was, without question, the best magic trick James had ever witnessed. And he knew immediately that there was a way Ms. Lydia Walker could repay him.
Once the child in James’s arms had settled down, the Texas Cattleman’s Club’s handsome president set the boy on his feet while he went to speak in low tones to the two women who hovered near the entrance of his office.
Lydia did her best not to eavesdrop even though she was wildly curious about the identity of the toddler. The brief bio she’d read of James online hadn’t mentioned a wife or family, and he didn’t wear a wedding ring. Not that it was any of her business. But clearly, the child was his based on the way the toddler had flung chubby arms around James’s leg like he was home base in a game of tag.
For that matter, they shared the same brown eyes flecked with gold, as well.
A gentle tug on the sleeve of her sweater made Lydia realize she’d gotten sidetracked during this round of “peekaboo.” She glanced back to the sober little boy in front of her, his damp hand clutching the ribbed cuff of her sweater to help him keep balance. He looked sleepy and out of sorts as he wobbled on unsteady legs, but the game was still entertaining him. Obediently, she covered her face to hide again, remembering how much her youngest brother had loved playing.
“Thank you,” James said to the woman from the front desk. “I’ll take care of it.”
Then he turned and walked back toward Lydia.
She watched him through her fingers as she hid her face from Teddy. Tall and lean, James Harris moved with the grace of an athlete even in jeans and boots. His button-down shirt looked custom fitted, the only giveaway to his position at the club. Without the Stetson he’d been wearing in the photo she’d seen of him online, she could now appreciate the golden color of his eyes. His dark hair was close cropped, the kind of cut that meant regular trips to the barber. Everything about him was neat. Well-groomed. Incredibly good-looking.
The sight of him was enough to make her throat dry right up in feminine appreciation. She might have forgotten all about the peekaboo game if Teddy hadn’t patted her knee. Belatedly, she slid her hands from her face and surprised the toddler again.
The boy giggled softly before resting his head on her knee, as though he was too tired to hold himself upright any longer. Poor little guy. She rubbed his back absently while the baby fidgeted with his feet.
“I think he’ll be down for the count in another minute,” she told James quietly. “He’s an adorable child.”
“He’s normally a handful,” James admitted, taking the seat across from her. “You’re very good with him.”
His charming smile made her breath hitch in her chest. James Harris’s photo online hadn’t fully prepared her for how devastatingly sexy he’d be in person, an attraction she had no business feeling for a man who had a family of his own. A man who’d bailed her sister out of a thorny financial mess that could have very well derailed both their careers. How could Lydia ever thank him?
“As the oldest of eight kids, I had a lot of firsthand experience,” she admitted, accustomed to glossing over the hurtful aspects of feeling more like hired help than her mother’s daughter. “I’ve worked as a nanny ever since and I hope to open my own child care business out of my home this year.” It couldn’t hurt to start spreading the word to people in the community with young families. “Do you have any other children?”
The question sounded benign enough, right? Not like she was fishing to find out more about whether or not this handsome man was married with a house full of adorable offspring waiting to greet him at the end of the day.
“No.” A shadowed expression crossed his face. “Teddy is my brother’s son. And up until Teddy’s parents died three months ago, I was a bachelor spending every waking hour running a ranch or performing my duties here. My life has been turned upside down.”
She couldn’t deny the momentary relief that James was single. But just as quickly, she thought of the sadness and weariness in his voice and what that meant for Teddy. Her heart ached for all the little boy had lost. She stared down at him, his soft cheek still resting on her knee while he shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his light-up sneakers flashing back and forth at odd intervals while he rocked.
“I’m so sorry.” She smoothed a palm across the back of the boy’s gray dinosaur T-shirt. “For you both. I can’t imagine how difficult that transition has been to deal with, especially when you’re grieving such a tragic loss.”
She glanced back at James to find him studying her.
His fixed attention rattled her, reminding her that he’d just admitted to being a single man. Warmth rose to her cheeks and she looked away, trying to remember the thread of the conversation.
“You could help us immeasurably.” James’s voice was pitched low in deference to the weary baby between them, but the tone made her think of pillow talk. Intimate conversations between two lovers who knew one another incredibly well.
Who would have guessed a whisper could be so seductive?
“I’m—um.” She tried to think beyond murmured confidences and came up blank, her brain already supplying images of tangled sheets and limbs. “And how would that be?”
“You arrived at my door looking for a compromise on your sister’s bid, and we’ve just found the perfect one.” He pointed to Teddy, who had stopped moving, his eyes closed. Breathing even. “If you’ll take the job of Teddy’s nanny, you can consider Gail’s debt paid in full.”
His suggestion staggered her. Called her from her sensual daydreams.
“She bid one hundred thousand dollars,” Lydia reminded him, wondering where she should lay Teddy down for a nap. “You’d be forgiving the cost of a home for the sake of child care. That’s far too generous of you.”
He shook his head, his jaw flexing. “I haven’t kept a nanny for more than two weeks because he’s such a handful, between the tantrums and days of being withdrawn. We could have a trial period to see how it worked out.” He seemed to warm to the idea quickly, laying out terms. “If you stayed for a trial period of two months, then I’d forgive half the debt. Stick around for a year, and we’ll call it even.”
“You can’t be serious.” She got distracted around him after a few minutes. How could she ever work in his home for a year?
“I’m running out of options and I can’t afford this much time away from my ranching business. You have no idea what it would be worth to me to know my brother’s boy is in good hands.”
She couldn’t miss the desperation in his eyes. In his voice. But as much as she felt called to help him, it wasn’t her debt to pay. Gail was the one who should be providing free nanny services, not her. Still, another thought trickled through, making her realize things weren’t quite so simple. No matter how strongly she felt that Gail needed to clean up her own messes, Lydia recognized that without James’s clearing the debt with the charity, the Walker name might have become the kiss of death for a new business in a close-knit community like Royal. While she wrestled with what to do, she turned her attention to the sleeping baby between them.
“First things
