you to get your degree, remember? I’m not asking you to help me forever. Just the three or four weeks that I’ll need to interview nannies.”
When she opened her mouth to argue, he cut her off, saying, “Look, I’m smart enough to recognize when I’m in over my head and smart enough to recognize a person well qualified to get me out. Plus, you’re from a family I know. I can trust you. If we need to juggle a few things, I’m in the right circles and have enough clout that no matter who employs you, I can arrange for you to get the time off.”
She reached for the knob on the back door. “Even if you could arrange it, I can’t take time off right now. I have a big money problem that I have to solve. That’s why I’m here. My mom volunteered to talk me through it.”
“You have a money problem?” Standing in his snow-covered driveway in front of the huge Tudor-style mansion that had been in his family for generations, he motioned in a circle with his hand. “Look around. The one problem I don’t have is money.” A few quick strides brought him beside her. “If you need money, I’m your guy. Didn’t I just say I’d pay you handsomely?”
“My problem’s too big to be covered by the salary of someone you’d hire to be a nanny for a few weeks.”
“How much money would you need to get out of trouble?”
She sighed. “Dominic, it’s too much—”
“Nothing is too much.” He nodded at Joshua. “He’s my family. For Manellis, money is no object when it comes to family.”
She laughed and shook her head. “You can’t pay me a hundred thousand dollars for a little bit of work.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s illogical.”
“Not really. The way I see this, it will probably take me a month to find a nanny. So you’re giving up a good bit of time. And I’ve already told you money’s no object. Not because I don’t know the value of a dollar but because Joshua’s that important to me. You have the expertise I need but no money. I have money but need your expertise. To me it’s a perfect fit.”
She drew a breath. “Dominic—”
“Please?”
“I can’t take a month off work.”
“You can go to work. I really only need help at nights anyway.”
“Right. Who’s going to watch Joshua during the day?”
“I was hoping your mom could,” he said, his lips lifting into a sheepish smile. “I know it’s not in her job description, but I don’t think she’ll turn me down. Especially since she’s got plenty of staff she can assign to take turns with him. But that still leaves me with nights—” He paused, caught the gaze of Audra’s pretty blue eyes and held it. “Please.”
“I don’t know—”
“I do know. I know your family. It’s in your blood to help people.” Which was why he persisted. Her mother could never resist a person in need, but her mother was also the head of his household. Though she had staff, she and everybody on her staff worked set hours. He might be able to temporarily squeeze Joshua into their schedules during the day, but he couldn’t press them for night duty, too. And he most desperately needed someone for night duty. Not for himself but for the poor baby entrusted to his care. “Think of Joshua.”
She glanced at the baby in her arms. Wonderful Joshua picked that precise second to grin toothlessly at her. She groaned. Joshua was getting to her.
“I’ll give you fifty thousand dollars up front and fifty at end of the month. If it goes longer, I’ll pay you twenty-five thousand a week.” Holding her gaze steadily, he said, “Money’s never been an object for me. You need money, and Joshua needs you.”
CHAPTER TWO
THEY stepped into the enormous working kitchen of the Manelli mansion. Audra’s mom turned from the stainless-steel stove. As always her short brown hair and simple black dress were neat as a pin, and her blue eyes sparkled. Her gaze touched on Dominic then Audra then Joshua.
“I thought you were coming here to chat with me,” she said, shifting from the stove to one of three islands with beige-and-gold-flecked black granite countertops that sat on functional beige ceramic tile floors.
“We met in the driveway.”
“And found a baby under the big oak by the garage?”
“This is Peter’s son, Mary,” Dominic said. “I got a call from Marsha’s mom this morning. She’s ill and can’t raise Joshua as she’d wanted. We all agreed the smartest thing to do was have me take over.”
“Oh, Dominic, I’m so sorry,” Mary said, walking to them. “But this actually might work out better for Joshua.”
“Yeah,” Dominic chided. “He’s much better off in the hands of a guy with absolutely no baby experience.”
“You’ll get the hang of being a daddy,” Mary said, reaching for the baby. “And this baby needs to know his dad’s family, as well as his mom’s.”
Audra handed the squirming little boy to her mother, and he immediately began to cry.
“Oh-oh.” Mary chuckled, and then brushed her lips across the baby’s forehead. “Somebody’s sleepy.”
She made a move to hand him to Dominic, but Audra took him. She wasn’t ready to explain to her mother that she’d agreed to help Dominic for the next month, and decided that was Dominic’s job, anyway. She faced Dominic. “Do you have a crib ready for him to sleep?”
“Damn it!” He ran his hand over the top of his head in frustration. “No.”
“It’s okay.” She laid crying Joshua across her arm and began to rock him. “Did Marsha’s mom give you a baby carrier by any chance?”
“Yes.”
“He’s small enough that he can nap in that. Where is it?”
“In the trunk with two duffel bags of baby clothes and what seems like a hundred stuffed animals that Marsha’s mom said he couldn’t live without.”
“Mom, can you rock him while we bring those things inside?”
Her mother gave her an odd look, but smiled and said, “Sure,” as she took Joshua again. “Come on, little sweetie-pie. Aunt Mary will take off all these heavy clothes and tell you a story.”
Audra’s mom left the kitchen, and Audra and Dominic stepped out into the fat white snowflakes again. “So, I’m guessing you want me to tell your mom about our arrangement.”
“She’s your employee, not mine. Besides, you’re the one making her watch a baby for the next few weeks until you hire a real nanny. The honor falls to you.”
He laughed. “I just didn’t want to step on any toes.”
“When you tell her you’re paying me well
