Dream Wedding: Dream Bride | Dream Groom (19 page)

Perfect, he thought. “When can you start?”

She raised her eyebrows. “You’ll want to check my references, first. I don’t have a formal résumé with me, but I can leave names and phone numbers with you.”

“Yes, of course.”

Ryan knew he was going about this all wrong. He knew he had to check on Cassie Wright and make sure she would take good care of Sasha. He just didn’t have any experience in this sort of thing. “Assuming everything checks out, can you begin in the morning?”

She thought for a moment. “I’ll have to make some arrangements with the preschool, but I believe that would be fine. Do you want me to live in, or just work days?”

“Live in. The house is huge and there are several guest rooms. You can have your pick and—”

Sasha threw back her hands and released her spoon. The piece of flatware sailed straight into the air. Cassie reached up and grabbed it. As she did so, he caught a glint of light from her left hand. A ring. He should have known. Of course it wasn’t going to be this easy to solve his child-care problems.

“I doubt your husband will appreciate you staying in the house,” he said, trying not to sound like a kid who just had his bike stolen. “Perhaps you can fill in during the day until I can find someone to live in.”

Sasha wiggled to get down and Cassie helped her to her feet, then smoothed her skirt back in place. She frowned. “I’m not married.”

He pointed to her left hand. “You’re wearing a ring.”

She glanced down, then extended her fingers toward him. “It’s not a wedding band, it’s a promise ring. I’m engaged to be engaged. Joel and I have been dating for years.”

As she looked to be in her early twenties, he doubted it had really been years. A promise ring. He’d never heard of that. He leaned forward to study the slender band. There was a mark in the gold. “It’s scratched,” he said, pointing to the indentation. “Did you hit it?”

“It’s not a scratch, it’s a diamond.” She sighed. “Well, a diamond chip, rather than a real stone.”

He leaned a little closer, then took her hand in his so he could study the diamond chip. It looked like a speck of lint, but if he turned her hand back and forth it
almost
caught the light. Looked like Joel was not much of a spender.

“It’s very nice,” he told her.

“Thank you.”

He released her hand and straightened in his chair. “If you’ll leave me the phone number of your employer, I’ll call and check the reference. Then I can phone you later and confirm our arrangements for tomorrow.”

He sounded so formal, Cassie thought as she resisted the urge to smooth her hands against her thighs. Her fingers were still tingling from where he’d touched her. She didn’t want Ryan to guess that she was nervous. Fortunately he couldn’t hear the jackhammer pounding of her heart or know that her knees were practically bouncing together like bowling balls.

She’d never seen a man like him before. Of course she wasn’t around that many men in the course of her day. Harried fathers picked up their children from the preschool. There was the UPS driver, although the new one was a woman. All in all, except for her sister’s husband and Joel, she lived in a world of women.

Ryan was talking about the terms of her employment. He’d named a generous salary that far exceeded what she earned at the preschool, and was explaining that because her employment was for only two months there wouldn’t be a benefit package, although he would be happy to reimburse her for her medical coverage during that time.

She nodded her agreement because it was a little hard to talk, what with her throat closing up and all. He was so incredibly sophisticated and worldly. Helen, his sister-in-law, had often talked about Ryan’s business, his early success, how driven he was. He’d always been too busy to visit, even after Sasha was born. He was the younger of the two brothers, but older than Cassie, probably by eight or nine years. At least she’d thought ahead enough to wear her best summer dress, even if it was doubtful he’d noticed anything about her other than her ability to care for Sasha.

“I believe that’s everything,” he said. “If you can write down the phone numbers.”

She did as he requested, all the while telling herself not to stare. She didn’t usually have problems around people she didn’t know, but Ryan was different. Part of the reason was he was so good-looking. He had a strong-jawed face with perfectly chiseled features. She could barely bring herself to glance away from his dark green eyes. It had been hard enough to maintain her equilibrium when they’d met at the memorial service, but at least there she’d had lots of other people to distract her. But here there was only Sasha, and the two-year-old was no match for her dreamboat uncle.

Cassie finished writing out her phone number and handed the paper to Ryan. She knew she was behaving like a schoolgirl with her first crush, maybe because he
was
her first crush. After all, the only boy she’d really noticed was Joel and they’d been dating forever.

“I’ll call you this evening,” he said in his well-modulated voice.

She had to fight back a sigh. Between his handsome face and his smooth-as-Godiva chocolate voice, he could be on television or in the movies. But instead he was in Bradley and she was going to work for him.

Sasha had wandered into the living room and was watching a video. “I’ll just slip out,” Cassie said quietly, as they passed in front of the open door. “I don’t want to upset her by saying goodbye.”

Ryan looked relieved. “The tears are the worst part.”

“They pass quickly and then there are lots of smiles.”

He didn’t look convinced.

When they reached the front door, she thought about risking a second handshake, but the first one had about made her swoon, so instead, she waved. “I’ll talk to you soon,” she told him and walked quickly down the front stairs.

* * *

F
IFTEEN
MINUTES
LATER
she let herself in through the back door of her house, an equally large Victorian mansion in the small town of Bradley, California. Unlike the house Ryan’s brother had bought three years before, this one had been in the family since it was built in the late 1800s.

Cassie made her way up to her room without encountering her aunt. Normally she loved to talk with Aunt Charity, but for once, she needed to be alone.

When she reached her bedroom, she moved to the window seat and sat down on the thick cushion. It was too dark to see the well-manicured backyard, but she wasn’t staring out the window for the view. She didn’t see the lace curtains that matched her bedspread, or her own reflection in the glass. Instead she saw Ryan Lawford, tall, broad, handsome. The perfect hero.

She drew in a deep breath, then released it as a sigh. If only someone like him could be interested in someone like her. The thought made her smile. She might be the romantic dreamer in the family, but she wasn’t a fool. She was too young, too unsophisticated, too ordinary. Men like him fell in love with fashion models, or at the very least with beautiful, charming women like her sister, Chloe. Besides, she had Joel. While it was fun to fantasize about Ryan, she knew it was just a game. She loved Joel as much today as she had on their first date, nine years before.

Enough daydreaming, she thought. She should really start packing. After all, she knew exactly what Ryan was going to hear when he checked her references. Actually what she needed to do was call her boss and tell her that she was taking a two-month leave of absence from her job. Mary, her boss, wouldn’t be surprised. They’d discussed Ryan’s situation several times since they’d heard the news about Sasha’s parents’ death. They’d known that a single man was going to need help learning to deal with a toddler. Mary had been the one to encourage Cassie to visit him in the first place.

Cassie made the call and laughed when Mary told her that Ryan had already checked her out. “I gave you a glowing report,” Mary said. “He’s never going to want to let you go.”

“I doubt that,” Cassie said.

They chatted for a few more minutes, then hung up. Cassie crossed to her closet and pulled out her suitcase. She would take a few things in the morning, then come back for more clothes as she needed them.

As she reached for her makeup bag on the closet shelf, her hand bumped against a flat box. She caught it before it could tumble to the ground, then carried it over to her bed.

She didn’t have to open the box to know what was inside, but she lifted the lid anyway, then stared at the familiar ivory nightgown. It was beautiful and old-fashioned with long sleeves and a high neck. Lace edged the cuffs and collar. She rubbed her fingers against the soft, aged fabric. Six weeks, she thought. Six weeks until she knew if the legend would come true for her.

She placed the lid back on the box and forced away the twinge of longing that threatened to overcome her. All she’d ever wanted was to belong, to have a place in the family history. The town of Bradley had been established by Cassie’s mother’s family. Bradley was Cassie’s middle name, but only by law. Not by birth.

She reminded herself that being adopted meant that she’d been chosen. They’d really wanted her. But the familiar words didn’t help very much. Chloe was their child by blood—they’d made that clear when they’d left her the family house in their will. Cassie’s inheritance had matched in money, but not in legacy.

“Maybe with the nightgown,” she whispered to herself, wishing it could be true for her, but fearing she wanted the impossible.

Legend had it that a family ancestor had saved an old gypsy woman from being stoned to death several hundred years ago. In gratitude, the women of the Bradley family had been given a nightgown said to possess magic powers. If they wore it on the night of their twenty-fifth birthday, they would dream of the man they were going to marry. If they married him they were guaranteed great happiness for all their days.

Nearly five months before, Chloe had worn the nightgown and dreamed of a handsome stranger. She’d met him the next day and they’d fallen in love. Cassie desperately wanted the nightgown to be magic for her, too.

She twisted the promise ring on her finger. Her dreams weren’t fair to Joel, but he swore he didn’t mind. They’d talked about the nightgown several times. She’d told him that she didn’t want to get engaged until after her twenty-fifth birthday, now just six weeks away. He always told her he wasn’t in any hurry, that he knew she was going to dream about him and waiting was just fine.

Cassie told herself she should be grateful. Not many men would be so patient. But sometimes she got tired of his patience and his willingness to wait. She wanted to be swept away by passion. She wanted to be overwhelmed. She wanted to feel the magic.

“Not tonight,” she told herself as she returned the nightgown to the closet. The good news was that in the morning she was going to move in with an incredibly handsome man who made her whole body tingle just by being in the same room with her. The fact that he barely knew she was alive was a small detail, something she would deal with another time.

CHAPTER TWO

C
ASSIE
PULLED
INTO
the driveway of the Lawford house at exactly 8:25 the next morning. She assumed that Ryan would expect promptness on her part and she’d promised to arrive by 8:30. After parking her car to the left of the garage, she popped the trunk and pulled out her suitcase, along with a bag of toys she’d borrowed from the preschool. She’d stopped by there on her way over to pick up a few of Sasha’s favorites.

I can do this,
she told herself as she stared up at the imposing facade of the house.
I can get through the next several weeks without making a fool of myself.

Cassie smiled. Of course she
could
get through her period of temporary employment without doing something completely humiliating. The real question was
would
she? She started up the walkway. She didn’t really have a choice in the matter. She’d said she would help and she would. The fact that Ryan made her want to hyperventilate when they were in the same room was something she was going to have to deal with on her own time.

She was still ten feet from the door when it was flung open and the man who had haunted her thoughts, and humiliatingly enough, her dreams for the past fourteen or so hours, appeared on the porch.

“Thank God,” he said, hurrying toward her and taking her suitcase. “I didn’t think you’d ever get here.”

She glanced at her watch. “I’m on time.”

“I know. It’s not that.” He hesitated before stepping back into the house, as if he were an escaped soul being forced to return to hell. “We’re not having a good morning.”

Cassie gave him a quick once-over to check out his appearance. The poor man did look a little harried. There was a juice stain on his light blue shirt, one of his athletic shoes had come untied. He’d cut himself shaving and his hair was mussed. All this and it was still relatively early in the day.

“A problem with Sasha?” she asked sympathetically, knowing the toddler was thirty-plus pounds of pure energy and motion.

He closed the door behind her and set down her suitcase. “The worst. She’s been crying.”

Cassie had to bite her lower lip to keep from laughing. While she was sorry that Sasha was having a tough start to her day, Ryan had uttered the statement with all the solemnity and worry of a man talking about flood, famine and pestilence.

“It happens,” Cassie said, working hard to keep her expression serious.

“But how do you make it stop?” He ran his hand through his hair and shook his head. “I’m completely at a loss. She looks at me with those big tears rolling down her face and I panic. I’ve told her I’ll give her anything she wants if she just stops crying.”

“You might want to rethink that philosophy,” Cassie said. “It could get expensive in years to come. Plus it’s never a good idea to give away power in the parent/child relationship. They’re going to learn fifty different ways to play you as it is. Trust me on this.”

His green eyes darkened. “She’s asking for her mother.”

Cassie’s good humor faded. “I’m not surprised. This is a difficult time for both of you.”

The previous day she’d seen Ryan as a cool, sophisticated businessman, but now, standing in the foyer of his late brother’s house, he just looked confused. “What am I supposed to say?” he asked. “How do I tell her that her mother isn’t coming home and I’m all she’s got?” His mouth twisted. “They screwed up big time leaving that kid to me.”

“No, they didn’t. If leaving her to you had been a mistake, you wouldn’t be worried about her feelings. You’d just be going on about your day and not giving her another thought.”

His gaze locked with hers. “Then I’m the biggest bastard in town because that’s exactly what I want to do.”

She read the pain in his face, the questions. Having kids around could be difficult under the best of circumstances, but Ryan didn’t even have the advantage of experience. He and Sasha were strangers.

“It doesn’t matter what you
want
to do,” she said quietly. “We all have thoughts we’re not proud of. Fortunately we’re judged on our actions, not our fantasies.”

He didn’t look convinced. “Will she get over losing her parents?”

Interesting question, Cassie thought. “Yes, but not in the way you think. She’ll eventually stop asking for them. We can try to explain what happened in simple terms and she’ll accept it. But she’ll always carry an empty space around inside of her. She’ll always wonder how it would have been different if her parents had lived.”

“You sound like you know what you’re talking about.”

“I do. I’m adopted. It comes with the territory.” She forced a lightness into her voice. “Everything will be fine. You’ll see. Look at how great I turned out.”

His gaze lingered on her face. “Thanks for listening. I don’t usually dump on relative strangers.”

She had a feeling he didn’t talk about his emotions with anyone, but she didn’t say that. “No problem. The advice is worth about what you paid for it.”

“No, it’s worth a lot more than that.” He motioned to the family room off to the right. “She’s watching a video. What did parents do before VCRs?”

“I have no idea.”

“Thank God for technology.” He picked up her suitcase. “I’ll take this up to your room. I’ve put you across the hall from Sasha. I hope that’s all right. The room is pretty big and it has its own bathroom. Everything is clean. From what I can figure out, a cleaning service comes through about once a week.”

“I’m sure the room is fine,” she said, as he headed for the family room. She wished there was a way to prolong their conversation. Ryan’s confession of his feelings had only added fuel to the fire that was her infatuation. After all, now he was more than a pretty face—he was also emotionally tortured. How was she supposed to resist that? It was just like a scene out of
Pride and Prejudice,
she thought dreamily as she walked into the family room. Ryan was Darcy, proud and standoffish. She was plucky Elizabeth. In time he would realize that she was the—

“Cassie!” Sasha shrieked in delight when she saw her. The toddler grinned, then pointed at the television. “Toons.”

“I know. Are they fun?”

Sasha nodded, her short curls flying up and down with the movement of her head. Cassie could see the lingering trace of tears on the child’s face and resisted the urge to pull her close and hug her. There was no point in upsetting the little girl’s happy mood. There would be plenty of tears later for her to cuddle away.

She settled on the floor next to Sasha and listened to her chatter about the video. While the fact that Ryan was handsome and sophisticated added a little spark to her temporary job, she knew she would have taken it even if he’d been an old man, or even a woman. Because no matter how she daydreamed about her boss, the reality was she’d committed herself to Joel. Even more important than that, Sasha needed her to help her through this difficult adjustment. Cassie had a big heart and there was more than enough room for one little girl to slip inside.

* * *

R
YAN
HAD
GOTTEN
so used to the noise drifting in from different parts of the house that he wasn’t sure at first what had broken his concentration. Then he realized it was the silence. He leaned back in his chair and turned to stare out the window at the well-manicured grounds around the Victorian house.

“Peace and quiet,” he breathed with something close to awe. It was a sound he hadn’t heard much of since Sasha had returned home after the funeral last week, especially not during the day. This was something else he had to thank Cassie for.

He’d gotten more work done in the past—he glanced at his watch—five hours, than in the previous five days. He didn’t mind the sound of running feet or the bursts of laughter, the slamming doors or the clatter of toys falling somewhere in the house. None of that bothered him, mostly because his office door was closed and he knew that as long as Cassie was around, no pip-squeak with big eyes was going to come interrupt him. Until this moment, he’d never really appreciated the sound of silence.

He drew in a deep breath, reveling in the freedom of not being completely responsible for Sasha. Someone else would take care of feeding her and dealing with her tantrums and her tears. If he could keep full-time help around, the kid might not be so bad.

There was a light knock at his door. For a second he panicked, then he realized that Sasha was not one to ask politely for entrance. Instead she seemed to feel that the entire world existed for her pleasure.

“Come in,” he called.

Cassie opened the door and stepped into his office. “Hi, do you have a minute? I need to talk to you about a couple of things.”

“Sure. Please, have a seat.”

He motioned her to the chair that sat on the opposite side of his desk. As she crossed the room, he took in her appearance. Yesterday he vaguely recalled that she’d worn a dress when she brought over the food. Today she was in jeans and a long-sleeved green T-shirt. She was of average height, maybe five-five or five-six, with short dark hair and a pleasant face. If he’d seen her on the street, he wouldn’t have bothered looking at her a second time, but here in his brother’s house, taking care of his brother’s child, Ryan thought she was an angel.

“Is everything all right?” he asked, suddenly nervous that she was having second thoughts about the job. “If you need any supplies or want me to buy anything, I’ll be happy to take care of it. Just say the word.”

She smiled and held up a hand to stop him. “It’s okay, Ryan, you don’t have to offer me the world. I promise not to cry, or quit.”

“Good.” He rested his hands on his desk. “Then what can I do for you?”

“I have a couple of questions. I just put Sasha down for her nap. She resisted me a little, but fell right asleep as soon as I got her quiet. Has she been sleeping okay?”

He stared at her blankly. “Nap? The kid is supposed to take naps?” He thought about the long afternoons when his niece had gotten more and more cranky. “No wonder she was difficult,” he muttered more to himself than Cassie. “Shouldn’t children come with instructions or something? How are people supposed to know this sort of thing?”

“They learn by doing,” Cassie said with a straight face, although he caught the slight quivering at the corner of her mouth.

“You’re laughing at me. You work in a preschool, you’re around children all the time. I’ve never been around them. Not since I was one.”

He thought about his childhood, how his mother had been always pushing him to make the most of his time. He’d been the younger of the two brothers and there hadn’t been many other children in their neighborhood. Now that he thought about it, except for school and his brother, he’d never been around kids.

“I swear I’m not laughing,” Cassie said. “You’re right, I do have more experience. I have a degree in child development. I’m sure if you put me into your world of business and computers, I would be just as uncomfortable. And to answer your question, yes, Sasha still needs a nap. At the school all the children have to rest for at least half an hour every afternoon.” Noticing his blank look, she continued her explanation. “The littler ones like her have a separate room and they generally sleep for at least an hour. She’ll still need a good night’s sleep, but the nap will make her easier to deal with in the late afternoon and early evening.”

He grabbed a notepad and scrawled the word
nap.
He couldn’t imagine how many other things he’d been doing wrong. “What else?” he asked.

Cassie wrinkled her nose. “I know that Sasha’s your niece and that you need to spend time getting to know each other. However, I wondered how you would feel about her going to the preschool a few mornings a week.”

He didn’t say anything because all he could focus on was the sense of relief, followed by a flash of guilt. He knew it was wrong not to want to take responsibility for Sasha. He supposed he must have a defect in his character or something because a normal, caring uncle would be thrilled to take charge of his family. But Ryan just wanted to pack up and head back to San Jose. He wasn’t proud to admit it but, given his choice, he would dump Sasha with Cassie indefinitely. However, no one was offering him that as an option.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Cassie said quickly, as if she was afraid he was going to protest. “It seems a little soon.”

“Actually, that wasn’t what I was thinking,” he admitted.

“Good. I believe that what will help Sasha the most is to get back into her old routine. She needs her life to return to normal as much as it can. She has friends at the preschool, other teachers whom she really likes. I think a couple of hours three or four days a week will make her feel more secure.”

“That sounds fine,” he told her. “You’re the expert.”

“You’re her family. I don’t want to interfere.”

He leaned forward. “Cassie, until last week, I’d never seen her. I don’t know anything about raising a child. To be honest, this was not part of my game plan, but Helen didn’t have any family and John only had me, so the buck stops here. I would appreciate any suggestions or thoughts you might have on the best way to handle any situation with Sasha.”

“All right. Thank you for your candor.”

Dark eyes regarded him appraisingly. He wondered what she was thinking about him. No doubt she found him highly lacking in paternal skills and feelings.

“How has she been eating?” Cassie asked. “I didn’t notice a problem at dinner last night, or at lunch today.”

She might as well have asked his opinion on the viability of a Mars colony in the next twenty years. “I have no idea how she’s eating,” he said wryly. “Sometimes she gets the food in her mouth, and sometimes she’s more interested in getting it on me and everything around her.”

“Oh.” Cassie smiled. “You’re right. You wouldn’t know what is normal and what isn’t. I’ll watch things and let you know.” She paused. “What about at night? Has she been having nightmares?”

He thought about the past few nights. “I think so,” he told her. “Sometimes she cries out. I’ve had to go in and rock her a couple of times. She just curls up in my arms and cries.”