Page 4 of Nanny for My Billionaire

The only trouble is, Adam turned out to be a real jerk. He literally asked me to skip out on the whole school thing, stay there, and marry him. I really thought he was kidding. We barely knew each another, and just having great sex certainly didn’t mean we should cancel all other plans and get to the altar. I told him I couldn’t do that because I was committed to three years in Syracuse. I wouldn’t even be returning during the summer breaks because my nanny job required me to spend the summers as well as the semesters and holidays with the family.

“Great, another girl who is married to her career,” he’d complained. And it had really pissed me off. Was this guy just looking for some sort of stay-at-home mom type or something? Because that was totally not my deal. I was so pissed off that I called a cab to take me home and never talked to him again during the three days that were left until I flew out of there.

Now, I’ve got another problem. Some of the feelings Adam had awakened in me three years ago stuck. It made my few attempts at dating feel stale, and in the end, I just settled into my job and my schooling, and left all matters of the heart sitting on hold.

And now my three years have ended. The family I took care of for three years gave me an excellent reference if I ever decided to pursue another nanny job, went to my graduation ceremony, and then helped me pack and get to the airport.

As soon as I left, Megan had decided to move Sara into the mansion as a roommate so she could help with some of the bills. I imagined that probably meant that Adam must come over to visit sometimes, and I might end up seeing him there. A strange sort of anger and anticipation blended in my gut at the thought, but I squashed it down.

Adam didn’t deserve my attention. If he did come over to my home, I wouldn’t even bother to talk to him. After all, what would be the point if the guy was looking for a woman who didn’t have any ambitions? I wanted to start my own business. Maybe in market research or database administration or something. Since I had yet to decide, I planned instead to just come home for a while and give it some thought.

Maybe I could take a waitress job beside Megan for a few months, or maybe I’d simply sit home. With the excess money I had after my lucrative nanny gig, I could certainly afford to do that if I wanted to. In effect, I had a nest egg I would be able to use to invest in whatever sort of business I decided on.

Megan and Sara knew I’d graduated, of course, but I’d told Megan it was no big deal if she didn’t attend the ceremony. They had no idea when—or if—I was going to head home, and I decided it might be fun not to say a word about it and simply show up to surprise them.

And they were sure to be surprised, since I’d gained a bit of weight, my body had finally gotten some womanly curves, and I’d even decided to take my long, brown hair back to shoulder length and dye it red. I even got color contacts so my eyes are lighter brown. That wasn’t on purpose, though. They sent me the wrong ones, but the prescription was the same and I kind of liked the look. In short, I’d undergone a total makeover, and I’d even gained a bit of confidence too. So maybe now the pair of them wouldn’t be able to push me over quite so easily.

Well, maybe. You never know.

The last thing I expect to see as I arrive at baggage claim at Logan International is the very man I’ve been fuming over during the flight. For whatever reason, Adam Conway is leaning on one of the walls with his eyes trained on the people headed for their baggage on the conveyor belt.

A surge of—what? Anger? Dislike? Longing? I don’t know—emotion slams right into my gut when I spot him. I drop my eyes and hurry by, hoping my new appearance might throw him off the scent if I’m the one he’s looking for.

But why would he be looking for me? He made it abundantly clear when I left that he didn’t want a woman who had a career. Plus, how would he even know I was on this flight to begin with? No, it has to just be a coincidence, and nothing more.

“Anna Thatcher?” Adam suddenly asks, giving my shoulder a little tap.

I freeze, fuming mad that he doesn’t even recognize me until I remember how much different I look. I turn to face him as he continues.

“I sure hope you’re Anna,” he says. “I’m anxious to set my boys up with a nanny. My dad is retiring from his restaurant business, and I’ll be in charge, so I really need someone I can depend on for my boys.”

My mind begins to whirl as I spot the bags under his eyes. I wonder why he would have the boys in the first place, and why he is so desperate to find somebody to care for them. Surely there are plenty of nannies to choose from in Boston, so why would he have to send out for one? Is it just because he has the money to afford top-notch service?

I decide to play along just so I can find out. We start walking toward luggage claim.

“Yeah, hey, I was wondering how come you had to send out for a nanny when there are plenty of prospects right here in Boston, sir. The agency didn’t give me a whole lot of intel.”

Adam starts spilling his guts, and I get a lot more info than I’d hoped for.

“My ex-wife dumped our twin boys on me about three months ago and pretty much gave me full custody so she could run off to Italy with some producer named Mario. I guess she’s hoping she’ll make it big on the Italian version of Broadway. She’s one piss-poor excuse for a mother, just dropped them off and disappeared. It hasn’t been easy for my little guys, but I think we’re making some progress.”

I nod. “So, they’re five and they’re feeling evil?”

He laughs. “Not exactly. They just think since I’m the only parent they’ve got left, they want to keep me working at home. But now that my dad is about to give me his restaurant and take my mom on a European vacation, I’m stuck. There’s no way I can run a restaurant that serves at least five hundred people a day from home, you know? I need to be in the place where the action is, ready to take the bull by the horns if something goes wrong. But five-year-olds don’t understand a responsibility like that.”

“I get you,” I say, and I find myself actually feeling sorry for him. So far, I haven’t exactly claimed that I am this Anna Thatcher person, and I’m pretty sure whoever she is, she’s bound to show up soon, but the prospect of caring for a couple of five-year-old boys totally outweighs the idea of helping my sister to wait tables, and wherever Anna is, she’s certainly not here at the moment, so I make a snap decision.

For the time being, I am Anna Thatcher. If we get out of the airport sooner rather than later, maybe I can hijack her job for a while. And when Adam finally figures out who I really am, I’ll tell him it was just a bit of payback for how mean he was when I left. Hell, it wouldn’t even be a lie.

Plus, I actually do have experience as a nanny, so he won’t even have a reason to get mad about that either. Maybe it’s a crazy idea, and I should come clean right now instead of stirring up trouble, but the truth is, for reasons so deep within me I don’t even know what they are, I just don’t want to.

A part of me feels bad for those little guys. If their mom up and dropped them off, they’re probably hurting, and I really want to help them out. I know how it feels to lose your mom. Sure, I was mostly grown, and in their case, there is always the possibility that their mother might come back sometime. Still, losing a parent felt really bad. Losing both felt even worse, of course, but that was an entirely different story.

“Have you got a lot of luggage to retrieve?” Adam wants to know.

“Four bags, sir,” I tell him. “All of them like this one.”

When he sees the dark brown leather satchel he starts to watch for more. “Is that one?”

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