Marrying the Northbridge Nanny by Victoria Pade Read Free Book Online Page B

Theresa Grayson on Tuesday afternoon couldn’t have gone better. Despite voicing some pre-meeting jitters, Logan and Hadley had obviously relaxed within minutes of going into the Graysons’ house. More than just behaving well, having Tia there had served to cut some of the older woman’s tension, awkwardness and emotion. Tia had provided an upbeat and unifying focus for everyone, including Marti, Wyatt, Ry, the nurse-caregiver Mary Pat, and Meg.
    The explanation of who Theresa was had gone over Tia’s head but she’d accepted the suggestion that she call her Great-Gram. And after some initial shyness, Tia had even agreed to sit on Great-Gram’s lap. Only briefly, but Theresa had seemed pleased.
    Tia had been thrilled with having cookies served onchina and juice in a cup and saucer. She had liked that there were flowers on the dinnerware. The little girl’s only faux pas was to turn her nose up at the small, beautifully handcarved wooden sleigh that Theresa had given her—one of Theresa’s own childhood toys. Tia had politely asked what it did and showed her disinterest by setting it aside after she learned that it didn’t actually do anything.
    Logan, on the other hand, had admired it and Meg suspected it would end up belonging to him.
    Meg had also been glad to see how open, friendly and welcoming Marti, Wyatt and Ry were to Logan and Hadley. The three grandchildren who had guardianship of Theresa and who had spent their lives sharing her care showed no qualms at all about having two more family members introduced into the mix. Instead, they’d seemed open to including Logan and Hadley, and making them as much a part of Theresa’s life as Logan and Hadley wanted to be, giving them an open invitation to visit anytime.
    For Logan’s and Hadley’s part, Meg had not been able to tell much about what they were thinking or feeling beyond a continuing shock to have so recently found out that their background wasn’t what they’d always believed it to be. But there hadn’t been time to talk about any of it because when they’d all arrived home again they discovered an overflowing toilet had wreaked some havoc in the downstairs bathroom.
    While Logan found the water shutoff and Hadley tried to do some cleanup, Meg had taken Tia with her to the apartment where Tia couldn’t get into the mess that the three-year-old saw as a chance for indoor-puddle-jumping.
    From the apartment, Meg called her brother Noah. Noah was the local contractor and he promised to get his plumber there right away.
    Dinner ended up being sandwiches that Meg made, leaving a plate of them for Logan, Hadley and the plumber, and taking hers and Tia’s outdoors for an impromptu picnic. Then she’d given Tia her bath at the apartment and when the plumbing problems were fixed, Hadley had come to get Tia to take her home to bed, ending a day that was in no way lacking activity.
    What it had lacked—for Meg—was any kind of concentrated time with Logan. Which shouldn’t have been an issue. And yet it had her feeling restless and deprived just when she should have been relaxing.
    It was ridiculous, she told herself again and again as she finished what was left of her unpacking. Logan was nothing more than a peripheral part of why she was there, and seeing him only in conjunction with the events of the day—the same way she’d seen Hadley—shouldn’t have made a single bit of difference.
    And yet it wasn’t Hadley she kept thinking about.
    It was Logan…
    By ten o’clock the overhead lights and the table lamps had been on all evening, causing the apartment to be hot and stuffy. Between that and the absurdly low spirits Meg had been left in because Logan hadn’t been a part of her evening, she decided to open all the windows, turn off the lights, and sit outside until the place cooled off. And maybe she would, too…
    It didn’t help much that when she went to sit on the stair landing she was facing the rear of the main houseand looking right