“She and my brother would get along famously.”
“Maybe we should introduce them.”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t do that to my worst enemy.”
Miss Wright smiled, but it faded. “Too bad he doesn’t know how amazing his daughter is.”
“Yeah. Well, that’s Jasper.”
Noah clamped his lips shut. He’d been badmouthing Charlotte’s father to the nanny. Talk about unprofessional. He’d never been one to air family grievances to strangers.
But she didn’t feel like a stranger.
“I’ve known her less than a month, and I already dread walking away from her.”
He loved how devoted Miss Wright was to Charlotte. Yet again, fear dogged him. What would happen when she left?
Noah pushed his foot against the porch boards, setting the swing into motion again. The night air carried the scent of sea salt and late-blooming roses.
She shivered beside him.
He should suggest they go inside where it was warm. That would be the sensible thing to do. But it would also put an end to the best conversation he’d had in a long time.
Instead, he blurted, “Why did you really leave Maine?”
Her body stilled, all sense of relaxation gone.
“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “That’s none of my business.”
“No, it’s okay.” She exhaled. “I was with this guy. We were talking about getting married.”
“Married? You’re so young.”
She looked at him, eyebrows hiked.
“I mean, aren’t you?”
She smiled. “How old do you think I am?”
She looked about nineteen, but she had to be older than that, based on all the jobs she’d listed on her résumé.
“Twenty-one?”
“You’re off by six years. And before you guess again, I’m not fifteen.”
She was twenty-seven? He’d never have guessed it. Still too young for him, and it wasn’t just her youth. It was her innocence. Her naivety.
Not that any of that mattered. She was the nanny. That was all the reason he needed to keep his distance.
She was watching him, so he gestured for her to continue. “You were an appropriate age to be talking about marriage, and then…?”
“I discovered he was working for a smuggling ring. He shot a man. Didn’t kill him, thank God. When he confessed, he claimed he was trying to earn enough money to buy me a ring.”
“Wow. Obviously, he hid that side of himself from you.”
Miss Wright’s head tilted to the side, a curious expression on her face. “Everyone else, when they hear the story, reassures me that it wasn’t my fault, as if I might blame myself.”
“Why would you?”
