Vivi cocked her head. “You’re infatuated with your sister’s teacher?”
“I am not,” he responded, caught off guard. “I took her out. Once.”
“Actually twice,” Lila supplied, “if you count the way he swept her off her feet at the parent-teacher conference—”
Vivi was aghast and mouthed, At a parent-teacher conference?
“—and took her who knows where afterward. She was extra nice to me for an entire week.” The child leaned closer to Vivi with a knowing sigh. “My brother’s a real Romeo, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise. But who knew he was so great that he could get my grade average up from an A to an A+? As far as I’m concerned, he can date all my teachers.” She hmmed. “Though I haven’t had much luck getting him to ask out my PE teacher.”
Max glowered. Nicki snickered.
“What’s wrong with her?” Vivi asked.
“She’s a he,” Nicki supplied.
“One of those big burly jock guys that have gone to fat, but hey,” Lila added, “I could use all the help I can get in gym. I mean really, when am I ever going to use chin-ups and rope climbing in the real world?”
“I think it’s about maintaining your health,” Vivi offered.
Nicki sneered. “This from a woman who probably thinks push-ups apply only to bras—”
“Stop,” Max warned.
“Oh, great.” Nicki rolled her eyes. “Trying to show off in front of the new nanny.”
“I’ve had enough.” His blue eyes blazed with anger. “I’m tired of your mouth, young lady. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”
An intense fury came over Nicki. The teen threw down her napkin and nearly knocked the chair over when she leaped up.
“I’ve had enough too. I hate this house. I hate you pretending to care,” she accused Max. “And most of all I hate her,” she spat, pointing at Vivi. “I’m fourteen years old, old enough to take care of myself. I don’t need a nanny, especially some spoiled Barbie doll.”
Then Nicki ran out of the room.
“I take it our catching-up dinner is done,” Lila lamented. After a second, she got up from the table. “Thanks for trying, Max.” She leaned close to Vivi and said, “I like you even if you are spoiled.”
Vivi didn’t know what to say as Lila disappeared. Vivi’s family wasn’t known for any kind of displays of emotion, good or bad. Part of her was embarrassed. But another part, one she hardly recognized, realized that Nicki was hurting, which made her lash out.
Max sat very still, and Vivi wondered about this family. Reaching over, she patted his hand. “Hey, you’ve got to start somewhere. I think it’s great that you tried.”
With barely held control, Max shot her a scowl, then he stood. Seconds later, he pushed out through the swinging kitchen door, leaving Vivi alone with the sudden feeling that these people might actually need her, whether they realized it or not.
Doubt tried to surface. She had spent a lifetime trying to fix things and help people, even though she had never been able to fix her own family.
Exhibit one: Her parents’ divorce.
Exhibit two: Her mother preferring to plan the now nonexistent wedding from India.
Exhibit three: Vivi didn’t have a clue where her father was or why he had taken her money.
Was she crazy to think she could be any more useful to Max and his sisters? Or, by being an outsider looking in, without a vested interest, could she help this man understand things he was too close to see?
Her chin rose. Maybe, maybe not. But she was there, in the house, and she had to at least try.
She was dreaming again. Of penthouses and rolling plastic cups, of a shimmering touch that sent a jolt through her body.
And peppermint.
Vivi wrinkled her nose, rolled over, and tried to burrow deeper into the mattress. But the smell of candy wouldn’t go away, and slowly she woke. With a yawn and a stretch, she opened her eyes. And gasped.
“Lila?” she yelped.
The girl sat in a chair beside the bed, her chin in her palm, her elbow on her knee, staring at her.
“You must have been having some dream,” the eleven-year-old announced.
Red seared Vivi’s checks at the memory of just the kind of dream she was having. Max. Touching her. Making her body tingle in front of a giant window, the city spilling out below. “I wasn’t dreaming,” she lied. “Is something wrong?”
“Nope. Not a thing.”
“Then why are you here?” She glanced at the clock. It was only seven in the morning.
“Seemed like a good idea to make sure you didn’t oversleep. It’s your first full day and all, so you probably don’t realize that we have to leave for school in thirty minutes. It takes ten minutes to get there if we hit all the lights right, but nearly sixteen if we don’t. Not to mention I figured it might take you a little while to get all those party clothes on.”
“Thank you,” Vivi said with a big fake smile.
But the girl didn’t budge, and Vivi realized she wasn’t going to, just in case anyone was tempted to drift back to sleep.
“All right, all right.” Vivi pushed up from the mattress. “There. I’m up. Now let me get ready.” She glanced at Lila. “And don’t you think you should too? Bathe, dress, brush teeth, and whatnot?”
Lila laughed out loud. “Whatnot. That’s a great word.” She leaped off the chair. “I’ve been making a list of excellent words and interesting facts.”
“Great. Glad I could help.”
“Did you know that it is virtually impossible to brush your teeth without your thumb?”
Vivi pulled on her wrap. “What?”
“Wow! What is that?”
Straightening in surprise, Vivi surveyed her attire. “This? It’s a robe.”
“Robes are made of terry cloth and make a person look like a frump.”
“Is that one of your new words?”
Lila giggled. “No, but I’ve been adding stuff about thumbs. Did you know that the thumb is one of the things that makes us superior to other species?”
“Can’t say that I did.” Vivi headed for the bathroom.
Lila followed. “Most people assume it’s just the brain.”
“Where did you learn all this?”
“In science. It’s in our book.” Lila eyed her. “You have heard of books, haven’t you?”
“What do I look like?”
“I don’t think I should answer that.”
“Good idea. Now, really, go get ready for school.”
“I am ready.”
Vivi raised a brow.
“No offense,” the girl stated, “but I’m not sure that someone who wears feathers and high heeled slippers really gets what works in junior high. But,” Lila continued, “while you might be clueless about my clothes, I was hoping you actually knew something about breakfast.”
“Breakfast?”
“As in making it. It’s number two on the list.”
“What list?”
Lila extended two pieces of paper. “I found these on the hall table.”
Vivi took the sheets, studied the bold strokes scrawled across the creamy vellum, and knew immediately it was from Max.
“It’s a time schedule and a list of dos and don’ts,” Lila explained. “Personally, I think the no-junk-food rule is overly optimistic. I mean, no junk food in a day and age when they serve it in the cafeteria at school?” Lila leaned close. “I think Max hasn’t stepped into the new millennium yet.”
Vivi glanced down at what was indeed a detailed timetable of what to do when and a list of everything they had gone over yesterday. Clearly the man was leaving nothing to chance.
“Speaking of your brother, where is he?”
“Gone. To work. When he’s in town, he usually leaves around six. And I doubt that after last night’s disaster, he’ll be hanging around for another catch-up dinner anytime soon.”
Vivi reached out and touched the girl’s hand.
Lila stared at their overlapping fingers.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out so well last night.”
Lila stared a second longer. “Thanks,” she said awkwardly. She started to go, then hesitated. “I’ll fix cereal this morning while you get dressed. But tomorrow you might want to get up earlier. Once we finish, Nicki and I’ll meet you at the car so we don’t risk being late.”
Indeed, Nicki and Lila were sitting in Vivi’s convertible, top up, windows down, when she came out. Without a word, she got in, then headed down the hill. Quiet reigned for the first few minutes until they pulled onto Thunderbird Drive.
Vivi broke the silence. “We have a big day after school.”
“Shopping,” Lila acknowledged. “I had a memo from Max this morning.”
“A memo?”
“He’s busy,” Lila explained.
“Yeah,” Nicki added. “Busy sleeping with anything in a skirt.”
A sizzle of something shot through her. Jealousy? Absolutely not. A hot flash? A fever? Surely she was getting sick, because she did not, in any way, care whom Max did or did not sleep with.
“Whatever the reason,” she responded crisply, “that isn’t my business. Shopping, however, is. I’ll pick you up after school, then we’ll go someplace special. Perhaps Bon Vivant.”
“Yeah, right,” Nicki said.
“We’re kids,” Lila offered with an apologetic shrug. “Not flashy rich women from across the border or old ladies trying to look like rhinestoned fluff dolls.”
Vivi blinked. She loved Bon Vivant.
Vivi was thankful when they made it to the junior high school, where Lila piled out. “Pick me up right here at three-thirty,” the child said. “Please don’t be late.”
A flash of panic darkened the girl’s eyes, but then she smiled and slipped into the crush of students making their way through the blue metal doors.
“What was that about?” Vivi asked.
Another scoff. “She doesn’t want you to be late.”
“Of course,” she said past gritted teeth. “Why didn’t I get that?”
Next Vivi hurried to Coronado High. The car had barely stopped in front of the high school when Nicki opened the door.
“I’ll pick you up here after I get Lila.”
“Don’t bother.”
Swiveling in her seat to stare at the girl, Vivi asked, “What do you mean?”
“I’ll take the bus.”
“The bus?” Where was her list?
Nicki gave her a sarcastic, openmouthed gape. “As in public transportation,” she said, dragging out the words.
“But we’re going shopping.”
“With you? I don’t think so.”
“Listen, Nicki, I’m sorry that you don’t like . . . this situation.”
Nicki snorted.
Vivi persevered, her voice taking on a determined edge. “But your brother said I was supposed to take you shopping, so I am taking you shopping whether you like it or not. Be here after school.”
“Or what?”
Good question.
“Just be here, Nicki.”
Vivi drove away nearly shaking, and praying that the teen would be there when she returned so she didn’t have to figure out what the or else would have to be.
But she refused to let Nicki get to her. She had other things to worry about just then. Namely, a list a mile long of all she had to do before she picked up the girls after school.
Chapter Nine
Daytime Schedule
6:30: Wake girls.
Vivi wrinkled her nose. So Lila had woken her. Tomorrow she’d set the alarm.
7:00: Breakfast.
Okay, maybe an hour earlier.
7:30: Take girls to school. Nicki—Coronado. Lila— Morehead.
Done! Vivi smiled in triumph.
8:00–3:00: Straighten house—cleaning lady comes once a week.
She could do that.
Laundry. Clothes in chute.
Sorting and soap? Well, fine.
Plan menus.
She could plan with the best of them.
Grocery shop at Pricemart. Charge to my account.
Not a problem. Whether it was food, clothes, or stiletto heels, she loved any kind of shopping.
Cleaners. Find bag in front closet.
Easy.
3:30: Pick up girls.
Already planned.
The list went on regarding afternoon extracurricular activities, dinner, homework, then bed. Nine for Lila. Ten for Nicki.
All, in her opinion, very doable.
Vivi didn’t waste any time and got started, walking around the house with her cup of coffee, determining what needed to be straightened. The den had a few cushions out of order. A newspaper left out. The television still on. In quick order, her charm bracelet dangling, she took care of it all.
Den. Check.
The girls’ rooms were exact opposites of each other. One was neat, the other a disaster. It was Lila’s room that looked as if a cyclone had hit it, with clothes and books everywhere, while Nicki had a place for everything.
Once she had Lila’s things straightened, she went across the house to Max’s room. Massive bed, those hunter prints. All very masculine, with a military precision, so like the man, controlled and contained, not even a pillow out of place.
She almost looked in his closet and the drawers in his bureau, just to see. She could imagine the suits, shirts, and pants lined up like soldiers, the socks and underclothes in perfect stacks. But she decided against it on the outside chance she’d get caught.
Next on the list, laundry. Heading to a utility area just off the kitchen, she found a washer, dryer, every soap known to man, but no dirty clothes—until she pulled open a small, elevated closet and out came a pile of blue jeans and underwear.
“Ah,” she mused to herself, “the chute.”
After that, Vivi got the laundry started, sipped her café latte, and began working on a grocery list.
Lost to the task, she couldn’t have been more surprised when she glanced up at the clock and saw how much time had passed. She still had a zillion things to do. If she didn’t hurry, she’d be late picking up the girls. This was no way to enter the hallowed halls of sainted nannydom.
Grabbing up her keys, then wasting another five minutes searching for the cleaner’s bag, she dashed out the door and wheeled over to Tailor and Martinizing, before she careened up and down the aisles at Pricemart like a contestant in an Everything You Can Grab in Twenty Minutes melee, throwing things into the basket with record speed.
She hurried to the cash register, cringing when she couldn’t bring herself to cut off an elderly man so she could go first. She waited impatiently in line. Finally it was her turn.
“Cash or credit?”
“It’s a charge to Maxwell Landry’s account.”
That got the checker’s attention. The thin, curly-haired twenty-something looked Vivi up and down.
“You’re the new nanny?” she asked, one overplucked eyebrow raised above too-blue shadow.
“Yes,” Vivi said tightly.
“What’s your name?”
“Does it matter?”
“If you want to charge this stuff on Mr. Landry’s account, it does. I have to make sure you’re authorized.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh,” the woman sneered, much like Nicki.
“Vivi Stansfield.”
The woman’s eyes went wide. “As in the Vivi Stansfield?”
Was it possible to say no and get away with it? “None other than.”
The woman whistled, then pressed one long fake nail on the inhouse phone. “Harvey, we got Mr. Landry’s new nanny here.” Pause. “Vivi Stansfield.” Pause. Smile. A sly glance, then, “Yeah, that’s the one. Standing right here.”
Vivi would have melted into the floor if she could have, but she stood her ground, pulling her shoulders back. In all her twenty-six years she had never fallen apart—with the one exception of hu
rtling herself into Max’s arms. That had been a moment of weakness. No question. She hardly understood it, especially when she had never fallen apart before. Not when her parents fought. Not when her parents divorced. Not when her mother decided she didn’t want to be a mother any longer.
Vivi certainly wasn’t going to fall apart now when some snide checkout girl at Pricemart was getting a laugh out of her being a nanny.
The woman hung up. “You’re approved. Mr. Landry called you in this morning.”
Managing a tight smile, Vivi waited while the groceries were rung, bagged, then pushed out to her car by a bag boy. She thanked him when he finished, drove back to Max’s hacienda, then shuddered twice at the mess that still sprawled out over the kitchen. When Lila had said cereal, Vivi hadn’t realized she meant Cream of Wheat cooked on the stovetop.
Vivi counted the minutes until she had to leave, kicked off her mules, put the groceries away, then started to clean.
She shoveled toast and thick globs of now very cold cereal into the disposal. After she nicked the first fingernail, she gave up trying to be careful, then started to scrub the pan. When she finished and the kitchen gleamed in the streaming sunlight, for half a second she stood back and felt a moment of strange pride, until she remembered the wash.
With a gasp, she dashed to the laundry room, crammed clothes into the dryer, shoved another load in the washer, then found the clock: 3:25.
“Oh no!”
She didn’t even glance in the mirror as she flew back out the front door, leaped into her car, then streaked back down Thunderbird. Traffic on Mesa was heavy, slowing her down. Wheeling onto school property, she drove like a fish swimming upstream through the kids flooding out in a wave. She finally pulled up to the curb, fifteen minutes late, and Lila all but dove into the car. But before Vivi could utter a word, Lila said, “We better hurry and get Nicki.”
Indeed, by the time they made it to the high school, Nicki stood there like a knot of fury. Slamming into the car, the girl folded her arms over her chest.
By then Lila had relaxed, and only seemed relieved that Vivi had arrived and all had turned out well.
The Wedding Diaries Page 8
