon did you want your nanny to start?”

“As soon as possible,” he said, once again amused. In her own mild way, Grace was still taking charge, and she had neatly answered his question and taken them back into an impersonal interview.

“I want someone for the long term, not a continual turnover of nannies that will cause more upheaval in Megan’s life,” he said.

“You have no guarantees of a long-term employee with anyone you hire. An older woman could have something happen where she would have to quit just as easily as a younger one. I’m dependable. I told you, I brought references. My college grades are a 4.0 and my attendance in college and at work was and is excellent,” Grace replied, patting Megan’s back as she rocked steadily.

“Do you mind if I contact your current employer?”

“He doesn’t know I’m applying for this, but it would be fine for you to call him. Along with my references, I’ll give you his telephone number.”

“Maybe we better get down to details,” he said, leaning back and stretching out his long legs. “You would be on duty Monday through Friday, all the time, although when I’m here, I’ll spend my evenings with Megan. I want a live-in nanny who will be a stand-in for the mother Megan lost. You’ll live out here. Weekends are your own. No boyfriends on the ranch, no wild parties.”

Her eyes sparkled with the last. “Am I to understand, then, that there will be no wild parties here?”

Again, she amused him. “I meant you, Miss Talmadge, but no, there won’t be any, not by me or by my nanny.”

“I find that satisfactory.”

“You’re trusting.”

“Sometimes when you expect the best of people, they rise to the occasion. And if you don’t, I’ll be gone,” she reminded him, still rocking Megan, who had stopped fussing and fallen quiet.

“Very well. I have some other interviews. Let me have your references.” He crossed to her and Grace gazed up at him, her pulse skittering. “I’ll take Megan now,” he said.

Grace handed him the baby, and as she did, her hands brushed his and tingles raced through her. “She’s sweet.”

“You have her vote,” he said lightly. As he took Megan, her face screwed up and she began to cry again. “Hey, baby. Megan, what’s the matter?” He gave Grace a frustrated glance. “I don’t know what makes her fussy.”

“Maybe she’s cutting teeth.”

“She wasn’t doing this with you.” He walked around, patting Megan and talking to her. Grace, meanwhile, crossed the room and removed some papers from her purse.

“Here are my references,” she said, placing them on the table. “Thank you for the interview. I can let myself out.”

“Miss Talmadge.”

As she turned to see what he wanted, Megan’s wails became louder. “Just a minute. Shh, Megan,” he crooned. Her screams increased, her small face becoming red.

Grace set down her purse and crossed the room to take the baby from him. He shot her a look, but then let her have Megan, who continued to scream for a moment, then quieted and snuggled against Grace.

“Maybe she does want you for her nanny,” he remarked dryly. He had his hands on his hips, and more locks of his black hair had fallen onto his forehead. “You never asked about the salary.”

“If you want me for a nanny and I want the job, I suppose we can work something agreeable out.”

He told her what he planned to pay, and Grace stared at him in shock, because the sum was astronomical. “With a salary like that you should be able to get any nanny you want!”

“No. Women don’t want the isolation unless it includes marriage, which it does not.” He didn’t add, but he knew that his unsavory reputation had turned many away. “The job means devoting your life to a baby.”

“No, it doesn’t. The weekends are free.”

As she sat down to rock Megan, his phone rang.

“Excuse me, please,” he said, striding out of the room. In minutes he was back, watching her rock his sleeping niece. “I’ll take her now.”

“And I must be going,” Grace said, standing to hand the baby to him, too aware of their hands brushing. She picked up her purse. He followed her to the door and she paused, turning to face him. She held out her hand to shake his, conscious of his brief, warm clasp.

“Thank you for the interview. I’m very interested in the job,” she said, looking at Wyatt holding Megan. He stood in the doorway, watching her as she climbed into her car and drove away.

A cloud of dust stirred up behind her car as she headed off. Grassland spread in all directions around her, and she could see cattle grazing in the distance. She would be isolated, but the job sounded good. With the pay that Wyatt offered, she could pay off her student loans, save for her advanced degree, get a newer car and still put some money away. She was astounded he hadn’t hired someone already.

She wasn’t afraid to live out on his ranch with the man, in spite of all she had heard about him. She said a little prayer that she got the job.

When a week had passed without her hearing anything from Wyatt Sawyer, Grace’s hopes for the job dwindled. Three days later she picked up the phone at work to hear a deep, masculine voice.

“Miss Talmadge, this is Wyatt Sawyer. Have you got a moment to talk?”

“Yes, of course,” she said calmly, while her heart jumped with hope.

“Your references gave you good recommendations. I was impressed. I did a background check.”

“And?” she asked when he paused. She held her breath.

“You passed, as I’m sure you knew you would. So would you be interested in the job as our nanny?”