Reluctantly Yours Paperback #3 ***PREORDER NOW for JUNE 12TH 2025***

Travis

I’m used to running an empire, not running after a nanny who looks like a walking rainbow and disrupts my meticulously planned world.

Penny Anderson isn’t just unsuitable—she’s chaos in pigtails and glitter.

But my daughter adores her, and Penny’s sunshine personality slowly chips away at the walls I’ve built.

She’s hiding something behind that unrelenting cheer, and I guess we’re similar like that. Still, I shouldn’t care. All I should care about is my one rule—don’t cross the line.

Too bad she’s standing right on it, tempting me every single day.

Penny

Taking a nanny job for a powerful, brooding single dad wasn’t supposed to turn my life upside down.

Travis Knight is every bit the cold, calculating CEO—until he’s with his daughter, and I catch glimpses of the man behind the mask.

But this job isn’t just about Sofia—it’s a fresh start I desperately need. If only I could ignore the heat in Travis’s eyes and the way he makes me question every rule I’ve ever set for myself.

Chapter 1 - Travis

If one more thing went wrong on what was becoming one of the most stressful days of my life, I was going to permanently lose my shit. Being rear-ended by some moron on their cell on my way to the office. A burst pipe in my office building had led to half a floor full of employee desks getting rained on overnight. My managers were dealing with the aftermath, but then came the unwelcome surprise of our now ex-nanny dropping my daughter off without warning.

A man in my position couldn’t have interrup- tions like that. It was damn near impossible to concentrate on numbers and projections when my four-year-old colored at my assistant’s desk while I brimmed over with anger at the incompetence of the people in my life.

Of all people for the agency to send as a replacement.
The pigtailed brunette in front of me wore an irritatingly bright smile. “Mr. Knight?” she asked when the most I’d been able to do was stare at her in disbelief. The last thing I’d expected was her announcement. My new nanny.

Finally, she started to comprehend my confusion. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip before she asked, “Is everything okay? You did request the agency send you a nanny candidate as soon as possible, right? Or have I come to the wrong place?”

Had she? She was dressed like a character from a summer camp ad, complete with a pink backpack that matched the flowers on her sundress. There were friendship bracelets on one wrist and multicol- ored beaded bracelets on the other, the sort a kid would make at summer camp.

She was bright, obviously energetic, and painfully earnest. In other words, she left me grinding my teeth in distaste. This was the sort of girl who would’ve irritated me if I were in a good mood.

I was not in a good mood this afternoon.

“How old are you?” I asked since her physical aspects were a direct contradiction of her pigtails and backpack. “Why don’t you take a look at my resume?” She swung the backpack off one shoulder and unzipped it. “Sorry. I should’ve had that ready when I came in.”

“Yes, you should have.” She didn’t flinch at my sharp rebuke. For all I knew, she didn’t hear me, intent on pulling a manila folder free from her bag. Flipping it open, she pulled out a sheet of paper which she handed me, wearing the same bright, chipper smile.

She had to be on drugs, and though I had never dabbled, she made me consider asking her for a hit of whatever she was on. I could’ve used a pick-me- up.

Penny Anderson. Of course, she had a name like Penny. Twenty-four years old. “Recently graduated with your master’s in early childhood education?” I read aloud.
“Yes, just last month,” she said with pride.

Well, that was a plus, though it didn’t make her any easier to stomach. “I don’t see any previous experience as a nanny.”

“I worked at a daycare center for the past several years, as I explained on the resume.”

“That’s not the same,” I countered. “Why would the agency send me someone with no experience as a nanny?”

“If you look at the reverse side, you’ll see I started babysitting my own siblings when I was ten. I’m the oldest of five,” she explained in that same pride- filled tone. “It was a hands-on learning experience. I was changing diapers when I was eleven, handling bath time and bedtime when I was twelve. My parents verified everything with the agency when I applied.” Chuckling, she added, “Moving away to college was like an extended vacation. For the first time in years, the only homework I had to worry about was my own.”

She couldn’t be real. Was this an act? “Here’s a question. What are your acting aspirations?” I asked. Finally, something managed to knock the smile off her face. Not for long, though. She recovered quickly, tipping her head to the side. “I don’t understand.”

“Come on, Miss Anderson,” I implored with a smirk. “This is Los Angeles. If you’re living out here, there’s a good chance you have dreams of working in Hollywood. If that’s the case, I need to know now.”

Her brows knitted together, but only for a split second before she shook her head. “No, Mr. Knight. What you see here is what you get. I grew up in Sacramento and moved to Los Angeles when I started at USC. I want to be a teacher.”

“So you won’t drop any surprise auditions on me?” I found it hard to believe someone as pretty as her, with a tight body and sapphire blue eyes, wouldn’t at least consider a career on the screen. Years of friendship with the heir to a major studio had taught me one thing—it didn’t take talent to make a star.

She giggled and shook her head. “Gosh, no. I was too nervous to stand in the background of my eighth-grade class play. I don’t even have the guts to teach high schoolers. They’re too judgmental.”

There had to be some reason for me to dismiss the girl. Not that I necessarily needed a reason. A simple phone call to the agency would suffice. They didn’t need an explanation, anyway. If they asked for one, I didn’t have to comply.

Yet, for some reason, I searched for something plausible I could use. “You understand this would be a long-term, live-in arrangement, right?”

“Of course. You have a home in Brentwood. They wouldn’t have sent me if they didn’t give me the rundown first.” Her bright, frank gaze drifted away from my face and began traveling over the room, landing on a model ship in the corner to my left and soon, she was moving in that direction. “This is beautiful. The Sofia? Is it one of your ships?”

“Yes, it is. One of many.” I watched as she admired it and reminded myself not to admire her peach of an ass when she bent slightly for a closer look. She was irritating, but she wasn’t bad when her mouth was shut. “What is your current living situation?”

“I was living close to campus before graduation.” Straightening, she checked out the photos hanging on the wall. Other ships docked around the world, all of which belonged to me. “My lease is up at the end of the month. It’s either find a job that involves living arrangements or move back to my childhood bedroom in Sacramento. This would be a win-win for me.”

I had found a reason to get rid of her. It would take an entire bottle of aspirin every day to put up with the incessant cheerfulness or an entire bottle of whiskey. My liver would lose out in the end, either way.

“Tell me about your personal habits,” I continued. There had to be some reason to dismiss her. Was I trying to convince myself? Was that the problem?

Turning my way and holding out one hand, she counted items off on her fingers. “I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do drugs. I dabbled with veganism in college, but I missed real cheese too much, so I’m a vegetarian. But I don’t try to, you know, convince other people to live in the same way. To each their own.”

The girl talked as though she pulled quotes directly from a positive thinking self-help book. “What about your social life?”

“I don’t have one, really.”

Finally. Something I could grab a hold of. “Not at all? You have no friends?” I didn’t bother concealing my skepticism.

“Not exactly. I have friends. I shared a house with two other girls in grad school, and we keep in touch now that they’ve moved out. I had friends in classes with me, study groups, and whatnot. People I connected with when I was working in the daycare center.”

“But you have no social life? You can see how I would question that as young as you are.”

“What does my age have to do with it?” she coun- tered, still gentle and pleasant. Unflappable. “I don’t party if that’s what you’re getting at. You can ask anyone who knows me, and I did include a handful of names and phone numbers at the bottom of my resume.”

An interesting thing happened. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes the slightest bit. Not angry, per se, but some of her relentless shine had worn off. “Mr. Knight, what you see is what you get with me. I wouldn’t paint myself as somebody I’m not for the sake of getting a job.”

“Mr. Knight?” My assistant had a bad habit of opening the door before knocking, which today meant the sudden, rambunctious presence of my daughter. Her chocolate brown curls bounced as she ran across the room toward my desk, then stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted the colorful stranger standing a few feet away.

“Hey, there.” Penny slowly lowered herself to one knee, grinning at Sofia. “My name is Penny.”

Sofia offered a shy grin that showed off her dimples as she looked Penny up and down. I waited, watching closely. “I’m Sofia,” she announced in a tiny voice.

“Something told me that was your name.” Penny glanced over her shoulder toward the ship that was my daughter’s namesake. “It’s very nice to meet you, Sofia. Let me guess.” She tapped a fingernail to her chin. Fuck me, she even wore glitter nail polish. “I bet you’re around four years old. Is that right?”

Sofia gasped, her hazel eyes perfectly round. “Wow! That’s amazing!” She turned to me. “Daddy! Did you hear that? How did she know?”

I shrugged while Penny stood upright again, smiling down at the equally entranced Sofia. “It must be magic,” I decided. “Now, you know when the door is closed, you’re supposed to sit with Miss Lauren, right? You can come in when the door is open.”

“I had to ask something really important, though.”

“And what is that?” I exchanged looks with my assistant, who could only shrug. What the fuck was it today with these incompetent people?

Folding her hands, Sofia begged, “Can I please, please get a new coloring book before we go home tonight?”

Lauren piped up from the doorway. “The book I had in my desk was all full.”

Before I could suggest Lauren give her some blank paper to draw on—honestly, the fact that I should have come up with such a simple idea made me wonder about her—Penny held up a hand. “It just so happens I have a coloring book in my bag. You can have it if you want.”

She wore glitter nail polish and carried coloring books around in her backpack. The whole thing kept getting more bizarre with each passing minute.

“Wow!” Sofia accepted the Disney Princess coloring book like it was a rare treasure. “Thank you! Are you sure I can have it?”

It’s yours,” she insisted, holding it out. “It’s okay,” Penny told her with a smile. “I’ve got lots of coloring books already. And I guess you could get bored hanging around here.”

“No, it’s fun...” But anyone could tell from Sofia’s reluctant tone that the opposite was true. My daughter was nothing if not polite. I covered up a laugh with a snort and sat back down.

“How about we make it an early day?” I suggested, because why not? My day was already shot to hell as it was. My presence wasn’t helping anyone, and my daughter was bored out of her mind. I doubted Lauren was able to get much work done, either. “Maybe we’ll stop for ice cream on the way home.”

“The pretty shop at the mall? With the fountain?” Sofia began to bounce on the balls of her feet. The kid was going to lift off, she was so excited. “Can Penny come with us?”

Son of a bitch. It was bad enough that I had a hard time denying her anything. She had to go and put me on the spot in front of someone whose relentlessly cheerful presence made my head hurt.

I forced a smile for Sofia’s sake. “Sure.” If anything, this would be a test. I hadn’t offered Penny the position yet. If she screwed up, she would make it that much easier for me to dismiss her and tell the owner of that goddamn agency to send somebody who didn’t look like she was about two seconds away from bursting into song and making friends with local wildlife.

However, when I noticed the way Sofia beamed up at her on the way out of my office, I had to ask myself if it would be so easy to dismiss this girl after all.

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