My Lucky Groom (Summer Grooms Series) by Ginny Baird Read Free Book Online Page B

held her gaze, reddening slightly at the temples. “You are a good
driver? No accidents?”
    “Not even a parking ticket.”
    “Great, because this baby’s brand new. We wouldn’t want
history repeating itself.”
    “What happened to the last one?”
    “The nanny totaled it.”
    There was a loud pounding from upstairs in the hall and then
the rising sound of Jason’s voice, “Hey, kids! I said open up!”
    “Uh-oh.” Richard rose from his chair. “I’d better go
investigate.”
    Ventura eyed the cage on his desk. “Another frog?”
    He strode quickly from the room. “Another clog’s more like
it.”

 
    Richard and Ventura arrived in the upstairs hall just as
Jason prepared to thrust his shoulder into the bathroom door. “Stand back!” he
warned the kids. “I’m coming through on three! One… Two… Oomph!” He threw his
weight into the door, and it swung open, ricocheting against the claw-foot tub.
    At the opposite end of the room, Ricky and Elisa stood on
either side of the commode, their little mouths
dropped open. Toilet paper littered the floor along with empty shampoo bottles,
several empty cracker boxes and — Ventura
could scarcely believe it — an
open jar of peanut butter! Elisa stood her with her arms frozen over the toilet
in midair, her hands clutching an upside-down potato chip bag. Ricky, who’d
been squirting whipped cream around the rim of the bowl, held the can straight
out in front of him and pointed it in their direction.
    “Ricky!” Richard commanded. “Put that thing down!”
    “Now, Elisa!” Ricky urged his sister. “Flush it! Flush it
fast!”
    Ventura’s eyes traveled to the gold-plated toilet paper
holder, seeing sheets from the roll had been pulled long — and deposited in the toilet with
everything else.
    “Don’t do it,” Richard grated between clenched teeth.
    Elisa laid one finger on the handle and met Ventura square in the eye.
    “Elisa, no!” Jason called.
    Without a hint of emotion, she flushed, sending the rest of
the toilet paper on the holder spiraling into the already overloaded bowl. The
commode gurgled to life, then erupted in a wild spray that momentarily blinded
Richard. Jason beat back the stream with his hands and fell to his knees,
wrestling with the water valve on the wall. The kids wailed, apparently
terrified by their own horrific doings. Little Ricky blubbered as filthy water
repeatedly lapped at his face, while Elisa screamed and shook her soaking hair
as tears streamed from her eyes. Ventura lunged forward to pull the kids out of
the fray, but her shoe caught on a slick piece of paper. “Ahhh!” she cried,
stumbling forward and barely breaking her fall by clutching the toilet’s rim.
But it was too late — gravity
had already taken hold, and her face was set on a downward
trajectory—straight into the center of the nasty bowl.

 
    Richard sat in the front seat of his car beside Ventura in
awkward silence as he drove her back across the Potomac. He’d been so mortified
by the bathroom fiasco, he must have apologized for his children a hundred
times. Ventura hadn’t said much since she’d pulled her head out of that murky
mess and he’d handed her that face towel. He hoped she wasn’t planning to sue,
but wouldn’t necessarily blame her for having those thoughts. He didn’t know
why his little angels morphed into devils half of the time, but they certainly
appeared to have a wild streak. Richard had long wondered if it was because
they’d missed a mother’s touch.
    At first, he thought having a nanny around might help fix
that. Of course, it wouldn’t be nearly as nice for them as having a real mom,
but the right sort of nanny might provide a suitable substitute. But finding
the perfect caretaker for Ricky and Elisa had proved more difficult than
Richard had imagined. Even the fairly good ones had possessed some kind of
quirk, like Jasmine, who’d been great in every way apart from her penchant for
listening to rap music.