mother made a move to run after her, but Jake put his hand out to stop her. “Let her go.”
“But…”
“Mom, I did tell her that I would take care of Dixon if she got a movie role and had to go on location.”
“Yeah, but none of us ever thought she would actually get a movie.”
“Well, she did and now I have a baby.”
Hannah rocked back on her chair, her eyes wide with surprise, her brain shocked into numbness. Jake Malloy was a daddy?
“He’s so cute,” Sadie cooed, rising from her seat to rush over and fuss over the baby. “Jake, I’m so glad we finally get to see your son!”
“So am I!” Troy said. He also rose to look at the little boy Jake held.
Jake smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, well, even I hardly get to see him since he lives in L.A.”
“Yeah,” Hannah said, more to herself than to anyone else. Jake hadn’t really kept his son a secret. Troy knew about him. Sadie obviously knew about him. Yet, Jake hadn’t exactly made a public announcement, either. Could it be that perfect Jake Malloy wasn’t so perfect, after all?
She smiled stupidly, feeling a relief of sorts that he was human. “This certainly puts Jake in a whole different light.”
Hannah’s sister Caro laughed. “Stop that,” she said, patting Hannah’s hand in reprimand. Not quite as tall as Hannah, but sharing her blond hair, Caro was the sibling Hannah most resembled.
“I didn’t mean that to be rude,” Hannah said. “It just came out wrong.”
“I hope so,” Max Riley, Caro’s fiancé, agreed, catching Hannah’s gaze with his striking blue eyes. “I would hate to have to break the news to people that you aren’t the ‘nice’ Evans sister everyone believes you to be.”
“The ‘nice’ Evans sister?” Caro and Hannah asked simultaneously.
“Yeah,” Max said with a chuckle, as if it were common knowledge. “Maria is the mom. Sadie is the hottie. Caro’s the smart…yet, gorgeous one,” he said, sliding a meaningful glance in his fiancée’s direction. “And Hannah’s the nice one.”
Hannah gaped at him. “Really?”
“Yeah,” Max said.
Hannah had a little trouble digesting the fact that she had been so neatly compartmentalized by her community, until she thought about her life. She was an elementary schoolteacher who had never left home. Not even for college. Her oldest brother, Dakota, had packed up for Massachusetts Institute of Technology and never returned, and she didn’t want to risk hurting her parents like that. So even though her other brother, Luke, and her three sisters had at least left Wilburn to go to college, she had commuted so she could continue to help her aunt Sadie with her day care, so she could go to every family gathering, so she could attend Wil-burn High football games.
Maybe she was “nice”? Maybe she was too nice? Maybe she was so stupidly nice and naive that she would trip over her tongue every time she danced with a handsome, sophisticated man like Jake Malloy!
“Maybe that’s my problem. Maybe I’ve been nice too long.”
Caro said only “Hmm” as she glanced over her shoulder.
Following the direction of Caro’s gaze, Hannah saw that the baby had awakened and had nestled his face into Jake’s neck.
Max said, “Looks like that little boy is very happy to be with his daddy.”
“Yes, it does,” Caro agreed. “And it looks like his daddy is also very happy to be with him.”
Hannah frowned, wondering if the universe hadn’t hiccuped or something. First, she realized the “niceness” she thought her best trait had probably been what was keeping her from becoming more sophisticated, then playboy Jake Malloy actually looked as though he loved being a father. From the way he walked around the patio showing off his baby to his guests, it was clear he loved the little boy and was proud of him.
Troy returned to the table and said, “That’s one cute little boy.”
“He is beautiful,” Sadie said, joining her husband. “And he loves his daddy. The only problem is that Jake travels a lot for Troy.”
Max shrugged. “So?”
“So, he’s got a trip planned this week.” Sadie leaned forward. “He’s going to Paris, then Belgium.”
“Oh!” Caro gasped. “He’s so lucky.”
“He won’t be so lucky if he doesn’t find a nanny,” Jake’s mother said as she and Jake’s new stepfather, broad-shouldered investment counselor, Larry Simmons, walked to the table.
“Maybe we can help at the day care,” Caro said at the same time that Jake, holding his adorable little boy, approached the gathering group.
Hannah had to admit the infant was sweet. Chubby-cheeked, with red hair, he didn’t look a thing like his father, but apparently Jake didn’t care. He held him as if he were his most prized possession.
“Jake,” Caro continued, “I’m glad you’re here. Your mother mentioned that you have to go out of town, and I suggested that maybe the day care could help out with Dixon. Aunt Sadie is back now. Her chemotherapy is over and she’s nearly healthy as a horse. I’m working with her for backup.”
“Thank you,” Jake said, “but I think I need a nanny. My mother could easily watch the baby during the day like the day care, but won’t be able to stay overnight,” he added, casting a meaningful glance at his mother and her new husband. “So, it’s overnight care I need. Somebody who can get up in the middle of the night with him, that kind of thing.”
Caro said, “Why not hire Hannah?”
Hannah gaped at her older sister. “What?”
Caro smiled. “Well, the baby can’t stay overnight at the day care and you’re not working. It’s not like you don’t need the money. I seem to recall some school loans that aren’t yet paid off.”
Ready to make an apology and an excuse for not being able to be his nanny, Hannah looked at Jake. But the oddest notion hit her. He needed a nanny, but she also needed something he had in abundance. Sophistication. If she were to live with him, even just to see how he lived, maybe she could change. She didn’t exactly think sophistication would magically rub off on her, but she did have to start somewhere and seeing how the other half lived was definitely a good way.
“That might work,” she said cautiously, and caught Jake’s gaze. Again she felt the sizzle that always seemed to happen when their eyes locked. But, damn it, she didn’t care. They might be attracted to each other, but he would never date her. One look at the woman he chose to be the mother of his son proved Hannah was not his type. And she would never date him. She knew when she was out of her league.
And she needed this. Tonight, she’d realized that her sisters had become a hundred times more sophisticated than she was. If
