Texas #4_Texas Christmas Read Free Page B

big part of his and Jack’s life. He was a friend and someone they respected. This nanny had his endorsement, and Riley held out high hopes.
    The car that pulled up outside was a late-model sedan, and the compact woman that climbed outside was a surprise. Riley didn’t know what he’d been expecting, but she didn’t fit the picture he had in his head of a nanny. She waited next to her car for a moment, then turned a full three-sixty, slowly examining the land and the house. Riley wondered what she saw. They’d fixed the road in so that would have been smooth, and the fencing and fields were immaculate, all Jack’s department, of course. The house was half finished with different sheets of tarpaulin and scaffolding at various spots around its perimeter, but workers were there every day attempting to get everything finished on schedule.
    He saw her nod, then move to climb the steps to the main front door. No one used that door, if anything it was the kitchen that everyone walked into.
    “She’s here,” Jack said quietly from the hall.
    Riley fought down the nerves and excitement that churned inside him.
    “Best let her in,” he said.
    Jack opened the front door, and Riley stopped himself from leaving the good room and immediately going into the hallway and demanding answers to a whole load of questions.
    “Jack Campbell-Hayes,” he heard Jack introduce himself.
    “Carol Griffin,” the wannabe-nanny answered.
    “Welcome, come in.” Riley heard footsteps, and then Jack and the woman entered the good room. Riley immediately extended his hand.
    “Riley Campbell-Hayes,” he said.
    “Carol Griffin,” Carol replied. While most people were shorter than Riley, she couldn’t be more than five four, and both he and Jack dwarfed her. She had curly red hair that fell to her shoulders, freckles across her nose, and sparkling green eyes. Her handshake was firm, and she looked Riley directly in the eyes. He liked that.
    “Would you like coffee? Tea? Water?” Jack asked.
    “Water, please,” she said with a smile. Jack left to get the drink, which meant Riley was alone with her. His polite side searched for something to say that wasn’t anything to do with nannying .
    “So how do you know Marcus?” He finally decided that was a neutral question.
    “He didn’t tell you?”
    “He hasn’t told us a lot,” Riley admitted. “Just enough to have us speak to you.”
    “I was his nanny for a short while, when he was tiny. I moved away with my husband to start my own family, and we kept in touch.”
    “Here you go,” Jack passed her the water and a mug of coffee to Riley.
    “Carol was just explaining how she used to be Marcus’s nanny.”
    “Really?” Jack sounded surprised. “You don’t look old enough to have been Marcus’s nanny.” Riley recalled Marcus was twenty-nine, so he tended to agree with Jack’s statement. Carol looked to only be about forty.
    “Thank you, Mr Campbell-Hayes,” she began.
    “Jack,” Jack interrupted.
    “Jack.” She inclined her head. “I’m fifty-five, and I was with Marcus and his twin Marcie from when they were born up until they turned five. I am returning to nannying after losing my husband three years ago and having both my children away at college.”
    She said the words calmly as if there was nothing that needed questioning, but empathy had Riley having to say something.
    “I’m sorry for your loss,” he said gently.
    She smiled. “Thank you…”
    “Riley, call me Riley.”
    “Thank you, I will. So Marcus hasn’t told me much either, but he encouraged me to speak to you.”
    Riley didn’t hesitate. There was no point in wasting time with polite talk. If he laid everything out on the table to start then there would be absolutely no miscommunication or issues later down the road.
    He took a moment to sort the words, but then they all came tumbling out. “We’re looking for someone to live in as a nanny to our twins and to a boy, five, that we are in the