You’re going to let me stay at your house?

Not that she wasn’t usually polite, but she’d seemed stunned and incredibly grateful at the offer. He softened, remembering the look on her face. Why was she having this effect on him now? They’d been neighbors for almost six months. His boys adored her and she was always very friendly, but he’d never felt anything more than passing interest. But she’d seemed different. Approachable even. Which was dangerous, in more ways than one.

He hit the last speed dial on his phone and waited as it rang. As expected, it went to voicemail.

“Hey Len, it’s Jackson Alexander. One of my neighbors is locked out. You’re probably out of town for the long weekend but if not, let me know. She’s staying with me in the meantime. Thanks.”

He called a few other companies for good measure, then tucked his phone in his pocket. All they could do now was wait. It was a long shot, hoping that anyone would be able to come out on a holiday, but the alternative was spending the long weekend with a supermodel. Raina Winters was the kind of woman he usually stayed far away from.

After the dark year following Crystal’s death, his friends had pushed him head first into the singles scene, determined to draw him out of his depressive state. He’d gone out with singers, actresses, athletes and socialites. Blondes, brunettes and every shade in between. Curvy and slender, feisty and giggly, he’d been on a mission to feast on all the female delights he’d missed out on by marrying young.

Somehow, he'd thought if he could bury himself in female attention, he could forget that the only woman he wanted was gone forever.

Then he’d met Alana. She’d seemed like everything he could want in a woman: sexy, talented and ambitious. A jazz singer, she’d been someone he could talk to about the business and bounce around his ideas about producing a new kind of album. She’d been excited about the project and even volunteered to sing. When she’d started pressuring him for more of his time and commitment, he’d actually felt guilty that he couldn’t give her what she needed.

Until the day he found her ass up over his assistant’s desk. In the end, Alana wasn’t special. She was just another singer looking for her big break and she’d been willing to do whatever or whoever it took to get there. They’d broken up but he’d learned a valuable lesson. He’d been in love with a fantastic woman once and the odds of it happening for him again were somewhere between “not gonna happen” and “a snowball’s chance in hell.”

Since then he’d only dated women who knew the score and had just as much to lose as he did. Starlets who needed someone on their arm for a film premiere, and models who needed an escort that wasn’t prettier than they were.

But in that moment, when he’d seen Raina on the ground with those big wounded eyes aimed at him, he’d experienced an almost startling sensation of longing. In the past three years no other woman had tempted him to break his no-strings rule. And none had roused the instinct to comfort and protect. Until now. Until Raina.

Which meant she really had to go.

He walked down the hall to his sons’ room where Nicholas was helping Chris with one of his toy robots.

“Daddy, look at what Uncle Nick did. He fixed my robot. It lights up and everything!” Chris held up a robot toy that had been broken for weeks.

Jackson looked at his brother, shocked. “I’ve been trying to fix that one for ages. What did you do?”

Nicholas grinned. “I hit it. Hard.”

Chris picked up the toy and flew it around the room making beeping noises.

“Figures.”

His phone chirped and he pulled it out to see there was a message. “Hopefully, this is the locksmith.”

He hit the button to play his messages.

BEEP

“Um, yes, hello this is Linda Taylor-Whiting. I’m scheduled to interview for the nanny position this afternoon.” She paused and cleared her throat a few times. “I was reading the agency’s notes on your children and it mentioned that one of your boys particularly likes insects. I’m not sure I would be the best candidate in this circumstance.”

Jackson shook his head as she stumbled through an apology before hanging up. He’d been blessed for years because Cynthia’s mother had been able to care for the boys during the day. But she’d recently gotten remarried and moved to Massachusetts.

The boys hadn’t made it easy to find a replacement for the grandma they’d adored. He was proud of his children but also completely aware that they weren't choirboys. Between Chris’s penchant for playing practical jokes and Jase’s current fascination with insects, they definitely didn’t make his task any easier. He hadn’t met a woman yet who could deal with them for more than a few hours at a time.

“Damn. Another nanny bites the dust.”

He just needed someone who could watch the boys during the afternoons while he was working, at least through the summer. Once the school year started, Chris would be in kindergarten and Jase would be in preschool. He’d be able to get by on his own, then. Of course in an ideal world he’d find a caregiver he could retain all year, maybe even one who could also run errands, such as grocery shopping, for him.

Nicholas looked up. “You still can’t find a nanny?”

“Every time I think I have a candidate there’s a catch. The first one was excellent at running a household, but stiff with the boys. She didn’t even last a whole day. The one after her was more interested in babysitting me than the kids. Her skirt barely covered her ass.”