Page 18 of The Widower's Nanny

“Hey, you’re home early.” I hope he’ll say a quick “hi,” then go to the house but he doesn’t.

He sits down on the end of a chaise and smiles at me. “You’re very observant.”

I turn back to the water, feeling vulnerable in my swimsuit. It is a fairly modest one, but still, I am in a swimsuit in front of my boss. And not just any boss but my handsome, muscular boss. I wonder if he felt like this when I saw him in the pool on Sunday. Probably not. When you look like he did in a swimsuit, you don’t care who sees you.

Lilly dog paddles to the edge of the pool and hangs from the side. “Daddy, come swim with us.”

He glances at me. “No, I can’t kiddo. Not today.”

“But I want to jump.”

“We’ll swim this weekend.”

I run a hand over my hair, which does nothing. It’s hopeless.Why is he just sitting there?I don’t want to get up and wrap a towel around me. That will just show him how self-conscious I am. So I sit and wait for him to leave.

He stretches out his legs and crosses his ankles. “I thought we might have pizza tonight.”

Lilly splashes the water. “Yay! Can we eat at the picnic table?”

“Sure, that sounds fun. What do you think, Rachel?”

“I love pizza.”

He bends his knees again and gets to his feet. “I’ll order it in about an hour.”

I smile up at him and nod.

It looks like he is going to say something, but then he changes his mind. He walks away, and I turn to watch him go. From now on, we get out of the pool before four o’clock.

I wash the pool water out of my hair before dinner, hoping it’ll remind Preston that I don’t always look like a drowned rat and then meet them for dinner. He seems distracted while we eat our pizza, and I wonder what has happened between our meeting at the pool anddinner. His whole attitude has changed. When we are done, he asks me if I’ll meet him on the back porch in twenty minutes.

“Of course.”Was he mad? Unhappy? Did I do something wrong?I guess I’ll find out.

Preston is sitting on a wooden Adirondack chair when I come out. He motions toward a matching chair. “Have a seat.”

I perch on the edge of it. “Am I in trouble?”

He seems to relax a little. “No. On the contrary, I want to thank you for doing such a good job with Lilly.”

“Oh.” I settle into the chair. “Thank you.”

“It seems even Mrs. Cartwright approves of you.”

“Wow. Really?” She’s never said more than a word or two to me. And I’ve never gotten a smile from her. “I guess that’s something.”

“It’s a big something.”

I glance at him. “I was afraid your mood at the table was because you were unhappy with me.”

“My mood?” He sighs. “I really try to leave work at the door. But sometimes, it creeps inside with me.”

“Anything serious?”

“No. Just normal business headache stuff.” He looks at me for a long moment. “There is something else I’d like to talk to you about.”

“Okay.”

“I’m no longer worried about Lilly making the adjustment from her grandmother to you. And I’ve come to accept the whole nanny concept.”

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