The Unexpected Nanny - A Single Daddy-Nanny Short Romance Read online

  The Unexpected Nanny

  A Single Daddy-Nanny Short Romance

  By

  Michelle Love

  ©Copyright 2017 by Michelle’s Romance-

  All rights Reserved

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher.

  All rights are reserved.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilogue

  Passion. Desire. Love.

  When a single father takes his little girl to the toy store to pick out a present for her third birthday, the last thing Aiden expected was to find his daughter, Joy, a nanny.

  As a customer service rep at a toy store and a nursing school student, the last thing Skye ever thought she’d be presented with was being asked to be the nanny to one of her favorite horror author’s kids.

  Years of being alone but not realizing something was missing in his and his daughter’s lives, Aiden finds the woman he’s employed waking up parts of his body and mind which have lain dormant since his wife’s death.

  A sexy secret turns into a bit more as the horror author, and his nanny find themselves in a tryst neither wants to end. But will Aiden risk his daughter’s happiness to have love?

  Chapter One

  Aiden

  Laughter was all I could hear as my little, three-year-old daughter, Joy ran through the aisles of the children’s toy store I’d taken her to for her birthday. With no idea what to buy her, I decided to bring her so she could pick out exactly what she wanted. Not that she needed a damn thing. Her playroom was full of things. But birthdays merit presents, so there we were.

  As a single father of a little girl, I often found myself wondering what Joy wanted. I sometimes erred on the side of too girly for her at times. She had a streak of tomboy in her I could already see. She wasn’t a thing like her mother had been.

  Joy’s mother, my wife of four years, met with an early death that nearly had me losing my daughter as well. The two had gone on a boat ride with a friend of my wife, Tanya’s. A male friend I knew nothing about. Nor did I know they were going out on his sailboat that day. I found that out when I was visited by a set of police officers at my home where I’d barricaded myself in my study to finish the novel I’d been working on.

  It was they who told me they needed me to come with them to the hospital. My wife and daughter had been in a boating accident. It had capsized when a sudden storm came up. All they knew for certain was that the coast guard had been called, the people on the boat were found, and two out of three of them were dead. One was hanging on by a thread after drowning but had been resuscitated by one of the coast guards. The officers apologized to me as they knew nothing more than that.

  They found me by finding a small, zippered, plastic bag that was found in my wife’s pocket that had her identification, her cell phone, and a business card with my name and information on it. Also on that card was a picture of me, holding our one-year-old as I had my arm wrapped around my wife, giving the authorities the knowledge they’d gained about who I was to the victims.

  To say my heart was in my throat the entire way to the hospital just doesn’t begin to describe how I was handling the news. Numb, mostly was how I felt. Dizzy, sick at my stomach, and praying that by some miracle I would get to the hospital to find them both alive, instead of only one of them.

  My prayers went unanswered that day. I was taken to the lowest floor of the hospital first. There I found my wife when they pulled out a stainless-steel tray from a small door on the wall that was full of them. Her wedding ring was still on her finger. The helpful doctor pulled it off and placed it in my hand as he said, “Can you identify the man who was found with them for us? He didn’t have any identification on him. We don’t know who to call about his death.”

  I didn’t really want to see another dead person, but I suppose that little thing most of us have inside our brains that tells us to be helpful no matter what our problems might be had me saying, “Sure.”

  Leaving my blue-skinned wife with soaked, stringy brown hair where she was, the doctor opened another little door and out came a man I did recognize. “That’s the guy who cuts our grass. Julio. His family lives on the south side of Miami. I think I have his card at home in a drawer in the kitchen. I can call you with it when I get back home, I guess.”

  “Could you possibly have someone go find that?” one of the officers asked me. “It’s pretty important to notify the family as soon as possible.”

  “I guess there’s no one better to trust than a cop. If I give you the code to get in and tell you where to find the card, can you go take care of that? I mean, my daughter’s here, somewhere. I may not leave here for a while.” I realized then that I was too calm. Way too calm!

  When the doctor handed me the plastic bag that had been in my wife’s pocket, and I saw her cell inside of it, I placed my hand on one of the officer’s arms. He looked at it then at me. “You okay?”

  “No,” I said then, as it felt as if the floor was moving in waves under my feet. “Not at all.”

  I suppose they caught me when I passed out. I had never fainted in my life. And when I woke up to find the three men looking at me, and the doctor shining a light in my eyes, I sobbed. And I continued to keep crying even as they helped me to sit up on the cold floor of the morgue.

  Even though I was beyond distraught, I had an idea the cops could find Julio’s phone number on my wife’s cell. “Take out her phone and see if Julio’s name is on her contact list.”

  One of the officers did as I’d said and when he looked at the phone, I could see it written all over his face as he said, “Yes, here’s his personal cell and his home phone. And there’s a text here. It’s… Oh, nothing. Anyway, I have the number to his home. Let me make the call. Do you think you should be seen by a doctor, Mr. Cooper?”

  “I don’t know what I need. I believe it might help me to see my daughter.” I was picked up and helped to the bathroom where the very nice officers helped me wash my face, and pull myself together a bit. Then they escorted me to the elevator. “You read something in her text messages about her and him, didn’t you?”

  “That’s nothing you need to focus on right now, Mr. Cooper. You have a daughter to worry about. Focus only on that. For now, she’s the only thing in this world that matters,” one of the men said to me. And he was right.

  It was about two days later before I allowed myself to look at my wife’s phone and her texts. She and Julio had been having sex for about a month it seemed. He too was married, and I didn’t feel it necessary to let that poor young woman know about the affair. Why hurt her?

  She was naïve and never asked why my wife and kid were out with her husband on his boat. Either it never occurred to her it wasn’t something people did with the guy who cuts their grass or she was one of those women who hide their head in the sand about their husband’s infidelities. I just wished I could’ve been as naïve as she was.

  Instead, I was driven to find out everything I could about what my wife had done. My daughter was recuperating in the hospital, and I found myself going through everything Tanya owned. Her laptop was the motherload of information. Emails had b
een exchanged by the lovers.

  There was even one about divorcing me, taking half of everything I had worked so hard for and running off with him, taking my baby with them. It’s safe to say, if those two hadn’t perished in a tragic accident then I might’ve ended up in prison for murdering them both. So, like they say, some tragedies are meant to happen.

  At least my daughter was going to live, and she and I could make our own happy family. Fuck her cheating whore of a mother!

  In the two years that passed after Tanya’s death, I made my daughter, Joy, my entire life. I’d written a few books that did really well and gave me a nice nest egg. So, I could take an extended vacation to settle into my life as a single dad to a daughter I adored.

  But that nest egg was running low, and it was time for me to get back on the hamster wheel of writing. My work had given us a very nice lifestyle, and I wasn’t about to lose it all because I hadn’t gotten my shit completely together. My libido was zilch, my mind was blank, and my inspiration was nada.

  Somehow, I had to make the magic in my head work again. I knew it was a thing I needed to do, but I had no idea how to do it. So, when my little girl started jumping up and down and screaming that she wanted a toy that was up too high for me to reach, I went looking for someone to help me get it down, and I found a surprise that would change our lives.

  Chapter Two

  Skye

  On a typical Wednesday, I was working the afternoon shift at Kid’s Toy World, in my hometown of Miami, Florida. Just getting back from a fifteen-minute break I’d spent on my laptop, turning in assignments for my online classes I was taking in hopes of one day becoming a nurse, I smoothed out my baby blue smock.

  A mess of long, blonde spiral curls a little cherub of a girl had going on, bounced around her adorable, little round face as she barreled toward me. “I found a monkey!”

  Her words had me a bit confused, so I asked, “A real one?”

  The little girl stopped and laughed, holding her tummy as she did. “No, silly! A stuffed one! You’re so funny!” She took my hand in her chubby, small one and led me away with her as she went on and on, “I like monkeys. I want a real monkey, but Daddy won’t let me have one until I’m big enough to take care of it, my own self. And he says that monkeys can bite you on account of the sharp teeth they have. So, my monkey might have to go to a monkey dentist and get its teeth pulled out. But I think that’s too mean. Don’t you think that’s too mean, lady?”

  The pause in her rambling gave me the chance to answer her, “I do think that’s a bit mean.”

  “See, I knew it was. Daddy says it’s not as mean as if that monkey bit me and he had to put it in the zoo. Anyway, a stuffed monkey will have to do for now, and I found me a great big one. Only I can’t reach it and even my very tall daddy can’t reach it. So, he said we needed to get some help, and you look like the right person to help Daddy and me. And has anyone ever told you that you’re very pretty and you smell like cotton candy? You don’t have any more of that stuff, do you? Cause I like cotton candy very much and today is my birthday too so I can have some if you have any left.”

  “Happy birthday,” I said when she took a breath.

  “Joy!” a deep voice called out. “What in the world made you think you could run off like that? I was worried sick. I nearly called the police!”

  We stopped and turned around as the little girl batted her eyelashes at me. “Oops, I forgot to wait for Daddy. This is my daddy, nice lady.”

  “I can see that. You two look just alike,” I said with a smile. “The same blonde curls hung around the tall, muscular man’s face. His ocean blue eyes sparkled as he gave me a shy nod.

  It was hard to believe he was looking so timid. He was an Adonis. They could’ve made a statue out of him and women everywhere would flock to see it. “I’m sorry for shouting at you, Joy. It’s just that you shouldn’t ever run off like that, baby.” He came to us and scooped her up in his strong arms. I couldn’t help but notice how his huge biceps bulged under his tight teal colored T-shirt. And the way his daughter was refusing to let my hand go had me standing so close to the man that I could smell the coffee he must’ve had earlier. It mingled with a musky scent that was all him.

  “Um, little girl, you can let go of my hand now,” I said as things felt more than a little awkward.

  “No,” she simply said. “Daddy, this nice lady will help us get my monkey.”

  “That’s nice,” he said then gave his kid a kiss on the top of her head. “But you’re making her feel uncomfortable. You need to let her hand go, pumpkin.”

  “But I like her,” she said, and my heart melted a little.

  “And I like you,” I told her. “You can hold my hand if you want to. Come on, let’s go get your bear.”

  “Monkey,” she corrected me.

  “Monkey, yeah I meant that.” I had to walk backward as she held my hand and it felt a little like her dad, and I were dancing as we went to the aisle the toy was on.

  There was a ladder not too far from there, and I looked at it then at the little girl’s grip on my hand. I had no idea what to say to her. And when I caught her father’s eyes, he saw my distress. “Joy, she has to go get the ladder. You have to let the nice lady’s hand go.”

  When she released my hand, it felt more empty than it had ever felt. “Okay,” Joy said then smiled and whispered something in her father’s ear as I walked away to get the ladder.

  I heard her, and her father snickering behind my back and felt my cheeks heat with embarrassment. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I was fairly sure it had to do with me. I was always body conscious. I was what some called well-endowed. I called myself fat.

  My mousy brown hair was pulled into a high ponytail, and I had spilled a bit of chocolate milk on my smock. I didn’t usually care what I looked like when I was at work. But that day with that gorgeous guy there, I cared a lot!

  When I pushed the ladder that was on wheels over to where the monkey was, I found the guy looking me over. “So, Skye, that’s a cool name.”

  I was shocked he knew my name and asked, “How do you know my name?”

  He and his daughter laughed liked hyenas as he pointed at my name tag. I felt like an idiot, and my blush went one shade deeper as I climbed up the ladder to retrieve the monkey. How would I recover from that?

  When I pulled the toy off the shelf, I heard the guy as he said, “Hand him on down here, sweetie.”

  Sweetie?

  “Here you go, honeybunch,” I said with a smile as I held out the stuffed animal to him. Then I saw his daughter as he had her held up so she could reach some other toy.

  When my eyes met hers, she went into another fit of giggles as she said, “You called my dad, honeybunch!”

  I couldn’t speak, I was utterly humiliated. Then he spoke, “I think she was talking to you, Joy.”

  “Yeah, I was,” I said much too quickly as I climbed down the ladder, still holding the giant monkey. “Here you go, Joy. Can I help you find anything else?

  “Um, I think this is enough toys for me today. My daddy’s takin’ me to eat at my favorite place when we leave here. Do you like chicken nuggets?” Joy asked me.

  “Are you kidding me? Who doesn’t?” I said with a smile then tousled her curls. “Your daddy’s very good to you, isn’t he?”

  With a shrug, she said, “I dunno. I guess he is. I mean, I don’t have nobody else to compare him too.”

  “Okay, Joy, let’s get going. This nice lady has work to do,” her father said then took her hand as he carried her stuffed monkey. She carried the doll she’d picked out in her other hand and looked back at me as he tugged her to leave me.

  “Um, uh, I wanted to see if you could go to lunch with me,” the little girl said.

  “Joy, she’s working,” her father said as he kept on going.

  I stood there, like an idiot, just watching them leave and feeling so damn odd for reasons I couldn’t grasp. The way the little girl kept
looking at me with her big blue eyes was unnerving.

  He took her around a corner, and I lost sight of them. Turning around to put the ladder back where I’d got it, I saw a cell phone sitting on the edge of one of the shelves. It had to be the kid’s dad’s. Picking it up, I hurried after them.

  I found them, standing in a line. Some woman was trying to talk to the little girl, commenting on her gorgeous curls. But Joy was burying her face in her father’s leg as she held tightly to it. “I’m sorry,” her father said. “She’s very shy.”

  The kid I’d met was anything but shy!

  As I made my way to the guy, the lady remarked, “That’s an enormous monkey, where do you plan on putting him?”

  Joy still ignored the woman who I got the feeling was trying to get the kid’s attention to get to her daddy. Her father said, “Don’t be offended, Miss. She never talks to anyone. Well, except for the lady back there. That was the first time she’s ever talked to anyone, other than her grandparents and me. It’s crazy, really.”

  I stopped for a moment to let that sink in. She liked me!

  Shaking my head to clear it, as it didn’t matter at all if that kid liked me or not, I stepped forward and said, “Sir, I think you forgot your phone.”

  Joy’s head turned my way, and a smile split her face. “Hey, did you decide to come eat lunch with us?” She jumped up and down as she came to me and actually held up her arms for me to pick her up. Which I did without thinking about it at all.

  Before I could say another word, my shift manager walked passed me, saying, “Skye, you have to take your lunch now, or you won’t get one. You have one hour.”

  “K,” I said then I was stuck as Joy had heard what he’d said. “You can come to lunch with me. Lucky me! This is my best birthday ever!”

  I caught the other woman’s eyes as she gave me the once over. “Her grandmother?” she asked with a smirk.

  Joy’s father wasn’t smiling as he said, “No, just someone Joy’s decided to cling to. So, are you free to go to lunch with us, Skye?”