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“For the scholarship.”
“You earned it.”
She pulled out of the car, then reached in and retrieved the car seat. “All set.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She motioned to the kitchen door. “I’ll just follow you in. We’ll give the car seat to my mom and have her assign someone to put it in your SUV.”
Dominic said, “Great.” He started toward the door, but the diaper bag strap slipped off his shoulder and landed with a thump on his forearm. That caused the bottle to fall. The already-wet baby blanket billowed beside the bottle and even the baby looked precarious.
“Damn it.”
Joshua began to cry and Audra grimaced. Obviously feeling sorry for him, she reached for the little blue bundle of joy. “I’ll take the baby. You put the bottle in that side compartment on the diaper bag. Then put the diaper bag in the car seat and the wet blanket behind the diaper bag and then carry the car seat.”
Dominic handed Joshua to her. “I swear I will learn how to do this stuff.”
Baby on her arm, she headed for the door again. “Of course you will. All new parents need a little time.”
Reminded of his brother and sister-in-law and how silly they’d been, fussing over Joshua in the first days after his birth, Dominic sucked in a breath to control a burst of sadness, as he shoved the bottle into the diaper bag.
“Yeah. Well, if there’s one thing I don’t have, it’s time. When Marsha’s mother discovered she had cancer and the doctors recommended she begin chemotherapy immediately, I had to take Joshua. Now. Today. I don’t have a nanny, so I’ll be walking the floor with him tonight. Without a clue of what I’m doing.”
Almost at the door, she glanced over her shoulder at Dominic. Her pretty eyes filled with concern that she quickly masked with a big smile before she said, “You’ll do great.”
Joshua dropped his rattle and without a second’s hesitation, she dipped, scooped it up and tucked it in her coat pocket—not giving the dirty rattle back to Joshua—and without missing a beat in the conversation.
“Waiting for my sisters to come home, I’ve walked the floor. At two o’clock in the morning it seems like hell, but then you cuddle the baby against you and whisper sweet things, and he settles down. You’ll feel like a million dollars because you could soothe him.”
Tucking the diaper bag into the car seat, Dominic stood in awe. She didn’t merely know what to do. She knew what not to do, and both appeared to be second nature to her.
“I’d give you just about anything you wanted if you’d help me tonight.”
Audra laughed.
“I’m serious.” He took a breath and glanced at the baby in her arms who was no longer crying but appeared very happy nestled against her chest. Dominic studied the calm baby and the woman holding him for only a second before he said, “Except, I’d want more than one night’s help. If you could spend the next month with me while I interview nannies, I’d make it worth your while.”
She winced. “Sorry. No can do. I have a job.”
“I know you have a job. I paid for you to get your degree, remember? I’m not asking you to help me forever. Just the three or four weeks that I’ll need to interview nannies.”
When she opened her mouth to argue, he cut her off, saying, “Look, I’m smart enough to recognize when I’m in over my head and smart enough to recognize a person well qualified to get me out. Plus, you’re from a family I know. I can trust you. If we need to juggle a few things, I’m in the right circles and have enough clout that no matter who employs you, I can arrange for you to get the time off.”
She reached for the knob on the back door. “Even if you could arrange it, I can’t take time off right now. I have a big money problem that I have to solve. That’s why I’m here. My mom volunteered to talk me through it.”
“You have a money problem?” Standing in his snow-covered driveway in front of the huge Tudor-style mansion that had been in his family for generations, he motioned in a circle with his hand. “Look around. The one problem I don’t have is money.” A few quick strides brought him beside her. “If you need money, I’m your guy. Didn’t I just say I’d pay you handsomely?”
“My problem’s too big to be covered by the salary of someone you’d hire to be a nanny for a few weeks.”
“How much money would you need to get out of trouble?”
She sighed. “Dominic, it’s too much—”
“Nothing is too much.” He nodded at Joshua. “He’s my family. For Manellis, money is no object when it comes to family.”
