Then There Was You: A Single Parent Collection

by Gianna Gabriela

  His lips thinned. “Fine,” he said. “Tell me about yourself now and I can decide whether you’ll be appropriate to be my daughter’s nanny.”

  She bristled at his tone and his choice of words. Appropriate? “You know what? I don’t need a job this badly.” She stood and moved to leave, but Max was there already, holding the door shut. Gigi’s heart bounced into her throat. “What are you doing?” she asked, glad her words had come out strongly.

  The muscle in his jaw jumped as he looked down at her. She felt like he was seeing past her skin and down into her soul. “I’m…sorry,” he said softly.

  She blinked. “Excuse me?”

  “I’m sorry I’m being an asshole.” Max removed his hand from the door and ran it through his hair. “I’ve had a bad few months and I shouldn’t be taking it out on you. Can you please come and sit down and talk to me and I'll refrain from biting your head off.”

  Gigi looked back at the couch, her eyes drifting down to Erin playing happily. She turned back from the door, and she could have sworn he sighed with relief. She was also surprised when he sat beside her.

  “Tell me about yourself.”

  She looked at her hands. “You already know the highlights. There’s not much more to tell.”

  “Tell me something I don’t know, then.”

  “Like what?”

  “Anything.”

  She bit her lip. “I hate PB&J sandwiches—I think they’re just awful.”

  Max’s mouth curved up a little in the corner. “You’re insane. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are the cornerstone of my diet.”

  “Well, you can keep them then,” she shot back with a smile.

  “You’re studying anthropology?”

  “Yes.”

  Max looked impressed.

  “Did you go to university?” She ventured one of her own questions.

  His eyes became stormy, his light mood seemingly gone. “Do you have any questions about the position?”

  Feeling as if she was walking on eggshells, she carefully replied, “Umm, yes. What’s expected of me, exactly?”

  “Ideally, I’d like this to be a live-in position. My hours of work are unpredictable, and if you were living here, it would make everybody’s life a whole lot easier. You’d be responsible for caring for Erin any time that I’m away, which includes feeding, bathing, changing and dressing her. I might also need you to take her to any doctor’s appointments she may have as well as doing some light cleaning and occasionally getting some groceries.”

  Gigi nodded. Her job was to be a stand-in mother. “Where is her mother, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “I do mind you asking.” She noticed his hands curling into fists. He got up abruptly, and picked up his daughter, holding her close. “Look, I need an answer. Do you want the job or not?”

  Did she? Her mother had always told her not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Somehow that didn’t stop her from saying, “I’ve applied for an internship over the summer. If I get it, I won’t be able to work for you as well.”

  He frowned. “That’s weeks away. Do you have another job now?” She shook her head. “Then I don’t see what the problem is. Work for me for a few weeks until the internship starts up. That will give me enough time to go through an agency and hire someone to replace you.”

  “I—”

  Max’s phone rang. Putting up a finger, he stopped her from speaking and answered the call. “Yeah?...What?...No, I’ll come in now.” He hung up and stared at Gigi. “Duty calls, I’m afraid. Can you start now?”

  Gigi looked at Erin in his arms. “I’m not saying yes to the live-in position. I can’t leave Jen high and dry without someone else to help her pay rent.” Max’s nostrils flared in irritation. “I can, however, watch Erin for you now until you get back. When do you think that might be?”

  “I need to get a plumber to come out after hours. It could take all night. Look,” he raced on when he could see Gigi was starting to second-guess her decision, “I need to know you’ll be here when I get back. I need to know someone is looking after my daughter.”

  “You don’t know me,” she muttered, still unable to believe he’d just met her and was trusting her with his child.

  “I’m good at reading people,” he said in reply, growling when his phone rang again. He answered the person on the other end in short, sharp, monosyllabic bursts. “Gigi, I really have to go. I’ll pay you two hundred dollars to stay with her.”

  Gigi met his eyes. “Keep the cash. I’m staying because you’re stuck.”

  He exhaled heavily. “Thank you. We can discuss the arrangement when I get back.” And with that, Max kissed his daughter on the head, passed her to Gigi and left the apartment.

  7

  Max hoped like fuck he wasn’t making a colossal mistake in leaving Erin with Gigi. He had no choice, though. Jeremy had called him once already to tell him a water pipe had burst, and a second time to tell him the basement was flooding. And all of this shit was happening the night before the grand opening. Which fucking god had he pissed off?

  Stepping out onto the street, he hauled ass in the direction of the club, his mind working to figure out whom he needed to call and how much it was going to cost him to repair and clean up afterwards. His mind didn’t stay focused on monetary shit for long, though, because it wandered back to Gigi.

  She was a beautiful girl, but she hid behind baggy clothing. At first he couldn’t tell the shape of her body, but when she’d looped her bag strap over her head and positioned it on her hip, it had revealed her curves. He didn’t even know why he was noticing. He had sworn off women after what Chelsea had put him through. He’d learned his lesson once; he wasn’t interested in a repeat performance.

  When he got to the club, he saw the pavement outside was wet, water streaming away from the building. “Goddamn sonofabitch,” he said under his breath. He shoved open the front door and found Jeremy with a phone pressed to his ear, pacing across the length of the dancefloor.

  “Now!” he growled. “We need someone now… If I wait another hour, this whole fucking place will be under water!”

  Max walked towards the bar, leaning up against it to show Jeremy he was there. The guy looked at him briefly before staring angrily at his feet again.

  “We’ll pay whatever we have to. Just get someone down here as soon as possible.” He hung up.

  “What the hell happened?”

  Jeremy dragged both hands down his face. “I was down in the basement trying to look at the connection to the kegs since the taps weren’t working as efficiently as they should be. I must have hit one of the mains water-pipes when I was working down there. The next thing I know, I’m standing in water up to my knees.”

  Max’s eyes drifted down. Jeremy’s jeans were soaked through. “I take it from the phone call that you finally got someone to agree to come down here?” The guy nodded. “Good. Once that’s fixed, we can concentrate on getting the water pumped out of the basement.”

  “Any ideas how we’re going to do that?” Jeremy asked, slumping against the side of the bar.

  Max did have an idea. Without saying another word, he left the club and walked a block south. The lights were on inside the fire station, but the roller doors were down. Approaching the side door, he pressed the buzzer attached to the intercom.

  “Yeah?” a guy asked on the other end.

  “Hey. Just wondering if we could get a bit of help here,” Max replied.

  “What’s the problem?”

  “We’ve got a swimming pool in the basement of our nightclub, and opening night is in less than twenty-four hours.”

  There was no response to that. He turned away, thinking it had been worth a try. He turned back when the roller doors started trundling up. A group of four men stood there in NYFD shirts and sweats.

  “So where is this club of yours?” one of them asked, and Max recognized him as the one he’d been speaking to.

  “West thirteenth and ninth.”


  The guy turned to look at the others before turning back to him. “We’ll help you out if you promise us one thing.”

  “Name it,” he replied without hesitation.

  “Our names are always on the guest list,” he said. “And any of my guys who aren’t on tomorrow night can come to the opening.”

  “That’s two things,” Max pointed out.

  “Do you want our help, or not?” the guy shot back.

  “All right. No problem.”

  “And they get free drinks all night,” the guy added.

  Max smiled and held out his hand. “Deal. I’m Max, by the way.”

  “Sam,” the guy replied. Sam looked only a few years older than Max, but he was a lot more built through the shoulders. “We’ll meet you over there.”

  Max nodded and started walking back to Temptation. When he got there, there was a van parked out the front, the decal on the side telling him it was a twenty-four hour plumber. He followed the cursing to the back storage room where there was basement access through a trapdoor.

  “Can you fix it?” he heard Jeremy ask.

  “Yeah, I got the parts I need in the van,” said another man. “But we need to get some of this water out before I can start work.”

  “The NYFD are on their way over,” Max called down.

  “Thank fuck for that.”

  Four hours later, Max’s jeans were completely soaked through, as well as his shoes. The burst pipe had been fixed, the basement had been pumped and Max was about a grand poorer. He took down the names of all the guys who worked ladder thirty-three and made sure they were on the list for opening night, and for every night after that.

  “So, what now?” Jeremy asked as they watched the fire truck lurch away from the curb.

  “Now, we clean.”

  When they were finally done, it looked as if nothing had happened to the club at all.

  “Are you going to tell Evangeline?” Jeremy asked, emptying one of the buckets into the sink in the janitor’s closet.

  “No. She doesn’t need to know. She’s under enough stress as it is.” He handed Jeremy the mops they’d been using.

  “Who’s looking after Erin?”

  Shit. Max pulled out his phone and hit redial on the last number he’d called. It rang twice before Gigi picked up.

  “Hello?”

  “Gigi? Max. How is she?”

  “She’s fine,” she replied. “She went to bed hours ago. I’ve just been here studying.”

  His shoulders relaxed. “Good. That’s good. I’m still at work. I won’t be much longer, though.”

  She yawned on the other end of the phone. “Take your time. I don’t have anywhere to be.”

  “Who’s Gigi?” Jeremy asked when he had hung up.

  Max’s jaw clenched. “Do you always eavesdrop on other people’s phone calls?” he snarled before stalking off to grab his wallet and keys off the bar. Jeremy followed.

  “Hey, sorry. I was just asking.”

  He knew he was being an asshole, but life had grabbed him by the balls and refused to let go. That did something to a man. “Go home. I’ll see you at midday to go through all the last minute stuff.”

  “You got it, boss.”

  He walked home quickly, practically bursting through his front door and into the living room. He listened for a moment, expecting to hear Erin screaming, or something equally as frightening. The only thing he could hear, however, was his own breathing. There was absolutely no other sound. Marching through the house, he nudged open Erin’s door quietly and looked inside. His daughter was sound asleep in her cot, her thumb in her mouth. He took a second to just stare at her. That was when he realized Gigi was also in the room.

  She was asleep in the rocking chair in the corner. She was still holding the textbook she’d been reading, one finger under the page as if she was about to turn it. Walking over to her, he slid the book free and placed it on the ground beside her. He then took a blanket from Erin’s drawer and draped it over Gigi.

  Retreating from the room, he went into the bathroom and undressed. He turned on the shower to as hot as he could stand then got under the spray. He turned around and positioned the showerhead to spray on his neck and shoulders, letting the water carry away all the stress of the evening. Coming home to realize Erin was okay and that Gigi hadn’t left as soon as he’d left the house was the biggest relief. But he knew he couldn’t do that to Gigi again without knowing where they stood with regards to the job. She either wanted it, or she didn’t. He killed the water, wrapped a towel around his hips and headed in the direction of the kitchen.

  “Why didn’t you wake me?”

  Max turned at the sound of Gigi’s voice. Her eyes widened a little as they dropped down to his waist. He placed his hands in front of his crotch out of habit.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you,” she added quickly, turning around to face the wall.

  “It’s fine,” he replied tersely. “I just needed to take a shower to clean up.”

  “Look, Max, I’ll just get out of here and let you go to bed. It’s late and I have classes tomorrow.”

  “Classes on a Saturday?” he asked incredulously.

  “I meant to say study. I have to study tomorrow.”

  “You can turn around, you know,” he said, getting tired of talking to her back.

  Her shoulders tightened. “No, I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

  He shrugged. “I was hoping we could talk about the job.”

  “I really should be getting home.”

  “Meet me tomorrow for breakfast then.”

  “I—”

  He could feel another brush-off coming. If she didn’t take the job, he’d have to go through an agency and who knew how long it would take them to find someone. Gigi was here now. She was good with Erin, and she had passed his first test. “Let me at least feed you to say thanks for helping me out tonight. I’d feel a whole lot better about it since you refused to take my money.”

  There was a long pause before she exhaled quietly. “Okay.”

  He smiled. “Okay. I’ll text you the address of the place in the morning. It’ll probably be around nine.” He walked her to the door.

  “Good night, Max,” she said as she stepped into the hallway.

  “Good night, Gigi.”

  8

  “You got in late,” Jen said when Gigi emerged from her bedroom the next morning. It had been after two a.m. by the time she had showered and gotten into bed, and her neck and back were making her pay for the impromptu sleep in the rocking chair.

  “Max got called away. I had no choice but to stay.”

  Jen peered at her from where she reclined on the couch. “What do you think of him?”

  What did she think? She thought he was a Greek god to look at but, but no matter how good he looked, as soon as he opened his mouth, she was left with a nasty taste in her mouth. “He’s a bit of a jerk,” she replied.

  Jen laughed. “Douchebag is more like it. You should have heard him read us the riot act at work yesterday. Everyone was wetting their pants.”

  “Everyone except for you, right?” she asked, shuffling over to the coffee maker. She may have been going out for breakfast, but she couldn’t function without caffeine in her system.

  “You know me, Borello. I don’t bow down to any guy.”

  Gigi smirked to herself. She could just imagine the sparks when Jen and Max went head-to-head. “What are you doing up so early anyway?” she asked, bringing the freshly-poured cup of coffee to her lips.

  “I thought I’d go to the gym.”

  She nearly spat out her coffee. “Since when do you work out?”

  “Since I want to get into the pants of the head bartender at work. He said he was going before work today.”

  “You only met him yesterday, right?”

  “All it takes is a moment,” Jen preened.

  She rolled her eyes. “Well, have fun. I need to take a shower then I
’m going out to breakfast.”

  “With Alex?” Jen drew out her classmate’s name, smirking at Gigi’s frown.

  “With Max, actually.”

  For a moment, Jen had nothing to say in response. Gigi soaked up the blissful quiet. “Is this a date?” she spluttered.

  “No. It’s not a date. This is him saying thank you to me staying with Erin last night while he had to go to work.”

  The smile on her roommate’s face was devious. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  After showering and getting dressed, Gigi got a message from Max with the address of the place they were meeting. She actually already knew where it was; she and Jen went there quite regularly for breakfast. Picking up her messenger bag, she left the apartment.

  She walked into Amy’s Bread twenty minutes later. Max wasn’t there yet. Finding a table, she looked over the menu, but glanced up when she felt eyes on her.

  Max was standing in the doorway, staring at her intensely. She squirmed in her seat, dropping her gaze to the table. The air seemed to thicken as he approached. Eventually, the wheels of Erin’s stroller crept into Gigi’s field of vision.

  “Thank you for coming.”

  She looked up. “Thank you… I mean, you’re welcome.”

  “Have you ordered yet?” She shook her head, watching Max sit down in the chair opposite her. He gave the menu a cursory once over. “I’ve never been here before. Have you?”

  “Jen and I come here quite often, actually.”

  “What’s good?” He was looking at the rear page now, his eyes scanning the whole thing. Even though she had only really known him for just over twenty-four hours, from her experience—and from Jen’s reports—his default mode was serious. She might also add grouchy to that list.

  “The Parisian breakfast is pretty good.”

  Max flipped the menu back over again and read the description. “What are you having?”

  “The Manhattan.”

  He stood up abruptly and strode towards the counter. She took the opportunity to look at him. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t shake the image of Max standing in a towel from her mind. His hard sculptured chest had featured heavily in her dreams last night, and the way the material had clung to his hips was the best supporting actor.