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features. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”
    “It’s easy,” she encouraged him. “What did you have in your room as a kid?”
    “Here are the blocks.” Pushing into the toy aisle, he made a point of studying the displays. Finally he said, “My room looked pretty much like Carmichael’s, except with a bed instead of a crib.”
    “Oh, Trace,” she whispered. “You’re breaking my heart.”
    He glanced at her and his eyes softened. “No need,” he assured her. “You don’t miss what you never knew.”
    Caught by his compelling jade gaze, she moved closer. “You have a chance to give him something you never had.”
    He nodded, and then moved his gaze down to his side. “You’re touching me, Ms. Rhodes.”
    So she was. Both arms were wrapped around his strong arm. Muscles flexed under her fingers as he carefully stepped away.
    “Sorry,” she said.
    “Yeah.” Reaching for a box of blocks, he changed thesubject. Relieved, she followed his lead. For such a tough character he showed vulnerability at the oddest moments. It was clear to her that he needed Mickey as much as Mickey needed him.
    She blinked away weak tears. She’d have to stay strong if she meant to help them find each other.
    Back at the house, she checked on Mickey while Trace and Russ unloaded everything from the SUV. After Russ took off, she asked Trace, “How did the other nannies make do without this gear?”
    He shrugged. “They weren’t around long.”
    “It was the rules, right? You probably scared them away with all your rules,” she teased. But she was serious, too. “I prefer to work in an environment with open communication, more give and take.”
    “Give and take?” He said the words as if he’d never put them together in the same sentence before.
    “Yes. You’re the employer and I’m the employee, but we discuss things and come to a consensus of what’s best for the baby.”
    “A consensus?” It wasn’t a question but a low voiced challenge.
    “Right. You’ve made it clear you’d prefer to let the baby sleep in the morning while you escape to the sheriff’s station. That’s your side, and of course we could do that. But then there’s my side.”
    “You have a side?”
    “I do. I’m so glad you’re getting into the spirit of things,” she said through a smile, her tone carefully soft and easy; it was an attitude she maintained as shecontinued. “My side is I feel so strongly about your spending time with Carmichael that it’s a deal-breaker for me. Either keep to the schedule we agreed on and have breakfast with him in the mornings, or you can find yourself another nanny.”
    The silence that followed screamed through the living room. Nikki dug her fingernails into the flesh of her palms to keep from squirming under his ferocious stare.
    “I don’t react well to threats, Ms. Rhodes.”
    “You know, I’m not really surprised to hear that.” No understatement there. She lifted her chin and informed him, “I feel the same way about being blown off.”
    “Ms. Rhodes—” Ice encrusted her name.
    “Mr. Oliver?” She gave chill as good as she got. He needed to know she was serious about this. “Think of it as the terms of my employment. And it’s non-negotiable.”
    “It’s a bluff. You said yourself you care about Carmichael.”
    “Which is why this is so important. I won’t stand by and watch him decline further for lack of a steady influence in his life.”
    “You—”
    “Stop.” She held up a hand, palm out. “We’ve already established I won’t be here for more than a few months. He needs the person who is going to be here that first day of school, when he learns to drive, and the day he turns eighteen. That, Mr. Oliver, is you.”
    Unable to dispute the truth, he stood silently glowering.
    “Morning sessions with your son are the perfect opportunity to get to know each other better. Show him some attention and he’ll love you unconditionally. It’s pretty hard to mess that