Pining For You: Jasper Falls Read online

  The coffee pot beeped and the softness in her gaze disappeared. He was keeping her from her books. And he was backtracking.

  Days of avoidance down the drain because he couldn’t control himself. What was this hold she had on him?

  He released her wrist and she turned away. She poured a cup of coffee with a shaky hand, and he couldn’t bear the idea of causing her any discomfort.

  When she put the coffee pot down, he brushed a finger down the back of her exposed shoulder, feather light and gone in less than a second. She tensed. “I’m sorry.”

  “You don’t have to apologize.”

  “I do.”

  She wouldn’t look at him and it was his fault he’d made her uncomfortable in a home that was now hers.

  “The other night…”

  “Please,” she begged, her gaze glued to the counter, her voice shaken and desperate. “I let it happen.”

  “Why?”

  Her shoulders moved with each steady breath. “Does it matter? You changed your mind in the end.”

  And he’d been torturing himself ever since—changing it back and forth so many times he was giving himself whiplash. She was right. It didn’t matter how it started.

  He stepped away, giving her an appropriate amount of space. “Forgive me. I’ll let you get back to your schoolwork.”

  He pivoted and marched out of the kitchen, not stopping until he was locked away in his study, sick with regret and harder than steal. He was fucked.

  Skylar released a trembling breath as soon as he left the kitchen. She’d be lucky if she still had a job come Monday. This entire week had been a nightmare.

  Since their kiss last weekend, they had both been avoiding each other. But this was his home. She wasn’t sure who was the pariah.

  They had both participated in the kiss. Maybe he had started it, but she had been fully invested in finishing it. Even now, simply being in the same room as him made her body ignite.

  When he looked at her with those hungry eyes, her self-control disappeared. She’d never been one to self-sabotage, so she didn’t understand why she would risk the best job she’d ever had by flirting with her boss.

  They were too close, too intimate. That had to be what was confusing her. She needed to establish boundaries that made it impossible to overlook the fact that she was his employee.

  She knew better than to touch him, but what about when he touched her? What about when he stood close and her brain lost focus as it repeated the mantra touch me, touch me, touch me…

  Was it bad if she let him touch her?

  Yes! Ugh. The fact that he shouldn’t touch her only made her want his hands on her more. This was a disaster.

  Taking her coffee up to the third floor, she shut the door and tried to focus on her studying. But thoughts of Rhett kept intruding.

  What was he doing? When he said sorry, what exactly was he sorry for? Was he seeing someone? What kind of women did he date? And why the hell did she think his plans were any of her business?

  She was the nanny. Her job was keeping his kid safe and teaching her things she would need to know before kindergarten. Her job was not kissing the sexy mayor.

  She was no better than the rest of the women in this town. That’s all this was, a simple crush. Rhett Buchanan was an attractive man in an authoritative position. He was charming, because the job required it of him. Women probably threw themselves at him all the time.

  How many times would she have to bear the humiliation of his rejection and withstand that awful look of regret in his eyes before it sunk in. He didn’t want her that way, and that was for the best, because—hello—she worked for him!

  The following day, she’d let Addison watch an extra hour of television so that she could finish her test before noon. It was open book but mostly essays, so she really needed to focus.

  When she finished, Skylar shut her laptop and checked on Addison. “Okay, how about we—Oh, no, what happened?”

  “I decorated the tree!”

  Fragile ornaments were strewn all over the floor and garland was knotted in the branches. The tree leaned cockeyed against the wall, and she rushed over to straighten it before it completely fell over.

  “You have to wait for your father to do the tree.”

  “But he’s always working.”

  “I understand, but he’ll be home this weekend.” A glass ball fell and shattered near Addison’s bare feet. “Don’t move. I have to get the broom.”

  When she returned, Addison wasn’t happy. That made two of them.

  Skylar spent the next hour putting ornaments back into boxes and trying to reason with a disgruntled four-year-old. She wished she could explain why men were so complicated, but that was something even Skylar didn’t fully understand.

  Once everything was put away, she made Addison a PB and J sandwich and promised they could play in the snow after lunch. But before they made it out the door, Erin showed up.

  Skylar was used to her sporadic visits at this point but would prefer if she knew ahead of time when the woman was coming. It would make planning errands a lot easier if she knew which day of the week she’d have money for groceries.

  “Mr. Buchanan needs you to work on something for him,” Erin said, after giving her another hundred dollars for next week’s groceries.

  Skylar glanced at the money and did a double take. “This is two hundred.”

  “Right. Like I said, Mr. Buchanan has a job for you.”

  A job on top of her usual job? “What is it?” The inexplicable urge to please him frustrated her on some level, but she wanted to make him proud. She wanted to make him smile and look at her and hear him say, “Good job, Skylar.” She suppressed a smile. Maybe he wouldn’t say good job. Maybe he’d say, “Good girl… Show me what a good girl you are… show me what else you’ll do to make me…”

  No, no, no, no, no! God, what was wrong with her?

  Erin glanced at Addison who was struggling to put her snow boots on the wrong feet. “Peanut, why don’t you go get yourself a Coke.”

  “No!” Skylar barked then softened her voice. “You can have a juice box from the fridge. No soda.”

  Addison pouted but still went to fetch a juice.

  “I’d prefer it if she didn’t drink soda.”

  Erin raised a brow but didn’t comment. “Anyway, Mr. Buchanan wants you to find a Charming Chinchilla. It’s on Addison’s Christmas list, and he doesn’t have time to search for one. Do you know what they are?”

  Being that all of her aunts and uncles were up at the butt crack of dawn on Black Friday trying to find one, yes, she was familiar with the toy. How was she supposed to get one?

  She frowned at Erin, unsure if she understood the sort of challenge this would be. “They’re really rare, especially this time of year.” She might have to order one from an auction site. “A hundred dollars might not be enough, especially if it’s coming from the black market.”

  “Really, Skylar, it’s a toy. I think you can manage. Do you have a laptop? I’ll show you the one she wants.”

  She really disliked the patronizing way she spoke to her but didn’t want to drag out the woman’s stay by confronting her. “It’s in the den.”

  Erin followed her to the den. Skylar opened her laptop and put in the passcode. Addison returned, needing help punching her straw into her juice box. As Skylar helped her, she heard an email notification ping. “Just minimize my inbox and open a new search.” She handed Addison the juice box. “Drink this in the kitchen. I have to help Miss Erin with something for a few minutes. We’ll go outside as soon as I’m finished, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Erin had the site pulled up and pointed. “It’s this yellow one.”

  “Does it have to be that exact one?”

  Erin looked up at her as if she was an idiot. “Do you think Santa would make a mistake?”

  “No, but I also think he’d have his elves fill the order months ago, not his nanny three weeks before Christ
mas.”

  Erin shut the laptop. “It’s the yellow one. When you get it, let me know. I do all the wrapping at the office.”

  Every time the PA left, the house felt a little cooler. Skylar quickly reopened her laptop to check her mail, but her inbox was empty. Weird, she thought she heard something. Tucking it away, she went to find Addison.

  12

  It took all weekend to find the chinchilla Addison wanted for Christmas, and when Skylar finally found it, the delivery would be hit-or-miss, since it was coming from overseas. Not to mention, with the expense of shipping and handling, the toy would cost close to one hundred and forty dollars. The things some parents did for their kids…

  Skylar ordered it using her personal credit card and texted Erin a screenshot of the total, so she’d know she was owed forty dollars. After that, she spent the day working on a project for her class that required her to come up with an entire unit to teach “Respect in the Classroom” with corresponding lesson plans and sample materials.

  Since the class was virtual, she had to not only provide the lesson plans but put together three videos of her teaching sample lessons with materials. This gave Rhett and Addison plenty of time alone to decorate the tree.

  She was practically brain-dead when she emerged from her room late Sunday night. She’d taken most of the weekend to do schoolwork, and Rhett had used her absence as a chance to order takeout from every restaurant in Jasper Falls—except for Vincenzo’s, of course.

  He sat on the couch, reading over paperwork as Addison cuddled into his side. Skylar tried not to intrude, but there was no getting to the kitchen without passing the den.

  “Skylar,” Addison yelled when she spotted her. It was late and Skylar hadn’t expected her to be awake. Addison slid off the couch and ran over to give her a hug. “Where were you?”

  “I was doing schoolwork.”

  “Wanna watch Elf with us?”

  “Oh, I can’t honey. I just came down to get something to eat and then I have to get back to work.”

  She pouted, her hair unbrushed and her clothing mismatched. “But we haven’t seen you in days.”

  Her gaze met Rhett’s and she regretted looking in his direction immediately. It was the first time she caught him in casual clothes. Barefoot and wearing only loose fitting gray sweatpants, he looked…delicious, like the love child of Magic Mike and a modern day Baron von Trapp.

  Her ovaries did a little jig as she pictured him dancing like Channing Tatum to a naughty rendition of Edelweiss. No wonder there were so many classics about men making love to their governesses. The combination of his authority and good looks was a potent cocktail, and she’d gotten drunk by the mere sight of him enough times to now recognize that she had a problem. She was addicted to staring at and fantasizing about her boss.

  Reading glasses perched low on his straight nose, he looked perfectly disheveled and poetically masculine all at the same time. How was this man still single?

  She glanced at the tree and smiled. It was hideous. The decorations were expensive and lovely, but the garland had been thrown on with amateur effort, and the lights were blinking and racing fast enough to cause a seizure.

  “What do you think?” he asked, closing the file that rested on his lap and tossing it onto the pile of paperwork to his left.

  “I think it’s perfect, exactly how a family decorated tree should be.”

  “We waited for you to do the angel,” Addison announced. “Daddy said we should take a picture.”

  “Oh, okay.” Skylar pulled out her phone and opened the camera.

  Rhett stood and her mouth went dry. His trim waist was carved with muscle and tight from his hips to his broad chest. “Ready?” He hoisted Addison into the air, lifting her higher than his shoulders.

  Strong arms roped with thick sinew twisted into smooth, bulging shoulders. The softest tuft of hair flashed under his arm.

  Addison lifted the angel and Skylar focused the camera. Rhett leaned close to the tree and Addison reached for the top, sinking the angel’s coned skirt over the tallest branch.

  Skylar snapped several pictures—anything to hide how overheated she suddenly felt. “I’ll send these to you.”

  “Thanks.” After he put Addison back on the ground, he adjusted the angel and asked, “Is that straight?”

  “Hmm?” She’d been sorting through the pictures and zooming in on certain pectoral points of interests, not paying attention to what was actually happening. “Huh? What? Yes, looks straight to me.”

  She needed to get out of there.

  As soon as she made herself a snack, she went back to her room to finish up what she could. The project would take another week to complete, but she was making great headway. She also thought she did well on her exam, so all in all, this was adding up to be a pretty decent class, one she hoped to get an A in.

  The next day, Erin stopped by unannounced again as they were eating lunch. Skylar assumed it was to drop off the forty dollars she was owed but that would make too much sense. Every time Erin came by the house, she disrupted the happy, peaceful vibe.

  “Tonight’s the town Jingle Ball,” Erin said, as if Skylar should know what that meant.

  She was aware that for the last three years Jasper Falls had hosted a Jingle Ball, but it wasn’t something she ever attended. “And?”

  Erin scoffed. “Addison needs a new dress. Santa will be there, and all the kids will have their pictures taken with Santa and the mayor.”

  “Santa’s coming?” Addison perked up from where she’d been coloring at the table. “I want to go!”

  “O-okay. What time should she be ready?”

  “You’ll have to bring her there by five. And Mr. Buchanan expects you to work late. He’ll be busy meeting families and taking photographs and you’ll have to keep Addison occupied at the event. Here are your tickets to get in the door. Don’t lose them.”

  “He wants me to attend the Jingle Ball?”

  “Are you listening to me? Yes, he wants you there to keep an eye on Addison.”

  “But I don’t have clothing for a ball.”

  “Really, Skylar, no one’s going to be looking at you. You’re just there to keep an eye on Addison. Wear whatever you want.”

  Her mom and dad went to the ball the year James was born, and they both got really gussied up. Her dad even rented a tux.

  The first hour of the evening was really the only part geared toward the children. The rest of the night was like a wedding reception with music and dancing while white-gloved butlers served hors d’oeuvres. As an employee of the mayor, who was technically the host, it would be inappropriate to wear anything other than a dress or a suit.

  Erin left without paying her the forty dollars for the chinchilla or offering money to buy Addison a dress. Skylar sighed. “Looks like we’re going shopping.”

  They drove to McGinty’s and found Addison a white dress with a red ruffled petticoat underneath. She also needed shoes and tights, which were easy enough to find, but the store had nothing in terms of women’s formal wear.

  In a panic, she called her sister. “Hannah, I need to borrow a gown. Something black and simple.”

  “Sky, I don’t have anything like that. The closest I have to a black gown is the dark blue cocktail dress I wore to the winter formal last year, but your boobs are bigger than mine. It might not fit.”

  She didn’t have time to be picky. “Is it clean?”

  “I think so. It’s in my closet.”

  “Perfect. I’m swinging by to borrow it for tonight.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “The Jingle Ball.”

  “For real?”

  “Don’t ask. Thanks for the dress. I owe you one.”

  Bundling up Addison, she hurried out. Once at her childhood home, she ransacked her sister’s closet for shoes and also stole some jewelry. She would make an excellent burglar, being that she was in and out in five minutes flat. They were back to the mansion by four, and she
needed to get Addison bathed, buffed, brushed, and shined for the ball.

  Once Skylar had her little charge ready, she set her on the couch and turned on cartoons. “Stay here and don’t touch anything that can get you dirty. I have to get changed.”

  She raced up the stairs and basically freshened up with what her grandmother called a whore’s bath in the sink, then squeezed into Hannah’s dress. It was gorgeous, but her sister wasn’t kidding when she said the top might be tight. Skylar’s boobs were bursting out of the plunging neckline and there wasn’t much she could do to smoosh them down.

  She flipped her head over, slicked back her hair, and teased the rest into a bun. Nude silk stockings and midnight blue satin heels finished the look, but she needed something more. Digging through her makeup case, she found a black brow pencil and quickly smoked out her eyes. Her sister’s fake diamond earrings added that final sparkle and she was ready to go.

  Addison gasped when she came down the stairs. “Wow, you look like a princess.”

  “Thanks. So do you. Ready?”

  “I didn’t get dirty.”

  “Good.” Skylar buttoned Addison in her white dress coat. She wished she owned a nicer coat to go with her outfit, but her usual wool peacoat would have to do.

  Walking through snow in heels was always fun. Luckily, she made it to the rec center behind Town Hall without breaking her neck.

  The Jingle Ball was super fancy for their town. They even had valet drivers to park the cars.

  Town Hall was illuminated with classic white twinkle lights, and candles lit each window. The rec center was dressed in hundreds of red poinsettias, and everything was draped in evergreen branches that glittered with gold satin bows.

  Children raced around in beautiful clothing, the little boys with their clip-on ties and the girls in their shiny patent leather shoes. The choir had been arranged on the staircase leading to the second floor and people gathered around the landing as they sang “Silent Night”.

  Families lined up to have their pictures taken with Santa. The air smelled of winter festivities. And guests sipped champagne while the sky outside started to snow.