“It’s me. Audra Greene. Mary’s daughter.”
“Oh, my goodness! Audra!” His gaze rippled from her blond hair, down her simple coat. “Wow. Look at you. All grown-up.”
“Yep.” She laughed, but having Dominic notice her as a woman made her tummy flip-flop. She’d had a monster crush on him most of her childhood. “Time didn’t stop just because my mother wished it would.”
Dominic chuckled, juggling the baby, who appeared to be about six months old. Wisps of yellow hair peeked out from the pale blue hood of a one-piece snowsuit. Curious blue eyes studied Audra.
“Whoever decided babies’ winter wear should be made of slippery material needs to be shot.” He jostled the baby again. “I’ll never get used to holding him!”
Audra didn’t know Dominic had gotten married, let alone that he’d had a child, but her mother didn’t talk about the family she worked for. That was one of the reasons the Manellis loved and trusted her…and had promoted her over the years from cook all the way to household manager.
“Your baby looks about six months old. If you’re not accustomed to holding him by now, you’re in trouble.”
“He’s not mine.” He sucked in a breath. “Well, he is now. Joshua is my brother Peter’s son.”
Audra nearly groaned at her stupidity. It had been all over the papers three months ago when Dominic’s brother, Peter, and his wife had been killed when their private plane went down in a wooded area in New York. “Oh, Dominic. I’m so sorry.”
“It’s all right.”
“No, it’s not. I should have realized this was Peter’s son.” To shift the conversation from the painful topic, Audra hoisted the diaper bag over her shoulder and opened her arms to the baby. “Let me take him while you get the rest of his things out of your car.”
Dominic unexpectedly laughed. “I’d let you take him, but I can’t get the rest of his things out of the car. I don’t even know how they installed the car seat. Forget about figuring out how to take it out. And I have to take it out. I’ll be using the SUV for him from now on. I should have thought that through before taking this car to pick him up.”
“You want the car seat out?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll get it.” With a smile, she handed him Joshua’s bottle and slid the diaper bag up his arm onto his shoulder. “I have four nieces and nephews. If I want to take them for ice cream I have to be able to get all their seats out of my sisters’ cars and into mine.”
“Wouldn’t it be simpler just to take your sister’s car?”
She frowned. “I have two sisters. I can’t drive two cars at once. I have to take the seats out of one of them.”
He chuckled again. “I forgot what a stickler for detail you are.”
She made a face at him, then ducked into the back seat of his Mercedes, inspecting for the belts and clasps that secured the seat. “After all the fun we had slipping out of your family’s employee Christmas parties, how could you forget me?”
“I didn’t forget you. I said I forgot what a stickler for detail you are. And, if I remember correctly, we didn’t slip out of my family’s Christmas parties. I slipped out. You always found me and squealed on me.”
“I was twelve. To me that was fun.”
“Right.”
“Bet you were glad when I stopped coming with my mom.”
“About the time you stopped coming I stopped slipping out.” He laughed. “It seems that as I got older, the parties got less boring.”
Bent inside the car, Audra called, “Really?”
***
Dominic took a pace back. She probably didn’t realize she was presenting a very enticing view of her backside, and as a gentleman appreciative of the help she was giving him, Dominic diverted his attention.
“Yes. When I became the administrator of the Manelli College Scholarship, as my first full-fledged family responsibility, I thought it was best to begin getting to know the people in line for the money so I could choose the right recipient.”
“I never did thank you.”
Her voice drew his gaze back to his car where she busily worked on freeing the baby seat. This time he noticed the long length of leg exposed beneath her coat. She certainly wasn’t twelve anymore. And from the way she didn’t hesitate to help him, she’d become a lot like her generous, happy mother. He couldn’t believe he’d thought her annoying all those years ago when she’d always found his Christmas party hiding place and gone running to his dad.
“Why would you want to thank me?”
“For the scholarship.”
“You earned it.”
She pulled out of the car, then reached in and retrieved the car seat. “All set.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She motioned to the kitchen door. “I’ll just follow you in. We’ll give the car seat to my mom and have her assign someone to put it in your SUV.”
Dominic said, “Great.” He started toward the door, but the diaper bag strap slipped off his shoulder and landed with a thump on his forearm. That caused the bottle to fall. The already-wet baby blanket billowed beside the bottle and even the baby looked precarious.
“Damn it.”
Joshua began to cry and Audra grimaced. Obviously feeling sorry for him, she reached for the little blue bundle of joy. “I’ll take the baby. You put the bottle in that side compartment on the diaper bag. Then put the diaper bag in the car seat and the wet blanket behind the diaper bag and then carry the car seat.”
Dominic handed Joshua to her. “I swear I will learn how to do this stuff.”
Baby on her arm, she headed for the door again. “Of course you will. All new parents need a little time.”
Reminded of his brother and sister-in-law and how silly they’d been, fussing over Joshua in the first days after his birth, Dominic sucked in a breath to control a burst of sadness, as he shoved the bottle into the diaper bag.
“Yeah. Well, if there’s one thing I don’t have, it’s time. When Marsha’s mother discovered she had cancer and the doctors recommended she begin chemotherapy immediately, I had to take Joshua. Now. Today. I don’t have a nanny, so I’ll be walking the floor with him tonight. Without a clue of what I’m doing.”
Almost at the door, she glanced over her shoulder at Dominic. Her pretty eyes filled with concern that she quickly masked with a big smile before she said, “You’ll do great.”
Joshua dropped his rattle and without a second’s hesitation, she dipped, scooped it up and tucked it in her coat pocket—not
