Page 24 of The Perfect Mistake

Instead, I extend my hand. “Well, your trial period is officially over.”

She slides her palm against mine. It’s warm, soft next to my skin. “Thank you. And you’ll let me know if you ever need me to do anything else, right?”

“Yes,” I say. “Good night, Isabel.”

Her lips soften into a smile. “Goodnight, Alec.”

I let her hand slip from mine and walk toward my bedroom. Her trial period might be over, but I feel like mine has just begun.

Isabel

“Look,” Willa tells Katja. She holds up a piece of paper with a giant gold star on it. “I got this for my math homework.”

Katja smiles wide. “Wow, will you look at that? Aren’t you clever.”

I frown, watching the exchange. I’d asked her after school how her math homework turned out, and the only word she had for me was fine.

Earning her trust is going to take forever, I think.

Beside me, Sam makes loud whooping sounds as he zips around the living room. We’ve tied a blanket around his neck as a cape, and he’s pretending he’s one of countless superheroes whizzing past.

The days here are long, and they’re challenging in a very different way than dancing for hours on end. Back then, I would fall in bed, tired and boneless, and sleep soundly for eight or nine hours before doing it all over again. These days, I’m physically unspent but mentally drained.

I can’t remember Sebastian and Elena ever being this exhausting. But then again, when I babysat them, I was only five years older, and they were my siblings.

This is very different.

“Willa,” I say. “I have something to show you, if you’d like to see.”

She looks over at me, eyes narrowing. “What?”

“It’s a video recording of Swan Lake. The New York Ballet did a production three winters ago. Are you interested in watching?”

Her stare doesn’t waver, but there isn’t an immediate no.

“That sounds like fun,” Katja says and rests her hand on Willa’s shoulder. “How about we watch it tonight, after dinner? We can put it on the big TV.”

“Maybe,” Willa says. Her eyebrows lower. “Are you going with Dad to my aunt’s party tonight?”

She already knows that I am.

But I nod. “Yes. We’re both invited.”

Not that we’re going together. I don’t know what time he’ll get home from work today, so I already budgeted the cost of a taxi into my plans. He’d been busy the last two days, and the unexpected conversation we’d shared on the couch is… hmm. It’s nothing but a memory.

And the longest conversation we’d ever had.

Katja gives me a smile. She’s warmed up to me in the past couple of weeks, and I love her no-nonsense attitude and quirks. Apparently, she’s great at reading dreams, and several times I’ve heard the kids ask her to interpret theirs. She doesn’t strike me as very maternal—but she’s a steady, comforting presence in the apartment, and it’s clear that she cares for the kids. “Why don’t you go get ready for the party?” she tells me.

“You’re sure?”

“Yes, yes. Go.”

I don’t have more than thirty minutes to get ready before I need to leave, so I race through my preparations. My simple black dress will have to do, as well as the small gold hoops my parents got me for my twenty-fifth birthday.

I emerge from my room at the same time Alec exits out of his.

Oh. I hadn’t heard him come home. He walks down the hallway toward me, rearranging the sleeves of the tux he’s wearing. It stretches taut across his shoulders in a way that hints at tailoring, and his thick brown hair is swept back.

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