Page 126 of A Sky Full Of Stars

“And now you’re back?” he questions.

“I am. I’ve been back for about a month.”

Dylan nods as Shadow brushes herself against his leg, making me wince as I try to pull her away. “Shadow, come on. Leave him alone.” My eyes flash back to Dylan’s with a smile, and I use Shadow as my excuse to leave. “Sorry about that. We should let you go.”

“Oh no. It’s fine. No bother.” He bends down and ruffles Shadow’s fur, scratching her under the neck, winning her over in a matter of seconds. Which I should have known because she loves everyone.

“What a beautiful dog.”

“She’s Luke’s.”

“Huh. He never mentioned he had a dog.”

“He wouldn’t. You’re not one of the ladies he’s trying to pick up. Shadow’s his wing woman. He’ll head out for a walk and come back with several numbers.”

Dylan raises an eyebrow as he stands up. “And he thinks it’s the dog, not the fact that he’s a pro football player.”

“It’s Luke. I think that goes against him. Everyone knows his reputation. He wants to find women that don’t know him.”

Dylan laughs. “Yep, that makes sense. I’m actually about to meet Summer. Is it okay if I text her to meet us here? Do you have to rush off? It looks like Shadow’s ready for a run.” He points into the dog park and I internally wince. Seeing Dylan is one thing. I can separate him from the past. But only the mention of Summer has my skin tingling as an image of Thomas runs through my mind.

But how am I supposed to say no? Giving Shadow a runiswhat I’m here for. “I’ve got a few minutes.”

“Great. I’ll text her now. She’ll be excited to see you.”

“Rewind. You want me to do what?” I stare at them blankly before my gaze drops to their sleeping son in his stroller.

“We want you to be our nanny,” Summer repeats, but it doesn’t help.

I have no idea how we got to this moment. Well, I mean I knowwhy,but they never even had a conversation and yet they’re both on the same page.

“You haven’t seen me in years. We haven’t spoken. And I’ll bet my life savings”—which is actually nothing—“Luke told you I’m a pain in the ass.” He’d probably be joking, but I say it anyway because desperate times call for desperate measures. “Why would you want to hire me?”

Summer’s smile turns sympathetic. “We trust you,” she says, even though she barely knows me. “In our world, it’s hard to find good people, but you found us, and no matter what Luke says jokingly, we know you’re a good person.”

If this is because she thinks she owes me… “Aren’t there agencies?”

“There are. But we’d prefer someone we know. It’s only for the season at this stage. After that we may not need anyone.”

I blow out a breath and look to the sky like I always do when I need answers, hoping that one day they’ll be there. But today isn’t that day.

Why did I have to mention I was jobless? This is crazy.

“What if I’m bad at it?” I ask, hoping that might make them question things, but when Dylan laughs, I know it didn’t work.

“You just spent years working with kids in Indonesia. How could you possibly be bad at it?”

Ugh. I did. I walked right into this and I’m running out of excuses.

“Please?” Dylan begs, pulling me from my thoughts. There’s a waver to his tone that wasn’t there before, giving me pause.

“Dylan. God, you sound so needy,” Summer cuts in before I respond, making me laugh nervously.

“Iamneedy.”

“What he’s trying to say is that we are a little bit desperate. I’ve been offered a part-time job writing for a lifestyle magazine, and while I don’t have to take it, I’d really like to. And even though it’s currently the offseason, we’d love some lead time with the nanny before preseason starts.”

Dammit, they played the guilt card.

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