Undercover with the Nanny (Excerpt only; coming April 23, 2018)

Chapter 1

Revised

Thump!

Kate Munroe jerked when the volleyball landed in the sand eight feet to her right. Seriously? She was this far away from the beach volleyball court and the ball still managed to bounce near her? The court hadn't been occupied when she'd arrived earlier, but she'd put a distance between it and her, anyway. Not enough, it seemed.

The loud jocks playing the game were easy on the eyes, being all tall, shirtless, tanned and ripped. She'd found her attention drawn to them repeatedly, instead of concentrating on the work she'd brought with her. But, what was a girl to do, with all that muscular eye candy cavorting about just steps away? Their proportions were a lot more interesting than the room dimensions she was calculating. Too bad none of them could play worth squat.

With one, last admiring glance at the hunky men, she gathered up her sketchbook and other belongings, and moved farther down the beach. She was going to need a lot of sand between her and the volleyball game, and not just because she didn't want to get hit.

Settling down in her chair once more, Kate reopened the sketchbook and tried to concentrate on her drawing. God, she wished she could afford to do interior design full time and have her own office space. But her greedy siblings had taken care of those possibilities by suing her for her portion of her inheritance from their parents. Now they both owned their houses while she was left drawing on the beach and subletting her best friend's beach apartment, since that woman was out photographing lions in Africa for a travel magazine. Some people had all the luck, and Kate wasn't one of them.

Stretching her legs in front of her, Kate paused and considered the turn her life had taken. Three years ago she'd gotten her interior design degree and had started taking on freelance jobs in hopes of making a name for herself. Her parents had been proud. Meanwhile, her older brother had divorced his fourth wife and started AA meetings for the third time, telling their parents this time would be the last time. Her younger sister had kicked the pot habit, again, in hopes of regaining custody of her two children, the niece and nephew whom Kate saw far too little.

Not being close to her siblings because of their life choices, she had still sought them out for comfort when their parents died in a car accident. For a short time, it seemed that the deaths of their mom and dad did what they couldn't do in life: bring their children closer together. Until the reading of the will.

She stared at her sketchpad through a sudden sheen of tears. Even after all this time, the memories managed to tweak her emotions. Her parents had stipulated that she would receive the bulk of their assets upon their deaths, since they had poured out so much money on her brother and sister while they'd been alive. Kate supposed the decision made sense to them on paper, but in reality it caused a firestorm from which she was still making her way out.

Her siblings had taken her to court, cleaning themselves up and producing such sob stories of trying to go straight that the judge ate it up like crumb cake. Kate's inheritance, which she would have used to start her business properly, the way her parents had wanted her to do, dwindled into three portions. And upon leaving the courtroom, her brother had said, "Thanks, sis," while her sister gave her a nod. That was the last she'd heard or seen of them.

Thump!

Kate pulled out of her reverie when the ball dropped even closer to her. She blinked away the tears as one of the hunks ran and scooped the offensive object out of the sand. Just before he returned to his companions, their gazes locked, and she jolted. He had intense, green eyes that seemed to look deep inside her, as if searching for the sorrow and disappointment she buried under layers of false bravado.

And then the moment was gone, because he smiled, showing white, even teeth. He gave her an acknowledging nod, and jogged back to the court. She stared at his retreating back, that broad, golden expanse with just a slight sheen of sweat covering it, and figured she'd imagined that probing look.