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“Yep.”
Audra popped out of her seat. “Julie, you are a genius.”
“Regina is the genius. You get her the pictures. She’ll make a CD that will give Joshua his parents, lessen Dominic’s sense that he’s replacing his brother and maybe free him up enough that you can swoop in and steal his heart.”
“I don’t want to steal his heart,” Audra said automatically. But suddenly she wondered if that was true. If she stopped thinking in terms of commitment or marriage, Dominic was exactly the kind of guy she should date. Someone who would show her a good time. Someone she could relax with. Somebody she liked enough to really be herself.
Hadn’t he been saying that all along?
The following Saturday Dominic took Joshua outside for a walk around the grounds, making good on his promise to get the baby out of the house. Though he had expected Audra to join them, she breezily refused, telling him they would be fine and she needed a few minutes to get some work done.
Stepping outside, technically into his own backyard, Dominic felt a little silly, but only two minutes down the path he really looked at his own property and was amazed by how much beauty surrounded him.
“I really never was one for snow,” he told Joshua as they walked along a stone path. Sunlight glistened off the small drifts. The gardens were knee-deep in sparkling white snow. Benches coated with frosty white.
“Now, your parents. They were the snow freaks. I like to ski, but they loved to ski.”
He stopped. Pain twisted his heart. He could see Peter and Marsha waving from a lift, posing before shoving off and racing down a hill.
“You’ll never know that. I’ll teach you to ski.” He laughed. “Probably badly because I’m not that good. Not like your parents.” Getting his mind off Peter and Marsha and what he couldn’t do, Dominic changed the subject. “What I can teach you is blackjack. I’m not going to be much help with schoolwork or baseball, but, kid, when you turn twenty-one, I will show you the time of your life.”
Guilt invaded again. The only thing he could say for certain that he could do well was take his nephew to Vegas and teach him to gamble. He was about to do a second-rate job in a role Peter would have aced.
Joshua slapped his cheeks.
“I know. You want attention. I already figured out that if I think too much when I’m with you, you’ll slap me.”
The baby giggled.
Dominic laughed. God, he was a mess. Missing his brother. Wishing he could handle all his jobs as well as Peter would have. And alone.
Except for Audra. Who was off-limits. Because she deserved more, better, than him. In fact, now that he was getting along so well with Joshua it was time to end the temptation.
She hadn’t yet worked the full month, but that was okay. He could not only care for Joshua in a pinch, but he also knew what to look for in a new nanny. He could call a service this afternoon and have a temporary at his home by nightfall. Then he and Mary could begin looking for someone permanent.
There was no sense delaying the inevitable. Audra should leave.
CHAPTER NINE
WHEN Dominic stepped into the foyer, Mary met him. “Let me take the little one.”
“Where’s Audra?”
“Waiting for you. She asked me to get Joshua out of his snowsuit and to direct you to go back to the entertainment room. She has something to show you.”
“In the entertainment room?”
“Hey, I’m just the messenger,” Mary said with a laugh, already starting up the winding stairway.
Dominic sighed and headed down the hall. He supposed the entertainment room was as good a place as any to tell her he would be calling an agency and getting the ball rolling to hire a real nanny, freeing her. His heart jerked a bit. He’d be lonely without her. But the new nanny could do all the day-to-day things Joshua needed, and now that Dominic was slipping into his role of dad, he’d do his part, too. There was no sense in Audra staying any longer. And plenty of reason to get her away from him before he couldn’t resist temptation.
When he reached the entrance of the entertainment room, he pushed open the double doors. His parents had created the small theater long before video tapes and DVDs had become popular. It was the one nod his dad had made toward family time. Though he hadn’t joined them often, he had come along for Christmas movies, played on a real movie screen.
The reminder made Dominic shake his head as he walked into the room, past the pool tables and two rows of modified recliners that faced a large-screen high-definition television that had replaced the old white screen. It reminded him again of why he felt shaky about his parenting abilities. His dad had been a total wash as a father.
