Marrying the Northbridge Nanny Read Online Free Page B

games you have that you like to play.”
    “I wanna play wis my dad,” Tia responded in a thanks-but-no-thanks way.
    And why it flashed through Meg’s mind that she might like to play with Tia’s dad herself, Meg 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 and visit your dad and your aunt Hadley for just 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 won’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 Meg tells you to do first.”
    Meg 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.
    Tia had 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 out to the barn to work—like before, when we were at our old house, remember how I would leave to go to work?”
    Tia nodded.
    “Well, it’s the same as that, except I don’t go as far away. And while I do that, Meg will be with you like Nancy used to be.”
    At the mention of Nancy—who Meg could onlyassume had been Tia’s former nanny—Tia looked at Meg. “Hers like Nancy?” the little girl said, putting it together.
    “Right. Nancy was your nanny in Connecticut, and now Meg is your nanny here—she’ll help take care of you.”
    Tia seemed to accept Meg 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 her princess-themed top sheet and a light blanket.
    Then he bent over, kissed Tia’s forehead, and said, “Good night, moon. Good night, Tia.”
    Tia took her finger out of her mouth only long enough to say, “Guh’night, moon. Guh’night, Daddy.”
    And Meg had the sense that that was how they said good-night every night. It made her smile before she whispered, “See you tomorrow, Tia.”
    Out of the mouth came the index finger again. “Uhuh. Say guh’night, moon. Guh’night, Tia.”
    “Ahh. Good night, moon. Good night, Tia,” Meg said, following orders, thinking that 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.
    Logan smoothed the little girl’s hair lovingly and then nodded toward the door to let Meg know they should leave.
    In the hallway outside Tia’s room Logan pulled the door closed slightly and whispered, “We’ve been 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,” Meg 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 Meg 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. Meg had left her luggage there before