CHAPTER Six
Looking back, Jack realized that Madam’s arrival in their lives changed everything. Much to his relief, he discovered that she was definitely housebroken. But she was also a total klutz.
“I’m going to owe Taye a fortune in repairs,” he complained to Annalise as he swept up the latest Madam mayhem. “That tail of hers should be registered as a deadly weapon.”
“You can’t fool me, Mason,” Annalise replied. She held the dustpan for him, then emptied the remains of the lamp into the trash can. “Admit it. You adore Madam.”
He glanced toward the living room where Isabella and the dog were curled up on the couch together. “What I adore is the change in Isabella since Madam arrived.”
To his concern, tears welled up in Annalise’s eyes. “She’s blossomed, hasn’t she?”
“Oh, yeah.” He wished he’d been able to bring about such a notable change in his niece, but he’d take it however it happened. The important thing was Isabella’s recovery. “I’ve also sicced my PI on the boys who dumped her. When I track them down, I intend to explain the error of their ways in terms they won’t ever forget.”
“Good.” She glared with unexpected ruthlessness. “I don’t suppose you have the power to arrange for them to volunteer at their local animal shelter? Maybe that will underscore the lesson.”
“Trust me. I’ll find a way to make it happen.” He grimaced, turning his attention to more immediate matters. “Now all I have to do is figure out how to keep that four-legged disaster from laying waste to my home.”
She caught her lip between her teeth, a frown forming between her eyebrows. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ve already done it.” He’d given the matter a lot of thought before reaching a decision and calling his housekeeper with instructions. “I asked Sara to arrange to have most of the furniture and antiques put into storage for the time being.”
Annalise gave him an odd look. “Generations of Mason antiques? You’d put them in storage so Isabella can have a dog?”
“Hell, yes. Trust me, it’ll make a vast improvement. That place isn’t kid friendly, let alone dog friendly. I should have made the change when Isabella first came to live with me.” He took the trash can from her and carried it into the kitchen. “I can remember tiptoeing around that mausoleum when my grandmother lived there, afraid if I breathed wrong I might break some Louis the Umpteenth or Early American Irreplaceable. That’s no way for a little girl to live.”
“No,” Annalise agreed softly. A wobbly smile broke across her face. “It’s not. Thank you for putting her best interests first.”
“Of course I’m putting her best interests first,” he retorted, insulted. “Did you think I wouldn’t?”
“At first, perhaps.” She offered a self-conscious shrug. “You do have a reputation, Jack. And it’s not the sort that suggests you’d be indulgent toward the vagaries of a child. I have to admit I was concerned when I read you’d taken custody of your niece.”
He stiffened. “Were you?”
She must have realized it wasn’t the most tactful remark she could have made because she winced. “You felt duty bound to take her in, didn’t you?”
He couldn’t deny it. “Yes.”
He watched her choose her words with care. “Some in your position might believe that giving Isabella a home fulfilled that duty. A more unfeeling man would turn her over to a nanny with a clear conscience and go back to business as usual.”
An arctic wind blew across his soul. “Most who know me would describe me as just that sort of man. It’s who my father raised me to be.” Why couldn’t she see that? Couldn’t she sense the coldness in him, the absence of any ability to love? He was driven to ask, needed to see himself through her eyes. “What makes you think I’m not like that?”
She grinned, her eyes full of warm, golden sunshine. “I’ve had an opportunity to get to know you. Just in the short time we’ve been together, I can tell you’re not that sort of man.”
“You’re wrong. I’m exactly that sort of man.” He couldn’t explain why he was driven to argue the point, other than he needed her to face reality, to see him for who and what he was. “That’s why I hired you. I wanted someone who could take care of my niece, leaving me free to get back to living my life on my terms.”
She waved his confession aside as thought it were of no concern. “Maybe at first. But as soon as you set eyes on your niece, you changed your mind. You’re happy to take an active role in Isabella’s life.”
“I am?”
Her grin widened. “You’re here, aren’t you? And you’ve told me you’ll do whatever it takes to retain custody of her. Why do you think you’re doing that? It’s because you’re a softy at heart.”
“That’s a damn lie. You take it back right now.”
She swept him a mocking bow. “Of course, Mr. Mason. I absolutely take it back. After all, you’re only a man who’s taken in his niece when she had no one else, taken a leave of absence from a multi-billion-dollar company in order to spend time with her, adopted a stray dog, stripped his possessions from his house to accommodate said dog and niece. Why, I’ve never met anyone more deserving of the name Scrooge.”
“That’s me. Just call me Ebenezer.”
Annalise shot him a sparkling look. “So, tell me, Eb. Is there anything you wouldn’t do for Isabella?”
“No, there isn’t.” Time to turn the tables. “But I suspect the eventual question will be … Is there anything you wouldn’t do?”
Annalise’s amusement faded. “What do you mean?”
“One of these days I’m going to ask you for a favor that will help my niece,” he warned. “I just wonder how you’ll answer when that time comes.”
She didn’t hesitate. “That’s easy.” To his surprise, she returned his gaze with one weighted with grim determination. “I’ll do whatever it takes, too.”
He nodded in satisfaction. “Good answer. And just so you know …” He leaned in. Unable to help himself, he brushed her mouth with his, reveling in the brief flash of heat. “I intend to hold you to that promise.”
Their remaining days at the bungalow took on a surreal quality. As Jack had warned, the dog threatened to eat them out of house and home. Within days she put on enough weight to hide her painfully thin rib cage, though Jack suspected that might also have something to do with the treats Annalise and Isabella were sneaking the dog whenever his back was turned.
The days flashed by, exhausting, exhilarating and filled with warmth and laughter and plain, old-fashioned fun. He’d never seen Isabella so carefree, even though she still refused to speak. Between Annalise and Madam she was mothered to within an inch of her life.
Not that he was left out of the mix. As often as his niece could be found in Annalise’s arms or sprawled across Madam’s back, she spent an equal amount of time curled up in his lap. He hoped their familial connection helped heal her grief the way it helped heal his. Their time together seemed to be making a difference, but he could still sense an undercurrent of sorrow that he had no idea how to reach, let alone assuage. As though sensing his mixed emotions, Madam would rumble over to rest her huge head on his knee and offer licks of reassurance while Annalise watched with her incandescent smile. That smile made him long for something else, something more. Something that would complete their family unit.
But the true breakthrough happened one morning shortly before they were scheduled to leave. The sun had barely broken the plane of the horizon when his bedroom door banged open and the next instant his mattress overflowed with dog, niece, doll and a huge picture book that smacked him square in the jaw as Isabella snuggled down next to him.
“Baby Belle?” he asked sleepily. “What’s wrong?”
She shoved the book into his hands and patted it, blinking up at him with absurdly long lashes. Her dimple flashed. Madam settled her huge head on his spare pillow with a wide yawn and promptly went back to sleep.
“You want me to read to you?” Jack asked. She nodded, leaning her head against his chest. Her halo of curls, still pillow-ruffled, were downy soft and seemed to have a mind of their own. A sudden memory came to him. “This is … this is Family Bed, isn’t it?” he asked gruffly.
She nodded and patted the book again. Before he could gather himself sufficiently to read, he heard Annalise shuffling in the general direction of his niece’s bedroom.
“Isabella? Madam? Hey, where is everyone?”
“She’s in here,” he called. “We’re all in here.”
Annalise appeared in the doorway, her curls as tumbled and ruffled as his niece’s. She pulled up short at the sight of all of them piled in his bed. “Oh,” she said, disconcerted. “There you are. What … what are you doing?”
“It’s Family Bed,” he offered.
She blinked at him in utter bewilderment. “What’s Family Bed?”
And he’d thought he’d been deprived. He wondered why she’d never experienced something so wondrous. What had her childhood been like that she’d never known the pleasure of curling up with her parents and siblings in one big bed? Even he, with his dearth of close family ties had, for one sweet summer, known the joy of Family Bed.
“Every Sunday my mother, stepfather, and Joanne would collect books and newspapers, coffee and juice, and spend the first couple of hours of the day in bed together.” He glanced down at his niece, tucked close to his side. “I gather Joanne continued the tradition.”
A wistful smile teased at the corners of Annalise’s mouth. “It sounds lovely.”
“Why don’t you join us?”
A sweeping flash of vulnerability betrayed her longing to do just that and made Jack think of a child with her nose pressed to the candy store window, always on the outside looking in. Never allowed a taste of heaven. He’d had close and personal experience with that particular emotion, having iced up his nose on that window on more than one occasion. Then her expression vanished as though it had never been, and he could only marvel at her self-control.
“I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to join you.” She edged toward the door. “I’ll just get breakfast started while you and Isabella enjoy reading together.”
“We can fix breakfast later on. Right now it’s time for Family Bed.” He nudged his niece. “Isn’t that right?”
She nodded eagerly and held out her arms to Annalise, who wavered, clearly torn between a desire to share in something she’d never encountered before and longed to experience, and maintaining a professional distance.
“Come on, Stefano. You’re needed here.”
He’d said the exact right thing. Her smile nearly blinded him as she approached the bed. He grabbed Madam by her collar and wrestled her toward the end of the mattress in order to give Annalise room. She slid beneath the covers next to Isabella and the three of them reclined side by side, against mounds of pillows. He opened the Mrs. Pennywinkle book and cleared his throat.
“‘It was a cold winter day when the magical china doll, Nancy, found her way to the next little girl who needed her …’” he began.
Beside him, his niece patted her doll’s back and hugged her closer. “Your doll looks just like the one in the book,” Annalise said in surprise. “Is … is she a Nancy doll?” At Isabella’s nod, a husky tone entered her voice. “No wonder she’s so special. Do you think she’s here to help you like the doll in your storybook?”
Again Isabella nodded, this time pointing to the dog. “You think your Nancy doll sent Madam to you?” Jack asked. When his niece nodded a third time, more emphatically, he exchanged an uneasy glance with Annalise. “Is this going to be a problem?”
“I don’t think so, not unless she starts to believe that her doll can grant wishes.”
“And if that’s what she already believes?”
“I don’t know,” Annalise admitted. “I guess we hope that with the proper amount of love and attention and counseling, she gradually realizes that isn’t the case. I have to admit, I’m a little out of my depth on this one.”
Isabella gave the book an impatient tap and Jack forced himself to relax and offer an apologetic smile. “Sorry, munchkin. I got distracted there. What do you say we start over?”
The next hour passed on wings, ending too soon as far as Jack was concerned. When his bed emptied out so that everyone could dress, so did the warmth, and he decided then and there that Family Bed would become a weekly ritual from this point forward. His cell phone rang just as Annalise herded Isabella toward the kitchen to whip up a batch of pancakes. He checked caller ID and connected the call.
“Yeah, Derek. What’s up?”
“Sorry to call so early in the morning, but the PI’s preliminary report just hit my in-box and I knew you’d like the results ASAP.”
“And?”
“And Ms. Stefano is clean … for the most part.”
Jack spared a quick glance toward the hallway. Girlish laughter slipped out from the direction of the kitchen and he nudged his door closed. “What part isn’t so clean?”
“There was a small matter when she was sixteen. Cops raided some kid’s birthday bash and issued her a citation for underage drinking. They expunged her record after she completed some court-ordered community service. Since then, she’s been so clean she squeaks.”
Jack lowered his voice. “If the record was expunged, how did you get the details?”
“I have my sources. I’m not minimizing what she did, Jack, but it was a long time ago. Her mother had died a couple years before that and her father was in the military at the time. After her brush with the law, he took an early discharge and started up a fishing charter service, I’m guessing so he could assume a more hands-on role. He sent her off each summer to stay with an aunt during tourist season. The aunt’s a school teacher who lives out near Columbia. She’s probably the one who influenced Annalise’s career choice.”
“Did you find anything that might concern CPS?”
“Nothing. I doubt they’ll even dig up as much as I have.” There was a brief pause. “So, how’s it going at your end? Your marriage project moving right along?” he asked a shade too casually.
“It’s coming.”
“Coming … as in soon, though, right?”
Jack let out a long sigh. He knew that tone. “Aw, hell. What do you know that I don’t?”
“The Locke woman’s making noises again. I’ve done everything I can to have her replaced, but apparently she’s irreplaceable.”
“How much time do I have?” Jack asked grimly.
“Let’s see.… Soon would be good. If you and your charming bride-to-be were to show up at the Judicial Center and fill out a marriage application sometime today, you could be wedded and bedded in twenty-four hours. How does that sound?”
“Hell, Derek. That isn’t soon. That’s immediate.”
“Immediate works for me.”
“Well, it doesn’t for me. And I guarantee, it won’t for Annalise.”
“I strongly suggest you find a way for it to work for both of you. Once you’re officially married, I can probably hold off CPS for another month or so, convince them the two of you deserve time to settle into connubial bliss. But that’s as far as I’ll be able to push it. You need to marry now in order for me to insist on any sort of further delay. And then you need to create a loving relationship that’s good enough to pass Mrs. Locke’s scrutiny.”
Jack closed his eyes and ran a hand along the nape of his neck. Damn it to hell. “I’ll try.”
“I suggest you do more than try.”
Jack spent the rest of the day considering and rejecting any number of arguments to present to Annalise, everything from a declaration of undying love—which would leave her laughing herself silly—to the unvarnished truth, which he feared would not only leave him without a bride but without a nanny, as well.
Still … What choice did he have? He couldn’t lie to her. He slanted her a calculating look as they put Isabella down for the night. He needed to find a way to convince his nanny to agree to a coldly logical, if highly offensive, proposal of marriage. But, how?
There was only one way. He’d tell her the truth and hope she’d been serious when she had claimed she’d do everything in her power to help Isabella. “We need to talk,” he informed her, as soon as they finished tucking in his niece.
Annalise regarded him with a worried frown. “Is something wrong?”
He waited until they’d returned to the living room before explaining. “According to my lawyer, I need to marry immediately in order to retain custody of Isabella.”
She stared in shock. “Oh, Jack, is he certain?”
“Very.” He gave it to her straight. “Derek’s held endless conversations with Mrs. Locke and various officials at CPS. Though they haven’t come right out and said I must have a wife, they’re extremely concerned that between my work schedule and Isabella’s issues I’m not the best person to raise her. There’s even been some discussion about placing her in a treatment facility. I won’t let that happen, which means I present them with an acceptable wife who can give Isabella the attention she requires when I’m not available.”
Annalise stared at him, stunned. “But … who are you going to marry? Does Isabella know her? Does she even like her?”
“She adores her.”
That brought her up short. “Oh. Well … Well, that’s good. I don’t quite know what else to say,” she added weakly. “Congratulations?”
“She hasn’t accepted my offer yet.”
Annalise stilled. “Wait a minute. Is this your way of telling me you no longer need my services?” A look of utter devastation swept across her face. “Is your wife—assuming she accepts your offer—is she going to take care of Isabella full-time?”
“Yes and no. I still need your services.” Jack captured an escaped curl, one that tumbled halfway down Annalise’s back, and used it to reel her in. “Just in a slightly different capacity. I hope you’ll consider it a promotion.”
She was quick to put two and two together and come up with the requisite four. He watched shock etch a path across her elegant features. “You don’t mean … You can’t possibly think I—”
“Oh, but I can and I do. Ms. Stefano, I would very much appreciate it if you’d consider exchanging your position as nanny for one as my wife.”
The couch caught her as her knees gave out. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m dead serious. You may recall that I once told you that I’d do whatever it took to retain custody of Isabella. I also seem to remember you saying something quite similar. I know how serious I was when I made that statement. How serious were you?”
Pain burst to life in her eyes, burning with an intensity that seared straight through to his soul. He accepted it, didn’t attempt to defend against it. He deserved to burn for what he was about to do. And no doubt he would.
“Oh, Jack,” she whispered. “How could you?”
He captured Annalise’s hands in his and drew her to her feet again. “As I’ve informed you more than once, I will do whatever it takes to retain custody of Isabella. But I will also do whatever you ask, give you whatever you demand, in exchange for your agreement to my plan. Please, Annalise. Marry me.”
“No.” She shook her head, the restlessness of her curls revealing the extent of her distress. “I can’t. Anything but that.”
“You’re not already married?” Surely the PI would have uncovered evidence of a husband.
“No, of course not.”
“And you claimed you weren’t involved with anyone.”
“I’m not.”
“Then it’s a moral objection.”
She gazed at him helplessly. “You don’t understand.”
He cupped her face, drew her upward so their mouths met, colliding in soft passion, igniting sparks he didn’t dare allow to catch fire. “Then explain it to me so I will.”
It took her a moment to gather her wits enough to reply. “I adore Isabella, you know that. I’d do anything to ensure her recovery. But it would be wrong for me to agree to this, wrong on so many levels.”
“It would be temporary, Annalise. Once CPS signs off, you’re free to leave whenever you want. I’ll make sure you’re provided for.”
“You mean money,” she said bluntly. “You mean, you’ll pay me to be your wife.”
He’d never been accused of being a charming man, so he didn’t bother trying to act the part. “I believe it’s called alimony. But if you’d prefer to consider it wages—just like you’re paid wages as Isabella’s nanny—that’s fine with me.”
Her chin quivered. “Well, it’s not fine with me.”
“Because of the money or because you think it’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice broke and she covered her face with her hands. “I just don’t know.”
“Listen to me. I’m not paying you for sex. If you choose to share my bed, it’s because we’re attracted to each other physically. Consider this an old-fashioned, arranged marriage. I’m a man with a child in need of a wife and mother. You’re a woman who has career goals which can more easily be met as a result of our marriage.”
She bowed her head and he waited for endless moments while she weighed her options. Finally, she spoke, her voice whisper-soft. “My father once told me that being a single parent was the most difficult job he’d ever attempted. He never felt he’d done a proper job. The guilt ate him alive.”
Jack forced himself to use her admission, hating himself even as he said the words. “I won’t have that guilt or those concerns, if you marry me.”
Her hands dropped to her sides and he could see tears welling into her eyes. “How long?” she whispered.
“Figure a couple of years, tops.”
Pain ripped through her gaze again. “And then you expect me to simply walk away?”
“You were going to walk away regardless, remember?” he reminded her softly. “You agreed to a two-year contract while you pursued your master’s, and then you were going to teach.”
Her gaze strayed in the direction of Isabella’s room and a hint of panic deepened the intense color of her irises, turning them to amber. “This job is just temporary.” She said it almost as though reminding herself of that fact. “I know that.”
“All I’m suggesting is that you spend those two years as my wife instead of Isabella’s nanny.”
For once her self-control deserted her, leaving her open and defenseless. “It won’t be easy for her when I leave. We’ll have grown attached.”
“I won’t cut you off. I lived that existence, remember? I wouldn’t do that to my niece any more than I’d do that to you. We’ll make the transition as slowly and gently as possible. I won’t prevent Isabella from seeing you whenever she wants.”
To his concern, her tears escaped, streaking down her cheeks. “I wasn’t supposed to become attached.”
“We’ll work it out. You have my word. But all this will be moot if CPS takes Isabella from me.”
For some reason, reminding her of that fact got through as nothing else had. She bowed her head and scrubbed the heels of her palms across her cheeks. “She belongs with you,” Annalise whispered. “She needs you. I want to do whatever I can to cement your relationship with her. That was the whole point in taking this job.”
“Then marry me. I swear you won’t regret it.”
“Yes, I will.” She looked at him. “I’ll probably regret it for the rest of my life. But I don’t think I have any choice.”
The first time he’d seen her, he’d thought her eyes overflowed with ancient wisdom and intense vulnerability. Tonight they also reflected a gut-wrenching devastation. She’d suffered in the past, he sensed, even more than he had. He found he wanted to know her, to dig down through all that pain and uncover her most deeply guarded secrets. As though sensing the direction of his thoughts, shutters snapped closed over her expression and she took a step backward.
“Very well, Jack. I accept your proposal,” she said. “I’ll marry you and do whatever I can to convince CPS to give you full custody of your niece.”
He closed the distance between them, unwilling to allow her to shut him out. They may have chosen to enter their marriage in a cold-blooded fashion, but it wouldn’t continue that way. He slid his hands around her waist and tipped her into his arms. She fell against him, all feminine softness and delicious warmth.
“Don’t,” she pleaded. “It’s too much for me to handle.”
“Handle?” He lifted an eyebrow. “Or control?”
“Either. Both.”
“Then let go. I’ll take care of everything.”
He lowered his head and took her mouth. It was a simple kiss, yet one that created an intense explosion of pleasure. She struggled for a brief instant, more against herself than him. And then she wrapped her arms around his neck and sank into the heat.
He wished he could claim that he was kissing her for Isabella’s sake. But it would have been a lie. Selfishly, he wanted her for himself. Wanted it all. Wanted to right the world for his niece and try to give her some measure of happiness. And he wanted this woman in his bed, to wake beside her each morning. Endless Sundays filled with Family Bed stretched out before him, the mattress overflowing with child and dog, husband and wife. It was a life he’d never known.
It was a life he’d do whatever was necessary to create.