Marrying the Northbridge Nanny by Victoria Pade Read Free Book Online

Theresa could go in a lot of different directions—she could refuse to see us at the last minute or cry all the way through it or be disoriented or just quiet. We don’t know what to expect.”
    “Kate introduced me to her and I know Theresa’s diagnosis. Multiple diagnoses, actually. Yes, she has a lot of problems, but you won’t find a raving crazy woman—if that’s what you’re afraid of. I’d say that if she can get up the courage to actually meet you and Hadley, the worst you’ll see is tears because she’s very emotional. But she also may just be happy to meet you and not appear any different than anyone else.”
    “I’m actually less worried about her than I am about Tia,” Logan confided.
    His pale eyes were iridescent in the light cast from the four lamps that were hung at the same angle that the stairs ran along the garage wall. And even in the dimness Meg thought those eyes exuded a warmth she could almost feel. Except that she told herself she was probably only imagining that…
    “Tia could love Theresa or hate her on sight,” he was saying when Meg forced her focus back to that. “And she could behave or misbehave accordingly. I don’t want her to set off someone who—from what I’ve heard—is pretty easily upset. I’d like it if you could just come with us so if Tia acts up, you can take her outside.”
    “Sure, absolutely,” she said, agreeing enthusiastically—and resisting the urge to spout technical terminology. “Certainly Tia doesn’t need a psychologist there, you just need someone who can remove her if she puts up a fuss like any three-year-old might around new people in a strange situation.”
    “Exactly,” Logan confirmed.
    “You said this is the first time you’ll be meeting Theresa, but what about her other grandchildren? That would make Wyatt, Marti and Ry your new cousins—have you met them yet?”
    “Yeah, the triplets,” he answered. “They all came out last week to fill us in on things,” Logan continued. “It was a pretty big shock to Hadley and me to find out that we’re related. That our mom had been adopted.”
    “You had no idea?” Meg asked.
    “Not a clue. Neither did our mother, apparently. We’ve talked to our other grandmother—Mom’s adopted mother—”
    “My sister, Kate, told me it was Anne and Shamus Wimmer who adopted the baby.”
    “Right. Gramps passed away a few years ago, but Gran is still alive and lives in Florida. When we first found out about this whole thing we called her. It took some persuading but she finally told us the truth. They never let anyone know they’d adopted. Apparently Gran even pretended to be pregnant at the same time Theresa was and then made a birth announcement as if she’d had the baby. And they never told a single soul anything different, including the rest of their families and my mother.”
    “Who passed away, too, if I’m remembering right.”
    “When Hadley was almost three and I was five. She was pregnant with what would have been our babybrother and there were complications. They both died,” Logan confirmed. “But Mom died never knowing anything about being adopted.”
    “Or suspecting anything?”
    “I’m sure she didn’t. To my grandparents, she was a gift—they doted on her and adored her. Which is more than I can say for Hadley and I being raised by a stepmother. But then I guess adopted kids are more wanted than stepkids.”
    “That was what you and Hadley ended up as—stepkids…” Meg said to prompt him to go on. Because not only did she want to have her facts straight, but since he’d added that, it was obviously on his mind and she thought he might want to talk about it.
    She must have been right because he didn’t hesitate to go on.
    “My father remarried six months later—Hadley was two and a half, I had just turned five. He said kids needed a mother and he couldn’t take care of us on his own. And almost nine months to the day after that wedding the second batch of