Bringing Up Babies. SUSAN MEIER

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СКАЧАТЬ period,” Chas said as if he were doing her a supreme favor. “But these babies are very important to us,” he warned soberly. “If you don’t do an excellent job and I do mean excellent, you’re out. Do you understand me?”

      “Oh, I understand you very, very well, Mr. Brewster,” Lily said, giving Chas a pointed warning look of her own, before she turned to walk out of the den. “I’m going into town to get my things from Abby’s. Please have my room ready when I return,” she said, then left.

      “I guess she told you,” Grant said with a laugh after Lily was gone.

      “I should punch you for getting us into this mess,” Chas said, striding back to his chair behind the big desk.

      “Punch me? Punch me? You were about to let the only nanny to answer our ad walk out the door. We’ve had that ad in the paper for months, and not one person answered it until Lily.”

      “Someone will come along eventually.”

      “Oh, yeah, right,” Grant said and fell to the seat in front of Chas’s desk. “No one wants this job. Face it, Chas, you are in rural Pennsylvania now. This isn’t Philly. Nannies aren’t flocking here in droves.”

      “Still, that doesn’t mean we have to take the first person who comes along, either. Do you know you hired her before I had a chance to get references?”

      “So, we’ll get references when she returns.”

      “And what if we find out she’s wanted for a felony in Wisconsin? What do we do then?”

      “Then we let her go. That’s what trial periods are for.”

      Chas dropped to his chair in exasperation. “All this is so easy for you because you’re going to be out of town. What if she’s careless or persnickety? What if she can’t handle all three kids alone?”

      “She’s not going to be alone. It was never our plan to leave the nanny alone with the kids for long stretches of time. That’s why you’re setting up shop at the house, Counselor,” Grant reminded archly. “You volunteered to be the watcher and helper so that Evan would have the freedom to take over the mill.”

      “Yeah, and what are you supposed to be doing while I’m the watcher and helper?”

      “I’m supposed to be bringing my very successful construction company up from Savannah, remember?” Grant said, reaching out to lift Taylor from the play yard when she began to cry. He snuggled her against his neck, then sighed and said, “Come on, Chas, we need her. Period. End of story. At least until Evan gets back from his honeymoon. When Evan gets back we’ll hold another meeting, maybe regroup and change our plans, but for now it’s just you and me. And I have to go to Savannah.”

      “So, go. I’ll take care of the kids.”

      “I’m not leaving you with three babies and no helper. Besides, Lily looks very capable to me.”

      Chas gave him an incredulous stare. “Oh, yeah. She looks capable, all right.”

      “What? You think because she’s pretty she can’t take care of kids?”

      “No, I think that because she’s pretty she’s got bigger fish to fry than being nanny for the children of two bachelors in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Use your head, Grant, she’s probably going to New York and we’re a convenient stop along the way. A place where she can rest and earn some extra cash.”

      Having settled Taylor, Grant rose from his chair. “I don’t care if she is only temporary. She’s solving an immediate problem. As far as I’m concerned that’s good enough.”

      He turned to walk out the door, but Chas called him back. “Grant, one of these days you’re going to have to start thinking about the future.”

      Grant laughed. “Not as long as I have you around.”

      Lily got into her car and drove down the winding road that led into town, not even noticing the September breeze that rippled through the multicolored leaves of the dense forest around her. She couldn’t stop thinking about Chas Brewster and had to struggle not to close her eyes in frustration, wishing for the one millionth time in her life that she’d gone to college as her sister had advised. At the time she’d thought Mary Louise had only been trying to be a good guardian, pointing out all Lily’s options before Lily committed to helping her sister with her boys. Now she knew Mary Louise understood that pretty blondes didn’t always get the respect they deserved. At least if she had a degree, no one could argue her abilities.

      Lily sighed. But she hadn’t wanted a degree. She’d wanted babies. She’d wanted to marry Everett, settle down in a suburban home and be a mom. She’d wanted to car pool to Little League games and ballet recitals. She’d wanted to sew Halloween costumes and give out candy to children for trick or treat. She’d also wanted to be the respected confidante of a man who would be her best friend, her partner, her companion and her lover. She’d wanted to give advice, talk out difficulties, plan the futures of her children and enjoy every second of her life—good or bad. Because she had genuinely believed there was nothing better, nothing more wonderful or more important than spending your life giving love, receiving love and teaching others to love.

      Lily sighed heavily and maneuvered her car around a particularly sharp curve.

      What a fool she’d been.

      Betrayal had quickly stolen all her dreams, and time hadn’t given her the opportunity to come up with an alternate plan. But she did know one thing, she would never base her dreams on something so delicate as another person’s affections. Not ever again.

      She would take the job as the Brewster nanny and begin squirreling away her money, because eventually she was going to have to make some decisions about her life, some real decisions. If nothing else, she was going to have to find a way to support herself, because she didn’t think Chas Brewster was going to keep her forever.

      In fact, she knew he wouldn’t.

      Lily arrived at Brewster Mansion about two hours later. Her car was packed with every single thing she’d collected in her twenty-three years. Holding a suitcase in one hand and balancing a box on the other, she rang the doorbell.

      Chas answered. “Come in, Lily,” he said, sounding more resigned than glad to see her, though at least he was polite. He led her through the marble-floored foyer, through the immaculate all-white kitchen with the butcher-block counter in the center and to the door of what was probably maid’s quarters.

      He opened the door to a room that was twice the size of any living space Lily had ever had. “Oh, it’s beautiful,” she said before she had a chance to temper her reaction.

      “I’m glad you like it. Go in, get settled, then come back to the den whenever you’re ready, and we’ll discuss salary.”

      Smiling brightly, Lily nodded. With one curt bob of his head Chas turned to leave and ran smack-dab into his older brother’s broad chest.

      “Why are you putting her down here?” Grant asked incredulously.

      Lily watched as Chas directed Grant out of the small alcove in front of her room and closed her door, but he and Grant apparently didn’t get any farther than the kitchen because she could hear them talking.

      “This СКАЧАТЬ