Page 6 of Crossed Up

She pats my hand with a sad smile before thrusting an envelope into it, making sure I have it in my grip before she lets go. “If you need anything, you give me a call, ya hear? None of that brave face, lone wolf nonsense.”

That pulls a tiny laugh out of me as she leads me out of the shop. I notice the envelope is thicker than usual and when I check the contents, I see more than twice my normal pay lining the inside.

“Beth, wait?—”

Rather than hear me out, she shoves me out the back door, slamming it closed and flipping the lock with a finger wave and a wink before she pulls the shade down over the long window, effectively dismissing me.

Stifling a snort at the old woman’s tactics, I begin the ten-minute walk home. Beth has always tried to slip me more than I earned when she realized I wasn’t being fully honest about my life, but it’s never been this much before.

Between this, my savings, and the emergency money I brought with me from Maryland, I have maybe six months before I absolutely have to find a new job. Not to mention the fact that I won’t have health insurance now.

You wouldn’t have to work at all if you’d take the risk and access your trust fund.

But if I did that, Sebastian would have a way to find me. I know my dad was the one who pushed me to meet Bas, but I have no idea if he knew the things my ex-fiancé was doing or what kind of man he set me up with.

Colin Kingsley is many things, but observant is not one of them. My father isn’t a bad man, just absent. If it wasn’t a movie script or his latest flavor of the month, it didn’t get his attention.

I have no idea where my mom is or who she is. Unfortunately that means I was raised by a rotating gaggle of nannies, very few of which ever stuck around long enough to make me feel like I was more than just a job. It may have given me some slight abandonment issues.

Shaking off depressing childhood memories, I startle when my phone rings. My best friend’s name pops up on the screen, and I smile widely. It’s been a couple weeks since I last saw Wren, but we text constantly and talk on the phone almost as often.

I met Wren when she came into my job last year looking for a new hobby, and one of the first things she said to me was a warning that there’s constantly family and friends around her. The last year of friendship has proven that to be true, but her fiancé Rhodes is the most constant person around when we’re hanging out.

No matter how hard I try, I can’t help the envy that grows every time the three of us hang out together. As much as I don’t feel ready to date again, I can’t help wanting somebody to look at me with the depth of affection Rhodes and Wren have every time they look at each other.

“Hey! You will never believe what happened today.”

There’s tons of barking and other chaos in the background, which makes me wonder where she is. “Uh oh,” she responds as I hear a door click shut and the noise dies down. “Good news or bad?”

I groan miserably into the receiver, and she hums. “That bad, huh?”

“Beth is closing the shop,” I blurt out, cringing at my delivery. Wren has been painting there no less than once a week since that first day we met, often waiting until I clock out so we can paint together.

Her gasp is loud enough to be heard over the sound of midday traffic where I live in downtown Mount Pleasant. “Closing?” she cries. “For how long?” I start to speak, but she keeps talking, her tone growing increasingly distressed. “Oh my god, what does that mean for your job?!”

Sighing, I scrub a paint-covered hand down my face. We had a party of twenty preschool-aged kids this morning and I swear my ovaries nearly exploded at the sheer cuteness, even though every inch of visible skin looks like a haphazardly-painted easter egg.

“She doesn’t know how long she’ll be closed because she’s moving to be with her pregnant daughter, so she had to let me go.”

Wren is silent on the other end of the phone before a loud laugh belts out of her, the sound jarring enough that I nearly drop my old flip phone on the sidewalk. “Umm, babe, are you laughing at my misery?” I ask incredulously.

Her laughter dies down to quiet giggles, and she explains between gasps for air. “Sorry, I promise I’m not. But I was calling to see how you felt about taking a teaching-slash-nannying gig for the duration of baseball season.”

I gape at nothing, questions racing through my brain faster than I can form words. Wren runs public relations for the Raptors, Charleston’s major league baseball team, and her fiancé plays first base on the team. “What—I—huh?”

“One of our best friends plays on the Raptors with Rho, and he’s got this adorable almost six-year-old little boy. Well, they just lost another nanny, and Aidan is looking for a qualified nanny who can also teach his son, Crew, and travel with them. You’d essentially be doing three jobs, but I’ve seen how much he’s offering and can confirm the pay is way above market rate. The thing is, you’d need to move in to their house down the road from us.”

I can hear the smile and barely concealed excitement in my best friend’s voice even as my mind spins and everything else becomes background noise.

Living with another man barely a year after getting away from Sebastian? I'm still frequently looking over my shoulder, wondering when the police will come after me for attacking him. It's not as often as when I first moved here, thanks to my therapist, but the possibility is still always there, lingering in the back of my mind.

Clearing my throat, I take a deep breath. “I would need to meet both of them first before even considering a live-in position. How well do you know Aidan?” My voice drops to an anxious murmur.

Wren must pick up on the apprehension in my voice because she’s quick to soothe the newly exposed nerves. “Aidan Black is one of the best men I know, Ly. He’s a wonderful father and incredibly kind, honest, and respectful. I wouldn’t have suggested it if I suspected otherwise.”

Some of my worry settles with her words. I know better than anyone how good people can be at hiding their true selves, but I’ve found that kids are the best judges of character. It should be obvious when I meet them if the son holds any fear or shyness around his father.

Just as I start to agree, part of what she said earlier comes back and makes me pause. “You said he lost another nanny? What did you mean by that?”

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