by Lauren Wood
“You just worry about enjoying your time off with Vanna. I’ll be just fine. It’s not like I haven’t run this company on my own plenty of times before.”
“Well, sure, but that was…you know…before everything happened with Anna.”
I flashed an awkward smirk and took a sip of coffee. I didn’t want to think about that now. Thankfully Jesse came bursting in just in time.
“Nice of you to make an appearance, little brother.”
He unbuttoned his suit jacket and shot daggers with his eyes over to Dominic. Jesse had a quite a big secret crush on his friend Vanna before he made the mistake of introducing her to Dominic. I don’t think any of us expected him to give up all of his other girlfriends to chase after the caterer, but I guess love is funny like that.
“It’s not exactly convenient to be rearranging everything around an impulsive two-month-long vacation,” he sneered as he joined us at the table. “But…here I am.”
“Oh please,” Dominic huffed. “Like you ever do anything anyway. Everyone knows Jason and I handle the bulk of things, and we need breaks too, you know?”
“Breaks. Pfft. Well, it’s my turn for a break after you,” he moped.
“Sure thing. Just find yourself a girlfriend and…”
I hissed through my teeth, watching the inevitable unfold as Jesse bolted up from his chair and started walking up to Dominic. I don’t even know if he genuinely cared for Vanna so much as he didn’t want to feel defeated by his older brother. Either way, the wound was too fresh to be tossing salt in it like that.
“Oh good!” Eric beamed from the doorway. “I’m here just in time for the fight!”
Eventually we got the two separated and everyone settled in for this joke of a meeting. Eric kept mumbling about some flight he was off to catch after this. Jesse wouldn’t stop glaring at Dominic like he was going to pounce again at any moment. And Dominic was just trying to fill the seat he was obligated to for the last few moments before losing himself in his lover for a while.
“It’s a good thing I was planning to come back to work anyway,” I scoffed as we ran through the possibilities of who would be in charge while Dominic was gone.
“I can cancel,” he said for the tenth time, throwing his hands up.
“Don’t be ridiculous.” I tried to rub the stress from my eyes, opening them again to find all three of them staring at me with that awful, pitying look I’ve come to hate. I’m so used to it now. It’s all I’ve seen on people’s faces for the past year.
“It’s fine. Really,” I reassured them. “I’m ready to come back anyway. I just need to find a nanny, which from what I hear, is the easiest thing in the world.”
Their pathetic pitying smiles washed over their faces again, followed by silence and awkward coughs. I was the only one among my brothers with kids. They didn’t know anything about raising kids. Hell, all I really knew about raising kids was what I had to learn on the fly over the last year of doing it on my own.
“I do have someone I could recommend,” Dominic leaned forward with an almost mischievous look in his eyes. “You’ve actually met her, I think.”
“Oh? Is she with a service? Give me the number.” I poised my pen to jot the info down, but he didn’t answer right away.
“Uh…she’s not exactly with a service…She’s a friend of Vanna’s.”
Jesse’s eyes glinted with a renewed rage, and I wondered how long he’d carry that chip around on his shoulder. But that thought vanished as I studied Dominic and realized who he was talking about.
“You mean her catering partner!? No. No way. You’ve got to be kidding me. Has she ever even worked with kids before!?”
“I don’t know, but she’s really funny. I’m sure she’s great with kids.”
“Have you lost your mind!?” I felt more anger than I should have at the suggestion. This was just the sort of thing that made me feel so isolated from my brothers. They didn’t know what it felt like to lose Anna, and they couldn’t possibly understand what it was like to be left alone with three kids.
“This isn’t house-sitting or watering the plants or dog walking, Dominic! These are my kids. The twins are only four. They’re practically still babies! And you want me to leave them with some girl we barely know just because she’s friends with your girlfriend…who you also barely know, might I add.”
“Okay, calm down,” he lifted his hands from the table to silence me. “They’re not total strangers. We do know a little about them…at least, I do. And anyway, I’m not saying hire her right off the bat. Just interview her and see how it goes. What could it hurt?”
My blood was boiling by then. “Oh, I don’t know…what could it hurt…let’s see…She could murder another one of her boyfriends in front of my kids!”
Dominic rolled his eyes. “She didn’t murder that guy, and you know it. She’s just a nice girl who got mixed up with an asshole. It’s not her fault.”
“I’m not so sure I want to trust someone who would make poor decisions like that with my children.”
He straightened with determination. “Look, Jason. I get it. None of this is easy.”
I shook my head, thinking there’s no way he got it. Not really. He couldn’t understand how hard any of this was.
“But…” he persisted. “Just interview her. See how it goes. If the kids like her, hire her for the next couple of months. You can have more time to find someone more permanent when I get back.”
I looked around the table just long enough to remind myself that our two younger brothers were useless, at least for now. They were fumbling with their phones and couldn’t have looked any less interested.
Dominic’s hand reached for mine with an affirming squeeze. “Give her a chance. You know better than anyone how rumors and reputations can’t always be trusted.”
I hated to consider it, but there wasn’t much time to spend looking for someone. I should have started looking a long time ago, but I wasn’t ready to try and go back to normal yet. That’s the funny part. Nothing would ever feel normal again. We’d have to make some kind of new normal, whether we liked it or not.
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Also by Lauren Wood
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