without being too skinny, not tall, curves in all the right places.
One damn fine body that she’d been using to gyrate like a crazy woman with as much abandon as the kids when he’d first pulled up to the house and could see what was going on inside.
And yeah, he had to admit that even though the kids had been the reason he was there, even though he’d been sleep deprived and freaked out at the thought that the kids might actually prove to be his, it was still the nanny who had caught his attention. And held it for a while, sitting in his rented SUV, unable to take his eyes off her.
But what about the nanny—that’s what his brother had asked.
“What do you mean?” he answered with a question of his own because all he could think about was the way she looked and he didn’t think Conor was asking about that.
“You said she was the guardian now,” Conor reminded him.
“Right. I guess she’s been their nanny for a few years, and when Audrey and her husband died she had Audrey’s husband’s attorney go to court to have her named as the kids’ temporary guardian so they could stay in their own home for now.”
“That’s nice of her. That’s got to mean she went from taking care of them as just her job to being completely responsible for them and playing single parent 24-7?”
“Yeah, that’s the way I’m understanding it.”
“That’s above and beyond the call of duty.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, realizing that he’d been so busy thinking about how she looked that he hadn’t given her credit for that. And he should have.
“Are you going to start trading shifts with her?” Conor asked then. “Taking care of the kids part of the time so she can get away?”
“Oh, god no!” Liam said, feeling a rise in his stress level at that idea. “I figure if the court appointed her as their guardian she has to stick around, right? And she needs to—I don’t have a clue what to do with them. I mean, I said I want to get to know them, that I thought it would be good for them to get to know me, in case I am their father. That it would be good for me to learn the ropes. And that if by some chance I’m not their father, I want to make sure they get well taken care of for Audrey’s sake. But I can’t be left alone with them.”
His brother’s expression was amused and sympathetic at once. “Okay. But you know that if you are their father eventually that could happen?”
“I... Yeah... But that isn’t right now. Right now the nanny will be there and I’m just planning to lend a hand. To follow her lead. I can’t be left alone with them,” he repeated.
His brother grinned. “So you’re really terrified of them?”
“Wouldn’t you be?”
“I had to do a rotation in pediatrics so I’ve had a little experience,” Conor said of his training as a doctor.
Liam got up from the kitchen table and took his plate to the sink to rinse it and do what he could to calm his nerves over a prospect he hadn’t considered before this: being left alone with twin four-year-olds.
Once he felt as if he had some control, he turned back to his brother and said, “I just have to do what I have to do. Whatever that is.”
“Sure,” Conor agreed. “And I’m here for you, if there’s anything I can do.”
“You can take me shopping for some clothes,” Liam said. “I don’t have any civvies with me—I pretty much just threw what I needed to travel in a duffel and took off. And I think the uniform makes me a little intimidating to the kids.”
“Whose names are?”
“Oh, yeah, they have names,” Liam said, sounding overwhelmed and at sea. “The girl is Evie. The boy is Grady.”
“Evie Madison. Grady Madison. I guess that works,” Conor mused.
“Yeah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Liam cautioned, thinking that he could only handle so much at a time.
And also thinking how grateful he was that Dani Cooper really would be there to hold his hand through what seemed like the most daunting mess he’d ever been in.
Well, not to literally hold his hand.
Although there was something about that idea that made the thought of going back to the house to face what he had to face much easier...
* * *
“That man from last day is coming back and we have to go to the doctor with him?” Evie said, questioning what Dani had just told her and her brother.
“The man who was here last night,” Dani corrected. “Remember his name is Liam, and yes, he’s coming with us to the doctor.”
She was combing Evie’s long hair and putting it into pigtails while Grady watched.
“But we aren’t sick,” he pointed out. “Why do we have to go to the doctor? Are we gonna hafta have shots?”
“No, no shots and nothing that will hurt. You won’t even have to get undressed. All you’ll have to do is open your mouths and let the nurse touch the inside of your cheek with a cotton swab.”
“But why?” Evie persisted.
“It’s a test. Remember last time you guys had sore throats? The nurse used a cotton swab to get some stuff from back there and sent it to be tested to see if you had strep—”
“I didn’t like that,” Evie said.
“Me either,” Grady chimed in.
“I know, but this will be easier than that. Here, let me show you.” She took three cotton swabs from the medicine cabinet, demonstrated what would be done on herself first and then persuaded them to let her do it to them.
“See? This one is no big deal. But then they can send the swab to a laboratory to test it and tell all kinds of things about you.”
“Like what?” Grady asked suspiciously.
“It could tell that Evie is a girl and you’re a boy. It could tell the color of your hair and eyes—”
“I can tell you that,” Evie reasoned.
This wasn’t easy to explain to inquisitive four-year-olds.
“It can also tell you stuff that you can’t see—what’s inside of you that makes you you and who your family is. Like if I had the test, it could tell me that my grandmother was my grandmother.”
“So it’s gonna tell us if we have a grandmother?” asked Grady.
“Well, no, we already know your grandparents are all in heaven, too, but it might tell us if you have any other family you don’t know about.”
“You think we do?” Evie asked.
“Maybe,”
