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"What window?"

Willow pointed toward a low window near the back corner of the house. "That one."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"Because that's what they always do. You just wait."

In morbid fascination, I watched as the nanny checked several windows one after another. Finding them all locked, she kept on going until she reached the same window that Willow had indicated earlier.

When the nanny triedthiswindow, it opened up on the first try. With obvious relief, she yanked it all the way up and shimmied back into the house, leaving us staring after her.

As she turned and shut the window behind her, I blew out a long, shaky breath.The poor nanny.

I turned to look at Willow. With an awkward laugh, I said, "Hey, guess whatI'mthankful for."

"What?" Willow asked.

I reached out and gave her a playful tap to the tip of her nose. "You."

She grinned. "Really?"

"Oh, yeah." And I meant it, too. Ireallyliked her, and not only because she had never locked me out of the house. For some reason, she and I just clicked.

The truth was, this wasn't feeling like a job at all, even if the guy who employed me was a different matter entirely – as I soon learned when I asked him about the birthday thing.

Chapter 18

Cami

Mason gave me a hard look. "Was that a serious question?"

It was nine o'clock in the morning, and I'd just returned from taking Willow to school. I'd parked in the attached garage like I always did, and had entered the house expecting to find myself alone.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

When I entered the kitchen, I'd spotted Mason near the fridge, dressed in tailored slacks and a thin white T-shirt. At the sight of me, he'd frowned like I'd just barged into his bedroom uninvited.

And me? I'd blurted out the first thing that had popped into my head, or rather thesecondthing, considering that thefirstthing was a totally inappropriate observation that he looked way too fine standing there only semi-dressed.

I replied, "Of course it was a serious question. So…Was I? Her birthday present, I mean?"

His mouth tightened. "No."

I waited, wondering what he'd say next. And when he said nothing, I refused to let it drop. "Just so you know, she told me to ask you, so I'm not breaking her confidence, if that's what you're worried about."

His eyebrows lifted. "Do I look worried?"

No.He looked like the kind of guy who made girls swoon, even while standing in the kitchen.

How unfair was that?

From what I could tell, he was wearing the lower half of a business suit, along with the T-shirt that would go underneath his dress shirt, and then eventually his jacket and tie.

What did this mean?

Was he halfway dressed? Or halfway undressed?

According to his schedule, he was supposed to be returning from Ohio later on tonight. But instead, here he was, looking good enough to eat.