Read Online Hired: Nanny Bride by Cara Colter - Free Book Online Page A

her own dreams for her life, her own ambitions?
    He wanted to say something, and he didn’t. He didn’t want to know anymore about what she was giving up for other people’s children.
    “I think we should go tomorrow,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I know your intentions are good, but the children really need to be someplace where they can romp. Someplace not so highly vulnerable to small hands, pizza sauce, the other daily catastrophes of all that energy.”
    Her eyes said, I need to be away from you.
    And he needed to be away from her. Fast . Before he asked more questions that would reveal to him a depth of love that shone like water in a desert, beckoning, calling.
    “I’ll go make the arrangements,” he said coolly. “I have to return a phone call, anyway.”
    “I’ll say good-night, then, and talk to you in the morning.”
    He nodded, noticing she did not go back to her room but slipped out onto the terrace. He watched her for a moment as she stood looking out at darkness broken by lights reflecting in the water, stars winking on overhead. The sea breeze picked up her hair, and he yearned to stand beside her, immerse himself in one more simple moment with her.
    Moments, he reminded himself harshly, that were bringing up memories and thoughts he didn’t want to deal with.
    Unaware she was being watched, she turned slightly. He saw her lift the chain from around her neck, open the locket and look at it.
    There was no mistaking, from the look on her face, that she had memories of her own to deal with. And he didn’t want to know what they were!
    He walked away from the open patio doors, andmoments later he shut the door of his home office. He waited for the familiar surroundings to act as a balm on him, to draw him back into his own world.
    But they didn’t. He thought of her standing on the deck with the wind lifting her hair. The fact that he suddenly didn’t want her to go was all the more reason to make the arrangements immediately. Thinking of them leaving filled him with relief. And regret. In nearly equal proportions.
    He glanced at his watch. It had been less than eight hours since she had arrived in his office.
    His whole world had been turned topsy-turvy. He had revisited a past he thought was well behind him. He was feeling uncertainties he didn’t want to feel.
    He needed the safety and comfort of his own world back.
    He dialed Michael Baker’s number.
    Michael sounded less guarded than he had in the past, almost jovial.
    “It sounded like you had your hands full,” he said to Joshua.
    “My niece and nephew are here for a visit.”
    “My wife and I were under the impression you didn’t like children,” Michael said.
    “Don’t believe everything you read,” Joshua said carefully, sensing the slightest opening of a door that had been firmly closed.
    “We had decided to just tell you no,” Michael said. “Moose Lake Lodge is not at all like any of your other resorts.”
    Baker said that in a different way than he had said it before, in a way that left Joshua thinking the door was open again. Just a little bit. Just enough for a shrewd salesman to slip his foot in.
    “None of my resorts are ever anything like the other ones. They’re all unique.”
    “This is a family resort. We’re kind of hoping it always will be. Does that fit into your plans?”
    To just say no would close the door irrevocably. He needed to meet with the Bakers. He needed them to trust and like him. He was certain he could make them see his vision for Moose Lake Lodge. Hikes. Canoe and kayak adventures. Rock climbing. The old retreat alive with activity and energy and excitement.
    Whether that vision held children or not—it didn’t—was not something Joshua felt he had to reveal right now.
    “I could fly up tomorrow,” Joshua said. “Just meet with me. I’m not quite the superficial cad the press makes me out to be. We’ll talk. You don’t have to agree to anything.”
    “You might be making the