of her heart. Or maybe it was her frame of mind that was coloring the landscape in dreary shades of gray. As if that wasn’t enough, she exited her subcompact rental car to find her nostrils angrily assaulted by a strange, pungent odor—no doubt the scent of cows or horses or other livestock.
Did it smell like this all the time? She hoped it was just the direction of the wind adding to the eye-watering stench in the air, because for better or for worse, Serendipity, Texas, was where she’d be living for the next couple of months. As far away from the east coast—and her ex-boyfriend—as she could get. Hidden from the world in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.
And way, way out of her comfort zone.
But it wasn’t as if she could turn around and go back home. There was no home to go back to. Trying not to breathe too deeply, she clenched her fists and fought for control as her feelings once again vacillated between devastation and anger. At any given moment since she’d boarded the plane for Texas, she had struggled with one of those emotions, sometimes both at the same time.
Her eyes widened as a large, square-headed and very intimidating dog wandered up and situated himself on the wood-planked porch steps to the house where her new employer, Drew Spencer, presumably waited.
Peachy. Another obstacle. Just what she needed… .
Stephanie was a nanny. She’d expected to be greeted by children, not canines. She had little experience with animals and had never even owned a pet.
The dog shook his head and licked his chops. He appeared to be welcoming her, though she couldn’t be certain. For all she knew he was putting her on the menu.
“Hello there, big guy,” Stephanie crooned, speaking in the same soft, gentle tone of voice she used to calm small children. She prayed it would work. “Nice puppy.”
The dog’s ears pricked. His mouth curved up naturally, as if he was smiling at her, and he wagged his tail with unreserved enthusiasm. Was that a good sign?
“Don’t worry. He’s harmless.” Warm laughter emanated from behind the screen door, startling her.
If she wasn’t a twenty-three-year-old woman in perfect health, she probably would have thought she was experiencing a heart attack. Every nerve ending in her body crackled with an unexpected jolt of electricity. She hadn’t realized someone was watching her, and her face flamed in embarrassment.
A man who quickly introduced himself as Drew Spencer opened the screen and stepped out onto the porch. “Sorry about that. The four-legged Welcome Wagon that greeted you is Quincy, the over-enthusiastic pit bull. I should have put him in the house.”
“He’s very…friendly.” Stephanie straightened her shoulders and curled her lips into what she hoped was an inviting smile.
“Very,” Drew agreed, chuckling. “He may look like a tough old watchdog, but Quincy is as harmless as they come. If you were a robber he’d invite you into the house and show you where the silver was.”
“I’m more interested in your gold,” she teased as her gaze locked with Drew’s intelligent but darkly shadowed green eyes.
Her breath caught. It was as if the scene had suddenly gone from black-and-white to a rainbow of color. To put it bluntly, the guy was one tall drink of water.
Which is to say, he was nothing like she’d imagined him to be.
In the emails they’d exchanged, Drew had seemed staid, rigid and academic—at least on paper. Even the times they’d spoken on the telephone, she’d thought his voice was dull and lackluster, with little emotion or variation in his tone. Somehow she’d imagined he looked the way he sounded.
The man standing in front of her, however, wasn’t anything like her mental picture.
Uh-uh. Not even close.
He was wearing a pair of worn but polished brown cowboy boots, crisp blue jeans, a navy button-down dress shirt and a loosely knotted burgundy-colored necktie. He had strong-boned, even facial features, and thick brown hair lightly brushed his forehead. He looked as if he’d be as comfortable on a horse as he was in the classroom. All that was missing was the cowboy hat, and Stephanie had a good notion that he owned one.
There were no dark-rimmed, pop-bottle-thick glasses. No nerdy slouch or nutty-professor grin. Just a long, lean and fantastic-looking elementary school teacher in the guise of a cowboy.
She shook herself mentally, thoroughly appalled at where her thoughts had gone. What difference did it make whether her employer was a gorgeous cowboy or a geeky academic? She was here solely to watch over his children, not to gawk at him, and she knew how important first impressions were.
Specifically, his first impression of her.
She’d intended to appear poised and confident when she met Drew face-to-face for the first time. Not that she generally felt composed or self-assured—but she was good at faking it.
Widening her smile, she extended her hand. For a moment, Drew just stared at it as if he didn’t know how to finish the gesture. The left corner of his mouth curved up, then down and then into a tight, straight line that matched the unyielding right side of his lips.
Stephanie nearly pulled back her arm. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Had she botched things already?
Waves of relief washed over her when he finally reached out to shake her hand. His firm, steady grip reassured her, as did the way his mouth finally relaxed, his lips bowing upward in what could almost be considered a smile.
A tow-headed young boy peeked around Drew’s leg and sized Stephanie up with a thoughtful stare. She paused, observing the child and allowing him a moment to adjust to her presence before she introduced herself to him. Presumably he was one of her two future charges, and he was a real cutie-pie, with large blue eyes and trim white-blond hair combed over to one side like a miniature Cary Grant.
Stephanie immediately relaxed. Her senses had been jarred by both the dog and the man, but kids she could handle. She was comfortable with the little ones.
She was one of the lucky ones who’d found out early what she wanted to do with her life—care for children, whether it was as a babysitter for her younger foster brothers and sisters, in her first official job as a superintendent at a bounce house or as a nanny for a high-society family. As long as there were children, she was happy.
Eventually she wanted to teach in a preschool and had already gotten her degree in early childhood education, but she had not yet pursued her teacher’s certification. For now, she was content being a nanny.
“Who are you?” the three-year-old asked bluntly.
Drew coughed into his hand but she could see he was covering a smile. His eyes lightened for a moment, sparkling with barely concealed laughter. She arched an eyebrow at him, amused at how valiantly he tried to keep a straight face at the nerve of his precocious offspring.
She struggled not to giggle, herself. It was funny. She was glad Drew hadn’t corrected the boy on her behalf, as many of her foster parents over the years would have done when their children had misspoken. The child’s question was direct, but it was equally as innocent.
Leave it to a three-year-old to get right to the point of the matter.
