Chance ran to the foyer but he was too late. A small crowd milled around, saying goodbye to his mom, but Tory and her parents weren’t among them.
“Say goodnight to the Stevensons, Chance.”
He faced his mother with a smile and did his family duty. He could hear car doors slamming, engines starting and he wondered if he’d have a nanny when he went home.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE SOUNDS OF TORY with the kids woke Chance the next morning and he breathed a sigh of relief. But instead of jumping out of bed to help her, he pulled the cover over his head.
Had he actually kissed her the night before?
Yes. Because he was an idiot. He didn’t know what had happened at that party. But he couldn’t blame Kate. She’d only read what she’d seen on his face. He did like Tory better than any other woman he’d met. But he shouldn’t have kissed her. Not only was he a poor judge of character with resultant trust issues. But also, damn it! He needed Tory. Yes, he liked her. But she was his nanny. He needed to respect their employer/employee relationship and most definitely shouldn’t have kissed her!
She’d run out like Cinderella and was probably intending to quit today all because he had no common sense.
He tore off the covers.
Of course he had common sense. The kiss had been a mistake. He would apologize and they would move on.
He rolled out of bed and nearly walked into the nursery shirtless. Until he remembered how his blood heated every time she looked at him, and his muscles tightened. She had a way of making him feel he was the first man she’d ever looked at. If he was trying to stay away from her, was it really wise to see her without wearing a shirt?
With a groan, he grabbed a T-shirt, jerked it on, and headed for the nursery. He opened the door and stepped inside just as she looked up from the changing table.
Their gazes caught.
She swallowed and turned away.
Embarrassment flooded him. He didn’t know why he was tongue-tied around her. He didn’t know why feelings kept rolling through him, making him want more from her than their boss/nanny relationship. But whatever was happening, it was wrong. It had to be. Otherwise, he’d be smoother, suave, his normal, flirtatious, sweep-women-off-their-feet self. Since he wasn’t, no matter what his instincts kept insisting, these feelings had to be wrong. And he would not give in to them again.
He strolled inside as if everything was fine. That he hadn’t kissed her. That he hadn’t potentially ruined their working relationship.
“Hey.”
Her voice was soft, breathless and an avalanche of desire tumbled through him, tightening his muscles, heating his blood, but he ignored it.
“Before we say anything I want to apologize for kissing you. I’m sorry.” He moved their conversation past his awkward apology by pointing at Sam who bounced in the walker. “Looks like you’re almost done with them.”
“Yes. They’ve been bathed and fed.” Lifting Cindy from the changing table, she sucked in a breath. “Chance, we still need to talk.”
She wasn’t going to let him off the hook with his breezy apology. She was going to quit. And he’d deserve it.
“Please don’t quit. I’m an idiot and I swear I won’t kiss you again.”
She silently passed Cindy to him, and her hand immediately went to the collar of her simple T-shirt. Her fingers closed around a thin gold chain. When she pulled it from beneath her shirt, a diamond ring came with it.
He frowned.
She caught his gaze. “I’m engaged.”
It took a few seconds for that to sink in, but when it did, his heart stopped. “You’re engaged?”
“Yes.”
He fell to one of the rockers. So much for his instincts that kept telling him Tory was attracted to him. It was no wonder she ran when he kissed her. “I am so sorry.”
She cleared her throat. “It’s okay. I don’t actually wear the ring, so you had no way of knowing.”
The dual devils of his mistrust of people in general and women in particular sat on his shoulders and nudged him to forget his embarrassment and go directly to righteous indignation. She was engaged? But she’d danced with him, flirted with him. Instead of him owing her an apology, his demons insisted that she owed one to him. And by God, after the torment of hellish guilt he’d suffered since that kiss, he was getting one.
“It’s mighty convenient that you don’t wear the ring.”