He rushed to the two women seated at the picnic table.
“Hi, babe.” Carly sat across the table from Irene, who held Grace in her lap.
“Hey, guys, sorry I’m late.”
“No worries. I explained everything to Irene.” Carly smiled but didn’t meet his eyes.
“Congratulations! I just heard the big news,” Irene said.
“Big news?”
She winked at Carly. “Just like a man. What big news? he says. Look, I’m sorry about this emergency custody screening. I’ll tell Frank to back off. The whole thing was his idea, anyway.”
“Thank you,” he mouthed to Carly, who still wouldn’t meet his eyes. Odd.
“I appreciate that,” he said to Irene. “I’ve wanted you guys to come out and visit for a while. I’m sorry this had to be the reason.”
“You’ll have to forgive my husband. He’s had a hard time with all this. We all have.” Irene kissed Grace’s plump cheek. “But weddings are wonderful beginnings, and maybe that’s what we all need now. I just want you kids to be sure and invite us. We definitely want to be there.”
Levi was sleep deprived, granted, but that still didn’t make any sense. “I’m sorry, how do you know Emily and Stone?”
“Who are Emily and Stone?” Irene wrinkled her nose.
Carly rose from the table and came to his side, took his hand and squeezed it hard. “She’s talking about our wedding.”
“Wedding?” He froze. “Our wedding.”
Carly laughed. “Sometimes he still gets a little tongue-tied about it.”
“Frank was the same way. He asked me to marry him, then on our wedding day acted like someone was about to cut off his leg. Honestly, you men. But this is going to be so good for Grace. I can’t tell you how much better I feel about everything.”
Stunned. That was the only word that fit. Confused was a good runner-up. It was true that the stress had been getting to him lately, the worry and concern over Grace, but this didn’t make much sense. Carly had put him in a difficult spot. What could he do? Tell the truth and admit he’d hired a nanny who would lie about being engaged to him? That would only make things worse. Frank and Irene would never trust him again. He was here to build trust, not destroy it. With great effort, he stopped himself from glaring in Carly’s direction.
“Irene is a huge fan of my website, RockYourBaby. She recognized me right away.”
So, apparently Carly had chosen to use that connection and reach out to Irene. But while he understood that, he seemed to be missing something.
He gave her a smile, but it felt tight. “Right.”
Carly squeezed his hand again, twice, like trying to communicate in Morse code. “I better go and let you guys talk some more.”
Oh, hell no, she was not leaving him here alone. “Wait, babe. You sure you want to go? I mean, we’ll be married, so we should probably both stay and talk.”
If she’d wrangled him into this mess, she would help him swim in the muck.
Irene smiled. “No need to rush off, Carly.”
He led her to the picnic table by the small of her back. Oh, she will pay for this.
“I’ll stay if you both insist.”
He sat on the other side of the bench and pulled Carly down next to him.
“Have you two set a date yet?” Irene asked.
Levi was going to go ahead and let Carly take that one. He turned to her. “What was the date again?”
Carly whipped out her phone. “Let me check, because Reverend Parnookie was going to try to squeeze us in next, um, when was it?”
Reverend Parnookie? Was that even a name, or had she just made it up on the spot?
“No idea,” he said through gritted teeth. “Men. We’re hopeless.”
Irene laughed. “You sure are.”
While Carly kept playing with her phone, Levi changed the subject. He talked to Irene about Grace, making a great case for how well she was doing. He shared how much weight she’d gained, and how she was trying to crawl. She was eating solid food and starting to babble more and more. Irene listened with genuine interest, for which he felt immensely grateful. This reminded him that he already had a grandma type right in front of him. Grace’s grandmother. And if it wasn’t for the fact that he’d just become engaged without his knowledge, he’d wish that they lived closer. Although he still wasn’t sure about Frank.
“What about the emergency screening?” Levi finally asked.
Irene waved her hand dismissively. “I’ll tell Frank to cancel it. Don’t worry, he listens to me. Although lately, not so much, but I think I’ll get him to listen to me on this.”
“Is it that simple?” He didn’t think once you started the ball rolling in family court you could just stop the forward momentum. Frank had accused Levi of being a danger to Grace.
“I don’t know. That’s all Frank’s doing. God knows what he does late at night on that computer. He researches California custody law and whatnot. I’m sorry about all this trouble.”
Levi suspected as much. He’d been worried that Frank had spoken for both of them. Grace, who had been on Irene’s lap while staring up at the trees and some children playing nearby with their dog, finally noticed him. She squealed and held out her arms to him from across the table.
“She wants you, Levi.” Irene scooted Grace over to him across the table. “Isn’t that sweet.”
Carly was still staring at her phone, obviously a real pro at stalling in addition to lying. Either that, or maybe it would take forever to find a date that didn’t exist.
“I heard about how you two met. Frank and I met at work, a few years after he lost his first wife. Frank is a good man, really, once you get to know him. We’ll be here for a month. Plenty of time to get together.”
“A month?” Carly dropped her phone.
Levi coughed and hit his chest.
“Frank had some time off, and he decided we’d come here and spend a little quality time together. I’d like to drive up the coast, see San Francisco, and some of the B and Bs in the area. And of course, get to visit with our little Grace. Just to make sure you two are doing well. Maybe we can all have dinner sometime.”
A month. A month in a small town where he and Carly would have to keep up this pretense or risk looking like complete idiots. Right now, he wanted to wring his pretty little neighbor’s cute neck. She might have solved one problem but had given him another.
Grace, who was cuddled in his arms but still fidgeting, reached out to Carly and touched her face.
“She’s not sure which one of you she wants more,” Irene said. “This is adorable. Let me take a picture.”
She pulled a phone out of her purse. “I want a photo of the happy couple. Believe me, this will help Frank. I think if he sees you three so happy together, he’ll stop being so angry all the time.”
Levi doubted that very much, but if a simple photo would make a difference in fixing this mess so he could go on and live his life with his daughter in peace, he was all over it.
“And I also want my friends back home to see the real Carly Gilmore.” Irene backed up a few steps, presumably to get a panoramic shot. “Wait until they hear the authority on babies is going to raise my granddaughter. I still can’t believe it. Scoot in closer, you two. Act like you love each other.”
He pulled Carly in tighter. “You have a lot of explaining to do,” Levi whispered near her earlobe, then gave it a slight tug.
She sucked in a breath. “I know.”
CHAPTER TEN
CARLY TOOK A detour on the way home, choosing not to follow Levi and Grace. She wasn’t ready to face Levi and explain. Not yet. Or ever.
Realistically, considering she lived next door and happened to be his nanny, the avoiding couldn’t last long. But for now, she would stay away f
rom one Levi Lambert. He of the magic tongue and fingers. Because this was embarrassing. And anyway, what she needed more than anything right now was ice cream. Or coffee from the Drip. No. Ice cream in coffee. With cookies. And also her two best friends so they could tell her that she hadn’t been crazy stupid to come up with this lie. Or, that even if she’d been crazy stupid, they would still love her. Especially when she wasn’t sure she could even love herself right now.
Did you go along with the lie for Levi or for RockYourBaby?
How about both?
When Irene had noticed Carly’s ring and made a huge leap, Carly could only think of how that scenario played a hell of a lot better for her than being Levi’s nanny. It made a difference, of course, that Irene had been such a fan. Otherwise, she would have probably corrected Irene.
But she’d never done anything this crazy in her life, unless you counted taking off to New York City to study fashion design. And look how well that had worked out.
As she drove down Main Street, she tried to wrap her mind around the past two hours. How could she have possibly known that the Lanes would spend a month in Fortune? Who did that? She didn’t see how she could be blamed when that seemed so random.
Sorry, Levi, but the sale of RockYourBaby is more important than your peace of mind. I can’t afford to lose even one customer right now. And certainly not a true-blue fan.
Anyway, Levi should simply be grateful that the emergency screening would be cancelled and he would no longer have that stress hanging over him. Of course, now he had a different kind of stress and worry. And, hello? So did she. If news somehow managed to get back to Daddy that she was engaged, fake or not, he’d probably break his other hip.
She hadn’t wanted Irene to know that she was the nanny, because how would that look for the owner of RockYourBaby? Besides, was it such a crazy idea for her and Levi to be a thing? They certainly connected on a physical level. Oh, how they connected. And also, she had helped him! Irene had been so happy. She absolutely loved the idea of Carly being Grace’s stepmother. Another win-win.
Definitely the angle she was going to use with Levi.
She blamed this latest disaster on the past few months of being in constant sale mode, presenting the very best side of everything, whether it was one hundred percent true or not. Maybe she’d been a little desperate, too. She’d already seen how fast a viral post could change things. It wouldn’t surprise her if her popularity could drop as quickly as it had risen. Fame and popularity were fickle beasts, or so she’d heard.
She glanced at her phone. One message from Levi:
Why?
She blew out a breath. Fine, she was going to ignore that one because it wasn’t safe to text while driving. She would explain everything to him. Soon. But for now, she needed a few minutes to regroup. Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, she screwed things up. Hopefully not in this case.
Carly pulled into the small parking lot of Pimp Your Pet, which was adjacent to The Bushwacker Salon. Both were housed in a large split Victorian that had been renovated a few years ago by the city of Fortune.
Zoey Caballero was one of Carly’s best friends and the owner of Pimp Your Pet. They’d practically grown up together after Zoey moved to Fortune to live with her aunt Rosario and uncle Pedro. Carly and Zoey had attended high school together, where they’d often challenged the teachers. Carly did so with her inability to please a teacher, no matter how hard she’d tried, year after year. Zoey had challenged them with her fondness for stray animals. She’d once gotten into a heap of trouble with the biology teacher when she’d rescued a filthy pigeon with a lame wing.
They’d both met Jill later, while working at the Drip, but since then the three of them had been inseparable. And it had been some time since they’d hung out together, because Zoey spent long hours working at Pimp Your Pet and Jill had been scouting cheap land on her days off. Carly, of course, had spent most of her time indoors and behind a computer screen.
Carly opened the door to Pimp Your Pet, and the door meowed.
“Be right with you,” Zoey’s sweet voice rang out.
Carly scanned the pet shop that Zoey had worked in since she was a teenager. It used to smell like a litter box, but since the renovation and Zoey taking over, the shop smelled like fresh wood, pine and, somehow, lavender. The name was new, too, and Zoey’s idea. In keeping with the pimp theme, there were colorful sweaters and collars for dogs and cats with plenty of sparkly bling. Other items that went further than Carly would have imagined one would go with a beloved pet. Birthday cards for your dog with a treat included inside. Dog diapers. A type of brush one could put in their mouth and act like a mama cat licking her kittens. Too far.
Zoey’s head appeared around the corner, her long, dark brown hair, as usual, pinned to the top where it would stay out of her way. Mostly.
“Hey, you! What’s up? I saw more of the fashionista baby Tweets today. I retweeted from Pimp Your Pet and my personal account. Then I hit up Instagram and started up a Pinterest board for you.”
“That was you? Thanks! I’m taking a break and figured you could use one, too.”
She frowned. “Everything okay?”
“No.” Carly shook her head.
“Uh-oh. I thought going viral would be a good thing.”
“It is. Actually, we’ve gained more sponsors. But that’s not my problem.” She took a breath. “I kind of told someone a big lie and now I’m in trouble.”
“Here.” Zoey handed Carly a box of dog treats. “Help me put these in the dispensers.”
Zoey had an array of dog treats in a large dispenser toward the front of the store. All manner of flavors, shapes and colors. Organic. Grain-free. Carly followed Zoey, placing a few of the different treats in every opening.
“I mean, as always I only wanted to help,” Carly said.
“Sure. I know.”
“It’s very exciting. Things have been going so much better, and I guess I just lost my head for a minute.” Carly twisted the ring on her finger. Might as well keep it on now.
“That’s normal.” Zoey looked up, studying Carly with her chocolate-brown eyes. “So did you overinflate the numbers? Exaggerate about how well you’re doing?”
Sort of the normal way business owners tended to inflate the truth. Not her. She went big. Stellar. “Not exactly.”
After Carly explained the entire situation, and how she’d inadvertently become engaged to Levi without his knowledge or consent, Zoey whistled low. “Dude, that’s bad.”
“Yeah.” Carly eyed the dog treat in her hand. It was shaped like a dog bone, but the box said “yogurt covered” and it looked like a real cookie.
Oh, man, she needed a cookie. This cookie.
“Don’t even think about it.” Zoey took it out of her hands. “You need a people cookie. Come with me.”
She grabbed Carly’s hand and tugged her toward the cash register, where she grabbed her purse. A few minutes later, Zoey left her part-time helper Reggie in charge of the shop and Carly drove them both over to the Drip. Jill was already there, pulling a shift. They grabbed a booth, and Jill brought over their usual array of biscotti, lemon cake, scones and people-sanctioned cookies.
Carly hadn’t hung out with her friends in too long. After she’d spilled her guts once more for Jill’s benefit, there was nothing but silence from them, highlighted by the comforting whooshing sound of the espresso machine. That, plus the wafting scent of fresh-brewed coffee, brought back fond memories. Carly felt safe here. Cozy. Sure, it hadn’t been the best use of her almost-completed fashion design degree, but she’d been happy here for a while.
New York City and the fashion industry hadn’t been what Carly pictured at all. The pace was too fast, the people too cold. She was shy and insecure, far too nice, and kept getting passed over. Her designs weren’t horrible,
but they also weren’t good enough. She’d done her usual struggling with anything regarding the written word. And then Alec had done his damage.
She’d returned to Fortune and her family feeling spit out like a piece of chewed gum.
So Carly had found work as a barista, and she, Zoey and Jill had worked together at the Drip. Concocting café lattes, frappés and mochas, Carly frequently misspelling names on takeaway cups (Stephanie, Stefanie or Stephane?), and let’s not forget their four o’clock dance-offs. All three had wanted to go into business together at one time, but then Zoey had taken over the storefront and lease for Pimp Your Pet when Rosario became ill and wound up in a long-term care home.
Then Pearl had died and Carly was tasked with selling RockYourBaby.
“I will say this,” Jill said. “When you tell a lie, you don’t fool around.”
Carly couldn’t argue with that, but she’d call it inexperience more than anything else.
“So you’re engaged,” Jill said with a laugh. “Congrats!”
“Shh. I don’t want anyone to know.” Carly lowered her voice and glanced around to see if anyone had heard.
“How’s that going to work? A secret engagement?” Zoey said.
“I see issues straight ahead.” Jill leaned in. “So how did he take it? Does he seem like the type to go along with it?”
No, he seemed like the type who couldn’t be pushed around. Who wouldn’t do much of anything unless it was his idea first. She was in a lot of trouble with him, in other words.
“I...haven’t talked to him yet,” Carly confessed, taking a bite of biscotti. “Not since I—”
“You dropped a bomb like that on the guy, then ran away?” Jill said.
Carly covered her face with her hands. She looked down at her cell phone as it buzzed. Another text from Levi.
I know where you live.
Carly groaned. “I’ll explain everything. He’s the type who will listen.”
This was her hope, anyway.
“He’s nice, I think. I saw him last week when I had a meeting with Emily about the pet wash on Saturday,” Zoey said.
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