Page 13 of Taming the Boss

Then again, my sister-in-law, Vee, also had a sweet, crawling, into-everything baby, Harmony. Cute, overall, but Vee and my older brother, Moose, could practically start their own elementary school at this point.

Oh, the joys of babyhood in the Cove. This place was dangerous, and not because of sex trade recruiters.

Not that I had any kind of sex life to speak of. I hadn’t even kissed a guy since last winter when I’d foolishly thought myself in love with a local pizza delivery guy. Then I’d walked in on him with his hand up the shirt of one of the waitresses, and I’d lost my good feelings toward him entirely.

I let out a huge sigh. Yet another reason I figured taking care of kids was the closest I’d be getting to any of them anytime soon—my adorable relatives aside. And yes, I was just a teensy bit biased there.

Except when I had to change many diapers. Then my good feelings tended to flee.

“Are you finally done changing the cat box?” Rea demanded on the other end of the line.

Apparently, I had endless capacity for a cat’s metaphorical dirty diaper, but far less for the human variety.

I held the phone in front of me and made a face at her that she obviously could not see. “Yes, I’m done. I’m also done entertaining your trafficking ideas. I’m applying for this job and changing my life. Goodbye, naysayer.”

“Wait! Make sure you leave word with me when you go to the interview.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered just before I clicked off and flopped down on my bed.

Not ten minutes later, I was back up again and rooting through my closet. I needed interview clothes. High-class ones. Not that I’d be called in that quickly, but just in case, I wanted to be prepared.

I also had a shift at Brooks’ Greenery in less than an hour. Working at the floral shop was a low-stress, fun job for me, and Mr. Brooks was an awesome boss. I’d never heard him utter a single cross word to anyone. Well, other than to Bess Wainwright now and then, in the interest of friendly competition since she owned another floral shop in town.

And possibly in the spirit of them liking each other, which was just supposition at this point.

As much as I loved Mr. Brooks, he couldn’t pay much, so I definitely wasn’t going to get rich working there.

I needed to be proactive and try to get a position that I could grow with. I’d been taking care of neighborhood kids for almost a decade now.

While I still didn’t have copious references, I had a strong…handful.

Would that be enough? I certainly did not know.

All I knew was I wasn’t going to move out of my house and begin to find my way to a career by staying in my childhood bedroom. I was twenty-one and I’d attended two semesters at the local community college toward a Humanities degree, known as the I don’t know what I want to do with my life, so let’s try this super generic program degree.

I preferred to see it as keeping my options open.

I’d dropped out sans degree some time ago. I’d gotten loans for the courses and would probably be paying them off for the next decade at my current rate of pay. Why I’d even bothered, I still had no idea. I’d hoped general education courses would expose me to something new that would clue me into a new career. The perfect thing for me that somehow I hadn’t learned about yet.

That had not happened.

All my older brothers had set career paths since early on and none of them had ever deviated. Except for Travis, who’d gotten his high school girlfriend pregnant accidentally—very shocking turn of events in the Cove, for sure—and he’d had to abandon his big dreams.

Or so he’d believed, though then he’d ended up modeling, so that wasn’t necessarily true. His adopted career had happened on a whim when a talent scout had spotted him in Times Square while he was on vacation, and in a matter of days, he’d had a slew of contracts. It wasn’t an easy career path, but he was making it work, even as a mostly single father.

Carrington’s mom dipped in and out of her life, just not on a regular basis. Yet another child I’d spent a good amount of time with and loved dearly, but I was pretty certain Mr. Wealthy-who-was-urgently-seeking-a-nanny wouldn’t consider my brother’s recommendation a suitable one.

Just went to show nepotism wasn’t always a thing. Travis could be a hard ass with the best of them. But he was raising a kickass daughter, so I couldn’t fault his methods.

Three out of my four brothers were amazing dads. Penn didn’t have any kids yet, so the jury was still out with him. Of course, considering his dating record was all over the place, the likelihood of him settling down enough to ever start a family was slim to none. But he had an amazing career as a graphic novelist, so he had nothing to complain about.

Unlike me. No career, no boyfriend, no anything on the horizon. I was young and eager, yes, but I needed a sense of direction.

Enter serial killer with gorgeous huge lair. Creates devious advertisement to lure naive young nanny who has small town dreams of a rewarding career and someday a family. Instead meets disastrous fate. News at eleven.

Blowing out a breath, I grabbed one of my most professional skirt and top sets off a hanger. It was navy blue with a kicky hem and the top showed a modest amount of cleavage.

All in all, I would look like a sedate working woman just looking for an opportunity. Mr. Brooks had a lax dress code, but I might as well get used to dressing for success.

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