This time, we take it slow, and it’s even better.
Chapter Eight
When I wake to the sound of Maeve’s cries, I find I’ve left a puddle of drool on Corbin’s chest. I try to mop it up before he wakes and notices, but when I look up, I see his blue eyes smiling down at me.
“Morning,” he says, “Tidying up?”
“Turns out, I’m a drooler. Sorry.” I climb out of bed and pull on a robe as Maeve’s cries become louder.
“No need to apologize, I take it as a compliment to have tired you out so well.”
“And you should!” I call over my shoulder, opening the door to Maeve’s suite. She stops crying as soon as she sees me and starts to bounce on her crib mattress.
“Hey Miss Maeve, good morning!”
“Ka!” she looks past me and shouts “Da! Ka Da!”
I turn to see Corbin standing there, shirtless, in his linen pants. It’s hard for my brain to find a place to put the sudden surge of lust. Baby. Diaper. Hot guy. It’s hard to learn to switch gears like that. Fake it ‘til you make it, though, right?
“Oh hey, it is your Da! C’mere, Da, it’s diaper time.”
Corbin laughs and stays put. “Oh no, I think that’s what I’m paying you for, esteemed Nanny.”
I give him my Grandma’s “What did you just say?” look.
“Coming, ma’am, right away ma’am!” he says, scampering for comic effect. That man can look hot while scampering.
I play it cool, though. “I’ve got the wet diaper off. Here, entertain her while I get her some clothes. Normally I take her to breakfast in her jammies and then give her a bath after, but she’s soaked through.”
Corbin steps to the changing table, saying “Hey kiddo.” I grab a romper from her dresser and come back to find him playing peek-a-boo. “Say, did she grow already?” he asks.
“Probably, that’s a thing they do.”
He gives me an eyebrow. “Thanks. But has she grown, like, overnight? I could swear she looks bigger.”
“Grandma says they do, actually. And she clearly slept like a log last night–for which I am grateful.”
Corbin smiles at me and reaches out to put his hand on my pajama’d ass. “Me too.” He turns back to Maeve. “Good baby.”
His expression clouds suddenly and he places his hand on Maeve’s tummy.
“It’s okay,” I tell him. “It’s hurting my brain a little to know that her mother is dead and I’m banging her dad. I’m sure it’s even weirder for you. But we can say it out loud and admit it and try to make it okay.”
When he looks at me, he looks so sad that tears well up in my eyes. But he smiles that smile that doesn’t quite make it all the way to his eyes. “You’re right. And thank you for saying it.”
I get a sudden burst of brilliance. “Corbin!” I say, excited, “Stay with us today. Don’t go down to the office, just hang out.” I can see he’s about to say he can’t, so I forge on. “No, it’s like immersion therapy. You want to compartmentalize Nanny Vanessa from Bedtime Vanessa. No dice, that just makes it weird for me. You said you wanted to try harder with Maeve, this is the perfect opportunity.”
He hesitates. I can see he really wants to say no. But knows that he really needs to say yes.
“C’mon. It’ll be fun. We’ll go swimming. I’ll put on my skimpiest bikini,” I tease.
He smiles, for real this time. “Okay, if you’re going to bribe me. But I need to make some calls this morning, to clear my schedule. I’ll meet you after breakfast.”
In a surprise twist, Maeve has rice cereal for breakfast with Marta. I down a yogurt before I head up to my shower.
When I peel off my pajamas, I can smell Corbin’s scent on me, a nice reminder of last night. I’m almost reluctant to step into the spray. I’m a little worried by how smitten I feel. The sex was good, no doubt–maybe the best I’ve had, but his willingness to be so open with me has really gotten him under my skin.
I read about so-called alpha heroes all the time, successful men–usually rich–who are the masters of their realm. I never really like the ones that are needlessly cruel or who tear the heroine down first. But I always liked the way they knew their own mind. I liked that they were confident and sure, probably because I so seldom feel like I know what I’m doing. I figured the ideal man would have enough confidence for both of us.
Corbin seems to know what he’s doing at the winery, even if he claims it was just a job he couldn’t screw up. I’ve heard enough of his phone calls to know that he’s an experienced businessman, even if this particular business is new. But his willingness to admit that he doesn’t really know what he’s doing with Maeve, to admit that he screwed up–badly–is strangely appealing. Reassuring almost. There are different kinds of strong, you know?
Here’s this guy with more money than he probably even knows about, all the advantages of life, and he still makes mistakes, admits them, and tries to move forward. Maybe I’m the weirdo here, but that’s hotter than a guy that would…I don’t know, brood, or go work on his motorcycle after some grunting, right?
Reluctantly, I let the soap and water wash away his scent, get dressed, and go back to the kitchen to get Maeve. Good lord, it was only yesterday that I was slipping down the halls hoping I wouldn’t run into Corbin. Seems like a week.
I’m buckling her into her stroller for our morning walk around outside when Corbin turns up.
“Okay, schedule mostly cleared. I’ll need to take a call at two, but otherwise I’m all yours.”
“Ooo, lucky me!” I say with a smile. “We’re just about to go for our walk, maybe you can be our tour guide this time.”
As we walk around the gardens that Maeve and I have circled so many times, Corbin makes it all come alive for me. What had been just a retaining wall becomes an old fort where Corbin lay in wait for his sisters, who didn’t know that they were an invading force. Well, until they were hit with the cold spray from Corbin’s water gun.
The little lily pond was revealed to be the site of marine battles with remote control boats. He pointed out the remains of a tree fort in a eucalyptus tree. The Pierces used to come down over Easter break, he said, since it was still cold in Boston, but already full spring in Napa. “I didn’t realize how much like a desert it is here until I moved here. I’d only ever been here in early April, after the rains.”
“After Laura, the sister closest to my age, went to college and stopped joining us for spring break, it just wasn’t fun any more. I was about eleven or twelve and after that we stopped coming. I hav
en’t been back until now.”
“So your sisters are much older than you?”
“Yeah, Sarah’s the oldest, she’s ten years older, then Emily is eight years older, then two years later was Laura. My mom lost baby Frances, two years after that and declared she was done. Then I came along–surprise!–six years after Laura. My sisters imagined that my parents saw me as the longed-for son and the spoiled baby. I imagined that I was an unwelcome interruption and a foreign creature. Probably the truth is somewhere in the middle.” He chuckles ruefully.
“I’ve always been fascinated by big families,” I say, “probably because mine was so small. Both of my parents were only children, so it’s just Grandma and me. I always seem to make friends with people from big families. Asia is one of eight kids. That’s a lot of kids.”
“Yeah, four seems like an awful lot when it’s my family. Of course, I envied the only children.”
We walk on, the sun gradually going from warm to way-too-hot. We retreat to the air conditioning and I show Corbin all of Maeve’s favorite toys, teach him the wonders of the putting-things-in-the-box game, blowing his mind with the taking-them-back-out game.
After lunch–and after our required wait, even hot billionaires can’t talk me out of waiting an hour–I get into my bikini as promised and meet Corbin at the pool.
“Wow,” he says looking me up and down quite shamelessly, “well worth taking the day off.”
“What about Maeve?” I say, thrusting her forward, “Don’t leave her out.”
He pokes her belly, causing her to giggle. “You look like a movie star, Maeve, giant polka dots really suit you.”
In the pool, Corbin delights his daughter by popping out from under the water directly in front of her floaty. He swims below her and grabs her feet, causing her to scream with delight.