Heiress for Hire (Cuttersville #2)(25)
Author: Erin McCarthy

Piper looked up from playing with her balding Barbie on a comforter that had hound dogs on it. The bookcase stuffed with farming manuals and old copies of Fishing World hovered dark and dusty behind her. One lacy, yellowed curtain hung in the win-dow, and the dresser was stacked with Piper’s new clothes since Danny hadn’t had a chance to empty the drawers yet. They contained old T-shirts that he wore when painting the barn or snaking the pipes.

So it wasn’t exactly a little girl’s dream room. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to give Piper the world—God knew he wanted that more than anything—but he just hadn’t had time. "Okay, it’s a little sad, but I haven’t had a chance to do anything about it. Not enough hours in the day."

Amanda got a gleam in her eye that sort of scared him. "But now you have a housekeeper. And I’m cleaning house, starting right here."

Which was how twenty minutes later Danny found himself standing behind Amanda eating a ham sandwich while she navigated her way around Potterybarnkids.com on his computer.

This was going to cost him.

But seeing Piper’s face light up as Amanda pointed out room after overdone room, he knew it would be worth any price.

Amanda couldn’t believe how fabulous she was at this job. She should have never doubted herself.

Aside from the little misunderstanding over the toilets, she was on the job, handling the whole thing like she’d been born to be a housekeeper/child-care-giver. She was Alice from the Brady Bunch without the bun and stupid blue dress.

Crumbs rained down on her arm as Danny bit his sandwich.

"Sorry," he said, looking a little embarrassed. He reached down and brushed her arm rapidly. "We should probably be eating in the kitchen."

"This can’t wait. This is a shopping emergency." Amanda lifted her own piece of ham, sans bread, and bit the end of the roll she’d made. "Okay, Piper, what room do you like? What gets you going? Butterflies? Ladybugs? Princess crowns?"

"I don’t need a new room." Piper flicked her fingernail over the crust of her sandwich, sitting on a paper plate on the desk next to the computer. Her ankles were crossed, and she was only halfheartedly looking at the screen, which displayed a bedroom with a floral meadow motif.

A minute ago, the kid had been drooling in ecstasy at the picture in front of her. Amanda chewed and thought. Maybe this nanny thing was a little more challenging than the dusting. "Why not? It sure looks to me like you need a new room."

Piper shrugged and cast a wary glance at Danny. "Costs too much." Her finger snaked out and touched the screen where the prices were listed. "That bed costs six ninety-nine. Mark says anything more than two dollars is too much to spend on me."

Amanda heard Danny’s breath suck in hard. She could feel his tension, sense the way his muscles tightened, his hands clenching.

"I’m not Mark," he said, his voice surprisingly soft, given the emotion Amanda suspected he was feeling was red-hot anger.

She turned to see him try and pull Piper into his arms. She let him take her to him, but she hung loosely in his arms, not responding to the hug he was trying to give her.

"You’re worth more than any amount of money, Piper. My whole life I wanted a family of my own, a daughter I could spoil. Now I’ve got you, and I couldn’t be happier."

Amanda had a clump of mascara in her eye. That had to be why she suddenly needed to blink hard to clear her vision. Or maybe it was because if she had ever doubted Danny Tucker’s integrity before, she didn’t now. And even though the conversation she was hearing was very private, and none of her damn business, she was so happy for Piper that she had a chance. This was truly the beginning of a new life for her.

Danny would make sure of that.

He didn’t wait for an answer from Piper, probably guessing she wouldn’t have a response. He pointed to the computer screen. "Now we don’t need a bed or a dresser, because we already have those. But we can get a curtain and a bedspread and a few things like that to make the room more yours."

Amanda wasn’t thrilled about keeping the oak furniture, but she would approach it as a challenge. How to work around ugly furniture and buy on a budget. "Can we paint?"

"Sure."

Not that Amanda knew how to paint, but she could try it. Slap a roller thingy up and down, and there you had it. "Sounds like a plan, Piper. We can get you a whole new look without breaking the bank. Busting the budget. Weighing down the wallet. Maxing the credit cards." Piper just stared at her, all big, round eyes and confusion.

"We can get a new room for very little money."

"Oh. Okay. I like the butterflies best."

"Excellent choice!" She set her ham back down on Piper’s paper plate. Only now her hand was greasy and Danny hadn’t deemed napkins necessary to their impromptu lunch.

Slimy fingers and the computer mouse didn’t mix, so she looked around for a good place to wipe the sheen of grease off them. Danny’s legs were the closest absorbent surface, so she wiped her hand right above the knee of his jeans. There was so much dirt on the pants, he couldn’t possibly object.

And it had the added benefit of giving her a feel of what he was hiding under all that denim every day.

A lot of hard muscular thigh, that’s what.

Very nice.

"Do you mind?" Danny asked, giving her fingers a pointed look.

"I don’t mind, do you?" Amanda took her time pulling her hand away. She realized that from her sitting position, she had a bird’s-eye view of his crotch. Too bad he was wearing the pants.

"I could have gotten you a napkin if you’d asked."

Not that he looked all that upset. Amanda was discovering Danny Tucker was like San Diego. Sunny skies and seventy degrees all year round.

"Too much bother. And your jeans are already dirty anyway." She turned back to the computer and started adding the butterfly comforter to her virtual shopping cart.

"That was just dirt. Grease is harder to get out."

"Dirt, grease, crops, pigs—it’s all just part of the circle of life, Danny. Chill out."

She could take her own advice. The temperature in her Celine halter and Michael Kors pants had shot up ten degrees. And she was being paid to look out for Piper’s needs, not her own.

Needs that were rapidly escalating into urgent.

"I know what else is part of the circle of life," Danny murmured right above her ear, in a low, sexy drawl.

So did her inner thighs.

There was no response appropriate for voicing out loud with Piper hovering at her elbow, so she kept her mouth shut.

"A woman doing a man’s laundry fits the natural order of things. You can just wash my jeans for me, Amanda."