Free On Common Ground (Harlequin Super Romance) by Tracy Kelleher Page B

out. “Wouldn’t you agree about the importance of people connections?”
    “Totally. I wouldn’t be in early education if I didn’t value the importance of socializing. But I don’t want to interrupt Vivian while she was telling us about Noreen.”
    Vivian mugged to Lilah. “He’s so sweet, and indulgent,” she said. “Now, where was I? Oh, right.” She happily rattled on. “Noreen. An interesting person—far more so than meets the eye. Back in university she had a double degree—economics and public health. Got a first, you know.”
    “No, I didn’t.” Lilah figured Vivian was referring to a degree with top honors. “I just know she was the Lodge’s nanny—not that there’s anything wrong with that—before she married Mimi’s father. And she definitely has a certain fashion sense that I envy but could never personally carry off.”
    Vivian threw back her head in laughter. “I know what you mean. Noreen has this compulsive-perfectionist side to her that comes out in whatever she’s doing—whether it’s being the perfectly groomed trophy wife or the most organized mother in a child-centric privileged community like Grantham. To me, her current phase, while genuine, is also a sign of boredom. No, let me tell you more about the Noreen I know.”
    Vivian sat back in her chair. “Just before Noreen was supposed to graduate, her father died suddenly. He’d been a source of inspiration her whole life. A poor boy from a coal mining town made good—scholarship to university, medical degree, the whole bit. Yet despite the fact that he could have had a much more affluent lifestyle, he insisted on going back to his childhood home in the poorer neighborhoods of Belfast and caring for the locals. As if that wasn’t enough of a sacrifice, he packed up the family one month a year to go to Africa, where he volunteered at a clinic in Zimbabwe. Noreen always claimed the experience was transformative. So it wasn’t any surprise, given her sterling academic record and her personal connection, that she was considering various offers from places like the World Health Organization for work when she graduated—not to mention various financial institutions with interests in development in Africa.”
    Lilah shook her head. “I don’t understand. If that was the case, how on earth did she become a nanny in the U.S.?”
    “Actually, the whole nanny thing was my idea,” Vivian confessed. “Her father’s death devastated her—totally. Still, after graduation, she started working for the International Monetary Fund on their African desk, but after a little more than a year, she decided to take a leave of absence. It was all too much. Well-meaning but interfering friend that I am, that’s when I convinced her that what she needed was a complete change of scenery—to regroup and stop punishing herself for not somehow living up to the memory of her sainted father.”
    She lowered her chin. “Naturally, I didn’t use those exact words. Anyway, I encouraged her to come to the States since she’d never traveled here before. I told her that the easiest kind of job to get was as a nanny—that an agency could work out her visa status. I thought it would be perfect—no confining office, no frantic deadlines. Although, neither she nor I ever counted on it being more than a year’s break before she went back to Ireland or points beyond. Let me tell you, the jobs were still waiting for her. But—” Vivian held up her hands “—the rest, in particular her marriage to Conrad, is, as they say, history.”
    “Well, after all that, I hope she’s happy,” Lilah responded. “And now that I know more about her, I’m less—how can I put this—confused. I mean, I understand there’s more to her than meets the eye…”
    “Excuse me, there may be more to her, but as tacky as this sounds, most men would say that Noreen more than fulfills all the necessary requirements in the meets-the-eye department.” Justin jerked his