it over one shoulder, and she reached up to brush it back with her fingers. Luke saw very little of any of it, focused instead on her long legs in the trim, short skirt she wore.
He must’ve been crazy to let his sister talk him into interviewing the woman. He’d always thought his sister had more sense than to send him someone who looked remotely like a Miss America contestant. But if he really thought about it, Erin had done some far from smart things in her life.
The doorbell rang, dragging a moan from deep within his chest. How would he manage to send this woman away without hurting her feelings? Erin would skin him alive if she learned he hadn’t hired the vixen waiting at the door. And if he hurt the woman’s feelings in the process, he’d never hear the end of it. Even worse, if he didn’t hire her, who would he find to—
“Up! Wannup!”
“Not now, Brayden. Be good and let go.” Reaching down, he pried the two-year-old’s chubby arms from his legs and noticed the smear of grape jelly Brayden left in his wake. Taking the toddler by one of his gooey hands, Luke moved to the front door as the bell chimed a second time. “Be there in a sec!” he called.
There wasn’t time to wipe Brayden’s hands. Not with the woman ringing the damn bell every two seconds. Where the hell had Brayden gotten the jelly, anyway? But Luke wasn’t eager to check out the source, even if he had the time. Which he didn’t. No telling what kind of damage the kitchen was in, after a visit from Brayden.
Drawing in a deep breath, Luke reached for the doorknob, hoping he could make the interview as brief and as painless as possible—for both of them. But when he opened the door, his son wrapped both arms around his legs again in the two-year-old equivalent of a viselike grip, throwing Luke completely off balance. He managed to save himself from falling by bracing his hand against the door frame.
“Mr. Walker?” the young woman asked, slipping off a pair of dark glasses he hadn’t even noticed.
“Uh, yeah, that’s me.” Distracted by the need to keep his balance, Luke tried to concentrate on presenting a formidable appearance. Not an easy feat, he decided, with a jelly-smeared son attached at his knees, and made even worse by the deep blue of the woman’s eyes.
Her gaze traveled down to where Brayden held Luke in a death grip and moved back up again. She smiled and extended her hand. “I’m Hayley. Hayley Brooks? Your sister—”
“Yeah. Erin. My sister.” He cringed and hoped she didn’t notice, as he took her hand and gave it the briefest of shakes, then immediately let go. He wasn’t quick enough. A wave of warmth snaked quickly up his arm. This was not a good thing.
“I guess this is Brayden.” She knelt to the little boy’s level. “Hi, Brayden.”
Brayden hid his face behind Luke’s legs and shook his head. Luke reached down and ruffled his son’s curly hair. “He’s a little shy.”
Straightening, she faced him. “Typical two-year-old,” she said with a blazing smile. “Now, about the job...”
“The job,” Luke echoed. He didn’t have a clue what to say to this woman. He desperately needed someone to take care of his son, but this one wasn’t the type of someone he’d had in mind. Nope, not even close.
Before he had a chance to make up an excuse that wouldn’t hurt her feelings, Brayden let out an earsplitting wail. The grip on Luke’s legs tightened, but he finally managed to extricate himself and hauled the boy into his arms, jelly and all. “Maybe this isn’t such a good time,” he told the prospective nanny, over the howls coming from his son.
“It’s as good a time as any.” She reached out and took Brayden in her arms, completely oblivious to the goo.
Brayden immediately quieted.
Luke stared at the pair.
“There,” she said, brushing the front of Brayden’s hair away from his forehead with her fingers. “Isn’t that better?” Turning to Luke, who was struck speechless, she smiled. “If I can just come inside?”
“Oh. Yeah, sure,” Luke answered, completely taken off guard. He stepped back, waiting until she’d moved through the doorway and past him with his silent but somber son in her arms. “It’s kind of a mess,” he warned, more than aware of the state of the house.
“It usually is with little ones around.” She flashed him yet another smile and followed him into the living room. Moving aside the newspaper he’d earlier unfolded while he waited for her, she took a seat on the sofa and settled Brayden on her lap. “There are five kids in my family. My mom says she doesn’t know what to do with a neat house, now that we’re grown.”
Luke barely heard her. He was watching his son, whose attention was on the brightly painted wooden beads of the woman’s necklace, nestled in the V-neck of her top. When Brayden reached for the beads with his chubby hands, Luke tensed, prepared to grab the child before more damage could be done other than sharing the jelly. Holding his breath, he wondered how he could intercept the disaster he knew was coming, without frightening the woman.
“Would you mind sitting?” he heard her say.
He jerked his gaze away from the beads at her throat to stare at her. “What?”
“I’m sorry,” she answered with an apologetic smile. “It’s awkward having to look up at you. Would you mind sitting?”
Without replying, he continued to keep his attention on his son, while he tentatively perched on the chair facing the sofa, ready to intervene when needed. He loved his son to distraction, but he also knew firsthand that Brayden could leave disaster in his wake in the blink of an eye. And those beads were obviously intriguing the little guy.
She shifted Brayden in her lap, but completely ignored the boy’s hand on her necklace. “What time does your day start, Mr. Walker?”
“Early,” he answered. “I get up around five and am out of the house by seven.” Or at least he tried to be. With Brayden to get out of bed, dressed and fed, it was more often later. Much later.
“Who watches Brayden that early?”
Luke looked down at his work-worn hands. “Right now, nobody.” He glanced up at her and hurried to add, “I mean, I’ve been taking him with me later in the morning, when I can’t find someone to watch him.”
“Have you checked into day care in town?”
He nodded, thinking of the hassle it had been for everyone. “We tried it, but the best place was full before it even opened. And it isn’t like my hours are nine to five or anything. There are some days that I don’t need to leave the house until later, and I can’t see taking Brayden to town when he doesn’t need to be there.”
“I see.”
Luke wasn’t sure he liked the way she said that. The real problem was that both he and Brayden had taken an instant dislike to the woman at the day care center that did have an empty slot. Several, in fact. They were on the list at Libby Miles’s new place, but had been warned the wait might be a long one.
“Let me put it this way,” he said, uncomfortable about sharing everything. “They charged me the same, no matter what time I took him in or what time I picked him up, or even whether he was there at all. That’s a waste.”
