Sunny set her jaw and turned to face Liam.
“You can question my credentials all you like, Mr Anderson,” she said. “But I refuse to abandon these children. Unless you plan on physically removing me yourself, I’m not going anywhere.”
He had accused her of being unprofessional, so why not show him what unprofessional really was? What did she have to lose at this point?
Liam stared her down, his blue eyes glittering like shards of ice. She could practically see the muscles pulsing in his clenched jaw as the internal conflict played out on his face.
Finally, he squeezed his eyes shut and released a gruff sigh, some of the tension seeping from his broad shoulders. When his gaze met hers again, it was softer — still guarded, but tinged with the barest hint of…shame?
“That won’t be necessary,” Liam said gruffly, looking troubled as he uncrossed his arms.
Sunny’s throat unclenched. She could finally breathe again.
Liam met her gaze, that penetrating stare laden with unspoken feelings.
“I reacted rashly, and for that, I’m sorry,” he said, his voice low and faltering in a way Sunny had not heard before. “Your commitment to the girls is beyond question, Sunny…as is your place in this home. If you’ll still have us.”
She could only nod mutely, rendered speechless by the entire saga.
Gathering the girls back into her arms, Sunny hugged them tightly as they clung to her with desperate relief.
“You hear that, sweetpeas?” she managed in a soft tone. “Everything’s okay. I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”
Maddie sniffled against Sunny’s neck. “Not ever?”
“Not if I can help it,” Sunny vowed.
A fragile truce had been brokered between the adults, yet Sunny still wasn’t entirely sure what had driven Liam’s outburst.
She would maintain her distance from him while honoring her commitment to this family. After this morning, keeping her distance from Liam seemed like a decidedly easier prospect. Though fate always had a way of upending everyone’s carefully laid plans.
Liam
Liam slammed the door behind him as he stormed into the bedroom, his head pounding with a mix of anger, guilt, shame, and something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
The argument with Sunny had been intentional — a calculated move on his part to create a rift and drive her away before this thing between them went any further.
But seeing the utter devastation on Maddie and Hailey’s faces when they thought their nanny was leaving had ripped his heart out. The way they had instantly come to Sunny’s defense, pleading with her to stay, made him feel like a complete and utter scumbag.
Liam sank down on the edge of his huge bed, the heated exchange fresh in his mind.
Accusing Sunny of being under-qualified and questioning her credentials had been a low blow. The lowest of the low, in fact. She had been nothing but patient, nurturing, and professional with the girls since arriving.
He knew full well that Sunny was more than capable of handling his rambunctious daughters. She had an effortless way about her that calmed their tantrums and made them light up. It was enchanting to witness…and that’s what terrified Liam the most. The thought that he was losing his girls. That they were being taken away from him.
Since Kate’s death, he had been their entire world. Now in comesthis new ray of light that seems to have them dazzled. His ego had taken a battering. There was also Kate. She was the girls’ world at one point. Was it smearing her memory to have this new woman in the house, so effortlessly connecting with her flesh and blood? Was Kate slowly being replaced, extinguished from all their lives? Would the love of Liam’s life simply fade from memory, as if she never existed?
There was so much entangled here. So many complicated and uncomfortable emotions wrapped up in Sunny being a part of the Anderson household. So Liam decided to do what he always did when things got complicated, when things got too real. Nuke the problem. No analysis. No trying to resolve the issues. No personal growth. Just launch a bomb and destroy everything. A bit like throwing fists on the ice rink. Violence and aggression were the solution. That way he didn’t have to face up to anything. But that strategy had backfired spectacularly. Now he was left to confront his turbulent thoughts.
Just a year ago, he had been a completely devoted husband to his beautiful wife. She had been the sun that bathed their world in warmth and light. But that warmth had been brutally extinguished, leaving him adrift in a frozen wilderness, struggling to be the father his girls deserved.
Sunny’s radiant smiles and infectious laughter made him feel a spark of life again. Her tender touch as she nursed his injury after the brawl at the rink made his pulse race. It soothed his soul.
As much as he was terrified to admit it, Sunny was reigniting emotions in him that he thought had died along with Kate. He was slowly but surely developing feelings for the younger, vibrant nanny. And that felt like a sickening betrayal of the wife he had loved with every fiber of his being. An insult to Kate’s cherished memory.
Worse, he was painfully aware that Sunny felt the spark betweenthem too, no matter how hard she tried to remain professional. He saw it in the flushed rosy hue of her cheeks whenever they accidentally brushed against each other in the hallway. He saw it in the way her breath hitched and her pupils dilated when he would let his gaze linger too long on her full lips or tantalizing curves. Liam Anderson was a stupid oaf, but notthatstupid. Especially when he shared a home with the person in question.
They were both trying to suppress the growing tension, the magnetic pull drawing them closer with each passing day. Liam tried convincing himself it was just pent-up male lust after going so long without female companionship. Sunny was a beautiful woman, after all. It was only natural his body would respond accordingly, even if his heart was still in mourning. It was an automatic, primal response, far removed from any notions of tenderness or love. At least, that’s what he desperately wanted to believe.
