An Unexpected Father Read online

  Harper nodded. “Well, I left dinner on the stove, waiting for you. I’ll go down and heat it up a little while you visit with the boys. Then, when I come upstairs, we’ll trade places and you can go down and have dinner. How’s that sound?” she wanted to know.

  “Yes, ma’am, that sounds fine,” Brady responded, saluting her.

  The twins dissolved in a fit of giggles, as if they had been privy to a great joke.

  Their response warmed Brady’s heart. He realized how much he had missed the sound of their combined laughter these last few days.

  He also realized, when he went back downstairs a little later after Harper had warmed up dinner, just how right all of this felt to him: coming home at night to find Harper there. Waking up in the morning to the sound of her moving around, usually in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for everyone.

  It wasn’t the meals—which were always uncommonly good—it was her presence in the house that made the difference. That made his house feel like a real home. He knew he really didn’t want to go back to the way things were.

  * * *

  “Well, I think I finally got them to both fall asleep,” Harper announced when she walked into the kitchen some thirty minutes later.

  Brady had just finished eating the dinner she had warmed up for him. “Great. Sorry, I didn’t mean to disrupt your nighttime routine,” he apologized.

  “You didn’t disrupt it,” she told him with a warm smile. “You coming in at that time was only a slight setback. Besides, this is your house,” Harper reminded him. “You have a right to come in any time you want, you know.”

  He really wanted her to know what a difference she had made in all their lives. “You know that I appreciate you doing all this. I couldn’t have managed any of this without you. I couldn’t have survived all this without you,” he amended with emphasis.

  Her eyes crinkled as her smile grew wider. “Glad I could help.”

  “Yes, about that...” Brady began, searching for the right words to take advantage of the opening she had just given him.

  Harper was about to pick up his empty plates. Something in his voice stopped her and she looked at Brady. “Yes?”

  Here goes nothing, he thought. “Will you reconsider becoming a live-in nanny?”

  She didn’t answer immediately. Instead, Harper thought of all the complications that had arisen at her last job. Being a live-in nanny for the Wheelers had ended with unwanted advances, a terrible misunderstanding and an ultimate boot from her job.

  Harper took a breath. “My immediate answer,” she told him honestly, “would be no.”

  Brady realized that it would mean extra work and he thought that was what she was talking about. “I wouldn’t expect you to say yes without offering you compensation for the extra time,” he told her.

  She shook her head. He didn’t understand, she thought. “It’s not about the money,” Harper told him.

  He stopped her right there. “I understand that. It’s about the twins. But you have to know that they function so much better when you’re around. You can make them do things that I just can’t. In the few short weeks that you’ve been part of their lives, you’ve gotten Toby and Tyler to listen, to sit still and to, if not behave, then to almost behave.” He laughed dryly. “I don’t have to worry if the house will still be standing when I get home at night.”

  “Now you’re exaggerating,” she told him.

  Brady’s dark eyes met hers. “Am I?” he wanted to know.

  “Well, at least a little,” she allowed with that easy laugh of hers that always seemed to get to him.

  He decided to lean on her good will. “It would really be helping me out,” Brady told her. “And not only that, but it would also be great for the twins. C’mon,” he coaxed. “What do you say? At least give it a trial run. You’ve got nothing to lose,” Brady reasoned, “and the twins would be thrilled to have you around all the time.”

  She had never been good at saying no and she was having more and more trouble saying no to Brady. That in itself worried her, but for now she pushed that aside and into the background.

  “Well,” Harper said slowly, already beginning to relent, “I guess I can give it a try.”

  “Terrific! I promise you won’t regret it,” he told her enthusiastically.

  Brady almost forgot himself and reached out to hug Harper, but he knew that would be totally unprofessional. Stepping over the line.

  So he held himself in check. The last thing he wanted was to give her the wrong idea about him—even though it could, just possibly, be the right one. The truth of it was, he did find himself having feelings for her. But those feelings could very well destroy the best thing he had accidentally stumbled across.

  A loving nanny for the twins.

  So he restrained himself and merely offered Harper his hand.

  “Here’s to a really great working arrangement,” Brady told her, the corners of his mouth curving.

  “At least temporarily so,” she qualified, shaking the hand he offered.

  Brady laughed, finally rising from the table. He was holding his empty dinner dishes. “I’ll tell you one thing. You do keep a man on his toes,” he said.

  She raised an eyebrow. “You mean off-balance?” she asked as she took the dishes from him. Harper brought them over to the sink.

  “Yeah, that, too,” he agreed, laughing.

  Because it was true, he thought. She did keep him off-balance. But lately, especially after these four trying days, he was beginning to find himself leaning in a certain direction, a direction that no longer placed such emphasis on being a bachelor, carefree or otherwise. More important things were beginning to take front and center in his life. Namely the twins—and Harper.

  * * *

  Within another day, Toby’s illness was a thing of the past. Very quickly, he was back at preschool and back to his former, very energized self.

  “Guess what!” Toby cried, bouncing up and down one afternoon when Harper came to pick him and his twin up from preschool.

  Two days had gone by since he had returned to school and it was as if he couldn’t even remember ever being sick.

  Harper pretended to concentrate in order to come up with an answer. “Your teacher was finally able to tell you and your brother apart?” she teased.

  “No, she still can’t do that,” Toby told her. “But that’s not exciting,” he pointed out.

  Yes, he was definitely back to his old self, Harper thought. She noticed that Tyler looked as if he was bursting with news, as well. Any second now, she knew the twins were going to start competing with one another and jockeying for position.

  “All right, spill it. What’s so exciting?” Harper asked the boys.

  Toby and Tyler answered her in unison. “We’re gonna be in the school pa-pa—in the school play,” they finally said.

  She’d heard that there was going to be a spring pageant, but she thought that was just something that they meant for parents and children to attend and she planned to join the boys and Brady. The thought of actually seeing Toby and Tyler on the stage, performing, had never occurred to her.

  “Really?” she asked, mentally taking her hat off to the brave teacher who was going to be in charge of herding the little darlings onto the stage.

  “Yeah, really. Guess what we’re going to be,” Toby said, dancing from foot to foot.

  She shook her head. “I don’t have a single idea. What?” she asked.

  “I’ll give you a hint,” Toby told her magnanimously. And then he hopped.

  “Rabbits?” Harper guessed.

  “No!” they cried together. This time they both hopped, then Toby loudly cried, “Rib-bit!”

  “We’re green,” Tyler hinted, lowering his voice.

  “Frogs?” Harper guessed, playing along.

  “Yeah!” Toby happi
ly declared. “We’re frogs. You gotta make our costumes,” the twin added as if she should have already known that.

  Terrific, Harper thought. She forced a smile to her lips, then said, “Great.”

  Tyler, ever the practical one, suddenly looked at her and asked, concerned, “You know how to make costumes, right?”

  There was no doubt about it. The boy just warmed her heart, Harper thought. “Lucky for you, yes, I do.” At least well enough to pass for a costume, she thought.

  “Teacher says we’ve gotta learn our lies. Can you help us with that, too?” Toby wanted to know.

  Lies? And then it hit her. “Lines, Toby. The word is lines. And yes I can,” she told him.

  He nodded, then looked a little mystified and asked, “What’s lines, Harper?”

  “Lines are the words you’re supposed to say when you’re on the stage.”

  “Learning lines sounds hard,” Tyler decided.

  She didn’t want them getting disillusioned so easily. “Not really,” she told the twins. “It’s like a game. It’ll be fun,” she promised them.

  Tyler beamed at her. “Everything’s fun with you, Harper.”

  “Thank you,” Harper replied, giving the boys one huge hug. “I feel the same way about you.”

  “Do you think Unca Brady will want to come to see us be frogs?” Tyler asked.

  “Oh, I know he will,” Harper answered.

  “But he’s gonna be working,” Tyler worried. “We gotta do it in the daytime.”

  “Oh, he’ll find time for this,” Harper promised the little boys. “He wouldn’t dream of missing you guys.”

  “You really think so?” Toby asked, dubious.

  “I know so,” she assured the boys. She saw Toby and Tyler exchanging looks and grins.

  When they grinned like that, it was usually a sign that they were up to something. But for the life of her, Harper hadn’t a clue what that could be. For now, she put that sort of thing on the back burner.

  “C’mon, boys. Let’s go see your teacher so I can get a copy of the script and help you two memorize your lines.”

  “Yeah, let’s!” Toby declared as he and Tyler both took one of her hands in theirs and went back to their classroom.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Did ya see us? Did ya see?” Toby cried, all but flying off the stage after the class performance was over. The people in the audience were still applauding, but both the twins were excited and eager to find out how the two most important adults in their lives liked seeing them in the play.

  “Yes, we certainly did see you,” Brady answered, glancing at Harper. The latter was beaming her approval at the twins. “You were both fantastic!” he said.

  “You were the most adorable, believable frogs I have ever seen,” Harper said, adding her voice to Brady’s. Turning her head so that only Brady could hear her, she whispered, “And their teacher did a brilliant job harnessing all that little-boy energy of theirs and putting it to good use.”

  “You can sure say that again,” Brady agreed with a laugh.

  “Say what again? Huh? Say what?” Toby asked, his head popping up in Brady’s direction, all but whirling around, first going toward Brady, then to his nanny, finally back again.

  “That you were both brilliant playing those frogs,” Harper said, thinking fast.

  Spotting their uncle Adam and his wife, Laurel, the twins waved at the pair. “There’s Larkin’s mommy and daddy,” Tyler told Harper, pointing them out to her in case she didn’t see the couple.

  “Honey,” Harper began, pretending to grow serious with the boy, “what did I say about pointing to people?”

  For the space of a second, Tyler hung his head. “Not to,” he answered solemnly. Still, to him pointing out their family seemed like something perfectly normal for him to do.

  What Tyler said next caught both her and Brady totally by surprise.

  “When you and Unca Brady get married, can we be a family like them?” Tyler wanted to know.

  Harper felt all the air completely rush out of her lungs, leaving her somewhat dizzy and disoriented.

  Brady saw the expression on Harper’s face. She looked as if she had just seen a ghost. He hadn’t a clue why she was reacting that way. Did she find the idea of being with him so terribly distasteful, he wondered.

  He was going to have to ask her about that later. Right now he felt that he had to say something to keep the twins from asking Harper a lot of possibly uncomfortable questions.

  Maybe it was his imagination, but he couldn’t help thinking that she seemed as if she wanted to bolt.

  “Hold it, boys. Nobody’s getting married. Harper is your nanny, not my girlfriend,” he reminded the twins pointedly.

  Tyler looked at Harper, obviously disappointed. “Is that true?”

  Harper nodded. Nice save, she thought, although at the same time, she felt a twinge of disappointment herself. “I’m afraid so,” she answered out loud.

  She needed this job and she knew that the kids needed her. And Brady, she thought, needed her to keep the kids reined in.

  Even so, right now all she wanted to do was run away as fast as she could.

  Harper closed her eyes for a second, doing her best to exercise control over her reaction. Otherwise, she was going to make herself crazy.

  Because she didn’t know what else to do, Harper found herself beginning to put up walls between herself and Brady.

  But even doing that somehow didn’t feel right to her.

  * * *

  For the next few days she did what she could to focus on the job as well as on the twins—and on nothing beyond that. Especially not on their handsome guardian.

  But it wasn’t easy, especially when circumstances kept throwing her and Brady together.

  Circumstances like the upcoming Easter holiday and all that entailed.

  As was to be expected, the twins had outgrown their nicer clothes, which meant that Harper needed to take them shopping for new outfits.

  “Do we gotta go shopping?” Toby complained, fidgeting at the very thought of having to get new clothes.

  “Tell me, do you want to get Easter baskets?” she asked the twins.

  “Yeah!” the boys cried in unison.

  “Well,” Harper told the duo seriously, “the Easter Bunny told me that only good little girls and boys who wear their brand-new Easter outfits will be getting those Easter baskets.”

  The twins looked at each other, stunned. “For real?” they questioned.

  She nodded her head solemnly. “For real,” she told them.

  Toby sighed as he looked at his brother. And then speaking for both of them, he said in a totally resigned voice, “Well, I guess if we gotta, we gotta.”

  Glancing over her shoulder, Harper flashed a smile at Brady. The latter looked very impressed. In his experience, even the twins’ parents couldn’t manage them the way that Harper could.

  Since it was a Saturday, all four of them drove to the local shopping center to go shopping.

  Once in the store, Harper swiftly made a number of selections for the twins to try on.

  Tyler surprised them by keeping a positive outlook on this unwanted excursion. “And if we get new Easter clothes, does that mean we can go on the Easter egg hunt at Unca Brady’s hotel?”

  “It’s not my hotel,” Brady corrected the boy. “But yes, if you two get new Easter outfits, you can go on the Easter egg hunt.” It seemed like the perfect trade-off, he thought.

  Getting the go-ahead on that succeeded in firing up the twins’ imagination. “Can we get a pet rabbit, too?” Tyler wanted to know.

  Not waiting for his brother to get an answer, Toby jumped in with a question of his own and, in typical twin fashion, he upped the stakes. “How about a pony? Can we get a pet pony?” he asked eagerly.

 
Not to be outdone, Tyler piped up with another request of his own. “I want a pet dinosaur.”

  Meanwhile, as these negotiations were going on, Harper was subtly getting the twins to try on the outfits she had chosen. She eased each boy into the clothes as she continued to distract them by getting them to talk about the pets they wanted Brady to get them.

  “What kind of dinosaur?” she asked innocently, as if buying one was actually even a possibility.

  “A big one!” Tyler cried.

  “Yeah, a big one,” Toby yelled enthusiastically. “And green! We want a green one!” he declared.

  Damn but she was good, Brady thought, admiring the way Harper worked. She was stimulating their imaginations so that they didn’t even realize that she was getting them to try on the various outfits.

  The woman really had skills. Brady silently tipped his hat to her.

  A passing saleswoman paused to watch this mini-performance with costume changes and nodded with approval. “Your wife is really very good with your children,” she told him. “Most parents I see around here, especially around the holidays, usually wind up losing their tempers, screaming at their kids to behave and stop squirming around while they’re getting them to try on new outfits.”

  The saleswoman smiled as she nodded at Harper. “You’ve really got yourself a good one here,” she told him. Then she turned to the twins. “You boys listen to your mama.” The woman eyed the outfits that Harper had draped on the side of a chair. “Looks like she’s found some really nice clothes for you to wear for Easter.” Digging into her pocket, the older woman took out two little plastic bags. Each was filled with a rainbow of jellybeans. “Is it all right if I give them these little bags of jellybeans?”

  Harper saw the eager, pleading look on the twins’ faces. “Yes.”

  The twins practically cheered as the woman said, “Here you go, boys,” and handed each twin a bag. “Happy Easter.”

  The title the saleswoman had bestowed on her had Harper flustered. “I’m not their mother,” she told the woman. “I’m their nanny.”