Free Dream Date With the Millionaire by Melissa McClone Page A

Columns.”
    “And the Roman-inspired rotunda. All that’s missing are gladiators and deities.” She looked at Bryce. “Thanks for choosing such a lovely location for a picnic.”
    “You’re welcome,” he said. “This spot actually has a lot of sentimental value to me.”
    Warning bells sounded in her head. Dani bit back a sigh. She had a feeling what was going to come next—a story about Bryce’s ex-girlfriend who he used to bring here before she’d done him wrong. Dani didn’t have much experience with that but, to be honest, she’d rather listen to him talk about an ex than deal with the I-want-you-for-your-body dates who usually asked her out.
    She plopped onto the blanket, ready to hear his woeful tale. “Sentimental how?”
    “I had a nanny who claimed bluebird days demanded picnics. She would have our cook make us a picnic, sometimes two, if she planned on keeping us outside the entire time.” Bryce patted the blanket. “This was one of her favorite picnic spots.”
    The affection in his voice brought a smile to Dani’s face. “Sounds like you had fun with her.”
    “We did.” He pulled white boxes from the sack. “She was one Caitlin and I were sad to lose.”
    “You had a lot of nannies?” Dani asked.
    Nodding, he pulled out plates and utensils. “My parents paid them well, but the nannies earned every penny of their salary dealing with my mother and father, not us.”
    Dani toyed with a blade of grass. “Leaving your kids with someone for an extended period has to be hard on parents.”
    “I wouldn’t do it.”
    His adamant tone surprised her, but didn’t seem to affect him in the slightest. He placed asparagus spears with salad on one side of the plate and a scoop of couscous on the other. A chicken breast covered with mushrooms in a light sauce went in the center.
    “Do you plan on being a stay-at-home dad or having your wife give up her career?” she asked, thinking about her mother and all she’d given up for her marriage and children.
    “I haven’t given much thought to marriage or having a family. It’s not something I’m interested in right now.” Bryce handed her a plate. “But I do know when I was a kid and got hurt or was upset, I wanted my mother or father. Not my nanny. I’d rather not have to go that route with children of my own.”
    “Some people have no choice.” Dani stared at her plate, overflowing with food, and remembered the times when she didn’t have as much. “When I was in sixth grade, we movedto Los Angeles. My sisters and I would go to day care—they called it after-care, when school got out until about six o’clock. We were there in the morning before school started, too. It was hard on all of us, but I think most especially my mom. She didn’t want to have to put us there for so long each day, but she had no choice because of her job.”
    “Sounds like you all did what you had to do.”
    She nodded, scooping up a forkful of couscous. “That was the first time any of us started and finished a grade at the same school.”
    “Did you live in Los Angeles a long time?”
    “Just a year.” Dani shook her head as she swallowed. “The company downsized and my mom lost her job so we moved on.”
    “I’ve lived in San Francisco my entire life. Well, except for college. My mother still lives in the same house where I grew up.”
    “Wow. I can only imagine how wonderful that must be.” She inhaled deeply, caught up in her dream of home ownership. “I would love to put down roots like that and never have to move again.”
    “Aren’t you a little young for wanting that?”
    Oops. She didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. “I should have added someday. That’s not in the plan right now. But still, you are so lucky.”
    His gaze locked on hers. “I feel…fortunate.”
    Dani was used to male attention, but Bryce wasn’t focused on her chest. If anything, his watchful eyes seemed to pierce straight into her soul, to see not only her dreams,