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“But what if she hadn’t been?”
Her tone was full of suppressed anger and disappointment and…some other emotion he couldn’t name.
Why was this so important to her?
There was no point arguing. Yet a twinge of shame twisted deep within him. Nick nosed the car into a side lane and turned into the parking lot beyond. After bringing the Daimler to a halt he switched it off and changed the subject. “This is one of my centers. There’s a café that overlooks a lake. Let me buy you a coffee.”
She wrapped her arms around her middle and turned her head away so he couldn’t read those all-too-expressive eyes. “Nick, I don’t need you to buy me a coffee. I needed you to be there for Jennie.”
“Maybe Jennie would like to see the ducks.”
That evoked a response, though not one that he wanted to answer. “Is that the real reason we’re here? Because you want to show Jennie the ducks?”
Nick searched her frozen features for sarcasm, but couldn’t find any. “My first thought was that I owed you an apology.” He spread his hands. “But it is a good place to show Jennie some ducks. I can’t wait to see her face. She’s going to love it.”
It was the truth. To Nick’s immense surprise, he was looking forward to watching Jennie’s reaction.
The baby’s birth had unleashed a startling realization of all that was wrong in his life. Beginning with his sham marriage to Jilly. A deal to which he should never have agreed. “Nick…”
The uncertain note in Candace’s voice captured his attention. The stiffness had left her face, although her arms were still wrapped protectively around herself. “Yes?”
“You and I need to talk.”
Her expression told him that she wasn’t looking forward to whatever she wanted to talk to him about. After a second’s pause, Nick instinctively knew what it was about.
Damn, he should never have given in to that wild, insane urge to kiss her. God knew what she was making of his bringing her here for coffee.
Dismissively he said, “You’re making too much out of the fact that I want to buy you coffee to apologize. This isn’t a date…or any attempt to change the footing of our relationship to anything more personal—you don’t need to worry about that.”
Nick knew he was lying through his teeth. Despite his promise that there would be no more kisses, he hungered to kiss her again, and see if she tasted as good as he remembered.
But she was good for Jennie…and he needed her for Jennie’s sake. He couldn’t afford to screw it all up and have her leave.
He could sense her stiffening in the seat beside him, and Jennie didn’t help matters by letting out a squawk from the rear seat. “I never thought this was a date,” Candace told him with an edge in her voice.
“Then what do you want to talk about?”
“You and Jennie—but now is probably not a good time. Jennie wants out of the car.”
Candace scrambled from the Daimler as if she couldn’t wait to escape the cocoon of the car’s interior, and the passenger door slammed behind her.
Nick gritted his teeth. Okay, so he’d sure got that wrong. Badly. Sex was the last thing on her mind. Whereas he couldn’t think of much else. All he could think about was repeating the “mistake” they’d made the night before.
Except Nick couldn’t view that kiss as a mistake. Unprofessional? Hell, yes. But a mistake? No way.
Nick had always gone after what he wanted. And right now he wanted Candace. But he didn’t want to spook her and lose her. Nor could he rid himself of the wriggle of discomfort over his ruthless desire to seduce someone who worked for him. He’d never been tempted to do anything like that before.
But then again he’d never experienced anything like this.
He wanted Jennie’s nanny.
And what was more, he was certain Candace desired him, too, despite her cool annoyance. The challenge lay in getting her to admit her desire—especially after all the lengths he’d gone to in order to convince her that he wasn’t interested.
Yet Candace wanted to talk about him and Jennie, the last thing Nick wanted. He never talked about Jennie—about his suspicions that she wasn’t really his daughter.
By the time Nick had gotten himself firmly back in control, Candace had already taken Jennie out of the rear car seat. Nick pressed the key fob to open the trunk, hoisted the stroller out and unfolded it.
He took Jennie from Candace and lowered her into the stroller. She let out a howl of protest and went rigid.
“Hey,” he chided her, “stop that.”
The objection grew more vociferous.
