Camila’s breath caught. Jaime had colored in the sketch using a mishmash of his favorite colors, but the sketch itself was done by a more expert hand.
And it was… Well, it was a sketch of her. Emily must have finished it quickly, but it was still detailed, a beautiful depiction of Camila as she sat behind her desk, glasses on the edge of her nose, eyes focused on her computer screen.
“I…I hope it’s okay. He asked me to draw you and I… Well, he can be very persuasive.”
Camila glanced up. Emily was hovering across from her desk but refusing to meet her gaze.
“It’s fine, Emily.” In fact, the drawing was flattering, highlighting her cheekbones and her piercing eyes, and if that was how Emily saw her… Well, it was nice to be admired by someone so young and beautiful herself. “I think it’s wonderful.”
“Y-you do?”
“Yes, I do.” She turned back to her son. “And you did wonderful coloring, sweetheart.” She kissed the top of his head, and he beamed. “What else have you drawn today?” Jaime pointed to previous pages showing stick figures of what must be the three of them. “My, my, you have been busy, haven’t you? Have you enjoyed yourself today?”
“Yeah!”
“Had fun with Emily?”
“Emily’s the best!”
Camila chuckled. She was glad that Emily’s charm had not worn off. “Yes, well, Emily can go home now.”
His face fell, bottom lip trembling, and Camila recognized the beginning of a tantrum. That was new. Until now, the only person he had thrown a fit over leaving him had been her.
“But—”
“But nothing,” Camila told him gently. “She’ll be back tomorrow, and until then you can spend time with me.”
“Okay.” He seemed momentarily placated by that. Then he asked, “Is it tomorrow yet?”
“No, buddy.” Emily laughed. “Not yet, but it will be soon.”
“Promise?”
“I promise,” she said, then asked Camila, “Do you want me to come here a little earlier, get to know his usual routine?”
Camila had been thinking the same thing. Emily had read her mind. “How about eight thirty? Though I’ll need you earlier than that when you come to the apartment next week.”
“Of course. Eight thirty is fine.”
I’ll see you tomorrow, Ms. Evans. And you too, Jaime.” She waved, and he waved back. “Have a good night!” she called over her shoulder.
Camila and Jaime watched her go.
“You like her, huh, Jaime?” Camila asked. Jaime nodded enthusiastically. “You know what’s crazy?”
He shook his head.
“I think I do too.”
Emily was…refreshingly different from the nannies who had come before her, different even from anyone else in her life. She seemed to constantly surprise and impress Camila, and it had only been two days.
She wondered what the future held.
Chapter 5
The night before her first day going to Camila’s apartment, Emily set her alarm for six thirty. She groaned when it went off. She had never been a morning person, and it took some effort to drag herself out of bed and into the shower.
Still not awake, she picked up a coffee on her way to the subway, and by the time she stepped into Camila’s building at a quarter to eight, she felt a little more alive.
She was nervous about spending the day alone with Jaime for the first time. Even though the kid already adored her and she had looked after countless other children before, it was always nerve-wracking the first time.
She had the key to the elevator that Camila had given her the week before. The security guard clearly knew she was coming because he nodded politely at her as she pressed the elevator button.
She also had a key to the front door, but Emily decided to knock instead this first time. From inside Camila yelled, “Just come in, Emily!”
Camila was standing in the kitchen with her hands on her hips. Jaime sat in the middle of the floor with a stubborn look on his face, still wearing his pajamas. He brightened when he saw Emily.
“Jaime,” Camila said to Emily through gritted teeth, “decided that he was not going to get dressed or eat his breakfast until you got here.”
“I missed you.” Jaime looked up at her. Emily tried to be stern as she knelt down to look him in the eye.
“Are you being naughty for your mom, little man?”
“I wanted you to help”—he looked up at her, his lower lip protruding slightly—“because I missed you.”
“Okay, well, how about this: I’ll help you get ready this morning, if that’s okay with your mom, but I want you to behave better tomorrow, all right?”
“Okay.” Jaime sighed dramatically.
“Why don’t you go to your room and Emily will join you in a minute,” Camila suggested, and he scurried off down the hall. Then she turned to Emily. “Thank you.” She looked tired before the day had even really begun.
“I didn’t overstep there, did I?” Emily always worried about crossing the line from nanny to parent.
“Oh no, by all means. Whatever it takes to get him to listen, you should do it.” Camila’s phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and sighed. “I have to take this. Can you get him ready and I’ll meet you back here in a few minutes?”
“Sure.” Emily found Jaime in his room. “What do you want to wear today, buddy?”
“You pick.”
“All right. Where do you keep your clothes?” He pointed to the chest of drawers, and she riffled through to find a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with a dinosaur on it.
Once he was dressed, he ran back to the kitchen to show off his dinosaur shirt. Camila hoisted him up to sit at the breakfast bar where she had set out a bowl of cereal.
While Jaime ate, Camila showed Emily around the apartment. “It goes without saying that my bedroom is off-limits, and so is my study. Help yourself to anything in the kitchen. I shouldn’t be late home, but it looks like it’s already a crazy day. If it gets late, please eat here. I have a chef who prepares meals that I freeze and eat throughout the week. I told him to make double portions of everything from now on, so please take anything you want.”
Emily’s mouth watered at the thought of eating professionally cooked food.
“And as for Jaime’s meals, I made this for you.” A chart on the refrigerator listed days of the week and meals for lunch and dinner. “You don’t have to stick to it exactly; it’s just to give you an idea of his usual foods.”
“I appreciate it.”
“What else…?” Camila tapped a finger against her lips. Emily caught herself staring and quickly looked away. “Feel free to leave the apartment too; you’re not locked in here. There’s a park down the street that he likes, and there’s a coffee shop across from it. Just…just be careful.”
Emily recognized the apprehension that flickered in Camila’s eyes; she had seen it countless times before.
“We’re going to be fine, Camila.” It still felt weird to call her that. “I can text you hourly updates, if you like. Photos and everything, so you know he’s doing okay.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I also know that it’ll reassure you.”
Relief washed over Camila’s face.
The clock in the kitchen caught Emily’s eye. Eight fifteen. “Aren’t you going to be late for work?”
“Shi—oot!” Camila turned to Jaime at the breakfast bar. “All right, sweetheart. You be good for Emily, you hear me?”
“I will,” he promised.
She kissed the top of his head and turned back to Emily. “Let me know if you have any problems.” She shrugged into her coat, and Emily reached for the bag sitting on the breakfast bar, holding it out to her.
“Will do. And I’ll send you updates. Have a g
ood day, Camila.”
“You too.” Camila looked at Jaime once more, then stepped through the front door. It was the first time Emily had seen her hesitate. The door clicked shut a moment later, leaving her alone with Jaime.
“So, buddy”—she lifted him off of the stool and set him down on the floor—“you ready for our first full day together?”
“Yeah!” He clapped his hands, then reached for Emily and dragged her toward his toys.
* * *
It was a busy Monday at CEBC. What got Camila through the day was the hourly pictures Emily sent of Jaime beaming at the camera. The photos chronicled their day together—their first true test, and Camila marveled at how happy and at ease her son looked in every single one.
She finished working at six, a record of late. She collected her things with a spring in her step and took the elevator down to her waiting car.
She arrived home to the sound of laughter. Camila shrugged out of her coat with a smile, kicked off her shoes, and stepped into the living area to find Emily helping Jaime off the couch so he could greet his mother. She bent down and swept him into a hug.
“Did you have a good day, sweetheart?” she asked him, although she already knew the answer.
“The best!” he said with a smile so wide it lit up his face. God, she loved seeing him so happy, even if she wasn’t the cause of it.
“What did you do?”
“We played lots, and I made you some more drawings—come look!” He took her hand and led her to his craft corner. Camila glanced at Emily, who was watching him fondly.
Jaime showed her the pieces of paper he had doodled all over. Camila told him to pick his favorite to stick it on the fridge. As he bounded away, she turned to Emily.
“How did it go, Emily?” she asked with the unspoken hope that it had been a good day for Emily too. Camila wanted her to be happy here. She wasn’t sure what she would do if Emily decided not to stay.
“It was great.” Emily looked as happy as Jaime. “He was an angel.”
Jaime, back from displaying his artwork on the refrigerator, overheard her and beamed, then crawled back up on the couch, sitting so close to Emily that he was practically in her lap.
“I’m glad he behaved.”
“Well, I should probably get going,” Emily said. Jaime instantly stuck out his lower lip. “Let you guys spend some time together.”
“You could stay for dinner, if you like.” The words seemed to escape from Camila’s mouth on their own, but there was something about Emily that drew her in, and it had been nice the other night to have a real person for company rather than a glass of wine. Although she was surrounded by people every damn day, not a single person really knew her or even liked her. She knew what her employees said behind closed doors, knew she wasn’t an easy boss, but no one ever became CEO without stepping on a few toes. It was different having someone in her home, someone to gush about her son with, someone she could talk to about things other than work.
Emily looked surprised at the offer. “I… Are you sure?” Emily still hesitated around her. Camila hoped that would change the longer she was here.
“I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t.”
“Okay, then. Thank you.”
“I think it’s lasagna tonight. Is that all right?”
“Sure. Do you want any help?”
“No. Stay here. Keep this one occupied.” She gently ruffled Jaime’s hair. The movie paused on the TV was one of Jaime’s favorites; Camila had watched it with him countless times. “Finish your movie.”
Jaime bounced happily on the couch when he heard that, and Camila turned to the kitchen as Emily pressed play. She smiled listening to Jaime’s giggles and Emily’s laughter, smiled at the sheer warmth that flooded the apartment.
It was something she could get used to.
As Camila served up their food, Emily started another movie for Jaime before setting the table. Camila noticed that the two settings were next to one another, positioned so they could both keep an eye on her son.
“So, Emily,” Camila began. She wanted to get to know the girl a little better. “How are you finding New York so far?”
“It’s good,” she answered, her mouth full of lasagna. She managed to swallow before continuing. “It’s a lot busier than New Haven and the small town in Massachusetts where I spent my teenage years. But I grew up in Chicago, and it’s nice to be back in a big city again.”
“Why did you come here instead of Chicago?”
“My sister’s here,” Emily explained with a shrug. “She came for college and liked it so much she stayed.”
“I didn’t know you had a sister.”
“Well, foster sister, technically. But she was my rock, after”—her eyes darkened briefly—“after everything that happened with my parents. We didn’t get along very well at first, but pretty soon we were inseparable. I had a hard time when she left for college.”
“Did you want to follow her here?”
“That was the original plan, but then I got a scholarship from Yale, and Cassie said if I even thought about turning it down she’d never speak to me again.” Emily’s eyes shone when she talked about her sister. “I loved coming to visit her here, so it just made sense to move here after I graduated.” Emily pivoted the question back to Camila. “How about you? Why did you decide to settle here?”
“I wanted a fresh start, and there’s no better place if you want to make it big in the world of television. Plus it was on the other side of the country from my mother, and the greater the distance between us, the better.”
“You don’t get along?”
“That’s the understatement of the year.” Camila hadn’t been face-to-face with Charlotte Evans in quite some time, and she couldn’t even say that she missed her. Her mother been cold and cruel when Camila was growing up. Even as an adult, she never stopped telling her what a failure she was, despite everything she had accomplished.
“Does she see Jaime often?”
“I keep him away from her as much as possible.” Camila wanted to protect her son from her own childhood experience. “She barely even remembers she has a grandson. Even if we lived closer, I doubt she’d want to spend any time with him.”
“That sucks.”
“He’s better off without her.” Camila heard the bitterness in her voice, so she cleared her throat and changed the subject. “Do you get on well with your foster parents?”
“Uh, it’s only one foster parent now. Cassie’s dad died a few years ago.”
Camila sucked in her breath. She couldn’t imagine what it felt like to lose both parents, find a foster family, then lose one of the parents who had taken you in. She wondered how someone who had been through so much loss could still shine so brightly.
“But my foster mom, Sarah, has been amazing. I don’t know what I would have done without her. Despite everything else that’s happened to me, I’ve been lucky.”
Camila would have hated that kind of unadulterated optimism from anyone else, but somehow it didn’t bother her coming from Emily, and she wondered how she had gotten under her skin so easily.
They finished eating, and Camila waved away Emily’s offer to help clear the plates, nodding instead at Jaime, who had jumped off the couch at the sound of chairs being pushed away from the table. He tugged on Emily’s hand.
“Can we go see the stars?” he asked. Camila nodded and watched as Jaime led Emily toward the balcony door. After tidying the kitchen, she joined them, pausing in the open doorway to take in the sight of them: Emily lay back on one of the lounge chairs, Jaime in her lap. Her arms were wrapped gently around his middle. Every few seconds, he pointed up at the sky above and listened with rapt attention as Emily patiently answered each and every question.
“What’s that one?” He gestured wildly up at the sky. Camila wondered if Emily even knew w
here he was pointing to because she herself would have had no idea.
“Leo,” Emily answered without missing a beat.
“That one!” Jaime pointed again, and Emily followed his finger.
“Orion.”
“This one!”
“Hercules.”
“Now you’re just making them up,” Camila teased, unable to help interjecting. Emily jumped at the sound of her voice, turning to face her.
“I am not,” she protested. “Most of the modern constellations have their basis in Greek myth.” Then she seemed to notice the look on Camila’s face. “And you’re totally teasing me.”
Camila grinned. “You make it too easy.”
“Mama, come sit!” Jaime was sleepy but still excited, and when Camila sat in the lounge chair next to them, he moved to her lap instead, and she wrapped him in a tight hug. “Emily’s teaching me.”
“I can see that.” She kissed the top of his head. “You really know your constellations,” she said to Emily.
“Yeah, well.” Emily shrugged. “When I was a kid and couldn’t sleep, my dad used to take me into the backyard and tell me about the stars.” Her eyes shimmered in the moonlight. “After my parents died… I’d always try and find the stars in whatever foster home I was in that night because that was something that never changed, you know? They were constant, unlike everything else around me.” She paused, and Camila wanted to tell her she didn’t have to continue, but she couldn’t find the words and maybe didn’t want to, maybe didn’t mind that Emily was opening up to her after being so timid.
“When I went to live with the Joneses, I still had nightmares. They moved me into Cassie’s room so I wouldn’t be alone, but then I just kept her up too. Once we were both awake, I’d tell her about the constellations. My foster parents even painted a galaxy of glow-in-the-dark stars on our ceiling.”
“Is that why you went into astrophysics?”
“It was definitely where it all started for me. I’ve always loved space, and my dad, both my foster parents, and Cassie are all scientists, so I guess it runs in the family.”
“Wow.”
Never Say Never Page 5
