Page 13 of The Nanny Next Door

“Did you have a good day?” I asked him, guiding Olivia forward to approach her father with me. She and I stood together, a united front of joy and friendliness that hoped to melt his cold heart. It hurt my heart to see how shy she acted around her own father—after only knowing me for a day, she was clinging to my legs instead of running into his arms.

Mr. Kramer blinked at me. I noticed his gaze didn’t linger on Olivia long, though he couldn’t resist the urge to look at her a little. Maybe she was a painful reminder of the wife he’d lost. I couldn’t imagine the heartache of that. Still, he seemed to consider my question with seriousness. “Yes, my day was… productive.” A pause, and then he caught onto his next line. “Did the two of you have a good day?”

“I think so,” I answered. “Tell him what we did today, Olivia. Don’t be shy.”

"We caught the Milk Monster," she said quietly.

“It’s true. Olivia was so brave.”

Without missing a beat, her father said, “I wasn’t aware there were any monsters in the house.”

“Nothing too scary,” I reassured him with a smile. I could have sworn an almost-grin was twitching at the corners of his mouth, too, so I encouraged him further. “Though I’m sure if you made sure to assert yourself as the man of the house, you’d scare away any of the ones who might still be hiding. Right, Olivia?”

“Right,” she said. “’Cause Daddy’s so tall.”

Miles did surprise himself with a smile at this, but it was short lived. Just as he was on the brink of sharing a moment of connection with his little girl, he seemed to remember himself, sliding back into his detached persona with practiced ease. Still, the glimpse of that smile, his perfect teeth and the way it softened his face, took my breath away for a second. Miles Kramer, meanwhile, looked like he was eager to escape without seeming too rude. I was still a little dazed by the quick changes in him when he said, “Well, I’m glad to see you two are getting along well. If you’ll excuse me, I have some work to do in my office. Make sure Olivia is in bed at a reasonable hour.”

“Of course.”

He nodded briskly and started to walk out of the kitchen, leaving us to our own devices again. However, before he’d even made his way completely out of sight, he stopped and looked back at me, remembering something. “I almost forgot. Did Mrs. Nguyen show you your room?”

I wrinkled my brow. “My… room?”

“Yes, Lila. Your accommodations. Mrs. Nguyen was a live-in nanny, and you’re welcome to stay as well. If you’d like to, that is.”

Whoa. I hadn’t known that was part of the bargain, though it made sense, since this was the arrangement a lot of rich New Yorkers made with their nannies. Housing came at such a premium in the city, and anyone who could afford to outsource childcare like that was bound to have extra room. Somehow, though, that part of our deal hadn’t been explicitly stated before now. I already had a place to live, and two roommates I adored, and I could more than afford to cover my portion of our exorbitant rent now that I was employed by two non-stingy billionaires.

“Oh,” I let out by accident. Very articulate, Lila. “Um, that’s really generous. Thank you. I, uh, might need some time to figure out my arrangements on that front. But it might be good to stay a couple of nights a week, at least.”

He nodded at this, his icy eyes seeming to blaze with some emotion I couldn’t place as he held on to my gaze for dear life. The tension broke only when he turned on his heel and left at last.

There was another layer of complication in this whole gig, now, and though I really did appreciate the generosity Miles Kramer exhibited by inviting me into his home, the thought of figuring all of this out myself was overwhelming. I wasn’t sure I could be in the same room as him for any longer than the brief exchanges we’d had so far, much less practically live in the same house as him. He was too mysterious, his closed-off personality antithetical to mine—and if I were honest, he was too gorgeous, too. I didn’t know how to handle the sensations that came over my body when he looked at me.

Besides all of that messiness, I still had another boss to worry about, another young child to meet. I was looking forward to meeting baby Jamie, but the idea of all of this back-and-forth traveling between the two homes in two different boroughs, figuring out the logistics I’d never quite considered of having two nannying gigs at once… it was enough to make a girl too exhausted to stand up. All I could do was try my best.

That, and I could hope beyond hope that Miles, Felipe, and Aaron could use their unlimited financial resources and fancy business brains to invent some way for me to exist in two places at once. I wouldn’t put it past them.

8

LILA

The first thing I heard when I walked through the doors of Aaron Pierce’s multimillion-dollar penthouse on my first day was his cold, booming voice telling me, “You’re late.”

He wasn’t completely wrong. It was about ten minutes after the time we’d agreed upon—a fact of which I’d been painfully aware the whole time I was on the train, biting my nails down to the quick and willing everything to move faster. Being late stressed me out more than I could say, and being late to my first day at a new job was enough to send me into a mini panic spiral. But something about Aaron Pierce’s harsh tone stopped my inner worries. It was like some magic override button. His tone was meaner than it needed to be, and that made me a little indignant, instantly on guard as if this was the first sign of another Mr. Mayhew situation. Even if he did look like a hot James Bond type, standing in the entryway of his luxurious penthouse in a dark red suit and black shirt. Again, it was hard to contain the physical reaction my body wanted to have in his presence. I reminded myself internally that I was here for work and that he’d just been kind of mean to me.

“I apologize,” I answered him in a clipped tone that gave him no pause. If he could tell I was offended at his brusqueness, he didn’t let on, or he didn’t care. “I was with Mr. Kramer and Olivia this morning for a little while, and I took the subway here. I guess I’m not used to how long the ride is from their place to yours yet. But I’ll know better for next time.”

“No, no, there’s no need,” he decided, waving one of those large, veiny hands. I wanted to panic for a second, worried that maybe this one indiscretion was enough for a man like Aaron Pierce to fire me, but his brain was apparently more solution-oriented than that. “I’ll just have a car pick you up from now on. It’s no trouble.”

This pronouncement was abrupt and simple, like giving out this kind of expensive service to near-strangers was nothing to him. I guessed that was kind of true, considering how wealthy he was. It was hard to get used to associating with all of these billionaires. But something about this decision, his lack of concern for my own preferences, rubbed me the wrong way, too—even if some primal part of me deep down was turned on by his ability to take charge.

“That’s very nice of you, but I actually like taking the subway,” I told him. Aaron raised a dark eyebrow.

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” I said, suddenly self-conscious. How could his dark eyes just stare into my soul like that? “I mean, I didn’t grow up with that kind of luxury, and it’s a good opportunity to feel like I’m part of the city, you know? I don’t need some fancy car service. And if I take little Jamie out to the park, or a museum, or the toy store, I think it’d be better for his development to experience the subway, too.”

He nodded slowly, considering that. I made an effort not to look away from his stern gaze, even as it seemed to burn holes into me. A gentle half-smile played at the edge of his mouth after a long moment, and I wanted to know what he was thinking, but I knew I couldn’t ask. He likely wouldn’t answer even if I did.

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