Marrying the Northbridge Nanny by Victoria Pade

a great deal to him for some reason, but he wasn’t giving any clue why. And he was so obviously sensitive about it that she didn’t feel free to probe. In fact, from the frown that was marring his face once again, she could see that he was regretting that he’d admitted it to her at all so she let him off the hook and went on.
    “Okay, number three,” she said.
    “Number three…I suppose if I wouldn’t let you use chocolate, I can’t use bacon.”
    “No. But do you have bacon in your pocket right now in case of an emergency?”
    That made him laugh again—what Meg was hoping for when she’d asked the outlandish question.
    “Wouldn’t your super-nose be able to smell it if I did?”
    Meg laughed. “Oh, good one,” she commended his comeback.
    “No, I don’t have bacon in my pocket. I just have a weakness for it.”
    “No weaknesses for—your rule. Come up with something else.”
    But they passed Adz restaurant and bar then—the local hangout where everyone gathered, particularly after the Bruisers’ games. Logan asked if she wanted to go in for a drink.
    That would have meant being with a lot of other people rather than being alone with Logan, though. And while it was what Meg knew she should have done to diffuse the sense that this had evolved into a date after all, she couldn’t do it.
    So she declined that offer and they went the rest ofthe way down Main Street to where Logan’s SUV was parked at the school.
    As they headed for home, Meg returned once again to their weaknesses conversation. “Number three.”
    “Hmm, let’s see…What if I say I have a weakness for the nanny?” That came with a sideways glance at her and a sly smile.
    “Another weakness for and you’re just saying that to slide by anyway.”
    “Am I?”
    Oh, the wicked smile that accompanied that!
    It was enough to heat Meg to the core and leave her leery of pushing this game any further.
    So she sighed and, as if she still didn’t buy that he had a weakness for her, conceded facetiously, “Fine. You have a weakness for me.”
    He smiled the smile of a mystery man and then changed the subject. “Can we talk about this next week instead?”
    “Things aren’t working out and you’re firing me?”
    “I think things are working out great—aren’t they for you? Are you not happy with us?” he asked, sounding suddenly concerned.
    “No, I was just joking. I’m really happy,” she said in a hurry, realizing as she did that despite the fact that it had only been a short while since she’d become Tia’s nanny, she had felt better during that time than she had in months, that she hadn’t had a single bout of fretfulness or anxiety. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
    “Just that I have to leave town for the next week.”
    That definitely didn’t make her happy…
    “Oh,” was all she said as he pulled onto his property and drove around to the garage and her apartment.
    “It won’t change anything for you—Hadley will still be home when Tia gets up in the mornings and won’t go to work until you come over. Dinners will be the same, and Hadley will take over with Tia after that if you want. It’s just that I won’t be here.”
    Which, for Meg, somehow put a gigantic hole in the picture. And telling herself that was silly, that he wasn’t a part of her job or her reason for being there, didn’t help to fill that hole.
    “Where are you going?” she asked, hoping the question sounded merely conversational and friendly.
    “Connecticut and New York. I have business to deal with in both places, I have to close on the sale of my house in Connecticut, and I promised to help Chase in New York with some things for his move here. I figure it’ll take about a week altogether. But like I said, everything with you guys should just go on as usual except that it’ll be Girls’ Club. Is that okay?”
    It didn’t feel okay. But it had to be, didn’t it?
    “Sure,” she said with manufactured cheeriness.
    Then,