Jennie Adams – Daycare Mum to Wife / Accidental Father: Daycare Mum to Wife / Accidental Father (страница 11)

Dan buried himself in his work. Over the following days he was able to scale down the amount of time he was spending in Sydney, but the hours were still long. When he felt tired he ate packets of crisps. He barely even thought about Jess being around all the time, or listened for her voice while he was working, or enjoyed checking in with her when he stepped out of his den to see how the children were getting along.

Right, Dan. That’s exactly how it is.

Well, at least he seemed to have convinced Luke that he was only interested in how Jess cared for his family, and Jess seemed to be making progress whittling down the boy’s defences.

Days went past with Jess feeling way too conscious of Dan. Why did it have to be like this when he had told her how much he’d loved his wife? Surely she had nothing left inside her when it came to trusting a man, and it was clear she could never compete with Dan’s Rebecca, even if she wanted to.

‘I think I’m confused.’ Jess muttered the words at a pile of clothing as she shoved it into the machine in the laundry room.

Maybe she needed to believe that not every man was selfish and uncaring like Peter, Ella’s father. Maybe that was all.

Oh, yes? And that fact alone made her pulse race every time she thought of Dan, or looked at him?

‘Jess, I wanted to ask if you’d like—’

‘Oh. Dan. I didn’t realise you were there.’

He had his glasses on his nose, so he must have been working on the computer in his den. And he was so close. Jess could reach out and trace the grooves beside his mouth with her fingertips, or caress his ruffled dark hair.

And Dan could be totally resistant to all of the above, because she was his employee and not in his age bracket and he had been resistant to being aware of her, right from the start.

‘Oh. Um…’ Think, Jessica. About something other than how delectable he looks. ‘What—what did you want to ask me, Dan?’ Even saying his name sent a thrill through her.

They were in a house full of children. Anything else aside, no thrills were allowed!

Dan’s gaze shifted over her face, the bright pink bandanna tied through her hair, down over the loose cream cheesecloth blouse and darker pink skirt and back up to linger on her lips before it finally came back to meet her eyes.

‘We, ah, I’ve got a two-day gap where there won’t be much happening with the situation in Sydney. I want to take the family to the beach.’

Right. Dan wanted to go away to the beach with the children. Jess would lose two days of being around him.

You’ll lose two days’ work. Remember you still haven’t managed to get Lang Fielder to agree in writing to any extra time to make the repayments.

Jess had managed to see the man. He’d said she should go on making what payments she could out of her wages with that negotiation in mind. It wasn’t enough of a reassurance.

Well, Jess didn’t want Dan to see her fear. She had learned from being scammed and written out of his life by Peter Rosche that she had to stand by herself. For her sake and for Ella’s sake, too. Jess needed to remember that. ‘That sounds like a lot of fun. I’m sure they’ll all enjoy it. When were you planning to go?’

‘Tomorrow.’ Dan said the word in a low, deep tone.

‘Tomorrow.’ Jess repeated the word on a breath before she remembered she needed to comprehend it, not merely say it. ‘Right, well—’

‘Would you be available to come with us? You and Ella? I’ve picked days when you don’t have to mind other children.’ Dan backed out of the room as though he’d belatedly realised they were hovering in there, close, quiet, together.

Just as Jess had realised it.

He went on. ‘You don’t have to, but it’d make it easier for me. Two sets of adult eyes to watch them around the water.’

‘For the children’s sakes.’ That was easy. And Jess could let herself be relieved about the pay as well. ‘It’s always better to have two adults with that many children and water involved.’

Jess had never taken Ella to the beach. But with Dan, she could go.

And spend two days of sun, surf and sand with a gorgeous man.

Oh, for heaven’s sake. She’d just gone over this and they would be surrounded by children. There would be sand in shoes and hair and clothing, but there would certainly not be romance in the air.

‘I’ll be happy to make the trip with you, Dan.’ Jess stuck her chin out. Way out. So far out that even she couldn’t miss the fact that this was a statement about her work for Dan, not about wanting to laze on a beach with him.

Dan pushed his glasses up his nose, seemed to realise they were there, and whipped them off. ‘I’m glad. I’ll feel better about it.’

‘I will too, Dan.’ Maybe the couple of days away would help Jess think her way forward with the situation regarding her home.

If not, then she needed to start knocking on the other half of Randurra’s doors, and hope that a great deal of lucrative work came to light as a result. Work she could do around her current two jobs.

And really, who needed sleep or rest, anyway, provided she could make sure Ella was happy, and keep getting more money to pay off the debt? As Dan preceded her, Jess made her way out of the laundry room. ‘I’d better speak to everyone about packing for the trip.’

CHAPTER SIX

‘EVERYONE READY FOR this trip to the beach?’ Jess had supervised visits to the bathroom for the younger ones, and waited while various Fraziers ran around needing this item and that item that they simply couldn’t leave behind for their trip.

She’d packed for herself and packed for Ella and checked what had been packed for the children.

Rob had wanted to bring half the house for playing with on the beach. He’d settled on two soccer balls, and a whole tube of tennis balls.

The girls wanted to collect seashells, so buckets for them.

And Jess had packed the spades because once they got there she assumed at least one of them would want to make a sandcastle.

Just as well it was a big van. Jess strapped Ella into her travel seat and waited while Fraziers piled in all around her daughter. Watched bouncy bodies and an abundance of energy until she saw for herself that everyone had seat belts fastened. Luke was the only sober one, and that didn’t surprise Jess. She was doing what she could to befriend the boy, but he still treated her with suspicion and distrust half the time.

Then Luke dug Rob in the ribs with his elbow and challenged him to a race along the beach once they got there, Rob laughed and agreed and both boys smiled, and Jess really relaxed for the first time in ages.

Ella was kicking her legs and wiggling. Jess climbed in the front beside Dan, glanced at him and a big, silly grin spread across her face. She pushed her floppy hat off her head and let it dangle by its strings down her back. ‘We’re going to the beach.’

‘Right after we stop in town for the things I know they’ll all start asking for ten minutes up the road.’ Dan’s gaze took in the floppy hat, her face. He watched her strap herself in and his eyes came back up to briefly catch hers again.

How did he do that? Simply look at her and make her world shift? He probably meant absolutely nothing by it.

Jess took the hat completely off. ‘Stopping is good. For what the children might want.’

Jess needed to stop fixating over Dan, and how good he looked in a navy polo shirt that set off the tan of his arms and khaki knee-length cut-offs that accentuated his thigh muscles.

‘We’ll have to be careful with sun block and staying off the beach during the worst hours of the day.’ The words were primmer even than Mary Poppins could have been.

Jess didn’t have a beach umbrella, but Dan had three tossed into the back of the van.

The younger children started chattering, asking their father questions and firing a few at Jess as well. Jess answered, and she drew a deep breath, which didn’t help because Dan was wearing a really nice aftershave lotion.

‘Jess?’

From the tone of Dan’s voice, Jess suspected he might have asked her something already—and she’d been too busy daydreaming about sniffing his neck to hear it.

‘I’m sorry, Dan. What did you say?’ Jess glanced through the windshield and realised they’d come to a stop outside the town’s supermarket. ‘Oh. Shall I go in for the things? Do you have a list? Or did you want me to mind the children, or is everyone going?’

‘We’re all going,’ Rob chimed in and then there were Frazier children bailing out of the van at the speed of light. ‘We do this every trip. It’s fun.’

Dan got Ella out of her seat and held her and they all trooped into the supermarket. The children proceeded to select one family-sized bag of crisps or sweets each, but first fell into discussion over what things they weren’t having because didn’t Mary remember getting sick eating those last year? And it wasn’t a good idea for Rob to eat ones with yellow food dye because he got even more hyper than usual.

And then Luke seemed to realise that he was acting like a child, and took his bag of crisps, went to the checkout by himself, bought them and left the store.

Jess chewed her lip. ‘Should I go after him, Dan?’