Page 33 of One Night With The Nanny

“Oh,” Max said as he lowered onto the sofa. She sat with him and allowed Max to take her hands in his. “I’m very sorry. I wasn’t hiding anything particularly scandalous, or even all that interesting. I simply kept it to myself because… I didn’t know my parents. They were extremely private, even with me, and it would have been highly irregular for them to share details about their personal lives. And I didn’t want to compete with Ella,” he joked.

Mia laughed sarcastically. “You couldn’t top Ella if you tried.”

“I’m sorry for that as well,” he said, but her hands flailed as she shushed.

“Don’t. I’m so tired of hearing you apologize for her when she has never felt a moment of shame. I don’t know why it took you so long, but at least you have good taste and know better than to date a gold digger or someone half your age. Like Ella 2.0. Now, that would have been embarrassing,” she said with a shudder.

Max’s face pinched as he shook his head. “I’m attracted to men,” he said and winced at her. “I wouldn’t even know how to talk to a man who wasn’t at least thirty,” he admitted, making her laugh. “About Reid…” He wrinkled his nose at her, hoping she’d appreciate more self-deprecation. “I think he accepted my last invitation as a favor to Agnes. I don’t think there’s much of a chance he’ll say yes to a real date.”

Mia smiled, her eyes glowing with mischief. “I’ll handle that part, just invite him to dinner here again on Wednesday.”

“I’m not even sure if I can promise he’d agree to that,” Max speculated, but she snorted.

“He will if I invite him. He’ll come if he thinks I need someone to talk to.”

“Do you?” Max asked with a cautious lift of his brow. “I think he was hoping he could fix us.”

She laughed softly and nodded. “I got that impression as well and I think we can use that to our advantage,” she whispered.

Reid had encouraged Max to be as transparent with Mia as possible so she wouldn’t feel misled and to foster more trust between them. He said that she was old enough to understand and that Max would only push her away if she thought he was being deceitful or playing games. But Max simply felt better having everything out in the open and being able to talk freely with Mia.

“I don’t know why I waited so long to ask you for dating advice,” he said with a playful wink, making her laugh again.

“You should have! We were afraid there were, like, creepy private island stories out there about you,” she said with another shudder.

“No. Absolutely not,” Max said with a completely clear conscience. “I’m afraid that aside from Ella, my personal life has been rather…uneventful and boring,” he attempted. He wasn’t going to explain to his seventeen-year-old daughter that, while he occasionally hired sex workers and enjoyed rough, kinky sex, his tastes still leaned toward the more typical and would be considered rather vanilla. And most definitely consensual.

“Let’s see what we can do about that,” Mia declared, smiling as she patted his chest. “I’ll invite Reid to dinner again so he can use his ‘I’m not an actual therapist’ mind tricks on us and I’ll get him to say yes to a real date with you,” she said and Max leaned back, gasping dramatically at her.

“Look at you, turning the tables and beating Reid at his own game.” It was Max’s game as well, but he was happy to switch sides if it meant that Mia was calling the shots and she was happy with him. And there was a chance her scheme might work and Max could win the man of his dreams and get his girls back. “What did you have in mind?”

12

Wednesday, 6:58 p.m. …

Reid had no idea how his plan had gone so terribly awry and he wasn’t pleased with Agnes or Max as he contemplated the von Hessen townhouse.

He thought he was in the clear and that Max had finally gotten over his infatuation until a text arrived from Mia on Tuesday afternoon at 1:32 p.m..

He sent Max an email, warning that he would not be fooled.

Reid had reaffirmed his position and was slightly optimistic that Max would take the warning seriously. His optimism had been dashed when he received Max’s reply half an hour later.

“That snake!” Reid had declared, feeling like he had been double-crossed and bamboozled. “They teamed up against me? And using my own tricks—hoisting me with my own petard—with dinner and ‘talking’ to Mia… Devious!”

He was absurdly proud of Max, though, for seizing an opportunity to gain Mia’s trust and bond with her. Not that Reid was going to admit that to either of them, because encouraging that kind of treachery was asking for future trouble. But Reid was proud and he wasn’t going to go back on his word to Mia.

That’s why he was standing in front of the von Hessen townhouse and panicking. He was already in too deep and losing control of the situation. Reid didn’t want to be proud of Max and Mia’s hopes were high.

What were the odds that Max and Mia wouldn’t melt Reid’s heart? Or that Reid wasn’t going to want to ride that man’s face for being adorably smitten every time Mia smiled at him? Reid knew he was walking into a trap and that he’d probably have to chew his leg off if he wanted to make it out alive.

“Here we go,” he said, checking his watch.

Reid crossed the street and strode into the porte cochere and a doorman pressed the doorbell at exactly 7:00 p.m..

The door opened and Max stole Reid’s breath, he looked so handsome and happy. “My dearest Mr. Marshall,” he said with a playful wink and bowed. “Please come in.”

“Stop it,” Reid whispered as he stepped inside and turned to take off his coat.

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