Page 14 of Marrying the Nanny

“I’m not standing in the rain while you two have a pissing contest,” Reid said. “Emma, can you—?”

“It’s—Yes, that one. You press and turn.” She slid out, reached one hand to a button near the cup holder and, with a snick and a twist of her wrist, the whole thing relaxed. She gave it a jiggle and it folded flat as a lawn chair.

“They make it easy enough that even a woman can do it.” She rolled her eyes and climbed back into the vehicle.

“This is going to be fun.” Trystan set the folded stroller alongside the bags. “I can tell.”

Reid was the only one who had rented wheels since his mother’s house was outside the downtown area. Logan slid into the passenger seat, leaving Trystan to squeeze in the back with Emma.

There were no seats on the commercial flights heading north from Victoria, but Trystan had a friend who operated sightseeing tours of the Gulf Islands. He had agreed to pop them over to Vancouver, where an executive charter would fly them directly to the private strip at Raven’s Cove. Being last minute, the charters were costing a premium, but Reid had a feeling his wallet would see a lot of abuse in the next while.

At least we’ll be home by dinner, he thought dourly.

He swung by the men’s hotels, then headed to the terminal in Victoria’s inner harbor. Reid went to drop his keys and came back to see Logan had filled a luggage cart and was walking away. Emma was rummaging through one of the shopping bags still in the back.

“I’d like to make a bottle for her.” She located a can with cartoon animals and an empty bottle. “To have ready while we travel. Will you…?” She nodded toward the front of the SUV.

He wouldn’t call himself intuitive where women were concerned. His mother’s needs regularly overshot anything he guessed at. He preferred things to be spelled out.

“What?” he prompted.

“Keep an eye on her.” She made it sound like that was obvious.

“What’s she going to do?” Last time he’d checked, the kid had been fast asleep, strapped down tighter than an astronaut ready for launch.

Emma dropped her shoulders, looking as though she thought he was messing with her. “Don’t leave her locked in a car or left alone to be stolen. Don’t forget her.”

“Crack a window. Got it.”

Her thin brows crashed together.

“I’m kidding. Give me some credit, would you?”

She huffed and said, “I’ll be right back.” She trotted into the terminal.

He peered over the back of the seat. He should have asked what to do if she woke up.

“We’re in the yellow Beaver down at the end.” Trystan joined him in a quick duck out of the rain to stand under the open hatch. “Is this the last of the luggage?”

“Yeah, I got it. Keep an eye on the kid. Emma will be right back.” Reid grabbed the bags and hightailed after Logan.

“What’s she going to do?” Trystan called behind him.

“Just don’t close the doors. It locks automatically and I turned in the key.”

Trystan might have said something else, but Reid didn’t hang around.

Logan was inside the rear of the float plane when Reid caught up to him.

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Logan muttered.

“No use bitching about it.” Reid passed luggage up to him.

He felt equally trapped at being forced back to Raven’s Cove, though. This was a lot like the way he’d been sent there at eight, given no choice and no indication what he would be up against. He’d been old enough to feel the sting of losing cable TV and a proper soccer team and that hadn’t been the worst of it.

Reid had hated Raven’s Cove from the moment he had arrived. There was nothing to do and nowhere to go. The “village” was a wharf, a couple of buildings, and a boatyard. The school had been a single room perched on the hill near a dozen weathered mobile homes. Depending on the year, his eight or ten classmates had ranged in age from kindergarten to the occasional teenager preferring distance learning over taking the water taxi every morning to attend high school in Bella Bella.

Everyone had known who he was. Not just “Wilf’s son,” either. No, he’d been “the one whose mother tried to kill herself.”

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