Page 154 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

Rob heaved a weighty sigh of relief. Not that he’d gotten her to change out of that stupid shirt but that she was finally out of the room for a moment so he could breathe. Of course, he had wanted her out of that shirt—it did hold memories—but worse he lied about its origins. It wasn’t a fraternity shirt at all. That particular shirt was Melinda’s. She’d bought it when they’d taken a long weekend drive up the east coast, eating at the infamous Earl’s BBQ Shack. He’d watched her seductively suck the sauce off of a small rack of rib bones all afternoon. His groin tightened at the memory. That was the last thing he needed now, a distant memory teasing his boner.

But this Miss Wyn—she possessed some sort of energy that sucked the air out of his lungs when she was near. And that was going to have to stop.

Put it out of your mind, Black.

As soon as possible, he had to get the next day and hours planned with Miss Wyn so he could concentrate on business and get his ass to L.A.

He picked up Mia and the bouncy chair and turned to the older boys.

“You two finish cleaning this up and watch your brother. I’m taking Mia with me while I take a quick shower and change. You got this, right men?”

Ham and Chaz nodded with stupid, silly grins on their faces. “Got it!”

Ham saluted and Rob groaned inwardly. He was going to have to make this a damn quick shower.

****

Wyn and Rob passed in the hallway as she left the master suite and Rob headed in, Mia in tow.

“My turn,” he said.

Thank God. She nodded.

“I’ll supervise the monkeys.”

He smiled back then and her heart warmed. An uncontrollable whoosh of air exited her lungs as she hurriedly made her way down the hall and into the great room.

She looked to the three boys who were staring back at her.

“We’re supposed to finish cleaning up in here,” Ham said.

Wyn nodded and picked up a pillow.

“Then I suppose I will help you,”

she returned.

The twins’ eyes rounded.

“You will?”

That was from Chaz.

“Of course. Let’s see if we can make a game of it. Okay? How fast each of us can put five things away. Count while you are doing it!”

“Is there a prize?”

Chaz queried, cocking his head.

Wyn tossed the pillow his way and he caught it.

“Only the satisfaction of doing a job well done,”

she said.

“Now, put that pillow over on the couch and you already have one thing done.”

The boys scattered and began counting and picking up things in fives and putting them away. After several rounds, the boys settled on the bottom step of the stairs and huffed out a breath or two.

“We’re done!”

Wyn looked around her.

“That we are. See, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No!”

She crouched in front of them.

“And the thing is, we wouldn’t have had to do this at all if you all hadn’t messed up the room to begin with, right? So maybe think about that the next time you get an urge to make a mess.”

The boys stared at her.

She moved a little closer.

“You see, I have this one little rule and it’s this—if you make a mess, you clean it up. Simple as that.”

Chaz cocked his head.

“Just one rule?”

Wyn stood and crossed her arms, looking down on the boys.

“For now. I don’t like to make rules because when rules are broken, someone has to enforce then. Rather than enforcing rules all of the time, I’d rather just be hanging out with you guys, taking care of you and doing fun stuff.”

Ham looked to Chaz and Chaz looked to Ham. Finally, Ham said.

“Fun stuff?”

She shrugged.

“Well, of course! A nanny takes care of her kids but she also is in charge of activities. You like activities, right?”

“Yeah!”

She squatted again and looked from Ham to Chaz.

“Well then, you guys, don’t turn me into a rule maker because then I don’t have time for activities. Got it?”

They both scrunched up their faces a little. Then Chaz piped up.

“You mean, if we’re good and don’t make messes, we get to do fun stuff?

Wyn winked.

“Exactly, Chaz. So no more of this mess like this morning. Okay?”

“But it’s fun…”

Ham wined.

“And so is paintball. But if we have to spend our time cleaning up chocolate goo off the sofa, there will be no time for paintball.”

“Paintball?”

“Perhaps.”

“When?”

“That depends on the two of you.”

Ham and Chaz shared another wide-eyed look. “Okay!”

Wyn rose when she heard a cough and turned to see Rob standing behind her, holding Mia.

My-oh-my. The man did clean up well.

Jeans. Nikes. Golf shirt.

Shower-damp hair combed back off his forehead. Smelling mighty fine. Spicy. Clean.

Downright damned good-looking man.

Wyn inhaled deeply to recover from that whoosh of breath she’d just exhaled. Breathe, Wyn. Just breathe girl. “Oh, hi.”

He gave her a nod.

“That was slick.”

“I…”

Then he grinned.

“Very slick. Well played.”

“Oh, okay. Thank you.”

God he looks good enough to eat. Stop it, Wyn.

“While in the shower I worked out a plan.”

“Oh?”

He kept talking. She didn’t hear a word. He rattled off words about things she definitely did not comprehend. Her head spun with her reaction to him. Her heart beat faster and her breathing was suddenly too shallow. Lightheaded? He smelled too good and it was all she could do to rein herself in from stepping forward and leaning closer just to sniff him. After-shave. Dammit.

I can’t do this.

Yes you can, Wyn. He’s guaranteed rent.

No. I’m attracted. He is off limits. This is not going to work.

“So does that plan work for you?”

Wyn jerked herself out of her mindless musings and on to the off-limits father-figure standing before her. “Huh?”

He stood no more than two feet away. The boys flanked him. Twins on one side, little Justin on the other. All had their arms crossed over their chests.

“The plan I just outlined for the afternoon and evening. Sound okay with you? If so, let’s get rolling.”

Plan. He’d shared a plan? She was clueless. Speechless. Spellbound. Her mind was still on that thick shower-damp head of hair of his.

“Plan?”

she uttered.

“I... I’m sorry. I must have missed it.”

Wyn swallowed her pride and then looked Rob square in the eyes.

“Sorry. My mind was elsewhere. Can you repeat?”

Rob’s eyes twinkled. Dammit. Could he tell he caught her off guard?

He cleared his throat.

“Short and sweet. I’m leaving for L.A. early Tuesday morning. I have a meeting with my business partner and a movie producer so we have a day to introduce you to the kids’ routine and so on.”

Wyn gasped.

“Movie producer?”

He looked at her oddly, cocking his head to the side, and glancing off.

“Uh, yes. It’s…a side job thing.”

“Oh. I see.”

Crap. Worlds were colliding in her head. If he was truly incognito, why would he mention the movie business? Did he slip up? Did he recognize her from the audition? Was he testing her? “I think.”

He quickly changed the subject.

“Let’s drive you home so you can pick up your things.”

“My things?”

she squeaked out.

“Yes, your clothes, personal items, so you can stay for a few days. We’ll get some groceries, too, and then we’ll be set until I have to leave when you can take over full-time with the kids.”

Definitely to the point.

“But—”

“Oh, that’s right. I’ve forgotten one thing. The terms of our agreement. A thousand dollars a week. Cash. Plus room and board.”

Wyn’s jaw dropped.

“I’ll need you for just a few days, maybe a week, until….”

She cleared her throat.

“Until your wife gets back.”

He stared.

“Uh, yes. Wife. Until she gets back.”

She stared back. For a brief moment, she took it in. Living here. In this house. Twenty-four hours with him. Kids. Alone. Cash. The only word Wyn could squeak out with those thoughts rummaging around through her head was a meager, “Um.”

“Um? Were you expecting more money? I can go up to twelve hundred.”

Wyn whooshed out a breath.

“No. Your wages are fine. I just…”

Then an alarming thought struck her. Why had he mentioned he worked in the industry? Was he baiting her? Did he know who she was? Is that why he hired her so quickly? Was he trying to trick her?

To what end?

Why would he lead her on like this? Was he on to her?

Surely not. He’d barely looked at her during their brief encounter at the audition. Surely he didn’t remember her.

Did he?

It made no sense.

Last thing she needed in this reality television show without the rolling cameras was to have him accuse her of worming her way into his life just to get an acting job. That would ruin her career locally for damned sure. Hell. All she wanted was to prove to herself and her friends that she really could act. That she could act her way into a job.

She wasn’t the casting couch type. She was not going to sleep her way up to the top. No way. What a mess.

She had reasons aplenty for keeping Rob Black at arm’s length. One, his story was squirrelly—Mr. Browning? Two, he was her potential boss. And three, he was the only man in Harbor Falls who held the key to her acting future.

Damn. Damn, damn, damn.

Wyn took one long look around the house. She had to make a decision and fast. She boldly fixed her gaze on Mr. Rob Black aka Browning and said.

“Look. This isn’t going to work after all. I’m sorry. I’ve made a mistake. Good luck in your search, Mr. Browning.”

Then she turned and left the child-sized Armageddon behind her. Actually, she ran for the front entryway, grabbing her coat and tripping into her boots on the way out, and slammed the front door behind her before he could stop her. He said things like, “Wait”

an.

“Let’s talk about this”

and she was sure she heard the door open again as she headed down the sidewalk but thankfully, he let her go.

Now to call Zach to pick her up.

He’d give her shit.

She didn’t care.

To hell with the intervention. To hell with Charla and Zach and Lisa and their plans. She’d chart her own darned course and next steps. She loved them but it was time to tell them to back off.