Falling for the Nanny (14 page)

“Leo admired you for refusing to live with Tony while he was still going through the divorce,” Patty recalled.

“What kind of example would that have set for Brady if I'd moved in with a married man?” Kate moved around the chair, snipping carefully. “When Tony offered to be my birthing partner, I never imagined we'd fall in love. But sometimes wonderful things happen.”

“Yeah, occasionally.” Patty wasn't optimistic about her own chances in the romance department, but no sense burdening Kate with that. “So did you always plan to be a mom?”

“Always.”

“Guess a person has to be born with that,” she mused.

“You'd be a good mother, Patty.” Kate kept her gaze on the little girl, checking the length of her newly cut bangs.

“I doubt it.”

“You don't like kids?” Fiona asked in dismay.

Patty had forgotten the child was drinking in every word. “I like
you.
But I'm not good at mommy stuff. Never even played with dolls, unless you count action figures.”

“You thought of the teddy-bear clinic!” her charge retorted.

“Your grandmother and Rosita are organizing it, not me,” Patty pointed out.

“You're a good nanny.” The girl seemed determined to win this argument.

“I'm your bodyguard. I'm here to protect you.”

The little girl's mouth trembled. “That's all?”

Wasn't that enough? Patty supposed not. “Hey, you're more than a job to me. You're my friend.” An unfamiliar impulse seized her, to give Fiona a reassuring hug. Not practical, though, what with the scissors whipping about.

“Why don't you want to be a mommy?” the girl persisted.

“For starters, I don't cook, except for spaghetti and omelets.” Patty wished Fiona would stop looking so crushed. “Whenever I try to do girlie stuff, I screw it up. Once I read in a magazine that giving your hair a vinegar rinse made it shine. I didn't realize you had to wash it out, and went around all day smelling like a salad.”

A chuckle broke the tension. “Did anybody try to eat you?”

“Luckily, no.”

Kate gave the bangs one last snip and held up a mirror. The little girl turned this way and that to study the new style. “It's so short.”

“It's adorable, you little pixie,” Patty said. “I can't wait to get mine.”

Fiona's smile could have lit up the universe. When Patty lifted her off the chair, the girl clung to her for a moment before alighting on the ground.

Holding her felt wonderful.

How unfair that the child had a lousy mother, and now she'd lost Tatum, too, Patty reflected as she removed the cushions and sat down. Alec was a great dad, but Fi needed a mommy-type person, too. Someone to love her. Someone to help her grow up and learn to dance and put on makeup and
knock boys down if they got rough, and shoot clay pigeons when they left.

In the playpen, baby Tara waved a rattle and declared, “Ba ba ba.”

Fiona plopped down on the ground, nose to nose with the infant. “I like babies. Is it okay if I want to be a mommy someday?”

“Absolutely.”
It's not as if you have to reshape yourself in my image
, Patty thought. But how touching that the little girl valued her opinion.

Kate set to combing Patty's hair, and kept up a running stream of commentary to Fiona about the infant's development. As she listened, Patty sneaked glances at the two young ones. How would it feel to have tykes like these who depended on her, loved her, belonged to her? Plus a husband who kept the bed warm and shared the events of the day with her. A guy like Alec.

She'd enjoyed bustling around him at breakfast, inhaling his aftershave lotion, noting the sophisticated weave of his jacket. Touchable. Sexy. Too bad they belonged in different worlds. Except so had Kate and Tony, until they'd fallen in love.

Now stop that.
Patty had better not be turning into one of those weak women Grandpa had deplored. Moping around, fantasizing, being ruled by emotions instead of good judgment and common sense.

“What do you think?”

Kate's question roused Patty from her reflections. To her amazement, she discovered that she'd daydreamed right through her haircut.

The hand mirror revealed a couple of startling facts. For one thing, she had a forehead, visible now that her thick bangs had been trimmed to wisps. For another, she had ears. Kind of cool to see them standing there proudly, not peeking shyly
through the hair. She might even hang earrings off them once in a while. “Great job.”

“We're twins.” Fi watched her hopefully.

Patty removed the protective cape and did what she'd been longing to do: she grabbed the little girl, whirled her around and blew raspberries against her neck, making funny noises and raising delighted giggles. “We sure are! You're such a sweetheart.” Now, where had that endearment come from? “Thank you, Kate.”

“My pleasure.” Their hostess lifted her baby from the pen. “I'll clean later. Right now I've got to collect Brady and take him to the hospital.”

“Brady's sick?” Fiona asked worriedly.

“Oh, no, we're going to visit my sister Mary Beth. She just had a baby. It's her third child but first girl. We're all thrilled.”

“Congrats.” Patty wished her brother or sister would get married and produce a kid. The whole family was a real no-show in that regard. So far, anyway. “Oh, hey, Fi, aren't you going to take your braid home with you? Hang it on the wall or something?”

“Yeah!”

Patty rummaged in her purse and found a plastic bag. She always carried a few for evidence or anything else useful she might stumble across.

“And you said you aren't domestic.” Kate escorted them through the house again. “I completely forgot about giving her the braid.”

“That isn't domestic. It just struck me as a good idea.” She held up a hand to stop their hostess from exiting first. No matter how safe the neighborhood appeared, Patty didn't believe in taking chances.

She moved to the front window to survey the street. All
appeared quiet, but Patty went out first. Nothing moved, and after a quick check around, she gave the all clear.

“Can I have ice cream for lunch?” Fiona asked as they said goodbye and went to the car.

“Not until you've eaten something healthy. How about a pickle-and-egg sandwich?”

“Ooh, yuck!”

Patty agreed. “I just made that up to be silly. How about a bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwich?” She'd seen the makings in the fridge.

“Hurray! Those are scrummy.”

Patty wasn't sure how to fix a BLT, but she could find instructions on the internet. This domesticity business wasn't so hard, after all.

On Saturday morning, Alec helped his mother and Rosita festoon the clubhouse with hospital-themed decorations, including an eye chart and tables with signs such as Admissions, Diagnosis and Blood Pressure. Patty and Fiona sat on chairs blowing up balloons, a number of which escaped and scooted through the air with raucous noises that sent his daughter into fits of giggles.

He'd been startled to see the pair sporting look-alike haircuts last night when he'd arrived home for dinner. He couldn't stop peering from one to the other, admiring how much more freely Fiona moved her head without the restraining braid, and how artfully the style framed Patty's face, emphasizing her large gray eyes and sensual mouth.

Despite the similar cuts, there wasn't much physical resemblance between his fierce, brown-haired daughter and the confident blonde woman. But they seemed closer, making little jokes and teasing each other. Obviously, they'd had fun that day.

Most importantly, Fiona was safe. And that was what he and Patty both needed to focus on, today in particular. Although they still didn't know exactly when Sabrina would arrive, they couldn't legally stop her from paying a visit, supervised by Alec, of course. As for snatching their daughter,
she hadn't repeated the threat, which hadn't been specific enough for the police to take action.

No matter how powerfully old embers sizzled, he should never have distracted Patty from her mission by bringing up the past, Alec reflected as he set his wrapped gifts on a table. Fiona's well-being was the only thing that mattered.

Mike Aaron arrived at 10:00 a.m., an hour before the party's scheduled start, and closed off the clubhouse's side door. “From now on, I monitor everyone who enters.” The sandy-haired giant wielded his clipboard as if prepared to deflect bullets with it. “Any word from the ex?”

“Nada.” Alec gave a start as his phone played the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

“Might be her now.”

“No, it's my boss.” Wondering why Owen Tartikoff would be calling on a Saturday, Alec moved to a quiet corner.

“Alec. You at the lab?” As usual, the world-renowned fertility specialist skipped ordinary courtesies.

“Not this morning.” Whatever question Owen had, Alec hoped answering it wouldn't require a trip to the office.

“Got a request from a former colleague, Dr. Laura Giovanni. She's a fertility specialist in Buenos Aires who's presenting a paper at the ISERF meeting next fall.” That would be the annual conference of the International Society of Embryology and Reproductive Fertility, to be held in L.A. in October. Owen was scheduled to be the keynote speaker. “A member of her clinic's board of directors is visiting your area today and wants to see the facilities. I said you'd be happy to show him around.”

Alec didn't know which to address first, an uneasy feeling about this director or the fact that he wasn't available to play tour guide. He decided on the latter. “Any chance he's staying over the weekend? I'm tied up today on personal business.”

“The man owns a biotech company. Laura says he may be
interested in sponsoring research. What exactly is important enough for you to blow him off?” Owen spoke with the all-too-familiar sardonic tone that he splashed like acid over nurses and residents.

But Alec was neither of those. “It's my daughter's birthday party.” He didn't bother to say how much this meant to Fiona, since that wouldn't help his case. Owen's interest in children dwindled to zero once they passed the embryo stage. “What's this fellow's name, anyway?”

Paper rustled in the background. “Edward something.”

“Eduardo Patron?”

“You've heard of him?” A rare note of surprise colored the question. Owen wasn't used to being caught off guard.

“Mr. Patron is expected to attend the birthday party, since he's engaged to my ex-wife.” Alec enjoyed being one step ahead of his boss for a change. “Did he request the tour with me specifically?”

“I have no idea. You think he's playing some kind of game?”

“It's possible.” Sabrina's threats and the rest of the messy situation were none of Owen's business.

The doctor made a harrumphing noise. “I don't believe Laura would be a party to any nonsense. We went to Harvard Med School together and she's a straight shooter. As far as I'm concerned, the request is legitimate.”

Alec stood his ground. “I'm sure he'll understand why I'm not available today. I'll be happy to take him around tomorrow. Even though it happens to be a Sunday.” He could wield a touch of testiness himself.

Across three thousand miles, he visualized Owen finger-combing his bristly dark auburn hair as he reviewed this declaration. As always, a decision came swiftly. “Since you'll be seeing Mr. Patron today, you can work out the details with him. I'll email Laura and let her know.”

“Great.”

Click.
No sign-off, but that was fine. When confronted in a reasonable fashion, Owen did occasionally back down. Alec believed his ability to get along with the notoriously abrasive man owed a lot to his refusal to be bullied.

Now, what kind of maneuver was Eduardo Patron trying to pull, and what did it mean for Fiona's safety? With the momentary sense of triumph fading, Alec went to fill in his security detail.

 

P
ATTY HAD GIVEN UP
her teddy bear when she was eight. Grandpa hadn't stated any objection to Mr. Pooh when she and Drew had moved to Safe Harbor, but she'd registered the disapproving lift of the eyebrow whenever he saw her hugging the raggedy toy. After a while, she'd consigned Mr. Pooh to a bottom drawer, and eventually donated him as a dart target at a junior high game night. It had seemed a brave end for the warrior bear she imagined him to be.

Displays of stuffed animals still had the power to halt her in her tracks wherever she ran across them. At Christmas, she loved buying an armful to donate to the Toys for Tots collection at the police station.

Being surrounded by the little figures was sheer bliss. Not to mention the sweet innocence of the children as they raced from station to station, thrusting out their bears and bunnies and cartoon figures to be measured, weighed, bandaged and stitched. It took all Patty's concentration to stay alert for danger as she stuck close to Fiona.

Around her, everyone seemed merry and relaxed. Alec had explained Mike's presence by telling the parents about his ex-wife's tendency to create scenes. Other than that, Mike had advised against issuing a warning because the threat was so vague.

“Aren't they darling?” cooed Bailey, wearing her nurse's
uniform as she stood at the eye chart. “Okay, what's this line?”

“A-B-C-D-E-F-G.” A small girl holding a large Mickey Mouse read off the letters in a squeaky voice.

“Perfect vision—twenty-twenty,” the nurse declared.

“Can he have a pair of glasses, anyway?” The child pointed to a display of toy glasses frames.

“You bet.” Bailey twisted a pair to fit over the big round ears. Neither Mickey nor his owner seemed to mind that they settled well above eye level.

“This is a great idea.” Hospital childbirth instructor Tina Torres beamed at Patty, who realized the girl must have been her daughter. “The kids are learning not to be afraid of doctors.”

“It's the best party I ever had,” announced Fiona, hugging Hoppity.

“It's the best party anybody ever had,” Patty corrected.

“Yeah!”

By twelve-thirty, all the stuffed animals had completed their physicals. Right on time, the pizza appeared. The half-dozen guests and their parents helped clear the tables for eating, while Bailey and Darlene served punch. Rosita had left before the guests arrived, tired from an early-morning shift spent baking and frosting enough cupcakes for a party twice this size.

Still no sign of Sabrina. “I'm sure she'll be here,” observed Alec, putting away his wallet after paying for the pizza. “Eduardo went to a lot of trouble to try to draw me away.” That was what they'd surmised to be the purpose of his request to tour the lab. “Maybe their flight was delayed.”

Not likely, in Patty's opinion, since May was generally a fair weather month all across the country. “Let's hope.”

She grabbed a slice of pizza and ate standing up, watching for trouble. Nothing materialized before the serving of the
brown and yellow cupcakes, one of which bristled with five candles. As Darlene lit them, Alec leaned over his daughter. “Make a wish, sweetheart, and don't—”

“I want Patty to be my mommy.”

“—tell anybody,” he finished wryly.

“Oh, that's just an old superstition,” Darlene said. “Blow 'em out, and more power to you.”

A quiver ran through Patty, pleasure mixed with longing and bittersweet regret that Fiona's wish had no chance of coming true. Once the immediate danger was past, she and Alec would go their separate ways. Twelve years ago, he'd known in his gut that they didn't belong together, and at some level, maybe she'd known it, too.

She certainly did now.

Fiona screwed up her face and blew so hard one of the candles fell over. The flame extinguished itself, so no harm was done.

“Yay!” the kids yelled, mostly because this meant they could now bite into their own cupcakes.

“If I'd known being around kids meant eating all this good stuff, I'd have done more babysitting,” Patty told Alec.

“Lemon or chocolate?” He held out a serving platter. “Don't tell me. Both.”

“Not on duty. Got to keep one hand free.” She started with chocolate.

After cupcakes and a lot of hand and face scrubbing with sterile wipes left over from the bear clinic, it was time to open gifts. Fiona took a seat surrounded by friends and a pile of packages.

Darlene handed her the gifts from the other children first. Gleefully, Fiona opened them to reveal games, DVDs, books, dolls and a fluffy bear. As she'd been instructed, she thanked each child and proclaimed the gifts just what she wanted.

“Don't ever say, ‘Oh, I already have that,' or ‘I don't like
that.' You wouldn't be happy if someone said that to you,” Patty had warned earlier. “Besides, you can always exchange things later.”

Fiona had finished tearing through the first batch of gifts when Mike signaled Alec. “They're here,” he stated in a neutral tone. “Coming through the gate.”

Through an expanse of glass, Patty spotted a model-thin woman and a tall, distinguished-looking man, both far too well dressed for a children's party. They stopped partway along the walk, and the man took something from a shoulder bag.

What was he doing? And why was he wielding a lighter?

A sharp series of
pop pop pops
sent Patty's heart slamming into her throat. “Everybody down!”

Adults and children hit the floor. Outside, Patty saw a flash of light. As arranged, Alec dialed 911, Mike drew his gun and took cover in the doorway, and she threw her body over Fiona's.

Whatever might happen, Patty was ready.