Page 19 of The Perfect Mistake

“I know you’ve had a ton of nannies, too. Four, just in the last year, right?” I say. Katja had filled me in. She’s worked as their housekeeper for years. One of the few people Willa likes, it seems. “It must be annoying to have new people come and go all the time.”

Willa doesn’t say anything, but she’s looking at me.

“We can get acquainted with one another slowly. I won’t push,” I say. “And if you ever want to learn some ballet, you just let me know. I think it could be fun. I’ll go chat with Sam now about his homework assignment and let you work on yours.”

She watches me walk out of the room. I release the breath I’ve been holding as soon as I’m out in the hallway. My younger siblings had been very different from Willa, but I remember how important it was to talk to them as if they were adults.

After all, I’d come into her life. She already knows all the routines and requirements. The last thing we need is me trying to assert some kind of dominance here.

Maybe that’s what the other nannies had done.

Sam and I talk for a bit before I notice the stack of games in the corner. It takes a little coaxing, but when he realizes I genuinely want to play, he grabs his favorite board game.

“Should we ask Willa to join us?”

Sam looks down at the box for a long moment. “Okay,” he says and runs out of his room to where Willa is. We find her done with her homework, lying on the couch, coloring in a book.

“Play with us,” Sam says and throws himself down on the thick carpet. “Come on.”

I sit cross-legged down beside him and remove the box’s lid. “You guys are going to win. I have no idea how to play this game.”

That doesn’t convince Willa. Sam and I play two straight rounds, and he giggles every time I pretend to place a tile in the wrong spot. Thank God for Sam. He seems to wake up every day and choose happiness.

Willa pretends not to watch us.

That’s how Alec finds us. He comes home earlier than expected, walking into the apartment. “Hey guys,” he says. He pauses by the kitchen table, looking at Willa’s homework. There’s an air of distraction around him.

Willa sits up on the couch to watch him.

I raise my voice. “We’re playing a board game. Want to join us?”

Alec looks over, eyebrows raised. I’m sure he’ll say no. But then he looks at Sam focusing on the game board so hard that a furrow has appeared between the light brows.

“Sure,” he says. “Give me a minute.”

It takes Willa fifteen seconds to abandon her careless attitude and sit down across from Sam and me. “You’re doing that wrong,” she tells me, but barely finishes the sentence before she looks over her shoulder at where her dad is shrugging out of his suit jacket.

I shift to the side to make room for Alec. He folds his long legs and sits down with a faint groan. It’s a deep sound, slightly husky. His shoulder brushes mine. “So, who’s winning?”

“I am!” Sam exclaims.

“I’m definitely not,” I say and finger my little labyrinth pieces. “No beginner’s luck here.”

Alec’s voice lowers. “Nicely played,” he murmurs.

I smile in his direction. Yeah, so maybe I’m not playing at the top of my game.

He grabs his pieces with a practiced ease that suggests he’s played this before. “I need to talk to you after dinner. About next week’s schedule. I have to travel for a few days.”

“Yeah, of course,” I say. I meet his hazel gaze for a few seconds too long. “Come knock on my door?”

“I will,” he says.

“Come on! It’s your turn, Dad!” Sam complains.

Alec smiles. “All right, let me see…”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Alec’s smile before. It’s a small, curved thing, but it warms the stern features of his face. The smile looks unused. Something he rarely brings out of storage.

---