Falling for the Nanny Read Free Page A

by history while feeling vitally involved in the future. Coming back to Southern California was liketouring a past that belonged to someone else. Of course, he’d visited his parents on occasion, and had helped arrange his father’s funeral two years ago, but the trips had been tightly scheduled affairs. He’d deliberately skipped his ten-year high school reunion.
    In the weeks since his return, Alec hadn’t had much of a chance to slow down and breathe the salt air. He was almost glad events had conspired to give him an afternoon alone with his daughter—not that he would have wished Darlene an injury.
    Climbing on the monkey bars. She’d certainly changed since his own childhood days.
    Ahead, he spotted a threesome emerging from the parking garage. Darlene Denny was limping as she leaned on the taller, thinner nanny. Then a little girl skipped into view from behind them, her light-brown hair woven into a thick braid like Tatum’s.
    â€œDaddy! Daddy!” She pelted down the walkway, straight into Alec’s arms. He whirled her around, relishing the solid feel of her little body and the delicious way her face burrowed into his neck.
    â€œHey, pumpkin. Kind of rough on your grandma today, huh?” he teased.
    â€œShe hurt her ankle.” Fiona clung to him.
    He carried her to meet his mother and the nanny. “Mom, you don’t need to walk. You could have gotten out right in front of the building.”
    â€œI offered to let her off,” Tatum told him.
    â€œNonsense.” Darlene grimaced. “It’s only a bruise.”
    â€œTatum, thanks for handling this.” Alec couldn’t help noticing a hint of strain on the nanny’s face. She’d done him and Fiona a huge favor by relocating, leaving behind friends and family, and now she was going way beyond her job description.
    Although Tatum got regular time off—when Alec happened to be tied up on an evening or weekend, his mother handled babysitting duties—the housekeeper he shared with Darlene had been ill a lot lately. Often one of her nieces filled in, but when they weren’t available, Tatum grabbed a vacuum and set to work, despite Alec’s urging that she leave the chores to him.
    â€œI’m glad you can spend a few hours with Fiona. She’s been restless today.” The young woman guided Darlene toward the automatic door. “I guess we’ll see you when we see you.”
    â€œI’ll have dinner ready.” He shifted his grip on Fiona, who still hung on him. “You okay to walk, cutie, or are you crippled like Grandma?”
    His mother laughed, and Fiona wiggled to the ground so fast he nearly lost his balance. “Let’s go, Daddy. Can we buy ice cream?”
    â€œThe low-sugar kind,” Tatum warned.
    â€œGot it.”
    His mother and the nanny disappeared into the building. Holding tight to his little girl’s hand, Alec walked her to his reserved space on the lower floor of the garage. There, he strapped her into the booster seat in the back.
    Grocery shopping with a child, he reflected as he put the engine in gear, wasn’t a simple toss-it-in-the-cart-and-check-out procedure. When he was in a hurry, it could be frustrating.
    Today, though, shopping with Fiona felt like an adventure. He looked forward to it.

Chapter Two
    To lure upscale shoppers, the recently remodeled Suncrest Supermarket greeted customers with a vibrant array of cut flowers and mounded displays of fresh peaches, tomatoes, cherries and watermelons. The meandering pathway between bins, no doubt intended to encourage a leisurely pace, merely annoyed Patty.
    If she had her way, stores would put their bathrooms right in front, possibly in large kiosks by the check stands. And they wouldn’t clutter the aisles with cardboard displays of specialty items. Who needed a slicer-dicer-ricer anyway?
    Ahead, she gauged that she could just squeeze between a couple of older women