Page 45 of Falling for the Nanny

“I can’t imagine anyone telling you you have to smile,” Cat said when I got in the car, going back to my previous comment.

I shrugged my shoulders. “No one has to tell me to. I know what my role is at these company events. This is the one time of year that any one of the employees at DKI can access me, so I have to make sure they find me accessible.”

“I can’t imagine your normal expression scaring them off.” Cat brushed her fingers over my jawline teasingly. “There were times you looked absolutely menacing coming into the restaurant on Friday nights. You’re lucky Lily was so cute.”

I captured her hand in mine. When we got back to the resort, I’d have to keep my distance from her when we weren’t in the room. I needed to get my fill now. “I don’t think you had me saved in your phone as Menacing Dad,” I goaded her.

Cat tried to pull her hand back. Even after everything, the reminder still put a pink flush in her cheeks. “You were never supposed to see that.”

I refused to let her slip her fingers out from mine. “But I did. And that was the beginning of the end.”

“The end of what?” She tugged harder.

“The end of pretending like there wasn’t something between us.” I sent her a sidelong glance. “Not that either of us was doing a good job.”

Cat gave in and leaned across the console to rest her head on my shoulder. “Then I’m glad it happened, even though I thought I might die of embarrassment in the moment.”

I didn’t say anything. I was happier than I could put into words. The thought of having never acknowledged what was between us throbbed painfully. It would be like not playing your usual lottery numbers and having them win the jackpot.

Too bad this was a jackpot I couldn’t keep.

We fell silent for the last half hour. The densely packed city gave way to the scrubby outskirts, then nature took the place of buildings in the windshield. The mountains rose up against the blue sky, their peaks gilded with the gold of the sinking sun. Maybe it was because she was filling my senses, but it reminded me of Cat. The blue sky was the color of her eyes. The gold-lacquering reminded me of her skin and hair after a day in the sun.

“Those mountains remind me of you,” she said, shocking me with how uncannily our thoughts had aligned. “Important and immovable.”

“Immovable?”

I felt her head nodding against my shoulder, but before she could explain herself, we were pulling into the resort. She straightened up to get the full view of it through the windshield.

“Whoa,” she murmured, impressed.

Hell, I was still impressed by it myself even though we’d done the retreat here a handful of times over the years. It was a big building, white stone with an inordinate amount of glass that made it sparkle in the sunlight. When you walked through the center, it was almost like you were outside. They’d filled the lobby with trees and fountains, and the glass ceiling above was so high and supported with such thin filaments that it almost seemed like the lobby was open to the sky.

I wished I could walk in with Cat so I could see her face when she saw it for the first time, but now that we were here, we had to be discreet. I dropped her off at the lobby entrance and parked myself rather than letting valet do it. That gave her time to check in and text me the room number. Not that I needed it–I’d stipulated that it had to be the adjoining room to mine when I made the reservation.

I rushed up to the room ahead of her to make sure everything was perfect.

Flowers on the small round table at the entrance of the suite.

Champagne in the ice bucket.

A multitude of other, cheesy touches I’d never bothered with for any other woman, but this was our first vacation together. Even if we couldn’t have a future, even if it was our last, I wanted it to be perfect for her.

I didn’t question why.

I knew the answer was that I was dangerously close to falling in love with her, and I couldn’t let myself do that.

No matter how much I wanted to.

CHAPTER 27

CAT

It was strange and wonderful being away with David. We couldn’t let our guard down entirely–he didn’t want anyone he worked with to see us together here and connect the dots back home–but it was a dozen times easier than actually being at home. For one thing there was zero chance that Lily would burst into the pool house in the morning, hoping to get me to take her in the pool. There was also the safety in knowing that Francesca’s keen gaze couldn’t catch a lingering look or a touch that was meant to look inadvertent.

It was almost like we could be who we really were now that we didn’t have to play our roles. Like this was reality and the constraints of boss and employee, father and nanny, were the illusions. Even with the demands of the conference and the grueling schedule he kept, David seemed lighter. Happier.

“Are you usually in such a good mood at these things?” I teased him the first night after he got back from the welcome dinner with a grin on his face.

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