The Nanny and the CEO Read Free Page B

house with his son, still disbelieving this day had come and he was leaving the whole dreadful past behind. It was like tearing off a straitjacket.
    When Paul saw him, he got out of the limo. Together they put Jamie in his new car seat. Nick could have done it without Paul’s help, but he was grateful for it because it would probably have taken Nick half a dozen tries to get the confounded thing right.
    The older man studied his tiny features for a minute. “I see a lot of you in him, Nick. He’s a fine-looking boy.”
    â€œBlame that on his mother.”
    Paul patted his shoulder. “I’ll drive carefully.”
    â€œI’m not worried.”
    He put the diaper bag on the opposite seat, then satnext to Jamie and fastened his own seat belt. As they started down the driveway, he looked around but only saw the closed front door of Hirst Hollow. It symbolized a closed life because both sets of parents had been emotionally unavailable.
    You should have done this sooner, Wainwright.
    But it was too late for more regrets. He needed to let the past go and concentrate on Jamie. When he looked down, he caught the baby staring at him.
    Nick smiled and put out his hand so he’d grab it. His little fingers took hold with surprising strength. No tears yet. They hadn’t been gone long enough for Jamie to miss the familiar faces of his nurse and grandparents.
    He fought down the anger generated by his own lack of action up to now. Mired in guilt, he’d been slow to pull himself out of a depression that had its inception long before Erica’s death. His estrangement from her had been one thing, but to realize his son barely knew him twisted his gut.
    A chance remark by a client last week had wakened him out of his morose stupor. “With your wife gone, that new baby of yours must be a real joy to you. There’s nothing like a child to make the pain go away.” The comment made him realize he could be a good father.
    Once his client had left the office, Nick had got on the phone to his attorney and let him know he planned to bring Jamie home where he belonged. After setting things in motion, he’d called in Leah to help him start looking for a nanny.
    Nick studied the little scrap of humanity strapped in the infant seat next to him. Jamie was his son. Flesh of his flesh. It pained him he’d waited this long to go get him. Emotion grabbed him by the throat.
    â€œI know this is a brand-new experience for you, sport. It is for me, too. You have no idea. I’m more the baby than you are right now and frankly, I’m terrified. You’re going to help me out, aren’t you?”
    For answer, Jamie gave him a big yawn. A laugh escaped Nick’s throat. He’d never been responsible for anyone before. Except that wasn’t exactly true. When he’d taken on a wife, he’d promised to love her in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, until death do us part.
    He sucked in his breath. He’d only done the for-richer part right. But now that he had Jamie, he realized he’d been given a second chance and planned to do all of it right.
    Nick had come along late in life, his parents’ only child. No siblings to play with. They hadn’t allowed him a pet because both his parents didn’t want to deal with one. It was too hard, they said, when they went on vacation.
    He had two cousins, Hannah and Greg, the children of his father’s oldest brother. They rarely played together. It wasn’t until after he and Greg were taken into the firm that he got to know him better. In Nick’s loneliness growing up, he could see why he’d turned to books. Over time he’d found solace in his studies and work.
    Erica had been a socialite wife like her mother, like Nick’s. One eternal round of beautiful people enjoying their financially comfortable, beautiful lives. Not until Nick was part of the firm did his own father take an interest in him