My brow furrowed. “What do you know about men being hot?”
“Mom.” She rolled her eyes. “I know lots of hot boys at school.”
“Oh, really? Who?”
She blushed, making me worry. I was hoping for her not to notice boys until she was thirty and had the sense to stay away from them all together. It was a pipe dream, I know. When she didn’t answer, I became more concerned. “Do you like someone?” Dear God, please no.
“Kind of,” she squeaked.
My heart dropped to my feet. “Does he have a name?”
“Alec.” She grinned.
“How do you know Alec?”
“We have the same lunch. He’s in ninth grade.”
All the air whooshed out of my lungs like I’d been sucker punched. That’s how I met her father, except I was a sophomore and he was a senior. I had to remind myself Chloe wasn’t me. “That’s nice,” I lied. My baby was only in seventh grade. No one should be looking at her, especially older boys.
“It’s no big deal. I’ve never talked to him.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, for now.
“But one of his friends told Ginger to tell me that he thinks I’m pretty.”
That was it; we were for sure moving back to Carrington Cove. “That’s sweet, but can I give you some advice?”
“Okay,” she resigned herself.
I kissed the top of her towel. “I know you think I’m old, but it wasn’t that long ago that I was in your shoes. And I wish someone would have told me to wait for a boy who is brave enough to tell you himself how he feels about you.” If only I’d known. Leland was like this Alec. He played the cat and mouse game with me my entire sophomore year, having his friends tell my friends or me how much he liked me, but he didn’t ask me out until the last day of school. Then all summer long he strung me along until he left for college. He broke more of our dates than he kept. His excuses ranged from having to work to his parents grounding him, but looking back, it was always another girl. I was just too naïve to realize it.
He played the same game with me every summer until I graduated. Like a lovesick puppy, I always chased after him whenever he showed me any attention. All because he was beautiful, angsty, and could play a guitar. Every girl I knew wanted him. Then I finally went off to college and started dating a nice guy named Matt. When Leland found out, he came chasing after me, telling me how much he loved me. I was foolish enough to believe him, but the truth was he didn’t want anyone else to have me. That’s how we got Chloe. There I was, pregnant and married at nineteen, baby at twenty, divorced by twenty-one. Never once did I regret having her. I squeezed my girl tighter.
“Mom, it’s no big deal.”
She was probably right, but I knew there would be a day when it was going to be a huge deal, and I wasn’t ready for it. Just like I wasn’t ready for the choice I had to make. “Baby girl, I need to talk to you about something important.”
She lifted her head and looked up at me. She barely had to lift her head; she was almost as tall as me now. A few more inches and she would surpass me at five foot eight.
I tapped her cute button nose. “The man on the back of this book, Mr. Wickham, offered me a job today.”
Her face scrunched. “What kind of job?”
“He wants me to be his nephew’s nanny and his personal assistant.”
Chloe’s face looked more than unimpressed. “He wants you to be a babysitter?”
I pulled her to me and hugged her tight. “It’s a little more detailed than that, but sort of, except this is better paying than any babysitting job. In fact, it’s a lot more money than I make now at the bank.”
That got her attention. She popped up and out of my arms. “Like how much?” Her eyes began to swirl with all the possibilities. “Could I finally get a cell phone?”
“It would definitely be enough for you to get your own cell phone.”
She squealed and kicked her legs. “Yes! Take the job.”
“Before you get too excited, kiddo, I don’t know if I should take the job.”
Her mouth fell open like I was crazy. “Why not?”
“Because, honey, I don’t know this man, and it would mean you and I would have to move back to Carrington Cove.”
Her green eyes, so like my own, widened while she got up on her knees, making my bed bounce. “You mean I could go to school with Brooke?” Her BFF since she was in preschool.
I nodded.
She grabbed my shoulders and shook me. “You have to take this job. Please, Mom.”
I placed my hands on her perfectly smooth cheeks. “I’m thinking about it.”
“Think hard,” she begged.
“I’m having dinner to discuss the job further with him tomorrow night after I drop you off at Grandma and Grandpa’s, and we’ll see how it goes.”
She flung herself on my bed with her hands clasped together. “Oh please, oh please, oh please,” she repeated over and over again.
I couldn’t help but smile at her and want to make her wish come true. After all, she had made almost all of mine come true, even before I knew to wish for something as wonderful as her. She changed my life, making me less selfish and more aware. She kept me from being bitter about her father. Even now, as Leland was threatening to intervene in our lives once again, Chloe reminded me that she was worth any price, even facing her father.
Unfortunately, facing him was a possibility. A couple of months ago, he called out of the blue after having no contact with us for three years, to tell me he was remarried with a baby and he wanted Chloe in his life. According to him, he was a better man now, all because his new wife taught him what love really was. Leland never failed to shove the knife that he’d stabbed me with so many years ago in deeper. Everything was always my fault. His excuse for cheating on me was I was always too tired to have sex with him whenever he wanted because I was busy taking care of our daughter. He didn’t pay child support because it wasn’t his fault I didn’t use birth control. And now he felt the need to remind me that he never loved me.
He was real father-of-the-year material. If only I could legally keep him from seeing Chloe. I didn’t want him to flit in and out of her life, hurting her more than he already had when he disappeared again. And I knew he would. Which got me thinking. If I did take this job, I could finally hire a lawyer to sue him for all the back child support he owed his daughter. But gazing at Chloe, I knew that the choice I had in front of me would be solely based on what was best for her. I only had to decide what that was.
Chapter Four
I paced outside Cove Café on the cobbled sidewalks of Main Street in Carrington Cove in the fading evening light, telling myself to go in. It was only dinner. I didn’t have to accept Miles’s job offer.
It wasn’t only that though. My pulse was racing again, and not because I was nervous about a huge life change. For over a year now, I had imagined an evening like this. Dinner with Taron Taylor, where we would sip wine and discuss Silent Stones and his plans for the protagonist, Isabella Jones. I bit my lip and wrung my hands, thinking about the other things I had imagined. I wasn’t supposed to meet the man I had fantasized about smiling across the candlelit table at me before he leaned in and ran his thumb across my lips. His smile would turn from playful to smoldering with each brush of his thumb before he would whisper my name as if I were a secret he wanted to keep all to himself.
I would draw close enough to share his breath. Anticipation brewed and then bubbled over as our lips teased but never touched. Then just as we couldn’t stand the sweet torture any longer, I would tell myself he would eventually disappoint me. I would force myself to either wake up or stop daydreaming. Each make-believe meeting ended the same. And there had been many of them. I knew how ridiculous it was to fear even fantasized intimacy, but it was better than being disappointed or disillusioned, especially by the man who wrote such beautiful words.
Words that had made me laugh, cry, even reflect.
In her h
eart was hidden the deepest desire to love and be loved, but the wound that locked her fragile heart had not healed with time. No, time had only proven to her how right she was to hide the key that would unlock the beguiling gift she held within herself. A gift to bewitch the soul of any man. But not any man would be capable of finding the key to her heart she had buried deep within her damaged soul. He would need to be courageous if he dared to trespass the path to her very essence, obscured by time and thorns. He must be willing to pay in blood and patience. For the overgrown thorns hid not only the key to her heart, but the loveliest roses waiting to bloom under the gentle touch of the man patient enough to prune and care for the garden within her. For that man, she waited to grow with. For him she would give not only the map, but take the journey with him.
I stopped my pacing under the striped awning of the Cove Café. His words haunted me. In some ways, it reflected me. I felt damaged and ached for someone brave enough to try and push past my defenses. To give me the time to trust them even though I knew how unfair that was. But unlike Isabella Jones, I didn’t possess her bewitching powers. I couldn’t even keep the attention of my husband when I had one.
I brought my clasped hands up to my mouth and breathed in and out, trying to convince myself to walk in and face the man who was making my pulse race. Echoes of Chloe’s encouragement, begging, and her crooked little smile lent me some bravery. She’d already picked out the mobile phone she wanted.
She wasn’t the only motivator. I thought of Stephen’s gloating attitude today when he demanded I take a customer wanting to open a CD after we’d already closed the bank. Did I mention Stephen went home after he barked his last command? To add insult to injury, the customer was difficult, lecturing me for twenty minutes about the bank’s pathetic interest rates, because I had control over those. To top it off, I couldn’t open the new account because he forgot his ID. For that, I got another lecture about poor customer service.
Forget the pay raise I would receive if I took this new job, seeing the look on Stephen’s face when I gave my notice would be far more satisfying. First, though, I had to open the door and face Miles Wickham. I took one more deep breath of the crisp autumn air, smoothed out my blush cardigan, and reached for the door, reminding myself that if I could survive the mood swings of a pre-teen, I could do anything.
I let the breath out once I entered the establishment. The smell of the freshly baked breads they used for everything from bread bowls to grilled cheese sandwiches tickled my nose, flooding me with memories both good and bad. This was a favorite hangout during high school, not only for Emma, Jenna, Brad, and me, but Leland too. He would sit in the corner booth brooding while he scribbled out lyrics on napkins. I found it so mysterious and alluring. He knew it too, which was why he would only glance my way until I came to him. Never once did he come to me.
The young hostess grabbed my attention. “Would you like a table, or to sit at the counter?”
I shook thoughts of Leland out of my head, figuratively and literally. “I’m meeting someone.”
That someone stood and waved, catching my attention from, wouldn’t you know it, the corner booth. I took it as the universe’s way of warning me, until he picked up his nephew and began to walk toward me, smiling. He was coming to get me?
Little Henry lit up when he saw me and immediately began to wiggle out of his uncle’s arms. Miles let him go and watched the tot run straight to me. Before I could catch Henry in my arms, I caught a glimpse of Emma and Sawyer from the corner of my eye. I turned to find not only the aforementioned couple, but Brad and Jenna and Shelby and Ryder all there gawking at me unabashedly. I would deal with them after I scooped up the most adorable boy, dressed to charm in his shorts and tights.
If Henry were the only consideration, I would accept the job on the spot. It was as if my heart directly linked to his. He obviously felt the surreal connection too by the way he wrapped his tiny arms around my neck. But then he yelled, “Nanny,” leading me to believe his uncle had coached the tyke. Perhaps Henry didn’t feel as connected as I thought—or maybe even hoped. Either way, I didn’t know how to respond. I looked at Miles and locked eyes with him. I could tell he was trying to suppress his guilty smile, leaving no doubt he was using Henry’s adorableness to his advantage. Obviously, I was a sucker for the kid.
Miles stepped closer, his guilty smile turning debonair, making me feel like I was having a series of mini strokes. That wouldn’t do. How could I work for someone who caused such a physiological response? Don’t even get me going on how his aqua eyes drew me in. Or his cologne. Whatever it was, I needed to find out and stay away from it at all cost. His spicy, warm smell was more than likely brain numbing. I had a laundry list of all the trouble intoxicating scents had gotten me into, starting with a tattoo my parents still didn’t know about and ending with becoming a single mother.
As I looked closer at Miles’s eyes, I was startled to see they were filled with remorse, like he knew he’d placed me in difficult spot. I had expected to find arrogance. Instead, I found I was more uncomfortable with his concern than Henry’s declaration.
“I may have been a bit presumptuous,” he stated.
I swallowed hard. His accent wasn’t doing my heart any favors. “More than a bit.”
“Please forgive me,” he sincerely begged.
His apology completely threw me off. I wasn’t used to men admitting they were wrong, so much so, I didn’t know how to respond. Instead, I did the intelligent thing and stared blankly at him, unfortunately, with my mouth hanging open. That had to be attractive.
He tilted his head, studying me like he had at the bank. “Hmm,” he muttered as if he totally got me, which was off-putting. “Why don’t we see what we can do to make Henry’s proclamation a reality.”
I got my vacant stare under control and responded, “I wonder where he got such an idea.”
Miles’s melodic laugh filled the café. “I do like you, Aspen. Come, let’s sit.” He waved his hand toward the corner booth.
That action had Brad, Sawyer, and Ryder jumping up like some chivalrous cavalry. Did they think Miles was luring me away? I supposed that meant I needed to make introductions. I gave my friends a wry grin. The women were all laughing and tugging on their husbands, trying to get them to sit down. I admit I was touched by their concern.
“Miles, would you mind meeting a few friends of mine first?”
Miles looked in the same direction as me. “Ah. I see your mates have come to check me out. Let’s not keep them waiting.”
“I didn’t know they would be here,” I sighed, somewhat embarrassed.
“No worries, it speaks volumes about the kind of person you must be.”
“And what kind is that?”
He gave me good once-over in my “motherly” outfit consisting of a cardigan and black ankle pants. I’d even started wearing granny panties for the fun of it. I think he was more interested, though, in the way his nephew clung to me. “As far as I can tell . . . lovely,” he admitted reluctantly.
I had no words, but my cheeks said it all. If I had to guess, I would say they were a nice shade of crimson. I covered it up by rubbing noses with Henry, who giggled. “Are you hungry?” I asked him.
“I want pizza!” he loudly voiced his preference.
I tapped his nose. “I don’t think they have pizza here, sweetie.”
Henry’s lip began to quiver.
Miles immediately cringed while huge crocodile tears leaked out of Henry’s gorgeous brown eyes.
“I’m mucking up this job,” Miles confessed with a heavy breath. “He won’t eat anything my chef prepares. I promised him pizza tonight.”
Did he say chef? I would come back to that later. I wiped Henry’s cheeks and kissed his forehead. “My parents are good friends with the owners. I’ll see what I can work out.” Surely they had what they needed in the kitchen to make pizza.
Miles’s broad shoulders, which had sagged in defeat, lifted, nicely showcasing
his charcoal button down. “See how much we need you?” Miles was laying it on thick.
The entire exchange between Miles and me had not been lost on my friends, judging by how wide all their smirks were. When we arrived at their table near the hearth, I shifted Henry to my hip. My curves were at least good for something. I missed a toddler there.
Six sets of eyes darted between the beyond cute boy in my arms to the ridiculously handsome man standing next to me smiling with ease at my friends.
“Miles, these are my friends, Emma and Dr. Sawyer King.” I pointed to an ashen Emma, who had probably recently vomited given the only thing it looked like she had touched of her dinner was her bread. Normally she could eat the men under the table.
Sawyer stood up to shake Miles’s hand. Emma remained seated, smiling through her obvious discomfort. I hoped she felt better once her first trimester was over.
“It is a pleasure, Dr. and Mrs. King.” Miles took Sawyer’s hand, giving him a firm handshake.
Emma used all her energy and waved. “We don’t stand on ceremony around here. Please call us by our first names.”
Everyone at the table nodded to concur, which was funny since Shelby was famous for Southern manners and used them all the time on us. I kind of loved it when she called me Miss Aspen.
Ryder and Shelby, aka the world’s most attractive couple, stood up next. Ryder resembled a Hollywood star with his masculine build and tanned skin marked with tasteful tattoos. His bride beaming by his side was more gorgeous than him. Her long blonde hair shone like a crown while her blue eyes sparkled like jewels. Pregnancy had been kinder to her than Emma. It had appeared to only enhance her beauty and appetite. Shelby was now eating like a teenage boy. Her plate showed a half-devoured bacon cheeseburger and only a few fries left. She had confessed to sneaking potato chips into bed with her every night. Her thin figure didn’t reflect her new snacking habits one bit.
“This is Ryder and Shelby Prescott. Shelby owns a clothing boutique in town and Ryder is the owner of the Worlds Collide app.”
My Not So Wicked Boss (My Not So Wicked Series Book 3) Page 3
