“You need to be more careful, and don’t wander off by yourself.” He was issuing orders like he had the right to tell her what to do. “I don’t care if it’s inconvenient.”
He waited for an argument, but she nodded, then turned her gaze to the playground, where Charlotte was climbing the monkey bars. “She’s gotten so much stronger.”
Noah watched Charlotte swing from bar to bar. She was laughing with her friends, so different from the little girl who’d come to live with him.
“Kids are amazingly resilient,” Miss Wright said.
“You’ve got an impressive understanding of kids.” Noah’s gaze drifted back to her face.
Her lips curved into a small smile, though she barely glanced away from Charlotte. “I’ve been babysitting for a long time, most of my life, really. Even though I was second-to-youngest, I was often tasked with keeping an eye on my little sister. And then watching other people’s children. You see a lot of different situations, different families. Some kids have been through things you wouldn’t believe, but they find ways to adapt, to keep going.”
She spoke with such certainty. He prayed she was right, that Charlotte would be able to heal from the difficult first few years of her life.
“Tell me about your family.”
Miss Wright’s gaze tracked Charlotte as she moved from the monkey bars to the slide. “My father was an agent for the CIA.”
“No kidding? An actual spy?”
“I guess. I don’t know much about what he did. Just that he was gone a lot, sometimes for months at a time. We usually had no idea where he was.”
Noah leaned forward, putting puzzle pieces together. “That explains a few things.”
“What do you mean?”
“You never let your guard down when you’re watching Charlotte. And the way you handled yourself after the accident, calling 911, then locking yourself in your vehicle when that other car approached. You kept yourself out of danger. Your father must have taught you to be cautious.”
Her lips quirked. “Basic self-defense, and of course, how to spot a tail, which I proved today I didn’t learn very well.” She laughed softly. “My sisters and I used to complain about his paranoia, but it’s come in handy.” Her grin faded. “I’d better not tell Dad how I wandered off by myself today. He would not be impressed.”
“Nobody can be vigilant a hundred percent of the time.”
“Don’t tell my dad that or you’ll get an earful.”
“What about your mother?”
“She’s amazing. She held everything together while Dad was away.” Her expression softened, the change on her face lovely in the glow of the twinkle lights. “Five girls under one roof—you can imagine the crazy emotional swings in our house, but Mom was always calm and rational, always kind and gentle.”
“You take after her, I think.”
Miss Wright looked down. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, gazing at him through her lashes.
Oh, boy.
The urge to lean closer was nearly unbearable. He sat back instead. “Did you always want to be a nanny, or did you have goals?”
By the way her shoulders stiffened, he’d said something wrong. He thought back over his words and realized how they’d sounded. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being a nanny. It’s a great dream. I didn’t mean that the way it came out.”
“I get it.” She watched Charlotte on the playground. “Most people would consider what I do a fallback, not a dream. But…” She glanced at him but didn’t hold his eye contact. “This is what I always wanted to do. Watch other people’s kids until…”
Her words faded, and he guessed what she was about to say. “Until you have your own?”
“Someday, God willing.”
“You’ll be a great mother.”
Her smile was shy and too endearing.
Charlotte and her friends were on the play fort, engaged in some game of pretend. It was getting late, but he wasn’t ready for his niece, or her nanny, to leave him yet.
