Chapter Two
Going home to no air conditioning wasn’t the way Austin had planned to celebrate his good news. The AC people would be over later to fix the unit, so he’d have to deal in the meantime. He pulled into the garage, turned off the engine, and walked into the house, the sound of the alarm beep drowned out by music playing.
He stepped inside, feeling the heat immediately. Damn, it was a hot September. He glanced down the hall into the kitchen, where his daughter was wearing a bathing suit and standing in a ballet pose, arms above her head.
“Like this. See? Copy me,” she said to Mia, who complied, her legs contorting into whatever position Bailey demanded.
Legs he couldn’t stop staring at. Strong calves, tanned from playing outside with his daughter and long enough to wrap around his waist while he pounded into her. Way not to think about her that way, he thought, annoyed with himself.
He adjusted his dick and waited in silence until they were finished dancing, giving his body a chance to calm down before announcing himself.
After Bailey twirled around and curtsied, Austin stepped out of the shadows, clapping. “Great job!”
“Daddy!”
She ran to him, and as usual, he scooped her into his arms. “Tell me about your first day of dance class. Looks like you already learned something.”
He listened to her chattering, paying attention so he’d know when to nod, understanding he wouldn’t be getting a word in edgewise and his mind still preoccupied with Mia.
“Who’s ready for me to order pizza?” she asked as she shut the music off on her phone.
“Can I have plain?” Bailey asked. “I don’t like the roni things Daddy likes.”
“Pepperoni,” he said, “and it’s delicious.” He tapped her nose. “Order half plain,” he said to Mia. “I’ll be back down in a few minutes.” He placed Bailey down and he started for the stairs.
“Austin?” Mia called out.
“Yes?”
“Did you see a car parked on the end of the street when you came home? It was there all day and I just thought it was odd.”
He shook his head. “I came in the back way. I’ll go out to the front door and take a look,” he said, his stomach suddenly in knots for reasons he couldn’t put into words.
When he stepped onto the porch and looked down the street, a black car was sitting on the corner, too far away for him to grab the license plate. Not that he had a reason to run down the plate. But any time something odd went on, his thoughts and fears always turned to his ex-wife.
She made it a habit to hit him up for money, both when they were married and when she’d left him the first time. It wouldn’t be odd for her to want something and scope out the lay of the land before approaching him.
He narrowed his gaze on the car in the distance. The sedan wasn’t in front of his house but alongside a copse of trees on a common area where people weren’t allowed to be build homes. The car suddenly pulled away from the curb, did a half turn, and drove off the street.
He shut the door behind him but the uneasy feeling remained. Pushing it aside for now, he headed upstairs to change into a pair of sweats and a tee shirt and wash up before dinner.
A little while later, they were seated around the dinner table. Everyone’s stomachs were full from pizza and their ears from Bailey’s chatter.
“I have news,” Austin said, his gaze on his daughter. “I changed my schedule up at work, and in a few weeks, I’ll be working from home. No more weird late-night hours.” He glanced at Mia, who toyed with her food, finding he couldn’t read her expression or thoughts on the matter.
“Yay!” Bailey clapped her hands. “You can play with me when you’re home!”
He met Mia’s now amused gaze. “Ummm, I’ll be working and you’ll be in school, but if you need me, I’ll be here. And no more missed dinners.” Or danger, which was the key reason for the change, not that he’d mention that to his six-year-old.
“That sounds good,” Mia said, but she bit down on her bottom lip, clearly taken aback by the news.
“Don’t worry. I won’t be under foot. My boss will keep me plenty busy and I’ll be going into the office for regular meetings.”
Her lips twitched in a half smile. “If you say so,” she said somewhat neutrally, although he heard the uncertainty in her tone.
If he were a betting man, he’d say she’d come to the same conclusion he already had. With Bailey in school, they’d be around each other more. Alone without a buffer, making it that much more difficult to keep any simmering feelings under wraps.
* * *
The week flew by and the weekend arrived. From high eighties, the temperature had fallen to the mid-sixties, typical Connecticut fall weather. Unusually, Mia had Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday to herself. Although she was on call if Austin needed her. Today, Bailey’s grandparents were here to visit, and Austin and his parents took Bailey and her friend Lisa for an early morning at the Bronx Zoo before the lines became crazy.
Mrs. Rhodes had extended an invitation but Mia didn’t feel right intruding on family time if they didn’t need her to work, and they insisted they didn’t. The last thing she wanted to do was join them and pretend to be like the big, happy family they weren’t. She knew her place and she planned to stay there no matter how hard it was slowly becoming.
She slept in and then decided to take a walk around the neighborhood in the gorgeous fresh air, something that had become a ritual while Bailey was in school. As she rounded the corner where that odd black car had parked earlier in the week, she was relieved to see it was no longer there.
She would love to walk a dog on her trips around the block, but it wasn’t her place to suggest a pet to Austin. Even if she did think a puppy would be good for Bailey. One of the foster homes she’d lived in had a mixed-breed dog that had slept at the foot of her bed. She knew many people weren’t as lucky as she was in foster care, which was the reason she wanted a big family of kids someday. Kids she rescued from the system as she hadn’t been.
She rounded the corner back to the house, unnerved to now see the same car idling on the corner, only to have it pull away as she reappeared on the street. She rushed inside and shut the door behind her, heart racing but she didn’t know why. She’d just have to mention the car to Austin again.
She headed to shower and she changed into a comfortable pair of black leggings and an oversized shirt. She skipped makeup and pulled her hair into a messy wet bun on top of her head.
Austin texted her to let her know they were on their way home, and she walked downstairs to put out the cold cuts, bread, and salads for lunch.
Soon after, the alarm chime went off, announcing their return. The side door opened and the girls tumbled in, giggling and laughing, the adults behind them.
“Mia! We saw gorillas!” Bailey yelled, her excitement making her voice carry.
“They were so funny,” Lisa said, a grin on her face.
Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes walked in behind the girls, followed by Austin. A baseball cap was backwards on his head and he wore a casual sweatshirt and jeans, a delicious look for the man usually in black slacks and white dress shirt she considered his work uniform. She tore her gaze from his sexy self and glanced at his parents. They were a good-looking couple, making it easy to see where Austin got his looks, and they were warm and sweet, and it was obvious how much they doted on their granddaughter.
“Tell me about gorillas!” Mia said, catching Austin’s shake of the head and finger over his lips too late.
Oops, guess she wasn’t supposed to ask that.
“The gorilla was playing with his privates!” Bailey said on a shriek, followed by uncontrollable laughter—hers, Lisa’s, and even Austin’s parents’.
To her shock, a red flush tinted Austin’s cheeks. His daughter had embarrassed him. Oh my God, how adorably sexy.
She swallowed hard. “Okay, come settle down and eat and you can tell me about the other animals you saw,” she said to the girls. Hopefully the others were better-behaved than the gorillas.
Austin shot her a thankful glance, laughter dancing in his eyes. She grinned and that sexual attraction simmered along her nerve endings.
“Mia, you really should have come along. It was fun to see the various animals. You would have enjoyed it,” Sarah Rhodes said, her voice kind.
She had short, dark hair and brown eyes that reminded Mia of her son’s, while Austin was the spitting image of his father, John, but the older man’s eyes were a mossy green. If his father was anything to go by, Austin would age well, not that she’d had any doubt.
“I appreciate it but I had a nice morning. It was good for Bailey to be with her family.” She smiled at the other woman.
“Mia, this looks wonderful. Thank you,” Austin’s dad said, walking over to the counter where she’d set out a variety of options for lunch. “Let’s eat!”
Mia laughed as the girls beat him to the counter, grabbing plates and putting together their sandwiches.
“You snooze, you lose, Dad.” Austin glanced at the girls. “Easy on the mustard, Bailey Button,” he warned just as she squirted too much onto her bread.
“I’ll help them,” his mother said.
With all the commotion, the sound of the doorbell was muffled, but Mia picked up on it, as did Austin, his gaze flickering with a question toward the front of the house.
“I’ll get it!” Mia walked out of the room and strode to the door. “Who is it?”
When no one answered, she peeked out the side glass pane and saw a woman impatiently pacing back and forth. She opened the door partway. “Can I help you?”
An attractive brunette with a cool stare met her gaze. “I want to see my daughter.”
Mia went mute. Nothing had prepared her for the eventuality of Austin’s ex, Bailey’s mother, showing up on their doorstep and demanding access to her daughter. Wearing a bandage-style dress that was more appropriate for a nightclub than a visit with her child, she assessed Mia, looking her up and down. Considering she’d dressed down, as she always did for her job, she doubted this woman found anything worth noting.
She swallowed hard, her hand still on the edge of the door, not opening it entirely. “I’ll have to talk to Austin.”
“Austin is it? And just who the hell are you?”
Mia straightened her shoulders. “I’m the nanny.”
“Really,” she said with a disbelieving snort.
“Mia? Who’s at the door?” Before she could reply, Austin came up behind her, his big, warm body solid behind hers. “Kayla? What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Daddy, who’s here? Are we having company? Can I say hi?” Bailey’s little voice sounded from behind them and Austin stiffened.
“Is that my Bailey?” Kayla asked, taking a step forward.
“Get Bailey out of here now,” Austin said harshly in Mia’s ear.
His body language, his tone of voice vibrated with barely leashed anger he obviously didn’t want his daughter to hear or see. No more than he wanted to see his ex-wife.
Mia swung around him, scooped Bailey into her arms, and brought her back into the kitchen with her grandparents.
She mouthed who the visitor was to Austin’s parents, and they helped her keep Bailey busy. Mia needed the same distraction. She only wished she could be a fly on the wall to hear what was going on between Austin and his ex-wife outside.
* * *
Austin stared at his ex, furious that she’d show up on his doorstep without warning. Asking to see the little girl she’d mistreated was just ammunition to make him even angrier.
He pulled the door closed behind him so Bailey couldn’t hear and faced Kayla on the front porch. First impressions mattered and one look at her in a skanky dress and heels told him she wasn’t here to kneel down and hug the child she hadn’t seen in two years.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“I think that’s obvious. I want to see my daughter.” But there was nothing maternal in her voice or her demeanor. There was calculating going on behind those eyes. He was sure of it.
“Try again.” He blocked the door with his body, lest she get some bright idea about trying to push past him.
She hadn’t wanted to be Bailey’s mother to begin with. Having a baby, then a toddler was too much work, too hard when she’d rather be partying and spending money.
She stepped closer, the cloying scent of her perfume too familiar and unwelcome. “Come on, Austin. Let me come in. We have a lot of catching up to do.” She followed up her words by trailing her fingers up his chest in a faked seduction attempt neither of them were really buying.
Yep. She wanted something.
“Where’s Marco?” he asked of the man she’d left him for, a bottom-feeder who was only too happy to live off the settlement Austin had given her when they divorced.
She pulled off her sunglasses and met his stare. “We broke up.”
He narrowed his gaze. “Don’t tell me you ran through the settlement money.”
“It wasn’t enough and you know it,” she said, pouting like a child.
“It was plenty when you grabbed it in exchange for custody. Which I have. Sole custody,” he reminded her. “So don’t expect to come sniffing around Bailey now. She’s happier without you.” Because her mother couldn’t be bothered to pay enough attention to her to keep her safe. He cringed at the reminder.
She shook her head. “Don’t fool yourself. Courts take pity on mothers. Especially ones who were coerced into giving up custody in the first place by their ex-husband. The situation wasn’t at all fair and I’ll have no problem telling my story in court.” She blinked up at him, the fake tears in her eyes a definite threat.
“What do you want?” he asked past gritted teeth. Although he already knew.
She wanted more money to go away and leave Bailey alone.
“Pay me,” she said, confirming his hunch. “You owe me for screwing up my body to give birth in the first place.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. There was no way in hell he’d let her near his child. The problem with paying her was if he gave in now, there would be no end to her blackmail in the future. Every time she ran low on cash, she’d return with the same threat of taking him to court to regain her parental rights with a bullshit sob story.
She was a very good actress. Good enough to convince a judge she was a loving mother who’d had her child wrongfully taken away in the first place. Hadn’t he fallen for her claims of love, of having gotten pregnant by accident, of them being in it together… until she was ready to admit to the truth? Pins in his condoms worked wonders. Kayla was a classic walking, talking cliché and he’d fallen for every one of her tricks.
He schooled his face into a bored mask, refusing to show her how much her threat rattled him. “I’m not paying you, Kayla. You got your settlement.” But he needed time to think of a better plan.
She shook her head and smiled. “You will. You’ll walk back inside, take one look at the little girl who looks just like you, and you’ll do anything to keep her away from me. I can wait for you to come around.” She patted his cheek and he flinched at her unwanted touch.
“Go away.”
She treated him to a patronizing wink. “Just don’t take too long. I might get bored and go talk to a lawyer and tell him your girlfriend is a little young. As well as everything else I mentioned.” She pivoted on her heel and strode away.
He didn’t bother correcting her that Mia was the nanny. “Bitch,” he muttered under his breath. He stood outside for another solid five minutes, breathing in the cool air. He needed the time to calm the fuck down before heading inside and facing his daughter.
* * *
Nobody talked about Bailey’s mother’s visit, at least not that Mia heard. The adults were careful of her little, always attentive ears. She was immediately distracted by dessert after her sandwich and she never even asked who was at the door earlier. But Austin had been stressed and on edge for the rest of the afternoon.
Mia took the girls outside to play on the big wooden swing set in the yard, and she was certain Austin used the time to fill his parents in on whatever had gone on with his ex. Her heart went out to him because he’d definitely been anxious and off ever since.
Luckily, Bailey fell asleep early and easily thanks to the morning walking around the zoo and the afternoon outside. Mia had a small television in her room and was going to watch TV, but she wanted a cup of tea first, so she headed to the kitchen, surprised to find Austin sitting in the dark.
“Do you mind?” she asked softly, her hand on the light switch.
“Go ahead.” She turned on the overheads.
He sat in one of the kitchen chairs, looking rumpled and sexy, his hair standing on end from his hand running through it, a pair of track pants on his hips, and no shirt covering his upper body. Her gaze locked on the sexy tattoo trailing up one arm, from his wrist up to, and over, his shoulder, his bare, muscular chest causing flutters in her belly.
“I was just going to get tea. Can I make you some?” she asked. “I picked up some chamomile. It might help you relax.” She guessed the reason he sat in the kitchen was stress over today’s mess with his ex.
“Why not? Nothing else is helping.”
She pulled two mugs from the counter. One of the things she appreciated about this job was the easy instant hot attached to the sink. No taking time to boil water for a cup of hot tea.
“Sugar or milk?” she asked him.
“Plain. Like my coffee.”
She added water, dropped the teabags in the cups, and put sugar in hers only. “I’m a good listener,” she offered, placing his mug in front of him on the table. “And unloading might help your blood pressure a lot more than the tea.”
She waited for him to meet her gaze and nod before joining him, settling into the chair beside his.
“I’m not really sure where to begin.”
She shrugged. “Try the beginning. I find it’s the simplest place.”
A reluctant smile tugged at his mouth. He was so serious and intense, she braced herself and waited for him to find the words to explain.
“I wasn’t in love with Kayla,” he said at last. “We’d barely been dating a month, but she got pregnant. I thought since we were in it together, I should step up and do the right thing,” he said.
She let her tea sit and cool off while she listened, more interested than she should be about his history, for personal reasons more than professional curiosity. She cared about him and his daughter. “Sounds admirable,” she said.
He scrubbed a hand over his face, rubbing his eyes. “Maybe. But the thing is, we weren’t in it together. She got pregnant on purpose and didn’t tell me until after we were married and things went to hell. I guess she thought my job was exciting and I had money to keep her happy.” He snorted at that. “There was nothing happy about her.”
Mia winced, shocked any woman would trap a man—outside a television soap opera, that is. “Why wasn’t she at least satisfied if she’d gotten what she wanted from you?” Mia asked, wondering about the ex-Mrs. Rhodes, who she disliked more with everything she learned about her.
“She bitched about the way the baby changed her body and she was miserable. She once told me she’d made a mistake poking holes in the condoms but she was too far into the pregnancy to do anything about it.” He paused and met Mia’s gaze. “I thank God for that fact every day.”
“I know you do.” She knew how much he adored his daughter, but inside she was disgusted by any woman who could manipulate a good man like Austin. And to then complain about her situation? She couldn’t comprehend it.
“I’m sure you’re curious, so here’s the rest of it. We made the marriage work for two years. And she left me and Bailey for a rich guy she met at the gym… until he got bored, dumped her ass, and she came back. She said all the right things about having learned her lesson and wanting to be a real mom this time. So I took her back for Bailey’s sake.”
He braced a hand on the table and glanced over. “God, I was such an asshole.”
“No.” She pulled her chair closer to his, the warm scent of his aftershave hitting her without warning, powerful, hot, and sexy. All the wrong things to be thinking about now, while he was baring his soul.
“Want to know what I think?” she asked in a husky voice she hoped didn’t betray her yearning. She didn’t wait for his reply. “I think you’re a great dad who would do anything for his daughter. That’s something to be proud of, not to beat yourself up over.”
He shook his head and let out a pained laugh. “Well, it’s a mistake I won’t make again. Not with anyone, but especially not with Kayla. She doesn’t have the patience or the temperament to be a parent. But thank you for saying that about me.” He lifted the mug and gave her a sexy half-smile.
She glanced away. Not sexy. Just a smile. Jeez. She couldn’t contain her thoughts around him for one single second.
“But I do want you to know the reason she can’t be allowed near Bailey again.” He took a sip of the hot tea, drew his tongue over his lips, a movement she couldn’t help but follow.
“Bailey was four… almost five,” he said, bringing her back to focus on what was important. “As far as I know, and hope, too young to remember. I worked late and Kayla was home. Bailey’s schedule was pretty much the same as now except for the fact that it’s later now. And she tries to negotiate harder.”
“She’s good at brokering a deal.”
He shook his head and laughed, but he quickly sobered, his expression turning dark. “She was… is… precocious. All I know is the morning after that night, I helped her get dressed for the day and she had finger marks on her arm. Adult-sized red marks,” he said through clenched teeth. “I asked her what happened. She said, and I can still hear the words, clear as day, ‘Mommy did this,’ followed by big crocodile tears.” He rubbed his palm against his eyes and she ducked her head, giving him a moment of privacy.
Nausea filled her at the thought of anyone hurting that child, let alone her mother. “I’m sorry,” she whispered after a moment.
“Yeah, me, too. Sorry I gave her a second chance. Sorrier I didn’t document it. Kayla didn’t deny it, either. Said Bailey wasn’t getting dressed fast enough, was giving her a hard time, so she grabbed her—hard enough to bruise—and forced her into the pajamas.”
“What did you do?” Mia was almost afraid to ask.
“Saw a lawyer, had custody, divorce, and settlement papers drawn up, handed her a check for one hundred grand, and told her to get the hell out and never come back.”
Mia swallowed hard. “Yet she showed up today.”
“My guess? She ran out of cash. She’s threatening to sue for custody and tell the judge a sob story about how I forced her out of her daughter’s life… unless I pay up. But if I do that, I’ll keep paying, and that’s sure as hell not how this is going to go down.” His grip was so tight on the mug his knuckles turned white.
“I won’t let her near Bailey.”
He met her gaze, his deadly serious. “You see her, you hear from her, you call me.”
She nodded. “I will. I promise,” she said. “Do you think that black car on the street was her?” she asked.
He shook his head. “She had a blue rental today. Maybe she hired someone to watch the house. But that wouldn’t jibe with her running low on cash.” He shrugged. “I don’t know but I’m going to find out,” he said, his stress still obvious.
“It’s going to be okay.” She placed what she meant to be a comforting hand on his arm, hoping to calm him. But it was the first time she’d touched him and the sizzling shock ran straight through her body.
He glanced at her hand and she froze, meeting his gaze. The warmth of his skin seeped into her palm and the heated look in his eyes wrapped around her body like a caress. Physically there was no doubt she desired him but every warning in her brain told her to walk away before either of them did something stupid, and from the darkened hue of his brown eyes, she wasn’t alone in the wanting.
But she had a good job for a man she respected and a little girl she adored. She’d be a fool to let lust get in the way of common sense and living a smart life. Quietly and with his hot gaze on hers, she slid her hand off him.
Shooting him a regret-filled look, she picked up her tea and made her way to bed.
Alone.