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Chapter One

Hannah

I wasn’t going to make it.

Dramatic? Yes, but each morning was a struggle to keep my shit together in this chaos. I was in desperate need of help, and I wasn’t going to get it.

You always get maudlin when one of your babies is sick. Today is just like any other stressful school morning.

Huzzah.

Joshua sniffled pitifully against my shoulder, his mop of brown curls limp from the fever, Mr. BunBun tucked up against his side. I knew he was rubbing snot all over my shoulder, and I berated myself for wearing my good silk blouse for today’s meeting.

“Benny, are you ready?” I yelled from the living room, rushing about, trying to find my other heel. I swear it had been right here. I’d had to drop them both to pick up Joshua, because at almost three, he wasn’t nearly as tiny as he used to be. “Benny, we’re going to be late.”

“I don’t care,” my oldest hollered back from upstairs. “The school doesn’t care either.”

“Oh, the school most definitely cares, young man!” I had enough notes from them to prove it. “Let’s go, let’s go!”

Joshua whimpered again, and I ran my hand up and down his back, trying to soothe him. “I know, babybear. We’ll get your brother and sister to school, and we’ll figure something out, okay?”

Although what, I didn’t know. Daycare wouldn’t take him with a fever. Mom’s chemo appointments meant that I couldn’t risk compromising her with toddler germs. And my boss wasn’t going to be happy if I called out again…

“Mom?” Tova wandered in from the kitchen, one of her braids already coming undone. I swear that child gets into more mischief before eight a.m. than most children do in a week. “Where are the brownies?”

“Aha!” I crowed, bending to scoop up my other shoe triumphantly. “What brownies?”

“The ones for my class today. Everyone was supposed to bring in a treat, and I told them you make the best brownies. Did you make them?”

My chest clenched, and I turned incredulous eyes toward my daughter, both heels dangling forgotten. “And you didn’t think you ought to tell me this? Tova, you need them today? ”

She shrank back. “I thought Ms. Rios told you. ”

Oh no. I shut my eyes helplessly. “I…I can’t make you brownies, honey. There’s not enough time. If you’d mentioned it yesterday…”

“I’m sorry, Mommy,” she whimpered, and I opened my eyes in time to drop the shoes again and catch her as she threw herself at me.

“ Oof ! It’s okay, honeybear.” Now I was soothing two children. “I’ll figure something out.” I always did, after all. “Maybe we could stop by Meli’s Bake Shoppe on the way to…” Figuring out what to do with your brother.

On my shoulder, the toddler hiccupped, and I knew he must be in bad shape if he didn’t even fuss louder. While I was trying to think of what I could grab from the store for Tova, my brain was also whirling, trying to guess what Joshua’s symptoms meant. A cold, a new tooth, something worse?

Oh God . I resisted the urge to close my eyes in defeat. This was easier when Travis was here .

Was it, though?

My ex was a warm body in the house, sure. But what would he be doing in this situation?

He’d be sitting on the couch, high as a kite, eating junk food and spitting crumbs everywhere.

Yeah, but having another adult would mean I could hand Joshua off to him or tell him to drive Tova and Benny to school, at least.

But would he? Maybe five years ago he could’ve managed, but the drugs made him an unsafe driver.

Oh yes, there was that .

I sighed.

My life had certainly become more difficult since my divorce, but at least now, I only had to worry about three immature humans instead of four.

Joshua sneezed, and I sighed, opening my eyes.

Right.

Self-pity was well and good, but I had to get shit done.

I patted Tova again. “It’ll be okay, honeybear. We’ll figure something out.” And if I can’t, Ms. Rios was an understanding sort. “How about you go and get your stuff ready? Do you need a backpack today?”

“Nope! No homework!” My daughter pulled away and did a little spin, showing off the way her favorite pink leopard-print dress twirled. “Just the last-day-of-school party!”

“Okay, well, why don’t you bring it anyhow, in case Ms. Rios has something to send home with you? And get your brother’s stuff too— Benjamin Thomas Wood!”

Tova ran to the bottom of the stairs and called up, “Benny! Mom’s using your middle name, you’d better come!”

How could that kid not want to go to school on the last day of classes? I would’ve thought he’d be thrilled!

Shaking my head, I pulled Joshua away from my shoulder long enough to check on him. “You okay, buddy?”

His bright red cheeks told me he wasn’t. How was I going to take care of him when?—

Right on time, my phone rang. I’d already slipped it into the pocket of my slacks, so I hoisted Joshua back onto my shoulder and fumbled to pull it out .

My boss. Great.

The man wasn’t a bad boss, but he didn’t seem to understand the concept of school mornings are hectic .

“Good morning, sir.” I managed not to sound exasperated. “What’s up?”

“Just making sure you’re all set for the ten o’clock appointment with Butch Holdings. We can’t afford any more delays; not if the building projects the mayor wants are going to move forward on time. You have all the info you need?”

“Yes sir, but…” Joshua sneezed again. “Can I send the information to you? Or maybe Cindy? My youngest is sick, and?—”

“Hannah.” His voice was steely. “When I hired you, you assured me you had plenty of childcare options.”

“He has a fever, sir.” I couldn’t just foist him off on someone!

“Be that as it may…” He sighed. “No one else knows this portfolio, Hannah. The bank needs you here for the meeting, and the meeting will happen at ten. So you will be here by ten. Is that understood?”

There was an implied or else , and I couldn’t afford to lose my job. I mean, I was good at it, so they couldn’t fire me, but my boss could make my life miserable. I closed my eyes, thinking how much shit single moms put up with. “Yes, sir.”

He hung up without acknowledging my agreement.

I frowned down at my phone, trying not to feel hopeless .

If only that Help Wanted ad had born fruit. It had been Benjamin’s teacher’s idea, actually, to hire a nanny, after I complained to her about the upcoming summer months. I had the money, after all…just not the time.

But Eastshore Isle was a small town, and it wasn’t like there were an excess of qualified nannies sitting around. I’d been hoping that, starting on Monday, I’d be able to hire a temporary babysitter from the high school population…

That didn’t help me today.

“Benny!” I called again. “We’re leaving soon! I have to stop by the bake shop! Get your butt down here!”

“Butt!” giggled Tova, dancing toward the kitchen. “Butt, butt, butt!”

My temples were pounding. Maybe I was getting sick.

Telling myself it wasn’t fair to snap at her because I was frustrated with her older brother and worried about her younger brother, I slid my phone back into my pocket and turned to the kitchen to find myself something to pack for my lunch.

The knock on the door stopped me.

Who the hell came visiting at eight a.m. on a Friday morning? It was too early for any deliveries.

Scowling, I readjusted Joshua, tucked Mr. BunBun back into the crook of my elbow, and opened the door.

My first thought was to wonder if someone had sent me a stripping telegram.

If they had, they’d sent the perfect male to deliver it .

The orc on my front porch was huge—tall and broad, his hair almost brushing the overhang—and stunningly handsome. His dark hair was impeccably cut and styled, his jaw and cheekbones were chiseled, and he wore a tight black t-shirt that accentuated all the right things.

There was a mole on his cheek, and it highlighted his perfection, rather than detracting from it.

“Good morning.” He smiled, and I saw that between the two tusks which poked from his bottom lip, his white teeth were perfectly straight. “Are you Ms. Woods?”

I stared.

This god of a male knew my name?

I’d known orcs were handsome—Tova’s best friend was an orc, and her father Sakkara was the mayor—but this one? My mouth opened, but no words emerged.

“Ma’am?” His smile faded, replaced with concern. “Am I in the right place? I’m looking for Hannah Woods?”

Joshua sneezed again, and it shook me from my shock. “Oh! Yes, I’m Hannah.”

“Good. I’m here about the job.”

Job? I shook my head, distracted by the way my toddler was rubbing his running nose against my silk. “Honey, don’t do that to Mommy’s shirt.” I turned back to the stranger. “What job, Mister—look, who are you?”

He’d pulled out his phone and now waggled it at me as if that would help me remember. “I’m Aswan. I’m your new nanny.”

Aswan

The woman’s panic was infecting me. I could taste her desperation, which shouldn’t be possible; all I knew was that she was desperate, frantic, and I couldn’t stand by.

“Ms. Woods? Sakkara said you needed help.”

“Sakkara sent you?” she blurted, even as she turned back into the house, shaking her head. “That’s ridi—no, I posted that job advertisement a month ago, and didn’t get any responses.”

All the more reason for me to apply, right? She had stumbled back into the house’s foyer, leaving the door open, and it wasn’t an invitation…but I decided to take it as one. Cautiously, I stepped inside.

“Benny!” she yelled up the stairs. “If you’re not down here in ninety seconds, I’m leaving you!”

A little voice hollered right back: “ Good !”

“Benjamin Woods! Get your butt down here! We have to stop at the bakery for your sister, which means we had to leave ten minutes ago, and?—”

The baby on her shoulder chose that moment to sneeze again, spewing snot across her blouse and the side of her neck. “Oh, yuck, Joshy!” she groaned.

Unable to stop myself from helping, I stepped forward, arms out. “Here,” I demanded. “You go change, and I’ll wrangle the children?—”

My words cut off when she—Ms. Woods—clutched the toddler to her and reared back, panic in her eyes once more.

“Are you nuts—Look, I don’t know you, mister! You should leave before I call the cops!”

It took effort to drop my hands to my sides, instead of gathering her and the child against my chest to whisper soothing words. Instead, I nodded serenely. “Yes, that would be fine. My younger brother Simbel is on the force, and Chief Ortiz is a fine man who will vouch for me.”

I could tell by the way her eyes narrowed that she hadn’t expected that answer.

“Here’s Benny’s bag, Mom!” came a new voice, and I tipped my head to one side to see a girl child spinning in place, a too-big blue backpack pulling her off-balance with centrifugal force.

“Tova—” began Ms. Woods as the girl spun too close to a cabinet laden with books and bins.

Without thinking, I reached out and snagged the handle at the top of the backpack, causing her to spin to a stop a few inches from disaster. She didn’t realize how close she’d come to collision, of course, and merely blinked up at me.

Then she grinned as she recognized me. “Hi, Aswan. Did you bring Emmy? Can we play today?”

“You know him?” her mother barked, and I glanced over to see her hoisting the red-faced toddler higher as she chewed on her bottom lip. “Tova, this male?—”

The little girl rolled her eyes. “He’s Emmy’s uncle. Kinda-uncle.” She latched onto my hand, although I wasn’t sure if it was in support or because she was still dizzy. “Aswan, we gotta go to the bakery because I forgot to tell Mom she had to make the brownies for the party today, and Ms. Meli’s brownies are almost as good as Mom’s. But my big brother is being a butthead and we gotta go now .”

“I don’t think he’d appreciate being called that.”

Tova just shrugged. “And my little brother is sick.”

This time, I turned—turned us both —to face her mother. Yes, the little one she held was looking significantly droopy, wasn’t he? I winced in sympathy. “That explains the sneezes.”

“I have an important meeting today,” she whispered, the words almost drug from her, as if she didn’t want to admit the failing. “And Joshua has a fever…”

I grasped the situation immediately and pulled out my phone to call Sakkara.

No daycare would accept the little one with a fever, and she would miss her meeting, and the other two were already late.

“It’s Aswan,” I barked into the phone, even as I punched the speaker button. “Ms. Woods didn’t realize I’d be starting today. Please vouch for me.”

The woman’s hazel eyes were locked on the phone, and Sakkara immediately did as I asked.

“Hannah? It’s Sakkara. Please forgive my oversight, I am so sorry.” I could hear him pacing. “I told Aswan I would reach out to you and arrange for him to start today, but in my calendar I wrote Monday , and I thought I had another few days to arrange everything. ”

The toddler was beginning to slip down her hip, even as he clutched a ragged stuffed animal, but his mother was glancing frantically between the phone and me. “I—I— Really , Sakkara? You sent him?”

“I knew you needed help. Nikki told me you were looking for a nanny for the summer, which starts next week, and Aswan really is a perfect choice.”

“He’s nannied before?” she asked, eyes narrowing in disbelief as her gaze raked me.

I opened my mouth to defend myself—no, I haven’t nannied before, I didn’t even know you could verb the word—but Sakkara beat me to it.

“He won’t let you down, Hannah, I swear it,” Eastshore’s mayor assured her smoothly. “I hope he can be of help to you today.”

I saw the moment she gave in. Her shoulders slumped, her chin dropped. “Yeah, thanks,” she mumbled, turning away. “Um…have a good day. Benny !” she called, dismissing the phone call.

I hung up. “Ms. Woods.”

When she swung her worried gaze back to mine, I held out my hands again. “Give me the child. Go change and wash up and fetch your son. Tova and I will keep Joshua safe.”

She hesitated, her palm spread across the toddler’s back. Well, who could blame her? I didn’t exactly inspire trustworthy nanny vibes, did I? But maybe the fact I already knew everyone’s names proved that I was trustworthy? She glanced down at Tova, who was happily swinging on my hand, then back up to me .

With a mighty sigh, she held out the boy.

Without hesitation, I scooped him up and tucked him against my shoulder, grabbing the stuffed animal before it could fall from his limp hold. His mother watched in concern, chewing on her lower lip.

The lower lip I couldn’t seem to stop noticing. It was plump and far too interesting.

“Be careful,” she finally blurted. “He has a cold. If you got sick?—”

“Woman,” I said sternly, “I’m an orc. We don’t get the sniffles . Go. Care for yourself.”

She shuffled backward toward the stairs, as if unwilling to leave me alone with not one, but two of her children. I had enough time to see her grip the banister as if her life depended on it before Tova tugged on my hand.

“Guess what, Aswan? Today is the last day of school, and we’re having a party! Ms. Rios is the best teacher, although Benny likes his teacher too. Emmy is in my class, did you know that?”

I felt my lips curling as I patted the small child’s rear, the way I remember fathers doing for their kitlings in my village. “I did know that. You’re her best friend.”

“And she’s my best friend. She doesn’t talk to me very much, but she talks to me more than she talks to any of our other friends, that’s how I know.” The convoluted sentence took me a moment to work through. “And you know what else? Her mom is Ms. Rios, our teacher! I mean, she’s her stepmom, that’s what it’s called when your dad marries a new lady. Like if Mom married a new boy, he’d be my stepdad. I want a stepdad, because you know why? ”

Honestly, I was only half paying attention. I’d been on Eastshore long enough—and had spent enough time with Sakkara, his Mate Nikki, and their daughter Emmy—to know Tova…and to have been talked at by Tova. So I studied the boy, Joshua, and murmured, “No, why?” to his older sister.

“Because then Mom would be happy again. Sometimes, when it’s nighttime and she thinks I can’t hear her, she cries. I don’t like it when she’s sad.”

The confession, so nonchalantly given, caused something in my chest to freeze. My shocked gaze swung back to Tova, who’d dropped my hand and was now shrugging out of her brother’s backpack.

Ms. Woods… cried at night?

Why did that make my Kteer —that primitive part of me that howled survival instincts deep in my chest—growl? Did this have to do with the way I responded to her panic, with a need to fix things?

A thundering of feet saved me from having to respond to this shocking realization, and I looked up to see the woman holding the hand of a sullen boy about ten years old as they came down the steps. She was wearing a cotton blouse now, the red causing the highlights in her hair to shine.

“Find your shoes,” she snapped to her oldest son as she struggled into her suit coat. “Your sister has your bag. We have to go now .”

“Ms. Woods,” I announced, stepping in front of her as she hopped on one foot to strap her heels. “You take the children to school. I will stop by the bakery and pick up the brownies and drop them off with Ms. Rios on Tova’s behalf.”

“Wh—” she began, straightening to gape at me.

I thrust the toddler into her arms. “Is your stroller in the garage? I’ll load it into my car, and we can go from the school to the bank.” That’s where Sakkara said she worked, and where I assumed her meeting was.

Her mouth was working, but no sound emerged, and Tova tugged on my arm. When I turned my attention to her, she beamed.

“Make sure you get the ones with the sprinkles, Aswan. They’re the best.”

I nodded curtly. “Understood. Will two dozen be sufficient?” When the little girl merely blinked at me, I clarified, “Twenty-four. Never mind, I’ll get thirty.”

“You’d better get fifty,” she said seriously. “They’re really good, everyone likes them.”

Her mother interrupted, “He’ll get what he can find, young lady. Get in the car!” She bounced the fussy toddler as she peered up at me, her gaze torn between fear and hope. “You really don’t mind, Aswan?”

My attention was caught by her lower lip again. Part of me had been wondering what it taste like…but when she said my name? All my attention centered on that . And the way it made my Kteer howl with glee.

I forced myself to incline my head. It took two tries to make my voice work. “I am here to help,” I managed before I strode out the open door.

I had a stroller to find and brownies to buy.

It was good to have a purpose again.