The Nanny and the Boss's Twins

Praise for Barbara McMahon:

“Barbara McMahon takes a simple love story

—employer falls for the employee—and turns it

into a tale filled with romance, heartache

and love. While the basis for this novel may

be timeless, the issues both Caitlin and Zack

face are enough to give this novel the feeling it

has never been done before. These two

characters rock!”

www.loveromancesandmore.webs.com on

Caitlin’s Cowboy

“A great story, The Tycoon Prince is fit for any woman (and perhaps a few men) who wished they kissed a few less frogs and had more princes to sweep them off their feet!” www.aromancereview.com

“A fresh spin on some tried-and-true plot

elements makes this story work beautifully—

and its outspoken, honest heroine is a delight.”

RT Book Reviews on The Daredevil Tycoon

Dear Reader,

Have you ever thought about a dream job? For me it was being a flight attendant for an international airline back in the day. I traveled the world—at the airline’s expense. I saw exotic locales I could never afford to visit on my own. And I met the most wonderful and incredible people along the way.

Not everyone is so lucky to get to travel like that. Other jobs provide other ways. Come join Stacey Williams as she lives her dream as a Vacation Nanny—traveling to foreign countries, seeing sights she’d never be able to afford on her own—combining her love for children with her desire to see the world. She has it all.

Yet after years of this dream job, she’s wondering if there might be something more. What does the future hold? A family perhaps? Can she find the right man to build a future with, who can replace the excitement of travel with love and devotion and a world of two that will be so special she’d never miss her job?

How does a nanny meet an eligible bachelor? Or if she meets him, how can she surmount the obstacles he erects every step of the way?

I hope you enjoy Stacey’s journey. The setting is near Altea on the Costa Blanca where my parents lived for many years. I have such lovely memories of spending one entire summer in Spain. I hope to go back one day. But in the meantime—I’m enjoying it through Stacey’s eyes.

I hope you will, too.

All the best,

Barbara

About the Author

BARBARA McMAHON was born and raised in the south USA, but settled in California after spending a year flying around the world for an international airline. After settling down to raise a family and work for a computer firm, she began writing when her children started school. Now, feeling fortunate in being able to realize a long-held dream of quitting her “day job” and writing full time, she and her husband have moved to the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, where she finds her desire to write is stronger than ever. With the beauty of the mountains visible from her windows, and the pace of life slower than the hectic San Francisco Bay Area where they previously resided, she finds more time than ever to think up stories and characters and share them with others through writing. Barbara loves to hear from readers. You can reach her at PO Box 977, Pioneer, CA 95666-0977, USA. Readers can also contact Barbara at her website: www.barbaramcmahon.com.

The Nanny and
The Boss’s Twins

Barbara McMahon

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To my wonderful editor Lucy Gilmour for being such

a gem to work with and always uplifting her authors.

Thank you, Lucy!

CHAPTER ONE

STACEY WILLIAMS checked her watch for the tenth time. It was still a few minutes before the agreed-upon time, but still she scanned the crowd as passengers walked by. The international terminal at Kennedy Airport was crowded as people checked in for flights all over the world. She had the correct check-in line, she’d verified that before she’d begun her vigil, but she didn’t have a ticket. Her new boss would have her ticket.

Watching for Luis Aldivista, she zeroed in on any men with children in attendance. She’d recognize the twin boys and their father after meeting with them yesterday. Still, she scanned each face. Would their regular nanny accompany them to the airport? Or was Luis arriving here expecting her to take charge immediately? Their meeting yesterday had been necessarily brief. Only after she’d left had she thought of questions.

There, a tall dark-haired man with two children—and a woman carrying a baby right beside him. For a moment Stacey felt a pang of envy. She and her sister were all the family each had, but one day she’d love to fall in love, get married and have a family of her own with lots of children. She loved children—it was why she did the job she did, but watching other people’s children wasn’t the same as raising some of her own.

She was jostled as the crowd grew. It was prime time for late afternoon departures and more and more people arrived by the moment. JFK International Airport was one of the country’s busiest, and with the start of summer vacations she expected it would continue to be crowded for the next several weeks.

She checked her watch again and, looking up, she spotted the man holding two squirmy boys enter the terminal. A porter pushed a luggage cart behind them. It struck her again that Luis didn’t fit her idea of a typical Spaniard. Instead of the dark hair she’d expected, this man had sandy brown hair. He was tall, and fit, but the strong jaw and tightly pressed lips also didn’t fit her image of a fiery Latino. Somehow in the past she’d always pictured Spanish men as lovers, with soft words to whisper into a woman’s ear and a delightful manner in making a woman feel special.

Luis looked nothing like her fantasies.

He looked around the terminal, spotted her and said something to the boys. They both looked up at him at the same time. She smiled at the twin expressions. When she’d met them yesterday she’d wondered how she’d ever tell them apart. They were identical in every way—except personality. Juan was much more outgoing than his brother Pablo.

She pulled her bag behind her as she approached them, her travel tote slung over one shoulder.

“Mr. Aldivista,” she greeted him as she got closer.

He looked at her. “Right on time, I see.”

She nodded and looked at the boys, smiling. Both clung to their father and studied her with wary eyes.

“Boys, say hello to Miss Williams.”

“I don’t want to go,” one of the boys complained.

“I don’t need a babysitter,” the other protested, frowning at Stacey. His look mirrored that of his father. She knew they would be a handful. She’d seen evidence of that on their pre-trip interview yesterday, but she was up to the challenge. She hoped.

When she’d showed up for the interview, Luis Aldivista’s first comment had been about her appearance—too young to be a nanny for his boys. Even a temporary nanny for their trip to Spain. For a second she’d thought he’d refuse to hire her but, having left it so close to their departure date, there wasn’t a lot he could do.

She’d explained again the credentials of all the nannies in the company. She herself had graduated from college with a degree in early childhood education, and then taken the course from the prestigious Miss Pritchards’ School for Nannies. Which he already knew since Stephanie, their office manager, had provided references and credentials when he had visited the agency.

She should be used to people thinking she looked too young for the job, she heard it often enough. One of her friends had said she’d appreciate that youthful look when she was much older and the rest of their peer group looked like dried apples, but she wasn’t there yet and it grew annoying.

Luis’s lips tightened even more. “Stop that behavior,” he told his boys. He glanced at Stacey. “I hope this trip isn’t going to be a mistake. We’re not even on the plane and they’re already causing problems.”

“Then let me take charge, that’s what you hired me for,” she said brightly, feeling the tension rise. She’d arrived home yesterday from another assignment and had scarcely had time to make the interview. Normally she liked to spend a bit more time with the children she’d be watching than just a brief ten-minute meeting, but Stacey was one of only two nannies in their agency who spokeg Spanish. There wasn’t much choice in the matter if she was to uphold the reputation of Vacation Nannies. Luis Aldivista wasn’t the only one wondering if the trip was going to prove a mistake.

“Tell me your names again, please,” she said to the twins.

“I’m Juan,” the boy on the left said. Pointing to his twin, he continued, “He’s Pablo.”

“Are you looking forward to the plane ride?” she asked.

“I don’t want to go.”

“I don’t want you here. I want Hannah,” Juan said with a pout, then looked up at his father.

“Hannah isn’t coming. We’ve been over this a hundred times. Stacey will be your temporary nanny while we are on vacation,” Luis said with little patience. “Let’s get going. The sooner we get through security, the sooner we’ll be on our way.”

Signaling the porter to follow, he led the way to the line for first-class check-in. Moments later all bags except his laptop and her tote had been whisked away.

Stacey didn’t have much chance to talk with the boys with everything going on and she determined that while they waited at the departure gate she’d try to learn more about them and have them get to know her better. From the brief interview, she knew they could be a handful. But with their regular nanny at their side, they’d had a modicum of courtesy. Now they were just obstreperous boys uncertain about the changes ahead.

Vacation Nannies had been her idea. She and her sister had founded the small boutique agency five years ago. The idea was to match qualified nannies with families needing childcare for limited periods of time—usually when on vacation. Savannah had still been in college when they’d come up with the concept and had immediately added some business courses to help with starting the firm. After only a year in operation, they’d realized they had a goldmine and had expanded to include other qualified nannies. Two years later they had rented their current office space and hired Stephanie to coordinate everything. They now had a dozen nannies. Their reputation was sterling and they were daily getting more requests than they could handle.

She kept an eye on the boys, though they still held onto their father’s hands. They were not charming sweet children like those of her last assignment. They complained. They contradicted each other with constant bickering, and they tugged constantly on their father’s hand, as if trying to break away.

Once through security, Luis stopped out of the stream of passengers and looked at her. “I need to make a phone call to the office. Take charge, please, and I’ll meet you all at the gate before we board.”

Nothing like being dumped into the deep end of an assignment, she thought, nodding, reaching for the boys’ hands. She was not going to let them roam free. She had a sudden vision of them running in two different directions and her trying to find them.

“I don’t want to go with you,” Juan said. Or was it Pablo? No, it was Juan. She needed a way to tell them apart.

“Your dad’ll meet us before we get on the plane. Come along, let’s find our gate.”

“I don’t want to go to Spain,” Pablo said.

“I’ve never been. Have you?” she asked, trying to defuse the loaded statement.

He shook his head. “I want Hannah.”

“Hannah’s taking a short vacation herself,” Stacey explained. The boys’ regular nanny had refused to accompany them to Spain. Her excuse was a fear of flying, but Stacey was beginning to wonder if it was just to have a few weeks to herself after dealing with them all the time.

“She’s our nanny, you’re not.”

“I want to go with her on vacation.” Juan said.

“You’re going to see your great-grandmother. Hannah’s going to visit her family. I’ll be flying with you and watch you while on vacation.”

They both pouted and Stacey had to look away lest they see her smile. Twins were adorable as a rule and these two would probably prove the same once she got to know them better. If their manners improved a bit. If they got over not wanting to go.

She found their gate and sat down with the boys on either side to await their father’s return. Despite his hesitancy yesterday, he’d had no trouble immediately giving her charge of his children. Wasn’t he the slightest bit concerned how they’d all get along? Or was he the stereotypical workaholic, too caught up in the challenges of business to really pay attention to his sons?

Luis Aldivista listened as his head of sales brought him up to speed on the negotiations they were in the midst of. Several years ago he’d invented medical software that interfaced directly between doctors’ offices and their affiliated hospitals. Gradually they’d begun selling to the east coast and into the midwest but now they were poised to expand into the western part of the country and Luis wanted to stay on top of things.

This was important. He wished he could have convinced his grandmother of that. But the invitation had been a nicely worded summons. Since he owed his grandmother a lot, he couldn’t refuse. It would be the first time she’d asked him to return to Spain since the boys’ birth, although she’d visited several times, so she knew the twins. But they’d never been to the place he would forever think of as home.

Still, the timing sucked.

When he finished talking with Jerry, he had his secretary transfer him to his research and development team so he could get an update on the latest version of the software, due to be released in six weeks. Luis wanted daily updates.

He’d only left the office four hours ago. He checked his watch. Their flight would be departing soon and by the time they landed, New York would be fast asleep. This was his last chance to be in touch with the office for a while.

Once he’d hung up, he swung by a coffee kiosk and got a cup of coffee. He had work to do on the plane, and with the flight time such as it was, his circadian rhythm would be all messed up by the time he landed in Spain.

As he approached the waiting area for the flight, he quickly located his new temporary nanny and his sons. She was talking to them and for once the boys seemed to be behaving. They both sat in seats, watching her as she talked. At least they hadn’t dashed off, trying to find him. Or trying to get home. He would have thought they’d love the opportunity to take a trip to Spain. If only his long-term nanny had accompanied them.

Stacey spotted him and smiled. He nodded in acknowledgment. He had to give her points for already controlling those hellion boys of his. He wished he knew her secret. Even Hannah had trouble with them, but for once it seemed they were not getting into mischief.

“Everything okay at your office?” she asked.

He shrugged. “This is not the best time to be taking a vacation. I’m needed here.”

Although he was taking both his phone and his laptop and expected to work from his grandmother’s home, making this very much a working holiday.

“But what a great opportunity for you and the boys. I think traveling is so educational,” she said.

“They’re a little young to be viewing the trip as educational. It would have suited me more to wait a few years.”

Luis knew the company would be in good hands while he was gone. He paid high wages to keep the best in the business. His general manager was more than competent in running things. Still, it felt odd to be taking off at such a crucial time—and for three weeks. He hadn’t taken a real vacation since selling that first version of the software to the doctors’ consortium in Boston. It was actually pushing six years.

“Go now and again in a few years as well,” she said with a smile.

Stacey turned her attention to Juan, who was complaining again. Luis knew his sons—they’d get worse and worse until he’d have to send them to their rooms. Impossible now they were about to board a plane! He hoped they slept through the flight. How did other parents have perfectly behaved children when his acted like hellions most of the time?

He took the seat on the far side of Pablo, glad the nanny had saved it for him. Stacey continued to talk to them about airplanes and the boys seemed enthralled. He still thought the woman looked little older than a teen ager, but so far she’d shown she had a knack with kids. He couldn’t remember the last time the twins had sat so still or been so attentive.

Maybe they just like looking at her? He had to admit, she was pretty.

He frowned. Her long blonde hair was pulled back into a low ponytail. Her bright blue eyes drew his attention again and again. She had a light tan but, if he had to describe her, he would call her complexion peaches and cream.

Looking away, he checked his watch again. He wasn’t interested in his nanny as a person, only as someone who would take care of his children. They’d begin boarding soon, and he had more important things to concentrate on than how pretty the temporary nanny was, though she definitely spiked his interest. It had been a long time since he’d had any interest in the opposite sex. But this was not a complication he wanted. He was confusing awareness with gratitude. That was it. He was grateful she had taken Hannah’s place on such short notice, they couldn’t have made the trip otherwise. He didn’t want to take the boys to his grandmother’s without someone to watch them. He’d be too busy himself. And there was no guarantee a nanny in Spain would speak English.

Stacey glanced at Luis, noting the frown. Did he never smile? The boys wanted to go to the large windows to look at planes, so she took each by the hand and soon all three were watching planes take off and absorbing the size of the one they’d be on, which was already parked at the gate.

She recalled what Stephanie had told her just before she’d set out for the Aldivista residence to interview and be interviewed. Luis Aldivista had been on New York’s top ten most eligible bachelors list the last couple of years. He’d invented some kind of medical software that most of the private doctors’ offices in the country used. Stephanie hadn’t dealt with details. All that had been important to her was that his software had made him fabulously wealthy. But Luis was so good looking he might have made the list without the money behind him.

Stacey wasn’t sure of her friend’s assessment. So far the man looked grumpy. And so focused on business he couldn’t share his children’s delight with airplanes. He needed to lighten up if they were all to enjoy this trip.

“What’s that one, Stacey?” one of the twins asked.

Stacey stooped down to be at eye level with the little boy. He was adorable—blond curls that went every which way, bright blue eyes that seem to sparkle from inside. “That’s called a jumbo jet. Because it’s a jumbo size. I’m not sure who makes it. We can look that up when we get to Spain if you like.”

She looked at their father. He was totally involved in whomever he was talking to on the phone. She wanted to snatch it away and tell him to enjoy the excitement of a first flight with his sons. He should be the one explaining how planes flew and where in the world they could all be going. But she was used to fathers who put work ahead of children. They did what they did. A mere nanny wasn’t going to change that.

Turning back to the planes, she wondered why men married and had families if they didn’t want to spend time with them. If she ever got married and had her family, she’d insist her husband spend time with her and their children.

If ever. She sighed. Her job didn’t give her much chance to meet eligible bachelors.

She looked at the boys. The twins must take after their mother. Luis had brown hair and hazel eyes. Not that she should be noticing that.

“Cute children you have.” A woman had brought her daughter to the window to look out. “They look just like you. Their first plane ride?”

Stacey was taken aback by the comment, but then smiled and responded with, “Yes. We’re flying to Spain.” No need to say more, she’d never see the woman again.

“Ah, have a great time. We’re on our way to Italy. My husband’s there on business and we’re joining him for a short vacation.”

Juan looked up at Stacey and tugged on her hand. “When do we get to go inside the plane?” he asked. “I want to see inside the plane,” he went on, pressing his face against the glass.

“You’ll see it from the inside once we get on board. Look, there’s one taking off,” she said, pointing. They watched the planes for a minute, then Stacey felt Pablo tugging on her shirt.

“I want to see inside, too,” he said.

“We will, sweetie. Just be patient. Look at that big one coming in to land. I wonder where it’s flying in from?”

“Maybe Spain,” Juan said.

“Maybe Ohio,” Pablo said.

“Ohio?” Stacey was surprised he knew about other states.

“Hannah’s going on vacation to Ohio. I miss her.”

Stacey stooped down and hugged him. “Of course you do. And I know she misses you. So we’ll write her a letter when we get to Spain. You can keep a journal of all your adventures to share with her when you return home.”

“What’s a journal?” Juan asked. “Can I keep one too?”

“A journal is writing down what happens each day to help you remember.”

“I can write my name,” Juan said proudly.

“I’ll help with the writing, you two can tell me what to write and then Hannah can read it when you get home.”

“Can we write about the big planes?” Pablo asked.

“Sure, that would be a great start. We’ll get a notebook as soon as we get to your grandmother’s. And I have my camera with me. We’ll take pictures so you can remember.” She pulled out a digital camera and snapped a few shots of the planes they could see, and also took a couple of the boys in the busy terminal. She loved keeping journals of the trips, both for herself and the children she watched.

“I can’t wait to go on the plane,” Juan said.

Before she could say more the first boarding announcement sounded and she smiled at him. “We get to get on it now.”

She nodded at to the other woman. “Have a good flight.”

The boys ran back toward their father, pulling on her hands. “We get to go inside the plane now, Daddy!”

“So I heard,” Luis said, rising. Laptop in hand, he motioned to them to precede him and in only moments they were inside the first-class cabin.

“Daddy, that other lady said we look like Stacey. We don’t, we look like us,” one of the twins said, bouncing up and down on his seat.

Luis looked at her questioningly.

“I think she thought they were mine. Blond hair, blue eyes. Not much of a resemblance beyond that.”

“Melissa, their mom, had blonde hair, darker than yours, more like honey. Her eyes were light blue.”

They had the four seats in one row, two each side of the aisle. “I’ll sit by one of the boys for part of the trip and you the other. We can switch halfway through,” Luis suggested as they matched boarding passes to seat assignments.

“Perfect,” she said. That’d give her time to visit with the each boy individually and learn more about them.

Juan sat next to her in the window seat. Pablo sat in the window seat next to his father. Stacey knew that Pablo was shy around strangers, though she hoped he’d warm up to her quickly. They’d be together a lot over the next three weeks.

As the jumbo jet made a smooth take-off, Luis leaned back in his seat and looked across the aisle at the new nanny. She was bent close to Juan, listening as his son regaled her with some tale. For a moment he wished he could capture the sight in a photograph. His boys were special. He wished they’d forever be as happy as Juan looked right now. He didn’t often see that expression.

It was at special moments like this he missed Melissa with an ache that seemed destined to never fade. She had missed every moment of their lives, dying of an aneurism before delivering Pablo. She’d never even held her sons. At every milestone, he offered up the hope that Melissa knew, somewhere, somehow.

Stacey enjoyed sitting by Juan, happy he was so easy to travel with. He talked her ear off non-stop from the time the doors closed until the flight was airborne. He’d loved looking out the window until land was left behind. He thought the ocean was boring. Once or twice she glanced over at Luis and Pablo. That twin was quieter. He seemed intent on coloring in pages his father produced from the packet Hannah had sent. Her own contributions to keep the children entertained had yet to be opened. Hannah had packed small toys they could play with in the confined space of their seats.

Luis settled Pablo then opened his laptop and seemed totally engrossed with whatever he was reading, his expression thoughtful, his eyes focused on the screen. His hair was a bit mussed. Had he run his fingers through when she’d not been looking?

And why was she looking? She was here for the children, not to watch the father. Had it been just over twenty-four hours ago that she had met him for the first time? She’d returned to her office after meeting the boys and studied the interview sheets with more intensity than normal. He was widowed. He was head of a very successful software development firm. And he was so good looking he should carry a warning label.

When she’d gone home, she’d looked him up on the internet, and found the article Stephanie had mentioned that listed him as one of New York’s most eligible bachelors. No mention of his kids. Several tremendous photographs, however, would have everyone in New York recognizing him if they met him on the street.

She turned back to Juan. How lucky Luis was to have his twins. She hoped they were making family memories for the boys to cherish in the future. She only had vague memories of her own mother and father. She’d been six when delivered to Grams, her sister Savannah only four. And her mother’s mother had been arthritic and grumpy and already in her mid-sixties. If Stacey hadn’t had her sister, she didn’t know what she would have done. Savannah and she had made the most of whatever Grams had offered, but they hadn’t had much materially or done much outside the home. No travel, no vacations. When she’d turned eighteen, she’d deliberately set out to change her future for the better.

Stretching slightly, she acknowledged her own good luck to spend the next three weeks at some Spanish villa by the sea. When growing up in Palmerville, West Virginia, she’d dreamed about the sea. Now her best assignments were the ones at the beach. Thankfully the rich and famous liked the beach as much as she did.

During the meal service, she assisted Juan in cutting his meat and helping with his beverage. Once the meal service ended, she asked if Luis wanted to switch boys. Juan protested about going to sit by his dad, he wanted to stay with Stacey. Since the seats were large, she agreed and Pablo joined them. Soon the three of them were engrossed in putting together a puzzle she’d brought. The boys had never done a jigsaw puzzle before and vied with each other to match pieces to the spaces, often trying to force them in until Stacey explained they needed to reconstruct the picture and pieces in wrong places simply would not do!

She glanced again at her new employer. He was still working on the laptop, but she knew the battery would be dying soon. Then what would he do?

Her years working in this job had convinced her business tycoons didn’t have a family gene. They might want a family, but it was mainly for show or to leave the family fortune to. Children were nice to have brought out to meet associates and then shunted off in the care of someone else.

Her grandmother had been sickly, but she’d done her best for Stacey and her sister. She’d read to them, and taught them how to keep house, cook, mend clothes. All of it accompanied with family stories about relatives who had died without Stacey ever meeting them. Still, those were her family memories of growing up. Poor, deprived of bicycles and other toys her schoolmates had enjoyed, she still had those cherished memories. She missed her grandmother.

Growing up poor, however, had fostered the desire to enjoy luxury, hence the idea of being a temporary nanny, where she got to travel to exotic locations. While not participating in the activities of the parents, the children still had wonderful amenities that she would have loved as a child and she did her best to give each child a wonderful memory of the vacation, whether spending time with their parents or not.

She wondered about her current boss. He’d mentioned spending summers in Spain. With his parents? Or had he been shuffled off to get out of the way for their own lifestyles? She doubted she’d ever find out. Curiosity had her wondering about him while his children played quietly. Soon she’d try to get them to sleep a bit. It was already dark outside. They’d be landing in Madrid early in the morning. Sleep was required!

Midway through the flight the boys gave up and she reclined the seat they shared, covered them with a blanket and gave them each a pillow. In only seconds they were both fast asleep.

Which gave Stacey plenty of time to think. Her eyes were drawn to Luis Aldivista. His concentration seemed complete, which enabled her to study him without him being aware of it. He was better looking than the photographs she’d seen on the internet. What were his expectations for the trip?

“Mr. Aldivista,” she said softly. The jet was so quiet she knew he could hear her and she didn’t want to wake the boys.