Only he’d never really thought of Timothy as a person until that moment.
He finally understood the disappointment and sadness Temperance showed him. She already saw a person, where everyone else just saw a problem that needed to be fixed.
****
Another amazing, fun-filled day had Temperance smiling. She’d taken Timothy to the water park. He’d admitted he’d never been, and that his mother always wanted to take him but she’d been busy every single day so there was no time for play.
The water park within the city was only a small one, and never boasted large rides or anything crazy.
It was just a fun place for kids to get used to the water and slides. Temperance had a lot of fun, and she’d even gotten her costume out, and was thankful to see that no moths had eaten it or left giant holes in it.
Of course, she was tired now, and the noise from the kids had given her a headache. Taking a few pills to help ease the pain, she sipped at her water and sat on the sofa, resting her head back. Timothy was already sound asleep. The newspaper in her lap didn’t hold the key to an impending new job.
Taking care of Timothy was a dream. He always did as she asked, holding her hand and never arguing.
She also liked that there was no one else to change the schedule just to suit them. Wayne listened to her, and she had found her first assessment of him wasn’t exactly accurate. She still believed him to be quite cold, but there was more to him than that. He was a businessman. He didn’t deal with feelings, and thousands of people relied on him to make the right decision.
Temperance also believed that he wasn’t wrong or deluded. If he said Timothy wasn’t his, then he wasn’t. Wayne wouldn’t have been so irresponsible to let a woman get pregnant. The night Timothy had a nightmare, he’d been there, caring.
Glancing at the clock, she saw that Wayne would be arriving home any minute. She’d already gotten the steak out of the fridge to get to room temperature, and the fries had been partially cooked once. All she had to do was finish the fries, cook the steak, and make a peppercorn sauce.
He’d been eating cold food for some time now, and she wanted him to know what a warm meal was like.
Washing down the counters and the fronts of the cupboards, she tried not to think about Wayne and her reaction to him. No man ever got under her skin.
She wasn’t some virginal woman who’d never been with a man before. She had. Boyfriends never really stuck with her, though. They didn’t like her commitment to her work.
Still, no matter her reaction to Wayne Myers, he was still her boss, and any attraction she thought she had for him had to be nipped in the bud.
The front door opened and quietly closed.
She smiled, as the first night he’d seemed to slam it. Now that he knew Timothy slept, he always took the effort to close it without making too much noise.
There was a sweetness to Wayne underneath his frosty exterior.
Preheating the large pan, she dropped the fries for their last few minutes of cooking. Seasoning the steak, she looked up at Wayne, offering him a smile.
“What’s all this?” he asked.
“I thought you’d like something warm for a change. I hope you don’t mind. I like to cook, but I’m not a qualified chef. Just what my mother taught me, and this was something she always did for my dad as a treat.”
Wayne took a seat at the counter, loosening his tie. “That’s the first time you’ve ever spoken of your parents.”
“It is?” She frowned. “We’ve not really spoken about our parents at all.”
“You had a good time with yours?” he asked.
“Yeah. They had me really late in life, and I think they were terrified having a girl growing up, hitting puberty and all that. I wasn’t a wild child or anything. Kept my head down, completed school. My mom was a homemaker, though. Nothing was bought from a box, and everything had to be homemade. She’d even have these jars of pre-made mix, but they were all made by her. She’d spend one Saturday every single month preparing her pantry with staples that would help her throughout the month.” Temperance didn’t know why she was talking about herself.
Thinking of her parents made her happy even with a tinge of sadness, but overall, happy.
“She sounds like a lovely woman.”
“She was. Every Christmas Eve we’d go around the streets dropping off cookies. From like five in the morning for days we’d get up, and just make so many different kinds of cookies.” She didn’t realize how much she missed that. How she’d wanted that for herself, and in a way, being a nanny, she got that. If there was ever a playdate organized, she’d be the one in charge.