out if he was attracted to her, but couldn’t get past the weirdness of having to ask the question.
“Hi,” she said, holding out her hand. “I’m Phoebe Salvia. You must be Declan. Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
Connor motioned to Elijah. “Come see the ants. They’re really happy in their new home and they’re busy all the time.”
The boys raced down the hall.
Phoebe shook her head. “All that energy. I just want to crawl back in bed and read for a couple of hours.” She handed him the backpack. “His batting helmet is in there, along with a clean T-shirt, just in case.”
“Good thinking. So the plan is what Sunshine discussed. I’ll drop him off between three and four.”
“That’s perfect. I have a huge list of errands to get done today.” Her smile turned impish. “We can’t all have a nanny.”
Declan knew she was teasing, but still felt a little uncomfortable with the topic. “We’re lucky to have her.”
“Yes, you are. Maybe instead of a raise, I could ask my boss for nanny credits.”
“What is it you do?”
“I’m a manager at a large insurance company.”
“Oh, that’s...”
“Don’t say interesting.” She laughed again. “Seriously, it’s not, but that’s okay. I’m responsible for three call centers and a hundred salespeople, so the work is challenging, but whenever I say insurance, people immediately tune me out.”
“I won’t do that.”
“I’m happy to hear that.” She glanced down the hall. “Please don’t say anything encouraging about the ant farm to Elijah. There is no way on this earth I’m paying to have ants in the house.” She shuddered.
“I will discourage any ant farm conversation.”
“Thank you. Well, I should probably get going.”
She hesitated a second before opening the door. As if waiting for something.
While they’d been talking, Declan had forgotten to be nervous, but as soon as she lingered, he suddenly felt like a fifteen-year-old unable to keep from having an erection at a funeral.
“Good luck with the errands,” he said. “I have your cell if I need to get in touch with you.”
“Yes, you do.” Her tone was pointed.
Crap. Double crap.
Not knowing what else to do, he reached around her and held open the door. “I’ll see you this afternoon.”
“Have fun with the boys.”
She waved and walked out of the house. He closed the door behind her, then shook his head. He was totally and completely hopeless, he thought, unable to shake the sense of having missed something.
He didn’t want to deal with any of this, he thought as he started for Connor’s room. He didn’t want to have to figure out if he liked someone or if she liked him. He wanted things to be easy, like they were with Sunshine. Around her, he was always comfortable—well, except for the wanting her part. Not that it was her fault she was so incredibly hot. But it was more than that. He liked talking to her. They found the same things funny, they never ran out of things to say. If she wasn’t his nanny, he would ask her out in a second.
But she was his nanny and he didn’t want to lose that or screw up what they had. Which left him with the social graces of a twig and the knowledge that he really wanted to get laid.
* * *
Alec saw Bianca sitting out in the garden. There was nothing unusual with that—the afternoon was warm and sunny. However, what caught his attention was the fact that his mother was smoking. He’d never seen her smoke before and went out to investigate.
She looked up as he approached the stone table, but didn’t say anything. Sure enough, there was a pack of cigarettes next to her, and an ashtray.
“You’re smoking.” He tried not to sound accusatory, but wasn’t sure he was successful. “You’ve never been a smoker.”
“Oh, Alec, the things you don’t know about me could fill volumes.”
She sounded sad and resigned, not at all the woman he knew. Her face was lined and she looked much closer to her actual age than he’d ever seen her. He sat next to her.
“What’s wrong?”
“Margot tried to quit.”
His gut clenched at the words and it was all he could do to keep from running inside to demand that she not leave. An unexpected reaction he would study later.
“What happened?”
Bianca inhaled deeply, then blew out smoke. Her movements were practiced. When had she started smoking and why didn’t he know?
“Nothing happened,” his mother said. “It’s all ridiculous. She took me to a beauty pageant this morning. I was to watch