The Lumberjack's Nanny: A Forbidden Romance (Rockford Falls 3)

“Did you see me? I did it!” she crowed.

“I did, I saw you! When you want to, I’ll help you go higher, but I’m so glad you got down with your dad’s help. You were really brave!” I hugged her to me.

“Did you miss me?”

“Yes, I did. And when I was at the diner, there was an old man who ordered a piece of my lemon pie—”

“Lemon? Ewww!”

“He liked it so much he ordered another piece and ate it and then another one. This skinny old man ate three pieces of pie after his tuna melt!”

“He must really like pie,” Sadie said. “Can we make more pie?”

“If you want to do a pie, we’ll do one this week. I thought you wanted snickerdoodle cookies again.”

“I want those too!”

“Okay, I think that can be arranged,” I said, unable to keep the smile off my face.

“You’re going to spoil her,” Max said, but it wasn’t said unkindly. It was fond, almost.

“Maybe that’s the goal. Uh oh, Sadie Lady, he’s onto the evil plot. Don’t tell him I’m feeding you ice cream for every meal!”

“That’s silly! We don’t do that,” Sadie giggled.

She took my hand and led me to the swings. I pushed her on the swing and talked to her about how to pump her legs to go higher. After a while she had it down and wanted me to watch her. So I sat on the grass near her and clapped and gave her pointers and complimented her strong legs.

“I’ve been trying to get her to pump for a year now. How did you convince her?”

“It’s a girl thing,” I quipped.

“Really?”

“No. Not at all. She was just ready to try or needed to hear it from somebody else. She’s doing great.”

“She really is. She’s come out of her shell a lot this summer. I give you credit for that. She’s still scared to climb, but that’ll come in time, right?”

“It will or it won’t. A lot of adults are scared of heights, so she doesn’t necessarily have to get comfortable with climbing.”

“I don’t want her to be afraid,” he said stubbornly.

“So tell her that she can do hard things, tell her she’s brave. Let her figure it out.”

“Part of me wants to guard her 24/7 and slap the shit out of anyone who isn’t a hundred percent wonderful to her.”

“I can see that, but it wouldn’t help her out in the long run. Plus, you’d be the creepy dad at the playground that bullies the children. You don’t want to be that guy.”

“No, I don’t. It’s hard to let her try and fail.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Does it get easier?” he asked.

“How would I know? I bake pies, Max. I don’t have children.”

“I thought you might have the answers.”

“Do you think that’s what they taught the girls in home ec in high school? All the answers about raising kids? Sorry, it was mostly how to sew on a button and make biscuits.”

“Home ec?”

“Home economics. The boys take shop class, and the girls take home ec. It’s that way statewide or else it used to be.”

‘That’s sexist.”

“Yeah, cause everyone needs home ec, for one thing. I mean, men have buttons and eat food.”

“Yes. We do.”

“Hey, there’s the ice cream stand. I’m gonna go get Sadie Lady something,” I said, but he stopped me.

“My treat,” he said. “What do you want?”

“Chocolate sundae cone!” I said immediately.

He smiled. When he came back with an orange push pop for Sadie, an ice cream bar for himself, and a jumbo sundae cone for me, Sadie dragged her feet to slow the swing and then ran to him.

“Thanks,” I said. “That is without a doubt the biggest ice cream cone I’ve ever seen.”

“Intimidated?” he teased.

“I can handle it,” I said, wondering why my face flushed, why I felt like he was flirting with me, like that was an innuendo.

“They asked if I wanted regular or jumbo…”

“You thought I wanted a jumbo?” I laughed.

“Size matters,” he said.

I snorted, met his eyes. “You did that on purpose.”

“I did,” he said mischievously.

“It was funny.”

“Daddy, are you funny?” Sadie asked, perplexed.

“Sometimes,” he said, and then he took a napkin and mopped up some of the orange creamy stuff on her chin.

We ate our ice cream on the bench, with Sadie sitting on Max’s lap. I leaned my shoulder against his without realizing it, so when I got up to throw the trash away, I noticed and apologized.

“Sorry. I was crowding you.”

“I don’t mind being a little crowded,” he said. Sadie was resting her sticky cheek against his shirt, looking sleepy.

“I think we wore her out,” I said.

“If you look directly at her she’ll sense it and wake up,” he said, “Sit back down.”

I sat on the bench a couple feet away from them.

“No,” he said, “the way you were. She was cozy. It was comfortable. Just sit down and relax for a minute. She won’t doze for long before she’s up and running again.”