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look for another nanny for Jenny. Cade could not stay home and take care of the infant. He had a job and crazy hours, as well. He liked Rachel and she appeared reliable and calm. Just the type of person he’d envisioned to help care for Jenny.
    â€œOh, not often. The only reason I did it was because my job had ended.”
    â€œPhew,” he said, “I was worried that you’d up and take off in a couple of months.”
    â€œNo,” Rachel said. “I won’t leave you or Jenny in the lurch.”
    â€œThat’s good to hear,” Cade said, relieved. “A deputy sheriff’s hours are always changing. We have three shifts in a twenty-four-hour period. I don’t want to think of Jenny left alone for eight hours.”
    â€œShe won’t ever be left alone,” Rachel promised him. Looking down at the baby girl sleeping soundly in her arms, Rachel silently vowed never to abandon her.
    â€œI’ve got so many logistical problems running around in my head right now,” Cade said, pointing at his brow. “Your cabin is about two hundred feet away from my home. I figure you could stay at my house the nights I have the graveyard shift.”
    â€œThat would be fine. Or I could bring Jenny over to the cabin to stay with me.”
    â€œI’d like everything for the baby in one place. You’re going to be busy enough without carting stuff back and forth.”
    â€œIt’s settled, then,” she said.
    Cade’s mouth quirked. Her sable hair was shoulder-length and thick. It framed her face and brought out the assets of her eyes and lips. There was nothing to dislike about her. And for whatever crazy reason, he liked her—personally. “Your full name is Rachel Carson. Right?”
    â€œYes.” Rachel didn’t ask why he asked. She knew. If she were in Cade’s shoes, she’d be doing a background check. He’d find her new life and information. All she had to do was remember it precisely because this was a man who missed nothing. And yet, in an odd way, Rachel felt safer with him than she ever had since Dirk had abused her. She sensed that Cade was the kind of man who would protect his woman and his child at any cost to himself. In a way, she mused, he was like the knights of old going around the countryside protecting the weak, the old and the poor.
    â€œWhere did you get your education as a nanny?”
    She told him.
    â€œIs that a dream you’ve had? To be a nanny?”
    Rachel watched as they left the Christmas-decorated town behind and climbed a long hill devoid of all traffic. “I love children. Nothing makes me happier than being around them.”
    Cade smiled. “Well, you’re Providence dropping into my lap. I’m grateful that you’ll be Jenny’s nanny. So much has happened so fast.”
    Rachel was gazing down at Jenny and her loving smile made him ache. When she looked up and met his eyes, Cade felt at a momentary loss for words. Rachel seemed like the perfect nanny for Jenny, and this belief shook him deeply. Truth was, he found himself drawn to her as a woman. He tried to shove those feelings away.
    â€œI’m in shock over all this, too,” Rachel admitted in a soft voice. “I’m exhausted and yet, I feel like I’m still on pins and needles.”
    â€œIt’s the accident,” Cade soothed, watching the twin headlights stab into the black night. At the top of the hill the highway would straighten and level out. The snow began to ease. “You’re still in shock. I’ve got tomorrow off and the next day. Come on over when you feel like it.”
    â€œYou seem to know a lot about Jenny.”
    Cade sighed. “Tom and Lily Hartmann were my best friends. Tom died six months ago, murdered bydrug dealers. He was a deputy sheriff. Before he and Lily were married, they asked me to be godfather to their future children. If anything happened to them, I’d be