Falling for Mr. Wrong (5 page)

When she reached the soccer goal at the far end, Kelsey bounced to her feet, her face flushed pink. “Your turn, Matt,” she called, clapping her hands.

He couldn’t say the outfit was indecent. Her white tank top, with an elaborate red-and-gold flower printed on the front, actually had a fairly high neckline, probably for doing exactly the sort of moves she’d just demonstrated, and it ended at her hips, so she wasn’t flaunting a naked torso or navel.

Not that it really mattered. He knew what lay beneath the top
and
bottom of her outfit. He knew not only the smoothness of the skin stretched across her stomach but the firmness of her breasts and the delicate ruching of the nipples when she was aroused.

The salt on her skin as they made love for the third time. Her soft moan, when he took her in his mouth.

A shudder shook the lower half of his body.

Pull yourself together, man.

He’d have to declare his presence. Standing here watching her was a recipe for disaster. But before he could say anything, Matt had walked to the middle of the room and tossed himself forward, onto his hands. He wobbled and immediately fell back over, but Kelsey clapped nonetheless.

Ross winced when her breasts bounced, ever so slightly, under her shirt.

“Awesome,” she said. “You keep practicing and you’ll be there by the end of the summer. Julia, how about a cartwheel?”

Julia shook her head. “I don’t know how to do a cartwheel.”

Kelsey dropped her mouth open in an exaggerated expression of astonishment. “Really? Well then it’s time you learned.” She turned to Luke with a smile. “What about you? Ready to do a cartwheel?”

Luke looked back at his screen. “Sure. Right after this game.” His voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Are you—” Kelsey’s voice dropped off when she noticed Ross standing on the stairs. “Oh. I didn’t realize you were there.” She glanced self-consciously at her clothing. “Sorry.” With a quick dive, she grabbed the dress and threw it on. “I was just…” She trailed off, her cheeks getting pinker by the second. “Marie called me this morning while I was working out. I didn’t plan to dress like this.”

He shrugged. “It’s okay.” His voice was tight. Constricted. He ordered himself to stop thinking like a man and start thinking like a dad. An overworked dad who would have to spend the next week with his face in a computer screen.

But then Kelsey threw her hair back over her shoulder.

Aaand
there went the whole dad thing…

Julia ran over and tugged on his hand. “Daddy, did you see Kelsey? She’s ah-maaa-zing.” She stretched out the word with astonishment bordering on adoration, her eyes wide and round.

Luke blew out a snort from the couch, just quietly enough that he could deny having done it. In the center of the room, Matt repeated his attempt at the handstand, flopped over, and then sprang back up to try again.

“So, um…” She adjusted the neckline of her dress, causing Ross’s blood vessels to abruptly expand. Or was it constrict? Either way, there was blood, and it was all rushing to the same spot.

When she spoke again, it was to a spot somewhere around his shoulder. “Did you want me to go? I can call Marie. Maybe she could find someone else for tomorrow.”

Want her to go? Thanks to Herriot, he didn’t really have a choice. He had a month’s worth of work to do in a week. He couldn’t be spending time interviewing babysitters or calling nanny agencies. He needed someone immediately, and that person would have to be Kelsey.

“Maybe you shouldn’t do gymnastics in the basement?” he suggested to Matt.

An “oof” was his only reply. Kelsey winced. “Matt, remember what I said about taking your time.”

“I want to do a cartwheel!” Julia ran into the middle of the room and spun around, getting both of her feet off the floor for a couple of seconds before falling onto her stomach.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure they don’t hurt themselves,” Kelsey assured him, as if sensing his unease.

“Are you sure you can handle this?” Ross asked.

She only hesitated for a moment before tipping up her chin and flashing him a bright smile. “Absolutely. You go ahead and work. We’ll be fine.”

He blew out a sigh. “Okay, but remember, I’m right upstairs. Call me if you need anything.”

Chapter Five

“You are effing kidding me.” Marie carefully liberated a red curl from Oscar’s tiny fist and made a face at the infant. “Oscar, please, that hurts!”

“Nope. Not kidding.” Kelsey collapsed onto the couch. “Worst. Day. Ever. By the way, keep that precious infant away from me. I’m ready to puke enough as it is.”

“Tell me.” Marie bounced Oscar in the kitchen of his small house. The mess of the morning had, amazingly enough, been replaced by shiny, clean counters, a gleaming oven, and neatly sorted piles of mail, catalogs, and magazines. Diapers sat in a pile on a changing table that had probably been there in the morning, but had been too covered with debris to be of any use. The infant wore a clean onesie and sucked contentedly on a pacifier.

“When is Oscar’s mom coming home?” Kelsey asked.

“Five.”

She checked her watch. Ten minutes. “Okay, I’ll give you the condensed version now, but as soon as you’re off duty we’re going to Ransom and you’re buying me a beer. No, a margarita. And a hot fudge sundae. And maybe a large plate of french fries. Not necessarily in that order.”

Marie clucked her tongue. “Wow, that’s not just worst day ever bad. That’s like, babysitting for a gang of zombies bad. At least for you. For me, that’s like a typical Monday.”

“I know. And I might want a burger, too.”

Oscar spit out his pacifier and whimpered. With a smooth motion, Marie swiped it from the floor, dropped it into the sink, and popped a fresh one into his mouth. “Okay, no more stalling. Tell me. I’m dying to hear about this day from hell.”

Kelsey lay down on her back and threw a hand over her eyes, the day stretched before her in a series of painful incidents. “I’ll just hit the highlights. The middle kid, Matt, kicked a soccer ball into a light fixture and broke it. The older kid, Luke, has a really exceptional talent for being snide. Hard to believe he’s only eleven. The youngest is absolutely adorable, but she wouldn’t move more than an inch from my side all day. She’s like a burr. A really cute burr that doesn’t appreciate it when you close the door to go to the bathroom.”

“But that’s so sweet. I knew she’d love you.”

“She wanted me to braid and rebraid her hair six times in a row. And that was just before lunch.” Kelsey liked to think she was a patient person. She also liked to think she’d developed some willpower in all her time climbing. But Julia? That kid could test the resolve of the fiercest, most determined mountaineer. Hell, she could test the patience of Supernanny.

Marie shrugged. “Hey, that’s why you make the big bucks.”

Kelsey rolled her eyes. “Right. Anyway, for lunch I suggested cereal but was informed that’s only for breakfast. So I tried to make macaroni and cheese but I managed to burn the noodles because I was so busy trying to clean up the broken light. Then the kids accused me of trying to give them salmonella when I offered them a bite of cookie dough.”

“You made cookies?” Marie interjected, amazed.

“Please.” Kelsey shook her head. “I took the kids to the grocery store and we bought some premade dough.”

Marie gave a small gasp. “You drove the kids somewhere? In your car?”

“No. I drove them in
Ross’s
car. After I burned the mac and cheese we were desperate for food and they didn’t have anything I could microwave. Apparently Jenna actually cooks for her kids. I don’t have a car seat and Ross didn’t want to bother trying to show me how to set it up. He was also obviously horrified by the condition of my vehicle.”

“Who’s Ross?”

“The dad. Jenna got called out of town and didn’t bother to mention it to anyone. Dad moved in to take care of the kids.”

“Oh, really? He wasn’t supposed to be coming to town for a month, I thought.”

“Plans changed. Jenna’s in China, dad’s home with the kids.” Kelsey relived in her mind the moment that Ross answered the door, and considered murdering her friend for setting her up for this nightmare.

Not that it was Marie’s fault. But still. It felt good to blame someone.

“So what’s the dad like?” Marie asked, leaning in with interest. “Any chance he’s a hunky divorcé who needs a little help with the kids? Or better yet, a
rich
hunky divorcé who might be interested in an extremely competent, unattached professional who runs her own nanny agency but would really like to be the sex slave of a gorgeous billionaire?”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Kelsey said. “His name is Ross. Ross
Bencher
.” She pronounced the last name slowly, with careful emphasis.

Marie drew her brows together. “I’ve seen the file. Should that name mean something to me?”

With a proper dramatic flourish, Kelsey sat up and stared into her friend’s eyes. “Ross Bencher, you idiot. You met him once. In a bar. Three years ago. The night before I left for Annapurna.”

A squeak. Marie’s eyebrows buried themselves in her hairline. “That guy? The sexy hot rich football player you had crazy monkey sex with? That guy is Jenna’s ex-husband?”

“He’s not a football player,” she said grimly. “He does some kind of real estate work. I heard him talking to some people on the phone. He’s trying to make a deal with Armand Herriot.”

“Should I know who that is?”

“He’s the asshole who knocked down the old family lodge in Winter Park so he could build one of his resorts for the superrich.”

“Oh, my…” Marie paused and flipped Oscar onto her shoulder with the finesse of long practice. “Was it awkward?”

“Awkward?” Kelsey buried her face in her hands. “Oh no. What could possibly be awkward about babysitting for the guy you did upside down in a hotel bathroom?”

Marie blinked. She looked at Oscar and clucked her tongue. “I can’t believe she said that in front of you, honey. I’m so sorry. Thank goodness your brain hasn’t developed enough to comprehend speech.” She crossed over to Kelsey’s side and lowered herself onto the arm of the sofa. “This may be an ill-timed question, but you didn’t lose the job, did you? I mean, I just need to know what to say to Hope.”

Kelsey did not look up. “Yeah, thanks for your concern. I love you, too.”

“You know I’m a heartless businesswoman first, best friend second.”

Kelsey snorted. “Right.”

“Okay, seriously. If it’s that terrible I won’t send you back.” Marie bit her lip and looked down at Oscar. “I suppose I could handle it myself. I’d just bring Oscar along. His mom would understand. I think.”

Marie might not have been heartless, but she was skilled in the use of guilt. Kelsey knew there was no way she could actually insist on not going back. “Don’t do that. I mean, watching the kids did turn into a series of horrible disasters, but that’s just like the rest of my life, so there’s nothing new there. It was seeing Ross that sucked.”

“How did he react?”

“He wasn’t happy about it.”

“Oh.” Marie winced. “Ouch.”

“Yeah. I mean, he didn’t say anything mean. But he didn’t have to. It was obvious he didn’t want me there.”

“But why? I thought you had a great night together. You told me it was one of those beautiful ‘star-crossed lovers, love at first sight’ sort of nights. Not that I’ve ever had one of those myself, except maybe with Oscar here.” She planted a quick kiss on the baby’s head.

“That’s the problem,” Kelsey said. “We never thought we’d see each other again. We talked about crazy, secret things. He told me how he felt about his divorce. I told him I didn’t think I was coming back from Annapurna. Now he thinks I’m some kind of insane person with a death wish—not exactly the sort you want watching your children.”

Marie waggled a finger in her direction. “He may have a point, you know. Seen your dad today? What training schedule has he put together for this week?”

There were only a few things in Kelsey’s life she refused to talk about, even with Marie. Her father happened to be one of them. “Don’t you think I’ve had enough of a crappy day already, without bringing up my dad?”

“Fine. Then I’ll quiz you about Ross instead,” Marie said. “What’s the chance of future upside-down shower sex?”

Kelsey tried to imagine Ross whispering naughty words into her ear while water rushed over them. All she got was an image of his brows pressed together with distaste, and his voice saying, “Are you sure you’re qualified?”

“I’m going to say
limited
,” she said. “I think he wanted to kick me out in the morning, but he’s got some rush presentation thing to do for Herriot at the end of the week, so he told me to come back tomorrow at nine.”

“So he’s a jerk.” Marie dropped a kiss on Oscar’s head. “And I thought he was so promising.”

“He’s not a jerk. I wish he
were
a jerk. He’s just being a protective dad and I’m a weird chick he hooked up with in a bar who suddenly appeared to be his babysitter.” Kelsey rubbed a hand across her face. “It was just so uncomfortable. Like running into your gynecologist at the park. Please, please,
please
tell me Hope is going to be able to go back on Wednesday. Because two days of this is all I can handle.”

Marie cleared her throat. “Well, there’s a chance…”

“
No
,” Kelsey wailed. She grabbed a throw pillow and held it over her face.

With one hand, Marie peeled the flowered brocade back a few inches. “She’s still in pretty bad shape.”

Kelsey made a garbled sound of despair. “Send someone else.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to give the kids another temp when they’ve already bonded with you.”

“They haven’t
bonded
with me,” Kelsey said. “I’ve alternately starved them and tried to poison them. There’s no bonding to speak of.”

“That’s exactly the sort of thing kids love, silly.”

Marie dug her cell phone out of her pocket and pulled up a picture. “Look at this. Hope sent me a picture from the hospital.” Kelsey recoiled from the image of Hope’s face, which looked more like it belonged to one of the undead than the lively young woman she recalled. “They had a horrible time getting the IV started, because she’s so dehydrated. And things are still coming out both ends, if you know what I mean.”

“Marie, please,” Kelsey held up her hand to block any further explanation. “That’s definitely TMI.”

“You’re a nanny now.” Marie waved an imperious hand to dismiss any objection. “You can handle it.”

Kelsey threw down the pillow and stood. “Oh no. I have my limits. If this job involves cleaning something that has emerged from either end of a human being, I’m out of here.”

A loud noise erupted from the bundle in Marie’s arms. It sounded low and…
wet
? Kelsey’s mouth dropped open. “Please tell me that wasn’t what it sounded like.”

Marie smiled wickedly and held out Oscar. “Hold your nose, sugar. Your training has officially begun.”

…

Kelsey woke up early the next morning so she could do one of her favorite training runs—Green Mountain—before she had to leave for Ross’s house. The trail up the mountain was steep and narrow, and in places slick with packed earth and well-worn rocks. By 6:00 a.m., she had watched the sunrise on top of the mountain and run most of the way back down, just as the trail was starting to fill with other runners seeking the high of getting in several thousand feet of altitude before the sun got too hot. Then, near the bottom of the trail, she hit a patch of loose rocks and her feet slid out underneath her.

This was not, unfortunately, an uncommon experience. The trail was known for being rough on ankles, knees, and other, softer parts, and Kelsey was known for finding ways to injure herself while exercising. Thanks to the weighted backpack that she wore to increase the aerobic impact of the climb, she had a soft cushion for her back and shoulders, but landed with most of her weight on her bottom. A fine layer of dirt, pebbles, and bits of gravel ground itself in her left butt cheek as she slid several feet down the trail.

“Damn it.” When her descent stopped, she paused to catch her breath. Her butt throbbed with pain. She tried to laugh at herself, as she usually did when she took a tumble, but this time it was different, because this time she could hear Ross’s voice in her head as he looked at her, the eyes she remembered as laughing and warm now cold and distant.

Are you sure you know what you’re doing?

She understood his hesitation. Sleeping with the boss wasn’t the way she usually tried to get ahead. But couldn’t he have smiled, just once? Given some indication that she hadn’t dreamed up the whole insane, wonderful affair? Was it crazy for her to have harbored a secret hope that he’d take one look at her and declare his undying love? That he’d admit he’d been looking for her ever since that night, and now all of his dreams had come true?

At home, she showered and scrubbed the sore patch on her behind, making sure to extract every bit of dirt and gravel so the scrape didn’t get infected. That was the last thing she needed, when she was headed to Nepal in a month.

Back to the mountain that had almost killed her once before.

Ross was waiting on the curb when she pulled up in front of the house. Before she could speak, he had steered her down the sidewalk in the other direction. “The kids are occupied for a few minutes. I wanted to have a chance to talk to you in private.”

Kelsey’s heart skipped. Even the touch of his hand on her elbow felt like a brand, burning into her skin. She’d deliberately worn a shapeless, high-necked T-shirt from the last Bolder Boulder race she’d run and long khaki shorts so she didn’t feel like she was dressing inappropriately around the kids—and so he couldn’t see the large white bandage on her butt. Yet the thick cotton material of her clothing did little to protect her from the fear that Ross could somehow see right through to her naked skin below.