by Lila Bella
“Let her go,” he told the two standing behind me. “Mr. Black, I owe you and Ms. Reed an apology. You’re both free to go, but don’t go too far. We’re going to need statements when it’s time to press formal charges against your daughter’s mother, okay?”
“Absolutely. We’re not going anywhere, officer.” Jude reached out to shake his hand, but instead the officer passed him a business card.
“Give me a call if you need anything.”
“Thanks. I’ll do that.”
The lady from Child Protective Services approached us as the officers left. She looked satisfied with herself for showing up when she did and helping resolve everything. She shook Jude’s hand and then reached for mine. I reluctantly accepted.
“I’m glad I made it out here when I did. It looked like they were about to make the same mistake as before.”
“So, what happens now?” I asked.
“Well, we take her down and book her. She’s going to be charged with kidnapping, and possibly child endangerment, or whatever else they feel like putting on. The fact that she ran off once before is going to make this even harder for her. For you two, I imagine the rest of the night includes getting your little beauty home and enjoying each other’s company again.”
She gave me a warm smile. She looked like she wanted to hug me, but I wasn’t so sure. She was still one of them, and I hadn’t forgotten my trip to jail, so I felt it best to keep my distance.
She said something else to Jude, shook his hand again, and left. She walked to her car, climbed in, and closed the heavy door. Then, she was gone again.
This time, we weren’t having to piece everything back together. We stood holding all the pieces in our hands on the sidewalk.
Jude looked at me with relief and wonder in his eyes. He stepped over and took me in his arms, holding me tight against him. His arms squeezed me until it felt like I was going to become part of him.
“Thank you,” he whispered in my ear.
“For what?”
“For being stubborn and bold. If it had been up to me, I’d still be sitting there playing cat and mouse with her and waiting for the cavalry to show up.” He looked at me with a smirk before turning to the car.
Kaylee squealed when she saw her dad poking his head into the backseat of my car. His face glowed as he stared down at her and my heart soared. As good as it felt to have her back, it felt even better to see the two of them interacting.
“I’ll have my driver come around to pick us up, and we’ll send someone to pick up your car later on.” He chuckled and shook his head.
“What?” I slid my arm around his waist and held him close to me.
“We make quite a team, don’t we? I mean, you’re determined not to let go of Kaylee.”
“Hell no. I’ve worked too hard to form a bond with her, and I think we were doing pretty well, you know. But I was worried, if I didn’t do something to help, she would have ended up leaving with that horrible woman again, and you would have had to come home without her. I couldn’t bear it… I couldn’t let that happen, to any of us,” I explained.
“Thank you.” He pulled his phone out and texted his driver, getting an immediate response. “Let’s get her back in the stroller, and lock your car up.”
“Already on it.” I was already putting the car seat back into the stroller, and I hit the button on my keys to lock the doors.
Once his driver arrived and got the baby situated in the car seat, we finally settled into the car to head back to the house.
I sat against Jude, his arm around behind me and my head resting on his chest. My adrenaline was still pumping as my body refused to believe it was all over.
“So, what’s next?” I asked.
“Well, if you can handle things going back to normal, that’s sort of what I envision right now, you know? Just let things chill out for a while. I’d like to keep you on… you’ve done really well, I think.”
“I wasn’t thinking you’d want to let me go, not after everything that’s happened.”
“Right.”
I looked up at his face. “So, am I going to have to start sleeping in the guestroom or something?”
He tilted his head and wrinkled his nose, like he was weighing his options.
“I was thinking about moving you out of the guestroom, actually. I mean, you haven’t slept in there in how long? You might as well move everything into the bedroom, but we can work on that when we get home.”
He talked like it was nothing, but I was shocked. Asking me to move into the bedroom permanently was like making our relationship official instead of keeping it a dirty little secret. Not that it had been a secret at all, I was sure everyone knew about it.
It had seemed pretty obvious, I thought, that we were sleeping together. Still, there was a difference between being a convenient lay and being more than that. I felt like he was asking me to be more than that finally.
“I’ll be glad to move everything in there and not have to live between two different rooms.”
“Yeah, it seems a bit much to have to do that,” he replied, squeezing me.
His touch felt different all of a sudden. Something had changed somehow. I still felt the same desire in his touch, but it wasn’t in the forefront anymore.
What I felt was more like caring, something more tender and affectionate than before. He was holding me in the backseat of the car the way he held me in bed after sex, like I was his most prized possession and he wanted to take care of me.
Soon, we were pulling into the driveway of the house, and the three of us got out of the car. I grabbed Kaylee and pulled her out of the car seat.
I wanted to touch her, to hold her, to feel her near, and know that she was really there with us while we walked in. Right away the house no longer felt empty, the presence of the little girl changing everything.
She held on to me as if she didn’t want to ever let me go, it seemed, though there was always the possibility I was projecting my own emotions on to her.
Jude kissed his daughter’s head and then my lips once we were inside. His house felt like a home again, finally. And now apparently it was our home, and I belonged there as much as they did.
6 - Jude
“News?” Hollie looked up from feeding Kaylee as I walked into the kitchen from outside.
I let out an exasperated sigh as I pulled off my coat and tie. It had been a long, long day, and I did have news, but I had to let go of all the tension before I shared it with her.
Plus, I relished the look of anticipation on her face. I loved making her wait for it.
“I do have news, and good news it is.” I leaned down to kiss my daughter, kissing Hollie next.
“So, what is it? What happened?” She could barely contain herself.
“Guilty on all counts. The jury didn’t buy her defense for a minute. Marie is headed to jail. The sentencing doesn’t happen right away. There will be a separate sentencing hearing in a month or two, and the judge will decide,” I explained, keeping my tone deadpan as if nothing had happened yet.
“So, right around Kaylee’s first birthday,” she said.
“About two weeks after, but the judge remanded her to remain jail until the sentencing, so there’s nothing to worry about. She’s done. She’s not coming back,” I told her.
It felt good to finally say those words and to finally admit it was all over. Well, mostly over, anyway.
“That’s awesome,” Hollie said, containing her excitement so she could finish feeding Kaylee.
“That it is,” I agreed.
“You don’t seem as excited as I’d expected.”
“I’m happy… and glad it’s over, but I’m not jumping for joy, no.”
There were a couple of problems for me. For one, it felt unreal to think the drama of it all was finished. It was one of those things where I almost wanted to say ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’ I still half-expected to get a call saying that she’d escaped at some point, right befo
re I got the call from her saying she was coming after Kaylee and the money again.
The other problem was that no matter what she’d done, she was still Kaylee’s mother. It was nearly impossible for me to look at Kaylee and not see her mother’s eyes.
The day was going to come when I would have to explain to her why her mother was never around, and why Hollie was the only mother figure in her life. While Hollie was far better with Kaylee than Marie had ever been, she wasn’t her biological mother.
“Is everything okay?” She was up and moving around behind my chair, draping her arms over my shoulders and across my chest. She was also better with me than Marie had ever been.
“Everything’s fine,” I told her. “What do you want for dinner?”
“Don’t worry about it. I sent your cook out for a few things tonight. He’s going to cook something special when he gets back.”
She leaned down and kissed my cheek before standing back up and crossing back to the other side of the table.
I checked the time on my phone. It wasn’t nearly as late as it felt. There was still plenty of time before dinner. I stretched and yawned in my chair, not sure I was going to make it to dinner.
“Why don’t you go on up and get a bath? Kaylee and I are going to go upstairs and sit in her rocking chair for a little while.”
She picked the little girl up from the highchair and held her up on her shoulder. Kaylee smiled from ear to ear. She had really taken to Hollie over the last few months.
I’d gotten her a rocking chair to put in the nursery at Violet’s request. Actually, Vi had ordered it and put it on my account for her. I wouldn’t have even known about it if I hadn’t noticed it in the nursery one night when I went in to check on Kaylee.
“That sounds like a plan. Come get me when dinner is ready?” I stood up from the table and kissed them both again before we all headed upstairs.
“You know I will.”
We parted ways. She took the baby to her room, and I went to run the water for my bath. For the first time since Marie had left out of the blue, leaving Kaylee and I to find our own way, I could finally relax.
I had gotten far more than a nanny when Hollie came along. She truly loved Kaylee and it showed. The little girl was thriving.
Now we were getting ready for her first birthday. It seemed unbelievable that I’d made it that far, but I couldn’t have done it without Hollie. She’d taken good care of Kaylee and had watched over her as if she was her own. She’d really grown as a nanny and, as a woman for that matter.
It had been pretty obvious from the start that she wasn’t the most experienced nanny. Of course, if I had been honest with myself or anyone else, I would have admitted I didn’t hire her because of her experience or her history.
I hired her because of her beautiful eyes, her gorgeous hair, and that tight little ass of hers. I had hired her because she looked like someone I would enjoy having around the house all the time, yet was so different than the other applicants that had been so focused on me.
I thought she’d applied because she had experience, but it became obvious pretty quickly that she didn’t have much, if any.
I had overlooked her inexperience, simply because having her there had given me a chance to focus on work again, but it seemed Kaylee demanded more of her, because she soon started to turn it around.
I had enjoyed watching her grow with my daughter. Even as an inexperienced nanny just learning how to take care of an infant, she’d been a better mother than Marie had been.
I owed Hollie so much, but I wasn’t sure how to repay her. I’d taken care of the rent on her apartment for her and paid for everything while she was at the house, of course, but while I sat in the tub and let my tired muscles soak, I realized there was still more to do.
I needed to do something special for her. She was much more valuable to me than being recognized as yet another employee of Mr. Jude Black.
By the time she came to get me for dinner, I had figured it out. I climbed out of the tub, toweled off and got dressed before heading downstairs to join her at the table.
I started while my cook served us the filet mignon and vegetables he’d prepared, a special meal indeed.
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” I told her as we started to dig into our plates.
“Okay. What about?”
“About your living situation. I’ve been paying the rent on that apartment for you, but have you even been there since you started working for me? I mean, did you ever go by and pick up your clothes, or did you buy them all while you were here?” We were both working on our vegetables, saving the meat until after our conversation, apparently.
“I bought them all while I was here. Hell, I amassed a whole new wardrobe. Thank you.” She laughed as she thanked me for forking over the money for her clothes.
“You’re welcome. But here’s what I was thinking. How would you feel about going with a moving crew and a few of my guys to collect your things and bring them here?”
She stopped short, her mouth open in anticipation of the steak she held on the tip of her fork. She slowly put the fork down, closed her mouth, and tilted her head slightly, looking at me like she couldn’t believe what I was saying.
“To be clear, I’m asking you to move in permanently and to finally bring all of your things with you, yes,” I clarified.
“Is that what you want? I sort of assumed I would be out of here once Kaylee reached a certain age.”
“Even if that were the case, which I don’t think it has to be, it would still be silly for you to keep a separate apartment when there is plenty of room here for you.” I held up my hands to demonstrate the expanse of my home.
“I guess I never really thought about it,” she said. “But yeah… and what does, ‘that doesn’t have to be the case’ mean?” She narrowed her eyes and regarded me with suspicion.
“I mean I don’t think you need to worry about leaving once Kaylee reaches a certain age or something. I think you and I make a great team, and it will be good for her to have you around as much as possible.”
I still found it hard, for some reason, to admit that we were more than boss and employee. For crying out loud, we’d been more than that for quite some time, yet I couldn’t say it. I couldn’t come right out and tell her how I felt.
I didn’t want her to leave. I wanted her to stay with us for me as well as for my daughter. She was good for both of us. I only hoped she’d be able to pick up on what I was not actually saying to her. I didn’t want to have to spell it out.
“Yeah, I can see that. I think that’ll work.” She nodded, breaking her silence, and then she took a bite of her steak. I watched the satisfaction wash over her face as she chewed on the delicious meat.
I took a bite of my own, and found it to be succulent, tender, and so juicy. The fact that we were both sitting there enjoying it was intoxicating.
I couldn’t have planned a better dinner myself in order to celebrate putting my psycho ex-fiancé behind bars. It was like celebrating our own freedom in a way, to be a couple and to move on without the threat of her return.
“Is it good?” I asked her.
“Mhm.” She nodded, pressing her lips together as she savored the meal.
We finished eating mostly in silence, just enjoying the dinner. I liked watching her eat and drink the wine my cook had poured for us.
It was as close to a date as we had come, and I had been thinking we needed to change that, but how did I tell my nanny I needed her to find a babysitter?
As we cleaned our plates and sat back, letting my staff clear the table, I decided it was time to say something about it.
I was dropping so many hints, it was pathetic. At some point, she had to realize I was trying to tell her I wanted her to be more than another employee. I wanted her to be my partner in raising Kaylee and keeping a home.
“What would you say to us getting a babysitter in the next week or two so we can go out and actually celebrate?�
�
“Wait, what? You’re dropping a lot on me tonight, Jude. Are you okay?”
She couldn’t fight the smile that spread across her face. Her cheeks started to redden as she blushed. She grabbed her wine and took a sip of it, nervously fidgeting with the glass when she set it back down.
“I’m fine. I merely want to thank you for everything you’ve done, and I’m not sure how to do it other than trying to ease some of your burden with the apartment. I think you should have all of your things here with you. And, of course, I want to take you out. Don’t get me wrong, my guy can cook like nobody’s business, but there’s only so much atmosphere I can achieve here at the house.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes. That’s all you ever have to say, Hollie.”
I watched as she took another sip of her wine. It was starting to sink in that I was asking for more than a date, and more than moving her things to my house. I could see it in her eyes— she was starting to realize that I meant I wanted her to be with me.
“And what happens if I say yes?” She looked me in the eye.
“If you say yes, you and I will be together. We’ll be more than we are now. You’ll be my partner, not only my nanny and the woman who shares my bed every night.”
“So, like your girlfriend or something? Because I don’t see a ring.” She smirked, and her eyes sparkled.
“You can say that.”
“Then, yes, even though I’m totally impressed by your noncommittal answer there. Still, yes.” She held her glass up to mine, and we clinked them together.
I would have liked to have looked at that moment as the start of something new and exciting, but we were merely admitting to what was already going on.
The most that was happening was that she had agreed to take the next step with me and start actually dating while moving in with me permanently.
We were finally doing what we should have done from the beginning, it seemed.
7 - Hollie
“Happy birthday to you!”
As we finished singing the song to Kaylee, she clapped and laughed over her little birthday cake, which was really more of a large cupcake than an actual birthday cake.
