Secrets from the Nanny: Hot & Heavy in Paradise, #13

By Dezi Dixon

Mia Washington has been out of the loop, big time. Spending the last five years in Guatemala caring for a family of naturalists, she didn't have time to keep up on pop culture. Now that her assignment has been ripped to shreds, she finds herself back in America where being in the dark will come back to bite her.

Nash Woodward spends most his life known as Silas Drake, famous movie star, and he can't get a moment of peace. He'd planned to take some time off after his last role, but when the part of a lifetime becomes available, there's no way he's turning it down. Now he has to find someone to watch his son Ryder on short notice during his long shoots.

Life as a famous, single dad isn't easy, but when the new nanny has no idea who he is and likes him anyway, Nash knows he's found the woman he's meant to be with. He's keeping secrets from her, but they won't stay hidden for long. Will Mia bail when she finds out she's been kissing Silas Drake?

Warning: This book contains killer monkeys - not gorillas even though one half of us thought it'd be better...it didn't fit, paparazzi who almost blow the HEA, and grey sweatpants. Maybe we should have led with the sweatpants because do you really need anything more?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dezi Dixon
• Release date: Jan 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393939399

Book preview

1

Mia

The car hit a hole in the middle of the road and I held onto the handle above the backseat window while all the changes I’d faced in less than twenty-four hours stole my vision. The current landscape surrounding our trip looked different and my future employers remained unknown. It had all changed from the last time I’d been here. Vegas’ streets were well-maintained but Jared hit every pothole possible like a little kid jumping from puddle to puddle and squealing in delight when the water splashed against the car.

Except we were in Vegas and the streets were dry as bone.

Be careful, Jared. I want to get to my new assignment in one piece.

My driver laughed, shaking his head and taking his eyes off the road for much too long. Watch it, Mia. You pulled your bun too tight this morning.

A poorly timed joke, but it had a ring of truth to it. The hair on my scalp did tingle a little from how tightly I had wrapped the strands to create my trademark bun. It was the one Ted, our employer at Helping Hands, always liked us to wear—especially on the first day. As my first assignment back in the United States, I wanted to make sure I made a good first impression on my new employer.

I’d been out of touch with the free world for a little while, but demanding I use the driver to get to my assignment today seemed a bit overkill even after what had happened. I’d spent the last five years as a nanny in the outreaches of Guatemala. They were a wonderful family, and the children were so well-behaved as their parents surveyed the wildlife, documenting the different animal species. Everything had been perfect, but then tragedy struck a week earlier when a deranged monkey ate their father while on a hike through the rain forest.

It was horrible, and I wasn’t sure how they would get over it, but their mother returned to her family in California to grieve. They would no longer have a need for a nanny, so we parted ways at the airport and I finished my journey back to Vegas alone.

As if he understood what I recalled as I stared out the window, Jared’s eyes met mine in the rear-view mirror. I heard about what happened to your last family, and I’m sorry, he said sincerely.

My gaze remained out the window, but I nodded in acceptance. The poor children.

Jared made a hard right, turning down another road, and hit a small hole. This one didn’t make me grip on for dear life thinking I was still combing the back roads of a foreign land. Why did you take a new assignment so soon?

Why indeed?

Tim called and asked me personally. I didn’t think I could say no, plus the money is good, I said with a shrug. An easy answer and one Jared would accept.

In reality the answer wasn’t so easy to pluck from my brain. Maybe it was fear of boredom. If I spent too much time alone, I’d have to face my grief. But nothing in life is so simple and neither were my reasons. When Ted called and asked, he offered me a signing bonus and an extra dollar an hour, but the money didn’t bring me back to work so soon. I worked nonstop for five years in the wilderness and had nowhere to spend money even if I wanted. My bank account sat flush, but with nothing else to do, it seemed like the best idea to jump back into the workforce. We all needed to stay busy.

The car slowed and Jared rolled down his window, handing a printed sheet of paper to a man in a guard house.

They talked to each other back and forth, but I stared out the front, not even trying to listen. A gate, which looked to be gold as if it came from the palace of Versailles itself, loomed ahead at the end of the guard house, and past it lay nothing but a rolling hill full of desert sand. The gates were so tall I doubted