Page 17 of Marrying the Nanny

“Here. Cover her with—oh. Okay. I’ll take her back, then.” She accepted Storm as Logan pushed her across. “She’s not contagious, you know.”

Harpreet would send Storm to foster care if these guys didn’t man up. Did they realize Storm would be their sister their whole lives?

From what she’d overheard of their estrangement earlier, they barely realized they had brothers. How was that possible? Emma had issues with her own brother. She was furious with him, but she shopped with his wife. She took his kids overnight and had a key to his house and reminded him to buy flowers on his anniversary.

“I thought you arranged a ride.” Logan hunched under the wing with her.

Emma found it amusing to hear Canadians call a lift a “ride.” It was a dirtier expression where she came from.

“I did. There.” She nodded as the company SUV appeared, headlights rocking as it navigated the small washout in front of where the pavement of the airstrip started.

She was excited to see Sophie, which was silly. She’d only said good-bye to her this morning, but she’d been pretty teary, afraid she wouldn’t see her or Raven’s Cove again. Sophie had wanted to come to Victoria with her but between her son, her grandfather, and the marina, she couldn’t get away.

The pilot popped the cargo hatch on the plane. The SUV made a U-turn and reversed toward them.

The engine cut and Sophie stepped from behind the wheel. She wore a filthy ball cap over her frizzy red hair and had a dirt smudge on her freckled cheekbone. She set her fists on her hips, vague humps beneath baggy, grease-stained coveralls, and quirked her mouth with mock disgust.

“Satan, get your ice skates. I’m glad you’re back, Em, but what the hell have you dragged in with you?”

Emma was dying to say, Disposable nappies, but recalled she was kissing up to them, hoping they would let her keep Storm.

“Hey, Trys.” Sophie gave him a warm hug. “I’m really sorry about Wilf. I tried calling your mom. She’s out with Roy, headed this way.”

“Yeah, she texted me. Thanks.” Trystan nodded and released her, expression turning stoic, like his brothers’.

Trystan turned away to open the back of the SUV.

“Sophie,” Reid said with a nod.

“I’m so sorry, Reid.” Sophie opened her arms.

“Rain check.” He gave her filthy coveralls a rueful once-over.

She smirked at his suit. “Those aren’t your painting clothes? What are you here for, if not to work?”

“The million-dollar question,” Reid muttered and stepped around her to take a bag in each hand from the cargo hatch.

Sophie swiveled her gaze to Logan. Her smile dried up and she folded her arms.

“Sorry about Wilf. I invited your mom to stay with us. She said she’ll stay at the house with you guys.”

Emma was watching this like a play. She knew Logan’s mother had become a maternal figure to Sophie after she lost her own, but she hadn’t realized Sophie was on hugging terms with Reid and Trystan, but not Logan. She couldn’t wait to ask her why Logan deserved a greeting that was more of a stone-cold hex.

Stillness overcame the men as they processed the accommodation remark.

“I thought we’d take rooms at the lodge,” Reid said.

Emma frowned as she drew the empty bottle from Storm’s shiny lips. Had he forgotten they had a baby to look after?

“Good luck,” Sophie scoffed. “There’s a renovation flu going around. It’s turning into a lethal case of incompetence.”

“I guess I am here to work,” Reid said with a testy smile.

*

Sophie waved and walked back to the marina while Emma unlocked the door to the house. That’s when the magnitude of where he was and why began to impact Reid. Hard.

It wasn’t the renovation mess that punched him in the gut as they entered, but the house itself. The emptiness it contained. He stole a moment to glance out the window in the living room, trying to get his breath back, awash in the same desolation that had hit him when he’d walked in here as a kid.

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