was amazed that my scholarship to Wharton meant nothing to him. He had a finance degree and aspirations to rise to the top, but didn’t take mine seriously. It’s too bad he didn’t realize I meant what I said. It would have saved us both a lot of pain. I gave him back his ring and told him goodbye.”
“Have you seen him since?”
“No.”
“He’s probably still waiting for you to change your mind.”
“Then he’s waiting in vain.”
In the silence that followed, Nick reached for his life vest and put it on. Clearly he considered this conversation over. She’d learn nothing more from him about his marriage because he’d come out here to sail.
After their brief, intimate interlude that could have ended in her making the most disastrous mistake of her life, he was ready to head out to sea, the rapture of the moment forgotten. She had the gut feeling that the invitation to join him below wouldn’t happen again on this trip or any other trips he planned in the future.
If he thought she was still feeling needy after her broken engagement and that’s why she’d been an ardent participant in what they’d just shared, then let him go on thinking it. She didn’t want him knowing her guilty secret.
To have fallen in love with her employer went against all the rules of being a nanny, but that’s what she’d done. She was madly in love with Nick Wainwright. Between him and his son, she would never be the same person again.
No one could tell her Erica Hirst hadn’t been desperately in love with him, too. You couldn’t be in his presence five minutes without wanting any love he was willing to give. If anyone had drifted into a permanent relationship—if that’s what had really happened—it would have been Nick.
Erica must have been shattered when he’d asked her for a divorce. Reese wanted to believe that the knowledge she was pregnant with Nick’s child had brought her some solace in spite of her grief. If Reese had been in her shoes, she knew she would have grieved over losing Nick.
How tragic that she’d died. Tears pricked her eyelids. She loved their beautiful boy with all her heart.
“Reese?” His voice had a deep, grating quality. “Are you all right? I didn’t mean to dredge up your pain.”
Maybe it was better he thought Jeremy was the source of her distress, but nothing could be further from the truth. She shook her head. “You didn’t. I thought you and I were having a simple conversation. Naturally our pasts would come up.” She put the baby back in his carryall. “I think your son is on the verge of falling asleep again. Where shall we put him while we’re out sailing?”
“Keep him right next to you. I’ll do all the work, but put on your life vest first.” He handed it to her.
Back to square one, the place where she’d gotten too physically close to Nick and had given in to her longings. Not this time around!
She slipped it on and fastened the straps.
“Are you ready?”
Reese nodded.
He walked to the rear of the boat and started the motor at a wakeless speed. Slowly they headed toward the water beyond the buoys. Once past them, he cut the motor and raised the white sail. A light breeze filled it and then there was this incredible rush of sensation as the boat lifted and skimmed across the water. She found it wasn’t unlike the feeling of Nick kissing her senseless.
When she was an old woman, all she would have to do was close her eyes and remember the sight of the gorgeous, powerfully built man at the helm with the wind disheveling his black hair. For a little while she would relive being crushed in his arms and invited to visit paradise with him. That kind of joy only came once.
She dreaded for the day to be over, but the time came when Nick had to take them back to the port. Twilight had fallen all around them. After they’d floated alongside the pier and he’d jumped out of the boat to tie the ropes, she rummaged in the big diaper bag for the giftwrapped package.
While he was still down on his haunches, she handed it to him.
“What’s this?”
“It’ll be Father’s Day in a few hours. Before Jamie fell asleep, he asked me to give this to you. He told me to tell you he had the most wonderful day of his life out here with his daddy.”
A stillness surrounded Nick before he undid the paper and discovered the sailboat. In the semidarkness his white smile stood out. He turned it this way and that. “The Flying NJ?”
“Yes. A Nick and Jamie partnership. He thought you might like to put it on your desk at work.”
“Reese…” He stepped back in the boat. With his hand still holding his gift, he cupped her chin with the other, lifting her face to his gaze. “No one ever gave me a present like this before.”
“That’s because it’s your first Father’s Day and your son isn’t very old yet,” she teased to cover the intensity of her emotions.
He brushed his mouth against hers, melting her bones. “Where did you come from, Ms. Chamberlain?”
“The East 59th Street Employment Agency.”
“My secretary did good work picking you. I’m going to have to give her a bonus.”
“I’m glad she picked me, too. Jamie’s…precious.” Her voice caught before she moved away from him. She was in danger of begging him to take her below. If that happened, then a whole night alone with him would never be enough.
TWO weeks later Reese entered the apartment building with Jamie after an afternoon of walking and shopping. The concierge called to her. “You have mail, Ms. Chamberlain.”
She saw a postcard from Rich Bonner, his fourth, forwarded from the post office in Philadelphia to her temporary address here. His persistence irritated her. There was also a letter from Wharton. The school was no doubt reminding her of the test coming up in two weeks. She’d registered for it and would be taking it online.
“Thank you, Albert.”
Once she’d tucked the mail in the sack, she went on up to the penthouse. Before she read anything, she had something more important to do. Jamie would be four months old in another week, but she couldn’t wait for his birthday.
Her sister had one of those fold-out colorful quilts with the ends of a mobile sewn in. When you opened it and set it on the floor, the mobile sprang open. The baby would lie there on his back entertained with all kinds and colors of small blocks and shapes and mirrors dangling above him. When she’d been walking through the toy store, she saw one like it and had to buy it.
“You’re going to love this,” she told Jamie as she wheeled him down the hall to her bedroom. As soon as she washed her hands, she pushed him through to the nursery and changed his diaper in his crib. She left him long enough to wash her hands again, then hurried back.
The
