Nanny Next Door Read Free

to pay the ticket and be done with it.
    “You have insurance?” he asked.
    “Of course.” Did he think she was irresponsible?
    He shrugged and pulled out a cell phone. “You never know.”
    Here it comes, she thought. He was going to call in his sheriff buddies. She couldn’t begin to imagine the rumors this would start. Maybe they would give her a Breathalyzer test and make her recite the alphabet backward, every third letter, just for fun.
    He punched a few buttons, frowned, then banged the cell against the heel of his palm, mumbling a curse. “Phone’s dead.” He stuffed it back in his pocket. “Could I use yours?”
    She hesitated. Wouldn’t that be like bringing a gun to her own execution?
    “Come on,” he coaxed, giving her a lazy smile that revealed a neat row of white teeth. “It’s the least you can do.”
    “Umm…”
    “If you’re worried about your safety, I’m harmless,” he assured her. “I’m a cop.”
    Hence the cop car. If she told him no, would she look like she had something to hide? It’s not as if there were no other phones in town. In fact, she was surprised he didn’t just call it in on the car radio.
    But maybe if she cooperated he would go easy on her. “Sure, you can use my phone.”
    “I’ll need your insurance information, too.”
    “It’s inside.”
    He gestured to her house. “After you.”
    She walked up the driveway, acutely aware of him behind her. She could only hope her butt didn’t look as huge as it felt. As if he would even be looking at it. When they approached the side door he reached around her to open it. At least he had decent manners.
    “Nice place,” he said as they stepped through the door.
    Not nearly as nice as the family estate she’d lived in with Jeff, but appearances had never mattered much to her. A modest three-bedroom, two-bath Cape Cod, this house suited her and Lacey just fine. And though it was older, like the house she’d grown up in back in Michigan, it had character, not to mention almost half an acre of land. And the best part was that it was all hers.
    “The phone is on the counter,” she said, and as Deputy Valenzia brushed past, his bare arm grazed hers, making her breath catch. The sheer energy of his presence seemed to somehow shrink the room to the size of a closet. He could have been standing fifty feet away and he would still have been too close.
    With sudden alarm she wondered if maybe he wasn’t as harmless as he seemed? What if he did work for Jeff and, now that he had her alone, planned to harass her? Or something worse. Who would people believe? A respected officer of the law, or the local lush?
    “Proof of insurance?” he asked.
    She grabbed her purse and dug through her wallet for her insurance card, aware that her hands were trembling again. She held it out to him, clutching the purse to her chest like a shield. He just stared at her for a moment and she could swear she saw that hint of amusement again in the slight lift of his brow. Did he think this was funny?
    “Everything okay?” he asked.
    “Of course.”
    “You look a little…tense.”
    In her situation, so would he. “I’m fine.”
    He shrugged, then reached up and took the card from her, his fingers brushing hers. She jerked her hand back, as though she’d touched a hot oven.
    He gave her a look that said he might be questioning her mental stability. “Thanks, I’ll just be a minute.”
    He dialed and leaned himself against the edge of her kitchen counter, crossing long muscular legs at the ankles. His jeans were tattered to the point of indecency and his T-shirt, in addition to having had both sleeves torn off, was faded black and emblazoned with the state seal.
    And he was big. At least six-one, maybe even taller, and at five-three, she felt like a midget.
    Sydney stayed close to the door—just in case she had to make a run for it—clutching her purse to her chest. Maybe she was overreacting. Absolutely nothing in his stance suggested he