Page 28 of Nanny for the Polar Daddy

Nora jumped. She heard a light rapping on her door.

The nurse didn’t need three guesses about who it might be. After the way she reacted to Hudson in his polar bear form …staring dumbstruck at his massive build, then high-tailing it for the door …she expected Hudson to come and talk to her eventually.

She was hoping for the morning. So much for hope.

“Come in.” Nora rose from her vanity table, making sure the tie on her bathrobe was tight.

The door opened. Hudson stood there, his expression somber.

“Nora, I’m so sorry you had to find out this way. I didn’t mean for this to come as a shock. Please forgive me. I had planned to sit you down at some point and tell you, well, who I am and what I can do. But obviously, it’s not information you can just hand out to any person.”

“And then once I began to…” he hesitated for a moment, meeting her gaze, “trust you,” he finally concluded. “Even once I could trust you, there never seemed to be a right time…”

Nora knew he was trying to find a way to reference the ongoing flirtation occurring between them but wasn’t sure how to label it.

“No, it’s me who should apologize. What I did right then, outside? It was unforgivable. I am a professional, after all. I appreciate your understanding of my surprised reaction. But in the end, it’s none of my business what goes on in a family. I am there to do my job, not pass judgment. That’s all.”

Nora waved Hudson to a sitting area in her expansive room. Two armchairs and one couch nestled in a bay window overlooking a snow-covered lake. Hudson took a seat in one of the armchairs. Nora selected the other. She assumed that would provide enough physical and emotional space between the two.

“Yes, I see your point. But what you saw …this is different from just staying out of a family’s affairs. Hugely different. I’m doubtful you’ve treated a patient whose family can do tricks like this.”

Nora laughed and nodded.

“Right, so it’s me who needs to make this right,” Hudson noted. “I am an animal shifter. I come from a long line of shifters, as it happens. Our clan shifts into polar bears, as you saw. We can do it by choice or, sometimes, through great emotion or in defense of our family. I am the leader of my clan, the alpha, so a lot of the responsibilities fall on my shoulders.”

Nora sat back and studied Hudson, returned to his familiar human form. She had a difficult time linking the bear to the man, except for his eyes. In whatever form, Hudson’s electrifying hazel eyes remained the same. That was comforting, at least.

Her mind reeled with questions. But she started with the most crucial.

“Is Hannah a shifter, too?”

“No. Hannah is not. Her father, Frank, was. But he left the clan to marry a human woman. As Nora grows, her ability to sense shifters around her may deepen, or she may have other traits similar to shifters, but she will never be able to shift herself.”

“Yes, okay.” Nora nodded again.

One piece of information at a time so my mind doesn’t explode. Good.

“So there aren’t any health issues I should be aware of with Hannah? Anything that might affect her treatment? Her progression to full health?”

“No, nothing at all. Consider Hannah to be like any other human in that regard.”

Nora sighed. Another piece of info swallowed.

“You say her father left the clan?”

Until this point, Hudson had been sitting erect, waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop with Nora. Sensing she wasn’t about to overreact, run again, or threaten to quit, she watched him relax in the chair.

Hudson inhaled, intertwined his fingers, and laid them gently on his lap. “Yes. You see, mixed marriages are rather frowned upon in the shifting world. It’s not that they are outlawed or anything. But there can be whispers, gossip, that sort of thing. All childish, of course, but it can be stressful. The community is evolving and accepting more. But in Frank’s time, the only peace he and Hannah’s mother, Alice, could get was to leave the clan.”

Nora again nodded. She thought the treatment of mixed marriages by the clan sounded awful, but she knew to mind her own business. She was a nurse in charge of healing Hannah and nothing else.

But a certain mixed marriage did come to mind. And the fanciful thought stayed there in her brain, and it made itself at home. She stared blankly at Hudson while her synapses merrily fired.

If Hannah’s father felt drummed out of the clan for falling in love with a human female, what hope is there for me?

Hang on. Wait a sec. Are you nuts? Falling in love? Marriage? Nora, you need to get a grip. Even if Hudson were attracted to you, which he is clearly not, why would you want to be the wife of a polar bear anyway? Nuts, with a capital C for crazy!

Finally, Hudson’s voice rocketed Nora back to reality.

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