Kitabı oku: «A Groom for Maggie»

Chapter One

“Maggie, I don’t know how else to say this. There was nothing I could do. You’re going to have to leave the country next week.”

“Next week?” Maggie Weller touched her fingers to her lips and sank slowly into the chair behind her.

“Next week. When my people were digging around to try to get an extension, they discovered that your visa expires even sooner than we thought. I have the information here.”

“No.” Maggie’s eyes never left those of Alex Harrison, her employer and the father of her charge, five-year-old Kate. “That can’t be,” she said, feeling more an outsider than at any other point in the past year. For the first time, her own British accent sounded foreign even to her. “You’re mistaken.”

He concentrated on the papers in front of him. Was he avoiding her eyes? “It’s all right here in black-and-white.”

The cliché and his casual use of it hurt her. But of course this was just a little business glitch for him. Sensitivity wasn’t called for. Regardless of her feelings for him, to him she was just a commodity called “nanny.”

She’d learned to ignore her feelings for him long ago. He would never see her as anything but an employee.

“Then they’ve obviously made a mistake,” she said.

“I wish that were the case.” For a moment he sounded as if he really meant it, but then he added two simple, yet dismissive words. “It’s not.”

Maggie wrung her hands in her lap. “I was very careful about timing when I signed up for my courses and committed to this position here with Kate. Even without the extension, I should have had at least six weeks before I had to go!”

He shook his head, his cool blue eyes sending a message Maggie couldn’t read. Interest? Her heart pounded. Sympathy? Or was it anger that she had put him in a tight spot?

The paneled walls of his office closed in around her, and the leather-back chair suddenly felt hot and slick against her skin. Maggie had put too much faith in his ability to get her an extension. Somehow the possibility that she would have to leave had never seemed real. Now it seemed her departure was imminent. The house, young Kate, him…How would she ever say goodbye?

“You can see it for yourself.” Alex passed her a document and their fingertips touched for a long moment when she took it. His eyes stayed on her.

It was Maggie who drew away first. She bit her lower lip, fighting the tingle that shot up her arm from his touch. In all the months she’d lived in this house with Alex Harrison, she’d been constantly on edge, as acutely aware of him as he’d seemed unaware of her.

For a second she sensed a change in his awareness, but only for a second.

Alex continued speaking as she read the paper. “I’ve already spoken with your embassy and my attorney. There’s nothing that can be done.” For a fraction of a second he hesitated, as if he were going to say something but changed his mind.

“I could immigrate,” Maggie said without hope.

“My secretary checked into that. The waiting list is long. They are still working on applicants from…” He looked down at the papers on his desk.

“Nine years ago,” Maggie finished dully. She looked at him, this time taking in everything, from the tailored DuBose suit, to the strong chiseled cheekbones and chin, and those unreadable eyes. A trace of dark beard shadowed his jaw and his gleaming dark hair was uncharacteristically ruffled, as though he’d been running his hand through it in that way he did when he was working on an important business deal.

“Nine years,” she repeated. “I know. I’ve spoken with them myself. I just can’t believe I could make this sort of error. My classes don’t end for three weeks.” She stopped, thinking of how close she was to receiving certification from the Maryland Montessori Institute. With that in hand she could get a good teaching job almost anywhere in the world.

Anywhere but the U.K., that is, where the unemployment rate in her village was astronomically high.

Most importantly, there was Kate Harrison to consider. How could Maggie leave Kate in the lurch? She’d spent countless hours studying the delicacy of the child’s heart, and how best to nurture it. Abandonment was not part of the plan. “I promised Kate I’d be here for her birthday in July. I can’t just disappear.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I’m sorry.”

“She’ll feel abandoned. It’s not like she has that many people she can depend on.” And it’s not as if you are going to be much comfort to her, she wanted to add.

In the five months she had been working as a live-in nanny for Kate, she had debated with Alex Harrison more than once about his lack of personal attention to his daughter. If she hadn’t known how coldhearted workaholics like him tended to be about family, she would have thought he was afraid to get close to his daughter.

But Maggie knew better. Work came above all else for him.

“What with her mother gone and you…so busy.” The word tasted like a lie, even though she knew he believed it. “I can’t do this to her. There has to be something I can do. Can’t I apply for another extension?”

He shook his head. “You’ve already had one. It is virtually impossible to get a second, even though you’re employed.” He shrugged, letting her hopes drop like a lead ball. “I’ll have to get Kate a new nanny. Again.”

Maggie felt like he’d slapped her. He was reminding her of her place, whether he meant to or not. She was only an employee, hired to perform a function. For the thousandth time she realized Alex Harrison didn’t see her as a woman. Or as human—with a heart. “Am I so easily replaced?”

His eyes clouded and Maggie instantly regretted the level of emotion in her voice. “Of course Kate will miss you,” he said. “I was simply stating a fact. If you’re leaving, I’ll need to find a replacement.”

“Of course.” What was she hoping for? An eleventh hour claim of love from him? “But let me state a fact of my own. It’s going to be very hard on Kate if we can’t find a better solution.”

Alex sighed. “Maggie, since her mother died a year ago, Kate has had six nannies, none of whom worked out for longer than four weeks. Two of them stole things from the house, one of them nipped at the bottle and three of them couldn’t handle what they called Kate’s ‘temper tantrums’—”

“Cries for help,” Maggie said, interrupting him. This was the side of Alex that she wasn’t so crazy about—the side that refused to see the painful obviousness of his daughter’s emotions. “You can’t expect a five-year-old not to be traumatized by her mother’s death, and to act that trauma out. Then to be shipped off to live with a father she’d barely seen since a divorce when she was two…it must have been tremendously difficult for her.”

“I agree.” Alex tried to keep his tone matter-of-fact, but he couldn’t help the tremor of emotion that crept in. “I hated seeing her go through that, and I hated feeling powerless to help. You are the seventh nanny this year and believe me, the fact that you’ve been here for five months has been a miracle. Kate’s been doing great with you—I did everything in my power to keep you here.”

Maggie didn’t seem to hear him, or at least the last part of what he said. “It took more than a month for her to calm down to one outburst a day. Now she hasn’t had one in months. My leaving and someone new coming in is going to undo all that progress.”

“Possibly. But there are no options.” Alex shrugged, shutting away the powerful feelings of inadequacy his daughter’s situation evoked in him. Feeling bad about it didn’t do anybody any good. “My people have looked into all the possibilities.”

“Then it will be up to you to get Kate through the transition,” she challenged Alex. “I hope you realize that.”

He tensed. How could he help Kate, when she was more afraid of him than anything else? Every time he was in a room with her, she became wary, with eyes darting for the door. When he spoke to her, she looked like a cornered rabbit.

He’d tried. Heaven knew, when he first got Kate back after her mother’s death, he’d been wholly optimistic. He’d been happy for the chance to have his daughter back, close to him. But it hadn’t taken long to see that Kate hadn’t thought of him nearly as much as he’d thought of her. And she clearly didn’t want to be in his house. She said it every night for three months: I want to go home. I don’t like you.

Maggie wouldn’t believe that, of course. She’d never understand. With her, Kate was the sweetest, gentlest child alive. Alex himself couldn’t believe she was the same Kate who had come to him a year ago. Maybe it was men in general she was afraid of, or maybe it was him in particular, he didn’t know. But if Maggie left, and it were up to him to be with Kate, there was no telling what sort of trauma she would experience.

And he didn’t want to do it to her.

“Don’t concern yourself with what happens after you go,” he said, trying to prevent Maggie from driving the stake deeper into his heart.

“I’m very concerned. You have to start learning to be a father so that child has some consistency in her life.”

Alex tightened his jaw. She was right. She was almost always right, and it drove him crazy. “You’re out of line.”

Maggie’s cheeks turned pink. “I have to speak honestly. If I can’t stay on to take care of her, at least I can try to help you see she has needs which you cannot ignore. She needs you. And maybe you need her.”

Alex tapped his fingers on the desktop and looked out the window. “Thank you for your input,” he said shortly, then looked down at his papers. Parenting was the most awesome responsibility in his life and he’d had more than enough criticism about his handling of it. “Please send my secretary in on your way out.”

“I’m not going.”

He looked up at her, surprised. “What?” The corner of his mouth ticked. This woman was amazing. He’d never seen someone with so much gall. He really admired it.

“I’m sure you have connections somewhere in Washington,” Maggie said. “I’m not leaving this room until you agree to help me stay at least three more months. Kate needs more time. I need more time.”

“I wish I could help you, I really do,” he said, and. meant it. The house was going to be awfully quiet after Maggie packed her opinions and left. It was regrettable. “There’s nothing more I can do.”

Before Maggie could respond, the door creaked open behind her and Kate walked in. Her dark, moss green eyes were wide but unafraid. Not for the first time, Alex wondered at how much Maggie and Kate looked like mother and daughter. It had to be the light hair, he decided, or the eyes. Strange, since neither he nor his exwife had those particular characteristics.

“Sorry to innerupt,” Kate said, her sweet voice clear.

“What do you need?” Alex asked, feeling suddenly self-conscious. A boardroom full of high-powered executives was nothing compared to the intimidation from this one big-eyed five-year-old.

The tense moment of silence that followed was punctuated by a phone ringing in another room.

Kate looked at her father briefly then rushed to Maggie. “Maggie?” she asked in a hushed voice.

“Yes, darling?” Maggie answered, with a glance toward Alex.

“Can you put Ariel’s head back on?” Kate held a decapitated doll head in her small hand. “It came off again.”

Maggie laughed and knelt in front of Kate. “Of course, sweetheart. Did she fall off the horse again?”

Kate nodded enthusiastically. “They were racing. Ariel won.”

“Good for her.” Maggie took the doll head. “Remember, because we’ve put it back on so many times, it’s going to be loose.”

Alex could have sworn he heard her add, “I’m feeling that way myself.”

She pressed the head onto the body Kate pulled from her jumper pocket and heard it snap in place. “There you are. Good as new.” She held out the doll, whose head tilted slightly to the right. “I feel like Dr. Frankenstein.”

Kate’s smile was as bright as morning, something he rarely saw. Maggie’s effect on her was truly astonishing. Where once his daughter had been sullen and constantly miserable, now she was open and relaxed.

Maggie was right—he couldn’t let her go. For Kate’s sake he couldn’t let her go.

But the only possible solution was so…radical.

“Thanks.” Kate beamed. “I knew you could fix it. You’re the best!”

Maggie wrapped her arms around the small form and Alex noticed she blinked back tears. “You’re the best.”

“No, you’re the best.” Kate giggled at their familiar game.

Maggie pulled back and straightened to her full five feet eight inches. She ran her hands across her slender hips to straighten her skirt, and Alex felt a tightening in his chest. “Daddy and I are talking right now. Go on up to your playroom and I’ll be along in a few minutes. Why don’t you dress Betsy in the blue ball gown? Ariel can wear the pink. They’ll have a party this afternoon, how’s that?”

“Great!” Kate turned to dash from the room then stopped and turned back. “Bye, Father.”

He was startled by her attention to him. “Bye…Kate. I’ll see you later.”

Maggie closed the door behind her. “I can’t stand to leave her like this.” She placed her hands on her hips and shifted.

Alex shifted, too, then took a long breath. Her short denim skirt had folded up at the thigh when she bent down to Kate but when she stood it didn’t go all the way back down despite her efforts. Only about four inches of material were between his gaze and her—He couldn’t think about it. “I agree it would be best for you to stay with Kate.” He cleared his throat. “But the only—”

“I know, I know, you have no choice.” She threw her hands up and took a step to the side. The lean muscles in her legs flexed. “You’re going to hire another nanny, and another one after that, and another—”

“Stop. Please. Let me think.” He pressed his hands down on the desk, pushed his chair back and leaned back in it. He gazed at Maggie in front of him. There was a spirit in her eyes that had never been in Sandra’s.

His jaw tightened at the thought of his deceased exwife. How many nannies had she gone through before Kate had come to live with him? Sandra hadn’t worked—she’d lived off his substantial alimony payments—yet she had somehow found it necessary to employ a complete staff, including full-time care for Kate.

Kate needed consistency, Maggie was right about that. In fact, it was long overdue. But what should I do? he asked himself. How far can I go to provide it?

He closed his eyes hard and opened them to find Maggie, standing before him, like the answer to his question.

The intercom on his desk buzzed. “Alex, Anna Christianson is on the phone again,” his secretary’s voice informed him.

“Take a message,” he growled, trying to ignore Maggie’s eyes on him. Wannabe socialite, Anna Christianson was relentless in her pursuit of him—or, more specifically, his money—and everyone knew it. It was a fact he found very embarrassing. “Get rid of her.”

“Okay, Alex, but this is the third call today, you know. Is there something specific I can tell her?”

“Tell her anything. Tell her I’ve…gotten married.” He heaved a breath and met Maggie’s eyes, then looked away quickly. “Tell her I’m on an extended vacation. Tell her anything.” He released his hand from the intercom. “Please don’t lecture me on honesty now,” he said to Maggie.

“I wasn’t going to.”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Oh, it’s in there somewhere.”

“What is?”

“A recrimination.”

She lowered her chin. “Is this your guilty conscience speaking?” Her eyes looked truly luminous.

Interesting trick of the light, Alex forced himself to conclude. “Guilty? What do I have to feel guilty about?” The minute the words were out he knew he was going to regret asking.

She turned the corners of her mouth down and shrugged. “Maybe you’re feeling guilty because you’re not willing to take proper care of your child.”

He stood abruptly and the chair trembled behind him. “Maggie, the fact is I’m busy, now and always. There are too many distractions as it is.” He glanced disgustedly at the intercom. “I have to work in order to keep Kate well fed and clothed. I wouldn’t be doing her any favors if I gave up my job.”

“You don’t have to work twenty-four hours a day.”

He hesitated. “The single most important thing I can do is provide for my child.” He spoke low and slowly. Every word held equal weight. “Not every parent has that priority and, believe me, their children suffer for it.”

“I agree that basic financial security is important, but believe me it’s easy to err in the opposite direction. All I’m suggesting is a little moderation.”

“I have no time for moderation. Or for anything much but work. That’s why I hired you.”

“Are you trying to tell me that you can’t afford to take a little time off?” Maggie looked around her at the opulent office; the leather chairs, stone fireplace, Oriental carpets. “This is one room in a mansion of at least forty. The property alone is worth enough to support several ordinary people for life. You have done quite well for yourself and for Harrison Satellite Networks. I won’t believe for a moment that you need to spend every single day of your life at work.”

He followed her gaze around the room then held it with his own. “I don’t need to justify any of this to you. If you’ll excuse me now, I have something else to do.”

“That’s typical, I guess,” she said, almost under her breath. She didn’t move, though inside she trembled.

“What’s typical?” he asked, turning back to face her.

Maggie shrugged. “You. Men like you. If there’s a problem that can’t be solved with money you turn away from it and pretend it doesn’t exist at all.”

He shook his head as he went through the door. “That’s your assessment of me?” he said over his shoulder as he started down the stairs, with Maggie close behind.

“Part of it.”

“I’m flattered.” He opened the door to his home gym and went in.

She slipped in as the door was closing. “You also have a dreadful tendency toward sarcasm,” she said pointedly.

He stopped and faced her. “Tell me, Miss Weller, have you ever had an unexpressed opinion?”

She looked at him steadily. “I’m having one right now.”

There was a moment of shivering silence. Then, to her utter surprise he laughed. The creases framing his smile gave him a boyish look that Maggie tried to ignore. The laugh changed his whole face, if only for a moment. It threw her off more than anything he could have said.

“Okay.” He turned, then paused at the door and looked at her for a moment before turning. “Let’s talk about you staying. For Kate’s sake and for your sake and, God help me, for my sake.” Not that he had any personal reason to want her to stay. It was all about Kate.

Walking past her, he slipped his jacket off, then draped it over a wooden valet in the changing room. The crisp white fabric of his button-down shirt formed against his powerful back. He opened a drawer and took out sweatpants and a T-shirt. “You’ll excuse me a minute?”

Noticing where she stood, Maggie backed up a step and closed the door. “Did you say for your sake?” she asked.

There was a pause of several seconds before he replied, “What’s good for Kate is good for me, isn’t it?”

“It could make things easier for you.”

“Easier? I don’t think anything good comes easy.” He stepped out of the changing room, wearing wornout sweatpants and a T-shirt.

Maggie swallowed as her eyes roamed over Alex Harrison’s body. She’d never seem him so bare. For the first time she saw a pale jagged scar that cut across his muscular shoulder. It gave him a ruggedness that she didn’t generally attribute to him. She touched her cheek. It felt warm. “Life isn’t only hard work, Alex.” Her voice quivered.

He seemed unaware of her perusal. “So you say,” he replied, lying down under the bench press. He released the bar and began repetitions, well-defined muscles flexing under smooth skin, up and down, making her think of the power in those arms, the strength his embrace might have. “Maggie, there is only one way I can think of for you to stay in this country,” he continued as he rested the bar on its stand and shook his hands.

“You’ve thought of something?” She forced her gaze to his face and tried to stare impassively down at him. “What?”

He turned his head toward her. “It’s pretty extreme. In fact, it may be too extreme.”

“You’re not proposing that I should stay in this country illegally?”

He met her eyes, then lifted the bar again. “No, of course not.” He lowered it to his chest. His biceps bulged again as his skin began to sheen with a light sweat. “I’m proposing something entirely different.”

She swallowed and kept her eyes on his face. “What is it?”

He finished a count of twelve and set the bar down again, an unreadable expression on his face. “If you married an American you could stay in the country with a green card. When enough time passed, you could apply for citizenship.”

“Who on earth am I going to—”

“Me.” He sat up and rubbed his palms on his sweatpants, then met her stunned gaze.

She couldn’t have heard him correctly. “That’s impossible.”

He looked back at her, the full force of his concentration powerful and compelling. “No, it’s not.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. Then you could stay on full-time through the summer, then move out when Kate starts first grade in the fall. Get a place of your own nearby so you can stay involved with Kate. She won’t need full-time care then anyway. You get your green card and Kate doesn’t have the shock of breaking in another nanny. Seems to me this arrangement would be mutually beneficial.”

Mutually beneficial. Alex Harrison was offering her marriage as a cold-as-marble business proposition, nothing more. But what in the world could she expect? “I can’t do that.”

He crossed his arms in front of him. The muscles beneath his gleaming skin rippled with the movement. “Why not?”

“I can’t imagine being in a marriage that wasn’t real.”

He shook his head. “Real marriages don’t work. That’s been proven over and over again by countless unhappy people. Business arrangements, on the other hand, generally do because both parties go into it with an understanding about the outcome.”

“Meaning…?”

“Everyone wins. Kate would have consistency, she’d have the very best care, she’d have you, which is what she clearly wants. You, on the other hand, would have an opportunity to gain financial security before returning to your country, if you decide to go back.”

“I’d rather forge my opportunities for myself,” Maggie countered hotly, his detachment suddenly irritating.

A new look came into his eyes. “You’re not very practical.”

“That may be true. But if I agree to some plan so I can stay, for Kate’s sake as well as my own, I don’t want you thinking I was doing it for financial gain.”

“Why would you care what I think? I’m proposing the plan.”

She stiffened. “I care about Kate.”

“So do I. So stay. For a while.”

She sighed, looking into those cryptic blue eyes. “As your wife?”

He held up a hand. “My wife in name. Kate’s nanny in fact. A simple business arrangement that solves all short-term problems.” Alex reached out and touched Maggie’s arm. “Is it so horrifying?” he asked. “Am I?”

An electric current passed between them at the unexpected words and touch. Maggie was aware of a quickening of her pulse.

“And how do you benefit from it?” she asked.

He looked into Maggie’s eyes. “I want Kate to be happy. I think this would make her happy.”

Maggie narrowed her eyes. “Is that all?”

He let out a breath. “Okay, to be totally frank, being a married man might make my life a little easier in other ways. Success tends to attract a certain type of woman—”

“Gold diggers?” Maggie supplied.

“That’s one term for them. Anyway, I could do without the aggravation of three calls a day from the Anna Christiansons out there.”

Maggie thought for a moment, then nodded. “If I move out at the end of the summer—”

“Marital discord,” Alex said. “We’ll say we’re trying to work it out.”

“Even if that would work, I’m not sure it justifies a marriage.”

“Think about it.” He gave a brief smile that warmed his face. “Please think it over. I believe it’s the only way.”

Holding his gaze, she reached for the chair behind her, found it, pulled it toward her and sat down. “I can’t believe I’m considering this.”

“It’s a very sensible offer.” He gave a half shrug and his voice softened. “And as you so persuasively pointed out, it’s vitally important for Kate.”

For several long seconds they sat in silence. There was a lot of merit in what he said. After all, this was not meant to be a romantic proposal. Could she separate her feelings? Could she, even for a short time, lock herself in marriage with this man and accept that it wasn’t real?

Finally she said, “If it weren’t for Kate I’d walk away from this ridiculous conversation.” And if it weren’t for the fact that I need to stay in this country so I can earn the money to send home where there is almost no employment. She didn’t want to admit it, but she was very tempted to take him up on his offer for her own selfish reasons.

“If it weren’t for Kate we wouldn’t be having this conversation at all.” Alex stood. “I’ll need an answer today and I’ve got a meeting downtown in two hours. Let me know, Maggie.”