Katie. Mr. Mercer has to go now.” The smile Lacey flashed in his direction was halfhearted at best.
“Actually, I have an appointment here. A job interview.”
“Oh.” Lacey’s sandy brows lifted slightly as she looked him up and down. He quelled the urge to squirm a little at her scrutiny, even though her gaze seemed as sharp as that of any drill sergeant he’d ever faced during an inspection. “Well, good luck.”
“Thanks.” He left the room, his steps faltering briefly when Katie began to cry. As he closed the door behind him, he heard Lacey’s soft murmurs of comfort, and he wondered if the little girl would be appeased.
At the front office, he gave his name to the receptionist, apologizing for being late and explaining the situation.
“You’re lucky,” the woman said with a friendly smile. “Your appointment is late, too.”
He glanced back toward the conference room, where he’d left Lacey Miles and her little niece. “I know.”
* * *
THE EMPLOYMENT OFFICE MANAGER was a tall, sharp-eyed brunette with the bone structure of a model named Ellen Taylor. She wore a sleek blue suit that fit her angular body to perfection, and her voice was inflectionless and polished. “I’m so sorry for your ordeal, Ms. Miles.” She spared a brief smile for Katie, but she was clearly not someone who had much experience with small children.
Join the club, Lacey thought. “I hate that I’ve kept the prospective nanny waiting.”
“It’s not a problem,” Ellen assured her. “Are you ready?”
Lacey glanced at her own rumpled suit and Katie’s tear-streaked face. She sighed. So much for a good first impression. “Sure.”
“Good. Before we start, how do you want to handle this? Do you want me to sit in or do you want to handle the interview yourself?”
If she thought Ellen Taylor knew anything about babies or nannies, she might have asked her to stay. But she might as well go into this interview the way she’d continue after she hired someone—clueless and needy.
Besides, she was a professional reporter. She’d interviewed presidents, prime ministers and kings, as well as rebels and terrorists. If she couldn’t handle asking a prospective nanny a few pointed questions, what kind of reporter was she?
“Very well. I’ll let you handle it, and then when you’re done, you can tell me whether you want to interview any other prospects.” Ellen left the room in a faint cloud of Chanel No. 5.
“Oh, wait—” Lacey began, but the door had already clicked shut behind the woman. “Damn it.”
She’d forgotten to ask for a résumé beforehand. She’d planned her early arrival so she could do a quick read through the potential nanny’s employment history so she could ask intelligent questions. No reporter liked to go into an interview blind.
“Oh well,” she murmured against Katie’s cheek. “Guess we’ll find out soon enough if we’ve found our own Mary Poppins.”
There was a quiet knock on the conference-room door.
“Come in,” Lacey said, taking a deep breath to calm her sudden rattle of nerves and pasting a smile on her face.
The door opened and Jim Mercer entered, a faint smile on his face. “Hello, again.”
“Oh. It’s you.” Her smile faded. “Did you forget something?”
“Actually, no.” He smiled at Katie, who reached out for him again. “Hey there, sweetie.”
Lacey tugged her niece closer. “I hate to seem rude, considering how you came to our rescue, but I don’t really have time to talk. I’m about to conduct a job interview.”
Jim pulled out the chair across from her and sat. “I know. I’m the one you’re interviewing.”
Lacey Miles stared at Jim a moment, her only reaction a slight narrowing of her eyes. Otherwise, she maintained a pretty impressive poker face. “I see.”
When she said nothing more, he asked, “Is that a problem? Ms. Taylor said you had specified that you had no issues with hiring a male caretaker.”
“I don’t,” she said bluntly in a tone that suggested just the opposite.
“You seem as if you’ve been blindsided.”
Her lips curved in a faint, perfunctory smile. “I guess I have been, in a way. I didn’t have a chance to look over your credentials or even get your name. I just wasn’t expecting a man.”
“Oh.”
“I’m in a hurry to make a hire, you see,” she added quickly, as if she realized what she’d just admitted made her sound ill prepared. “I haven’t had much luck since I sent my request to Ellen. In fact, you’re the first person who’s even applied for the job.”
He was pretty sure he knew why. The story about the car bomb that had been meant for her—the one that had killed her sister and brother-in-law instead—had made the national news. There weren’t a lot of wannabe nannies willing to walk into a situation like that.
“Anyway, best-laid plans and all that.” Lacey breathed a soft sigh. “So tell me about yourself.”
“I’m thirty-four years old. I spent a decade in the Marine Corps, and then over the next four years, I went to college and earned a degree in early-childhood education.”
“Really? First a Marine, now a nanny?” That piece of information seemed to pique her interest.
“I’d eventually like to run my own day-care center,” he said, wondering if she’d believe it.
“What sort of experience with child care do you have?”
“I raised my younger siblings from the age of fifteen. My father was a police officer who died in the line of duty, and my mother had to go back to work. I had three younger siblings, ages two through eleven. I was their full-time caregiver until my mother remarried shortly after I turned eighteen. At that time, I joined the Marine Corps.”
“That’s your most recent child-care experience?”
“After college, I worked a couple of years as a nanny for a family in Kentucky.” He slid his résumé across the table to her. “Their contact information is on my résumé.”
She set Katie on the floor and picked up the paper. After a few minutes silently reading what was written there, she put the paper down and looked up at him, her gray eyes narrowed. “Assuming your references check out, how quickly can you start work?”
“As soon as you hire me.”
“What about the family you were working for? You don’t need to give them any notice?”
“No. Mrs.
