"You yike it?"
It took Meghan a split second to translate yike. She'd arrived at the Macaulay home just after Tiara's bath, in time for the bedtime story. Lucas was perched on Tiara's small twin bed, his daughter by his side as he read Goodnight Moon to her. Meghan was on the rocking chair near the bed and the moment Lucas finished the book, Tiara leaned forward to see Meghan - whom she was only begining to acknowledge - to ask that question.
Yike was apparently like- did she like the book that Lucas had read?
"I did", Meghan assured the little girl.
"You din't say guh'night moon", Tiara accused.
At the end of the story, after Lucas had read the last line, bidding goodnight to noises everywhere, Tiara had added "Good night Moon", and Lucas had repeated it. Meghan hadn't.
So she did now. "Goodnight, Moon"
That seemed to satisfy the three-year old because she sat back against her pillow again.
Lucas threw Meghan a smile that crinkled the corners of his striking eyes. She'd lectured herself since she'd left here yesterday that she wasn't going to notice things like that but there it was anyway.
Then, to his daughter he said, "Tell me what I told you happens tomorrow"
"You and An' Had has to work."
"And while we work, who will be here with you?"
Tiara leaned forward again and pointed a finger at Meghan and said "Her will"
"Meghan, she's Meghan " Lucas reminded.
Tiara sat back without saying Meghan's name the way her father was obvious promoting her to do.
"I wanna okay wis you and An' Had," that little girl said quietly, pushing back in her pillow so she was more hidden by her father when she confided that to him.
"Aunt Had and I can't play tomorrow. Meghan will be here for you to play with." He said with a pointed glance.
Why did he aim that at me? Meghan wondered. Did he think she wasn't planning to play with his daughter?
Maybe she was misinterpreting the glance. Certainly she didn't address it. But she did lean forward so she could see Tiara and say, "I have some games and you can show me what toys and games you have that you like to play."
"I wanna play wis my dad", Tiara responded in a thanks-but-no-thanks way.
And why it flashed through Meghan's mind that she might like to play with Tiara's dad herself, Meghan had no idea. But she nipped that bit of insanity in the bud, and said "I'll tell you what, if you do what we need to do to get the day started, then as a prize, we'll go to a safe part of the workroom to visit your dad and your aunt Hadley for a few minutes. Then, if you do whatever we need to do after that, you can get a second visit to see Dad and Aunt Hadley in the afternoon. As long as Dad says that's okay and that we don't disturb their work too much."
Tia looked up to her father for confirmation.
"I think that sounds like a good idea." He said. "But you'll have to do what Meghan tells you to do first."
Meghan was pleased that he'd gotten the idea- visiting him would be the reward earned for good behavior. She was also glad that he wasn't opposed to having his work disturbed.
Tiara has also apparently gotten the idea that there was a price to be paid for the privilege, because she frowned mightily. But all she said to her father was "Will you be here when I wake up?"
"I will be. We'll have breakfast together like we always do. Then, I'll go to the barn to work - like before, when we were at our old house, remember how I would leave to go to work?"
Tiara nodded.
"Well, it's the same as that, except I don't go as far away.And while I do that, Meghan will be with you like Nancy used to be."
At the mention of Nancy- who Meghan could only assume had been Tiara's former nanny - Tiara looked at Meghan. "Hers like Nancy?" the little girl said, putting it together.
"Right. Nancy was your nanny in Connecticut, and now, Meghan is your nanny here- she'll help take care of you."
Tiara seemed to accept Meghan on those terms- luckily she must have had a good experience with Nancy.
But the acceptance came only in Tia not saying anything at all, but merely putting her index finger in her mouth. Which was apparently a signal to her father because seeing that, he got off the bed, slid the little girl to lie flat and covered her with princess themed top sheet and a light blanket.
Then, he gentle over, Kissed Tiara's forehead and said "Goodnight Moon. Goodnight,Tia."
Tiara took her finger out of her mouth only long enough to say "Guh' night, Moon. Guh' night,Daddy."
And Meghan had the sense that that was how they said goodnight every night. It made her smile before she whispered, "See you tomorrow,Tiara."
Out of the mouth came the index finger again. "Uh-huh. Say Guh' night, Moon. Guh' night,Tia."
"Ahh. Good night, Moon. Goodnight, Tia.". Meghan said, following orders, thinking it was a positive sign that she was being included in the ritual.
"Guh' night Moon, Guh' night, Meg." came the small, sleepy voice before the finger went back in the mouth once more and Tia closed her eyes.
Lucas smoothed the little girl's hair lovingly and then nodded towards the door to let Meghan know they should leave.
In the hallways outside Tia's room, Lucas pulled the door slightly closed and whispered "We've bern reading that same book and saying those same things every night for at least the last year but no one gets away without it."
"Bedtime routines are important for kids." Meghan said. "They can almost be like a sleeping pill."
He nodded as if she wasn't telling him anything he didn't already know, and Meghan wanted to kick herself for doing the second thing she'd vowed not to do with him- hide her introversion by saying everything as if it were a pearl of wisdom handed down from the mount of her education and experience.
But, it was too late to do anything about it and so she just went with him downstairs.
Hadley was turning off the television in the living room when they got to the entry. Meghan had left her luggage there before going up to watch Lucas put Tiara to bed but now there wasn't a suitcase in sight.
Before she could ask about it, Hadley said "I took your things out to the apartment - I thought I'd save you guys that much."
"Thank", this from Lucas.
To Meg, Hadley said "I think you'll love the apartment. I know I do. Lucas put a lot of his own person touches in it - and in it. He did everything but the plumbing and electrical work himself. He designed the cutest kitchen table, the couch and easy chairs are his and the bed is one of his signature pieces too."
"I can't wait to see it," Meg a answered honestly, pretending not to notice how uncomfortable his sister's praise was making Lucas.
"No reason to wait," he said then, as if he were in a hurry to get out of the situation. "Come on, I'll show it to you."
"I left the door unlocked," Hadley called as they headed for the rear of the house.
Still, Meg saw Lucas grab a set of keys from one of the countertops as they passed through the dated but clean kitchen space. "These are yours," he told her, handing them to her. "There's a key to the apartment, keys to the front and back door of this house and one that will get you into the barn. The only thing you don't have a key to is Chase's place but I didn't think you'd ever need that." he explained.
The garage and the barn were side by side behind the house - the barn directly behind it, the garage off to the left at the end of the driveway that veered around the farmhouse. Not much distance separated any of it and they'd reached the garage where a whitewashed wooden staircase ran up one side to a private entrance to the apartment.
Lucas motioned for Meghan to go ahead of him. At the landing she opened the door and went in without waiting for him to do the honours. Hadley had left a table lamp on so Megan's first glimpse of the place was well lit and as Lucas came in after her, she said "This is beautiful".
And it was. Every detail from the oak cupboards to the chair rails to the hardwood floors to the one walk that was painted a rustic red which shouted class and taste and attention to detail. It was much more than a thrown together garage apartment - which was what Meghan had been afraid it might be.
"I'm glad you like it," Lucas responded simply, humbly, but in a way that made Meghan think he was genuinely glad he had pleased her.
But she told herself that she was probably reading more into that than actually existed, and began to wander around to look at everything close up, thankful that she wasn't going to be living somewhere awful and loving the place so much she wanted to hug him.
Another unwarranted thought, and urge.
No playing with him,no hugging him she warned herself.
He showed her the bathroom and the closet, then gave her a tour of the kitchen - reminding her that he was hoping that rather than use it too much she would be eating in the house with Tiara,Hadley and himself.
"You could have just not put in a kitchen - that would have made eating with you guys a necessity," she pointed out.
"Not my style"
There was something sexy in the way he said that, that made her wonder what his style was.
But thinking of Lucas as sexy was another item in Meghan's list of Don'ts. She instantly added wondering what his was to that same list.
"So, satisfy some curiosity for me, will your?" he asked then, interrupting her internal struggle to keep her mind on the straight and narrow.
"Sure," she agreed.
"With all your degrees and a big deal job in Denver ,how is it that you're signing on to be Tia's nanny?"
It was a logical question that she had been expecting. That she had a ready answer for that didn't reveal too much.
"At Children's Hospital,I see kids with all kinds of problems that are so much bigger than finding Grilla in packing boxes or making everyone say 'Goodnight Moon'. I want to help them. I like helping them. But it's been a pretty steady dose of nothing but that for a while now and I just thought I needed a little of the lighter side of kids for a change to recharge my battery."
He was watching her while she recited that. Studying her. And she could see in his handsome face that he wasn't completely buying it. But it was true. It just wasn't the whole story and she wasn't willing to tell him the rest. That would have to satisfy him.
And rather than saying more, she countered with a question of her own.
"What about you? I don't know a lot about Mackey and Macaulay Furniture Designs but my sister, Kate sends me the local newspaper and I did see ab article - one of those Northbridge-boys-makes-good things. I thought you'd built your business and your whole life in New York and Connecticut, but here you are."
He shrugged those broad shoulders. "It's a return to our roots", he said, giving her the sense that he was holding back too. Quite a bit, if she were to make a guess.
But he hadn't pushed her so she wouldn't push him.
And as if they'd come to that by some kind of silent agreement, he nodded then and said "I'll leave and let you get unpacking".
He headed for the door and Meghan went with him, taking in the full and fabulous view of him from behind. His T-shirt outlined every muscle and his jeans moulded a rear end that her hand inexplicably itched to cup.
"By the way," he said when he reached the door and was halfway across the threshold, turning around to look at her again. "If you want to bring Tia up here and spend tomorrow settling in, you can hold off a day or two before you get to her room. She's not really suffering the loss of Grilla, she's just peeved that she doesn't have him, so waiting a little longer isn't going to make any difference, and you might as well get comfortable before you dig into her stuff"
"That would be good. And are you really okay if I use visiting you while you work as a reward?"
"Sure. You'll see when you come out to the barn that the showroom is where you go into first- the workroom is behind it. Just holler to let me know you're there and I'll come out do Tia dosen't get near anything dangerous. But you can come anytime- feel free."
He made that sound like an invitation to her, not just as permission to bring Tia. But that probably wasn't what he intended. They were just two people with one aim- to care for his daughter- and Meghan told herself to stop reading too much into things. The same way she needed to stop noticing every little detail about him and finding something sexy in them all.
She didn't understand what was going on with her. It wasn't something she'd ever done before with anyone else. And if ever there was a wrong place, time, situation or person, this was it!
She did a mental pulling-in-on-the-reins again, hoping that her reaction to had had something to do with novelty and that when she got to know Lucas better, she'd be able to take him more in stride.
"I appreciate the open door policy, but I ain't abuse it. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeves when it comes to getting children to behave and comply - rewarding Tiara with a visit to you will only be one of them," she told him, hearing the formality that crept into her fine but unable to stop it because it was just something she was accustomed to hiding behind; the way Tiara had hidden behind Lucas tonight.
He must have caught the slight alteration of tone, though, because his eyebrows beetled together slightly. But he didn't say anything about it.
Instead, he merely went in. "Tia isn't one of those crack-of-dawn kids- she'll usually sleep till eight or none, so you can take your time coming over in the morning. Unless you're an early riser and you need coffee- there will be a pot brewed long before Tia is up and you're welcome to it.
Meghan imagined going over at sunrise to start her say with him alone, in the quiet of the morning, just the two of them.....
Much, much too appealing a thought!
"Let's just see how it goes" she said noncommittally, hating how mure of that aloofness had echoed in her voice.
"Sure, whatever," Lucas said, those furrows in his brows deepening.
Then,he said good night and left and once again, Meghan wanted to kick herself.
One minute she'd been friendly, the next she'd been evasive, the next she'd talked like a textbook- if he was worried that he'd hired some kind of nut job, he had good reason.
She was just so all over the place when it came to him.
But tomorrow was another day, she consoled herself.
It was her first day of work, when her complete focus would be on Tiara .
That would probably help, she told herself.
No, not probably, that would have to help.
Because she'd come here to get herself on track. Not to hook up with a hot hunk.