I tilted my head. “He hasn’t ever talked about his parents. So no, I doubt that. And I have no idea. I only saw him this morning… after. He seemed fine, but then he had to leave for something.”
“Something?”
“Yeah he said he had a meeting.”
Lindsey got a dark look on her face. “A ‘meeting.’”
“Why are you using air quotes like that?”
“It’s suspicious.”
“Very suspicious,” Luca agreed.
“Oh, stop it. There’s nothing strange about having a meeting.”
“All I know is I don’t like it,” Lindsey said. “That’s all I’m saying.”
I shook my head, hating how her completely unfounded paranoia was rubbing off on me, if only a little. “I’m sure he just had to meet with Damon Rose or something.”
“Mhm.”
I drained the last of my coffee and set the cup down roughly. “In fact, I think I’ll give him a call right now just to shut you up.”
Lindsey raised her hands, blinking rapidly in a show of being mock impressed.
I tapped on his name and waited.
“Nola?” Jack said through the phone.
“Hey,” I said, glaring at Lindsey. “I actually just needed to see if you’d be able to pick up Ben and Griff this afternoon. I could swing by right after and take them off your hands for a few extra hours to make up for it. If not, it’s no biggie. I completely forgot I had this appointment. Girly stuff. I can reschedule if—”
I heard a woman’s voice in the background asking him something. Jack replied, but his words were too muffled for me to make out. “Uh. Yeah, sure. That’s not a problem.”
“Okay, great.”
There was an uncomfortable silence.
I licked my lips. “Did your meeting go… okay?”
“I really need to go, Nola. I’ll see you this afternoon.”
The phone clicked and I gave a shaky smile to Lindsey, who was looking at me with a knowingly sad expression.
“Stop that,” I said. “He went to a meeting.”
“And he was acting weird, wasn’t he?”
“Probably because I interrupted his meeting and made him change his plans to cover for a bogus appointment I don’t even have. Yeah.”
Lindsey and Luca obnoxiously shook their heads. Luca did a poor job of “secretly” mouthing, another woman to Lindsey.
“I see what this is, you two. I see exactly what it is.” I was wagging my finger at them like a scolding mother.
They both showed me their palms, innocent as the day they were born. “We have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Not a clue,” echoed Luca.
“You scheming, manipulative creeps want me to be with Jack. You’re just concocting this story because you think it’ll push me to do something desperate that accelerates things.”
“She said accelerate,” Luca said. He spoke in clerical tones, as if he was a scientist studying an interesting monkey in a cage.
Lindsey looked pleased with herself. “Accelerate implies it’s already happening. So she admits something is forming between the two of them.”
I threw my hands up in frustration. “It was just a word. All I mean is you guys want me to go throw myself at him because I’m too paranoid and jealous to stand the thought of him and some other woman.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Lindsey said. “Of course you could handle Jack putting his tongue down some hot young model’s throat right now. Or setting up a romantic little dinner for two at that place you like with the cheesy bread loafs. You’re totally the type of girl who doesn’t mind sharing when she’s found a good thing.”
I could feel my nostrils flaring.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Still pissed.
I got up from the table. “I don’t have to sit here and let you two manipulate me.”
“You’re right. It would be better if you went out and did whatever it is you look so charged to do,” Lindsey said.
I pointed a finger in her face, lips pursed with annoyance. She was my best friend, and this was far from the first time she’d practically driven me into a frothing rage for what she believed to be my best interests. The part that made me the most irrationally angry was how good she was at pushing my buttons.
Because at that moment, I cared more about the possibility she’d painted. I was imagining Jack with his hand on the small of some other woman’s back. With his perfect, gorgeous penis in some pretty little thing’s face.
I may not have any idea what the future held for the two of us, but I knew he should at least have the decency not to sleep around the freaking day after he gave me the best sex of my life.
I was out the door, and I made sure not to look back when I heard the sound of Lindsey and Luca high fiving each other in victory.
27
Jack
I’d been sitting with Ally for close to two hours, as hard as that was to believe. But I wasn’t about to make a light decision on whether she was fit to be back in Ben’s life. I wanted to know she meant what she said—that this wasn’t just some ploy to trick me or push a hidden agenda.
So far, she was passing the test. She had almost exclusively been asking questions about Ben. What he liked to do, who his friends were, what he wanted to be when he grew up, how he did in school, and a hundred others. The only hint I’d seen of anything alarming was when I mentioned that he was great friends with Nola’s son. She had corrected me and asked if I meant “the nanny.” It was as if she was offended by me being on a first name basis with Nola. So I’d made sure she understood it wasn’t her place to give a shit or not and continued calling her Nola.
My phone buzzed several times in rapid succession in my pocket. After Nola’s call, I figured I should make sure there wasn’t some complication with the plans for me to pick up the kids.
“Just a second,” I said, cutting Ally off as she was explaining her stance on discipline when children misbehaved.
Her lips tightened briefly, but then she smiled and waved it off like it was no big deal.
I glanced at my phone.
Nola (2:41 p.m.): Watching you.
I looked around the cafe, halfway expecting to see her peeking out of a bush or behind the back of a nearby booth. What the hell?
Nola (2:42 p.m.): Franklin Autocollect. Where are you.
Nola (2:42 p.m.): AUTOCORRECT. I hate my phone.
“Since when do you smile so easily?” Ally asked.
“Hm?” I wiped the look off my face and then shook my head. “It’s nothing.”
Without thinking, I texted her the name of the cafe and put the phone back in my pocket. Ally started talking again before I could even wonder why Nola wanted to know.
It was about five minutes later when movement caught my attention. There was a flash of color to my left. Red color. As in, red braided hair and big blue eyes that had been looking in at me from the window.
I half turned in the chair, once again cutting Ally off mid-sentence. She pressed her manicured nails into the table hard enough I thought they might crack.
“Everything okay, Jack?”
“I just thought I saw someone I know.”
As soon as I’d turned my head, the person had disappeared. The only way that was possible with how low the windows went would’ve been if they literally dropped to the floor on their belly. In the middle of a busy street.
Sure enough, every person who walked by the spot I’d seen someone was looking curiously at the ground as they went by.
I got up from my chair and moved to the window, apologizing to the family sitting in the nearby table. When I looked down, I saw Nola’s perfect little ass in a pair of jeans. I thought it was telling that I knew it was her from the ass before I even confirmed another detail. Then again, after last night, I had a feeling I was never going to forget her ass or how good it had felt to take her from behind.
I tapped on the glass, which got her to turn her head. She’d looked
like she was about to start army crawling out into the street at any moment, traffic be damned.
She looked up at me, then waved sheepishly.
I held my palms up in a “what the hell?” kind of way.
Nola got to her feet, brushed off, and came around to the front door.
I met her there, distantly conscious of Ally’s presence looming in the corner of the restaurant, watching us like a hawk. Or maybe a vulture was more appropriate. A vulture who spent way too much time on her hair and makeup.
“Do I even want to ask?”
Nola’s cheeks were bright red, but there was some other emotion battling within her beyond just embarrassment. Her nostrils were flared, and she was breathing heavy. Was she… mad?
“I heard a woman in the background. On the phone. I know it was stupid and childish of me, but I just… had a bad feeling.”
“A bad feeling that what?” I asked.
“That you were seeing someone else.”
The silence that followed felt thick and pregnant with meaning. “As in, someone in addition to you?”
Some of the anger drained from Nola and all that was left was uncomfortable embarrassment. “Well, yeah. I don’t know how it works for fancy MLB pitchers, but I usually start to think of someone as being in a relationship with me after they put their dick in me.”
The family of four who had just walked in with their two little girls hastily clapped their hands over the girls’ ears and turned around, rushing back out onto the street.
Nola looked, then her already large eyes went even wider. She mouthed oops.
I let out a breath, trying to think of the right way to put my thoughts. “The truth is that I don’t know what we should do going forward. I don’t know what we should call this. Ben is the most important thing to me, and I’ve got to make sure nothing comes between us.”
Nola pointed to her chest. “I would never come between you and—” She cut herself off as some thought seemed to occur to her. Instead of finishing her sentence, she just lowered her eyes and nodded. “I understand. So, are you and Ally… together? Were you together last night, too?” Some of the anger was returning to her.
“No,” I said, chuckling at the absurdity of it. “No,” I repeated. “Ally said she’s ready to be in Ben’s life again. I’ve practically been interviewing her for the last two hours. I want to make sure she means it.”
Nola looked suspiciously over my shoulder. I looked back and saw Ally twinkling her fingers in our direction, but thankfully staying where she was.
“Well,” Nola said. “Is there any chance you can forget I just made an absolute idiot out of myself and crawled on the sidewalk outside?”
“I’d rather not forget that. No.”
Nola frowned, but wore the hint of a smile beneath it. “I’m just gonna… Okay. Can I just ask one thing? If Ally is back in Ben’s life, what does that mean for Griff and I? Would I still be his nanny?”
“Of course,” I said quickly. “Probably,” I added after second thought.
Nola’s expression fell, but she nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you later I guess.”
I couldn’t think of anything to say to fix what it felt like I’d just broken. All I could do was watch her go and feel like we’d taken one step forward and then two steps back.
With a sigh, I went back to the booth to finish my conversation with Ally.
28
Nola
It had been two days since I’d done the sidewalk shuffle and mortified myself in front of Jack. It had been approximately two days since I called Lindsey and reamed her out for manipulating my emotions and making me look like a psychopath.
That night, Jack and I had only shared a brief, uncomfortable few words before I headed back home after picking up Griff. The following day had been worse because he’d been out of town for a game. When he got home, Ben was already asleep, and I found myself rushing out the door with Griff asleep in my arms before he could even say a word to me.
The truth was I’d been haunted by something he said. About how he couldn’t let anything come between him and Ben.
As in, he couldn’t afford to get entangled with his nanny who might… oh, I don’t know, run off to Florida to chase her dead parent’s dreams and leave his son heartbroken in the process. And now with Ally shouldering her way back into their lives, I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to even compete.
She was actually his mom. It didn’t matter that Ben and I had slowly—very slowly—formed a kind of bond. I was just the stand-in for the woman who had been glaring at me in the cafe. So what if she came off as a little bitchy to me? I thought I knew Jack well enough to know he wouldn’t even consider letting her back in their lives if he didn’t trust her. And apparently he did, because starting next week, my nanny duties had been slashed to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday because Ally was going to have Ben until the evenings on Tuesday, Thursday, and the weekend. Jack promised he’d pay me the same, but I could feel the foundation threatening to crumble beneath me already.
I could see the writing on the bathroom stall, as Lindsey would say.
Ally would rekindle the relationship Jack and her had shared back in high school. Jack cared so much about Ben that he’d probably do anything, including getting half-heartedly into a relationship if he thought it was best for his son.
And there I’d be. The nanny he’d put his dick in that one time. The reminder that for a moment, he’d thought of himself and not put Ben first. I’d be a guilty reminder he’d be eager to push from his view as soon as he could.
The sound of a vulgar swearing-spree made me jump from my thoughts. Jack had invited me to join him, the Rose brothers, and their wives for some kind of golf driving game. It was my first time coming to this sort of place, and as someone who had absolutely zero ability in hitting golf balls, it was surprisingly fun. If I could get out of my own head, that was.
Chris Rose had just hit a ball that ricocheted off the metallic ball feeder, then the ceiling, then his skull. He was hopping around and furiously rubbing at his scalp as Belle alternated between laughing and cooing in wifely sympathy.
Spending time around Chris and Jack was teaching me that professional athletes with superhuman coordination and reflexes were still apparently clumsy goofs when they weren’t in their element. I had to admit it was humanizing to watch Jack bang his head on the same doorway he’d crashed into fifty times.
I watched Belle laugh as she hugged Chris’ broad shoulders and felt a little pang of remorse.
Maybe there was a world where I’d be that woman for Jack someday. I’d get to laugh and soothe my clumsy boyfriend. My clumsy husband. I’d joke with my friends about how I was the only thing keeping him in one piece. Maybe my belly would be swollen to ridiculous proportions with his baby inside me, too.
I shook my head quickly, trying my best to escape that line of thought. It was dangerous, crazy, actually. It also wasn’t doing me any favors given my current predicament.
I watched Jack line up to his hit shot. He was wearing a polo that looked way too good to be fair on him. My eyes were drawn to the aggressive cuts of muscles on his arms and especially his forearms. As a girl who had always had a thing for forearms, I thought you couldn’t do much better than a professional pitcher.
Jack hit a hilariously bad shot that hooked so aggressively I thought it might boomerang back to us if the nets on either side of the range weren’t in the way.
Damon was sitting on the outdoor couch a couple seats away from me beside Chelsea. All the kids were with babysitters—or in Ben’s case, with his mom.
Damon was wearing a dress shirt and tie, because the man hardly ever looked less than professional. “How is the nanny job going?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Good?”
I’d tried my best to sound like I would if nothing at all was wrong, but apparently Damon was too good at reading people for my attempt to work. I could tell from the way he was scrutinizing me that he saw straight through the
lie. I just wondered how clearly he was seeing the truth.
He returned his expression to neutral, taking a sip of his drink. “How is Jack handling things?”
“Haven’t you two talked about it?”
Damon shook his head. “Jack is tight-lipped, to say the least. It was a miracle Chris and I got him to agree to this whole nanny arrangement in the first place. I knew he’d keep me in the dark about how it was going.”
“There’s nothing to tell. I watch Ben, he pays me. End of story.”
Damon side-eyed me as he finished the last of his drink and then got up to take his shot. Ironically, Damon was by far the best golfer of the three men, even though he was the only one who wasn’t a professional athlete. Even more amusing, Belle was a better golfer than the three of them put together, even with her pregnant belly in the way.
“Sorry about him,” Chelsea said. “Damon is incredibly loyal to the people he cares about. At the expense of everything else,” she added with a little shrug. “I think right now, he sees you as the ‘everything else’ category.”
Why did it feel like everybody I’d met recently saw me as the thing they could afford to sacrifice to protect what really mattered? I smiled, though, nodding as if I wasn’t bothered. “He’s fine. Business is business. I get it.”
Jack sat down beside me. “You ladies are talking business?”
“Not really, no.”
“We’re talking about how Damon is a grouch,” Chelsea said, smirking.
“Yeah, no shit,” Jack grunted. He scooped up a nacho from the table and ate it.
Chris joined us, shimmying in a little dance to the music playing. “This place is great, isn’t it? Maybe I should buy one.”
“Why would you do that?” Damon asked.
“To make money, dumbass. Why else?”
“I’m not making you enough money as it is?”
Chris shook his head. “I swear. This guy only understands one thing. He has no idea about diversificating portfolios and shit like that.”
“Diversifying portfolios,” Damon corrected. “And considering you let me handle your financial planning, you’d better hope I do.”
My (Mostly) Temporary Nanny: A Grumpy Boss Romantic Comedy Page 10
