Marrying the Northbridge Nanny Read Free Page A

situations.”
    “Playing with other kids is important, too—good social skills are something she’ll need.”
    “I was thinking more along the lines of friends and playmates than social skills ,” Logan McKendrick said, and again Meg knew that something about her expertise actually seemed to rub him the wrong way.
    Then he proved it and said, “I just want to be clear—Tia is a normal three-year-old kid who needs someone to look after her when I can’t. She doesn’t need a shrink.”
    “Oh, no, I understand that you aren’t hiring me as a psychologist and that’s actually why I want the job, so you don’t have to worry about me being anything but her nanny.”
    He studied her with those pale blue eyes for a whileas if he was deciding if he could believe that. But after a moment he said, “I trust Hadley’s judgment. If you want the job, it’s yours. As long as you keep in mind that we’re not fussy around here. This isn’t a hospital or a classroom—it’s home.”
    “Honestly, that’s just what I want.”
    He took another long look at her, possibly deciding if he believed that, too. But then he said, “Okay, how about if you move in sometime tomorrow—”
    “I have a wedding shower for my sister, Kate, tomorrow. Can I come in the evening, when it’s over?”
    “Sure. Anytime is fine. Then you can start on Monday.”
    “Actually, if I get here before Tia goes to bed tomorrow night maybe I can go through the bedtime routine with you so I know what that is?”
    “That’s fine, too. We do have a bedtime routine,” he added as if he felt the need to convince her that not everything was unstructured, in case she was judging him.
    “Do you want to see the apartment?” Hadley offered.
    “I would but I have to go with Kate to do some wedding things. I’m sure it’ll be fine,” she said, making an attempt to sound more laid-back because she thought there was some judgment being passed by him, too. More laid-back than she actually was.
    But she honestly didn’t have more time to spend at this, so she said, “In fact, unless you have anything else you want to talk about, I should get going.”
    “No, feel free,” Logan said.
    “Harry piddled,” Tia announced to the room in general then.
    Hadley jumped up to scold the puppy and put himoutside, saying as she did, “I’ll clean this, Logan, if you want to walk Meg out.”
    As Logan and Meg both got to their feet and headed for the front door, Logan said, “The puppies were Hadley’s moving-here present to Tia so she’s working the hardest to house-train them—it gets me out of a lot.”
    Meg laughed but she didn’t know what to say. Sticking with the dog theme, she said, “Tia said Max is a doodle and Harry is a re-doodle, but I didn’t know what she meant.”
    “Max is half poodle, half Labrador—a Labra-Doodle. Harry is half poodle, half golden retriever. He’s a Golden-Doodle, but when we got them I made a joke about Max being a doodle and Harry being a re-doodle. Tia took it seriously.”
    That made Meg laugh, too.
    Logan unlatched and opened the screen door then, holding it for her as she went out and going as far as the porch himself.
    But for some reason, once she’d gone down the porch steps, Meg felt the need to pause, glance back, and reassure him. “I really do just want to be the nanny this summer.”
    He nodded. “I hope so,” he said with what sounded like some skepticism.
    She knew that there was nothing she could do from there but prove to him that she meant what she said, so she merely added, “I’ll see you all tomorrow night.”
    “We’ll be here.”
    They exchanged goodbyes and Meg went the rest of the way to her car, thinking that he didn’t need to feelskeptical. Putting herself back in touch with the basics of happy, healthy kids—that’s what she’d set out to do for the summer and that was all she intended to do.
    As she started her car and put it into gear she realized that Logan McKendrick was