She perched nervously on the edge of the small sofa. On duty, Mason seldom allowed himself to sit; he needed to be on his feet and ready to move at the first sign of a threat. But the man he was guarding was inside another room where there were at least three other TST Security men. He sat beside Lexie, thigh to thigh. It would have been easy to rest his arm on the back of the love seat, but he exercised restraint.
“Prescott will talk to you,” he assured her. “He’s got to be grateful to you for keeping his kids safe.”
“I hate to bother him with my problems. He put up with a lot of mistakes from me when I was learning the ropes. Being a nanny is more than babysitting, you know, especially when you’re working with smart kids.”
When she spoke, she gestured with her hands, but most of her animation came from her face. She punctuated her sentences with lifts of her eyebrows, scowls and grins and even a twitch of her freckled nose. The light makeup she’d worn at dinner had been wiped away, but she still looked good. He could watch her for hours and not get bored. “Did you get training on how to be a nanny? Did you go to nanny school?”
“I have a degree in psychology. Not that my studies help when Shane and Caine are punching each other. Or little Stella loses her magic wand.” She grimaced and smirked at the same time. “I could probably use some instruction. I kind of lucked into this job, just showed up on Admiral Prescott’s doorstep with no expectations. I didn’t know they needed a nanny and didn’t know I could be one.”
“Tell me more.”
“It was about a year ago. I was twenty-four, finished with college, living with my dad and working at the dojo. I didn’t know what I wanted to do next. It needed to be something where I helped people, but I didn’t know how or where. I liked the idea of working for something like the admiral’s charity in sub-Saharan Africa.” She tossed her head, setting her reddish curls into motion. “Or maybe not.”
Somehow she’d gotten distracted. He pulled her back to the main topic. “Why were you on the admiral’s doorstep?”
“There was this guy...” She paused and laughed. “How many wild stories have started off with those words? Anyway, this guy—his name was Anton—was kind of my boyfriend and he wanted to move in with me. Did I mention that I lived with my dad? Being the only girl in the family meant I did most of the cooking and shopping and laundry. In exchange, I didn’t pay rent.”
Once again, she’d gone skipping off on a tangent. He could feel her tension. Nervous energy had her running on high speed, making it hard to rein in her thoughts. He wanted to hold her and calm her down. Even though they had kissed, he had the feeling that this wasn’t the right time. “When you were with your dad, did you like the arrangement?”
“I love my family. Living with Dad was comfortable. I’d work at the dojo, come home, cook dinner and handle a couple of chores. Then I’d do pretty much whatever I pleased. My biggest worry was that I’d get too cozy. On some fine day, I’d wake up and find out that I was seventy years old and never left home.”
“Did you move in with Anton?”
“It was the other way around. He wanted to move in with me, with my family, which was a little creepy. And I couldn’t imagine asking my dad. No. Way.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “My dad liked my boyfriend. The two of them bonded over their guns. Anton worked as a hunting guide and had some high-profile positions. He’d even worked for the admiral, which impressed my dad because he knew the Admiral Prescott, too. Anyway, I wanted to—”
“Wait.”
He held up a palm, signaling her to stop. Lexie seemed to be bounding over the relevant portions of this story. She’d already mentioned that her father was stationed in the Middle East but never said he knew Prescott...and now her former boyfriend?
“Problem?” she asked.
“Your father, my brother and your boyfriend were all buddies with the admiral. That’s an unbelievable coincidence.”
“In the first place,” she said, “I wouldn’t exactly say they were buddies. More like acquaintances.”
“You’re right,” he admitted.
“As for your brother and my dad, they were both in the Marine Corps, and both were stationed in the Middle East, where Admiral Prescott was one of the top guys running the show.”
“What about the boyfriend?”
“He came looking for us because Prescott mentioned that he knew my dad and my dad lived in Austin. I met Anton through my father. I remember when I walked into the house and he saw me for the first time. His jaw dropped...literally. He thought I was something special.”
Though Mason had never met the guy and probably never would, he didn’t like this Anton character. What kind of man tries to move in with the father of his girlfriend? “When he asked to move in with you, did he propose?”
“I wouldn’t let him. He hinted and I shut him down. I wasn’t looking to settle down and get married. I told him he couldn’t move into my dad’s house and he should think again about our relationship.” She gave another one of her adorable shrugs. “He left me without saying goodbye. He left a note that told me to kiss off.”
When she met his gaze, Mason saw anger and determination in her chocolate-brown eyes. Her expression was similar to when she was shooting at the fake security guys. Apparently, nobody told Lexie to kiss off and got away with it.
Now he understood how this twisted little story fit together. “You went looking for Anton.”
“I wanted him to know that I broke up with him. Not the other way around. And I also wanted to get out of Austin for a while.”
“You came to Colorado. To the admiral’s doorstep.”
“No sign of Anton. Prescott didn’t remember him very well at all. Still, he invited me to stay for as long as I wanted, because of my dad.” Her gaze drifted as she recalled. “I was surprised. I didn’t think my dad was a big deal in the military, but I guess he was important enough for the admiral to think of him as a friend.”
“And while you were there,” Mason said, “you became the nanny.”
“The nanny who was there when I arrived decided to quit. And I stepped in. I’ve never regretted it.”
Her cell phone rang again.
She pulled it out and stared at the caller ID before she leaped to her feet. “Hi, Dad.”
Lexie’s dad spoke in tough, uncompromising tones. Sure, he was retired, but he still hadn’t stopped being the ultimate hard-ass Sergeant Major Daniel DeMille. “You listen to me, Franny, and you listen good.”
“I’m not going by Franny anymore.” She walked a few paces on the patterned hallway carpeting. “Call me Lexie.”
“Your mother and I named you, and I’ll call you whatever I damn well please, Miss Francine Alexandra DeMille.”
The use of her full name was not a positive sign. Nor was the mention of her mother, who had divorced Daniel when Lexie was twelve. After Mom left, Dad didn’t often link them together. In doing so, he seemed to be summoning up the ghost of a past that no longer existed. Perhaps it never had. Perhaps they had always been a dysfunctional family. With Mom gone, Grandma took over. And Dad was usually stationed on the other side of the world.
He growled. “You haven’t returned my phone calls.”
“I talked to you once and gave you my answer.” She paced farther down the hall, noting that Mason kept a discreet distance but stayed with