Falling for the Nanny Read Online Free PDF

provided names and phone numbers of a couple of other neighbors, as well.
    After calling them and garnering a few more helpful observations, Patty set to work organizing her material. Even with the neighbors’ testimony and the video as evidence, a careful recounting of facts was essential. The attorney for the other side could spin doubts around the smallest inconsistency.
    Time of day. Weather. License plate of the gardener. She’d long ago trained herself to commit items like that to memory.
    She hadn’t seen any kids around, Patty recalled. At that hour, when she was growing up, she’d have been outdoors flying around on a bike or skates. Were they all stuck in day care, or glued to their video games, or what?
    She wondered if Fiona was allowed to roam outside unsupervised. You didn’t have to tell an ex-cop about the safety issues, but that curious, active little girl must ache to spread her wings and go exploring.
    If she were my daughter, I’d find a way to give her as much independence as I could. Safely, of course.
    Wait a minute. This couldn’t be a sign of latent maternal instincts, could it? Patty’s fingers hesitated over the keys. Sure, she liked Fiona, but she wasn’t about to turn into somebody’s mother.
    On the other hand, as she’d reflected earlier, there was no telling what course her life might have taken if she and Alec had stayed together.
    He used to kiss like nobody’s business. Patty had never met another man who managed to be so gentle and so passionateat the same time. Holding her that special way, teasing her, then forgetting himself and…well, they hadn’t quite done it in high school, but she felt certain they’d have gone all the way in senior year, if they hadn’t broken up.
    His parents had probably been worried about that. Sex, and the pernicious influence of a girl who too often preferred fun to academics. They’d given him an ultimatum as he prepared to send out his college applications. If he wanted their financial support, he needed to lose the girlfriend.
    Patty had to admit she shouldn’t have invited Alec to a party the night before he took the SATs. He’d surprised her by tossing back a couple of drinks, which was unusual for him. She’d learned later that he’d woken up the next day with a pounding headache, and his results had come in lower than expected.
    He’d taken the tests again a few months later and scored much higher, but by then his parents had demanded he drop her. Knowing he was facing a long haul to either medical school or a PhD, Alec had caved rather than run up huge debts. Besides, he’d told Patty earnestly, high-school romances hardly ever lasted. In his view, the two of them were just bowing to the inevitable.
    The day he’d broken the news, she’d felt sucker punched. For weeks, she hadn’t believed he would stick to it. She’d moped by the phone, sat alone at lunch hoping he’d join her, even driven by his house trying to catch sight of him. Then her younger brother ratted her out to Grandpa.
    His words still stung. “That boy’s not worthy of you. Don’t be one of those soft women who’re always forgiving the men who wrong them.”
    Ashamed to have disappointed her grandfather, Patty had reined in her emotions and focused on her own grades. The day she was admitted to Cal State Long Beach’s criminal justice program had been a triumph.
    Her grandfather had been right and so had Alec. High-school love stories lasted only in the movies.
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    O N S ATURDAY , Patty arrived an hour early at the designated coffee shop and circled it, noting the cars and license plates. If this guy was legitimate, he’d simply drive up at the appointed time. But the more she’d read the material supplied by Mrs. Finnegan, and checked the online databases to which the agency subscribed, the more suspicious she’d become.
    Lover boy had