Free Something About Joe by Kandy Shepherd

Joe. “I
guess you can go early if you like,” she offered.
    “You pay me until seven, I can stay until
seven.”
    She felt a ridiculous little leap of
gladness—he didn’t want to rush away. And then she chastised
herself for reading into a situation something that simply wasn’t
there. Joe was conscientious, just doing his job.
    Mitchell put his little arms out to Joe.
“Nye, nye Joe.”
    “Night, night, Tiger.” Joe leaned over to
affectionately ruffle the little boy’s thatch of ginger hair.
    “Joe, would you like to come up with us for
story time?” Allison asked on an impulse.
    “Sure,” he said immediately, which pleased
her.
    Joe followed her up the stairs. He was just
one step behind and Allison was conscious every second of his
closeness. She could sense the heat of his body.
    What if Mitchell was already in bed asleep
and Joe was following her up, not to Mitchell’s room but to her own
bedroom? Not to read Mitchell a story but to take her in his arms
and kiss her again. Her heart rate trebled as she thought about his
mouth on hers. How good it had felt.
    She reached
Mitchell’s bedroom. Mitchell struggled down from her arms and
toddled across to his bookshelf. He found his favorite Where’s Spot? book and waved it imperiously at Joe. “Joe
read.”
    Again Allison felt a searing pang of
jealousy she fought to suppress. She was glad Mitchell had bonded
so well with Joe—though what would happen at the end of Joe’s
probationary week, she didn’t know. Would Joe want to stay on
longer?
    She hadn’t looked for another nanny, had
told Help From Above she was pleased with Joe. Laughing, she’d
refused to be drawn by Sandy into a discussion of Joe’s hunk
rating. But secretly she wanted to gossip with Sandy and find out
more about Joe’s personal life. For example, how important was that
girl on his motorbike?
    Joe settled into the armchair, and Allison
perched on its arm. Through every word of the story of Spot the
dog’s adventures she was intensely aware of how close they were.
When Joe turned a page, his arm brushed against her thigh and it
felt like an electric current was jolting her. Was he aware of it
too? Could he be touching her on purpose? She trembled at the
thought.
    She wanted
the story to go on forever. But within seconds of the story’s end,
Mitchell’s eyes were closed. Joe lifted him into his cot. Allison
tucked him in, switched on the monitor so she could hear him in the
kitchen if he awoke, and then she and Joe tiptoed out of the
room.
    Allison
followed Joe down the stairs. She found herself checking out his
back view. Broad shoulders and the best butt she’d ever seen fill a
pair of jeans made Joe’s back view just as sexy as the front. His
hunk rating soared higher. To at least 200 percent. She wished she
could share this observation with Sandy and her assistant at the
bank, Rebecca. But she didn’t want to admit to anyone how attracted
she was to Mitchell’s nanny.
    All the
same, she couldn’t stop a smile at the sight of this hunk of
masculine perfection marching into her kitchen. There was something
very heart-warming about such a big, strongly-built man so
completely taking over.
    Some men would be afraid it would make them
look wimpy. But Joe Martin exuded the utter confidence of a man so
sure of his masculinity that he would never, ever, be called a
wimp.
    Even as he tied one of her checked
dishtowels around his waist as a makeshift apron.
    He reached
for a saucepan simmering on the stove. “I’m checking on the sauce
I’ve made for your dinner. Tomato with basil. You can boil some
pasta when you’re ready to eat.”
    “Joe,” she protested, “you don’t have to
cook for me, you know. I really don’t expect it.”
    “All part of the job.”
    His eyes were warm with some kind of emotion
but she wasn’t sure what she saw there. She looked away,
confused.
    She wasn’t used to this kind of
consideration from a man. Peter had expected her to cook for