Page 14 of The Nanny Next Door

“If you like riding in dirty tin cans underground, that’s your choice,” he mused. “But that still leaves us with the issue of your tardiness. For now, if you’re ever having trouble getting here on time and your precious train won’t cut it, you’ll call my driver to come get you. Agreed?”

“Yes, sir,” I answered and then flushed as red as one of Olivia’s radishes at the way his gaze seemed to darken, the way my body seemed to shiver in a combination of fear and anticipation. I watched Mr. Pierce swallow hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing under the clean line of his well-maintained beard. Why did that look so… delicious? Tempting and forbidden, just like Eve in the garden.

But it wasn’t time for such salacious thoughts, or to parse through what it meant that I was having those thoughts about this powerful older man when I was twenty-two and too innocent for my own good. I’d hardly ever been kissed before. No, it was time for me to meet baby Jamie, so I followed Aaron’s firm steps through the neutral-and-chrome neatness of his home, all the way to the spare bedroom that currently belonged to his nephew.

The second I laid eyes on the chubby-cheeked baby, his blonde curls not unlike my own and his cheeks perfectly dimpled, I fell in love. Little Jamie was a doll, sitting up in his playpen with those wide blue eyes, so alert and taking everything in.

“Hi there, Jamie,” I said to him in my most excited voice without veering too hard into baby talk—better for his learning to speak if I talked to him like a grown-up. I approached his playpen and grinned. “My name is Lila. You and I are gonna be such good friends, I just know it.”

He giggled as I reached into the pen to lift him into my arms, and the sweet perfection of that sound made me want to cry. I loved babies, and just holding his warm, soft little body on my hip made me long for the day when I’d get to have little ones of my own. For now, though, I was content to snuggle this little guy as much as he’d let me.

“You’re just too sweet,” I cooed as Jamie’s small hands found their way into my hair. He didn’t pull, just gently grabbed the curls and laughed when he let go, allowing them to spring back into shape. “See, you’re so happy and curious, you’ll love the subway. Just make sure you don’t pull any strangers’ hair—they won’t like it as much as I do.”

“He’d like the comfort of a car, too,” Mr. Pierce grumbled. I smiled at him, feeling empowered now that I had the little guy in my arms and his baby-novice uncle was staring at me like I was some kind of wizard.

“I appreciate it, Mr. Pierce. But I also just don’t think it’s practical. You know how traffic can be in the city, and I’m gonna be going back and forth so often.” The more I talked it out, the more an unfortunate reality settled in. “Honestly, as much as I’d love to work for you and Mr. Kramer long term, I may eventually just have to accept the fact that I can’t be a full-time nanny for both of you at once. I’ll give it a shot, but I might have to choose.”

As if he were trying to break my heart, Jamie laid his head on my chest, snuggling into me like we’d known each other forever. He popped his thumb into his mouth, the textbook perfect picture of a cute baby. I snuggled him closer.

“Maybe there’s another solution,” Mr. Pierce said determinedly. “Clearly, you’re good at this—and I’m much too busy with my work to go through trying to hire childcare again. Perhaps, if it’s okay with Kramer, you could nanny the two children together? Split your time between my home and his.”

Wow. He must have been pretty desperate to keep me, because that kind of sounded like a perfect deal. Not only would I get to keep the pay from both gigs, but I was suddenly sure that both of the kids would benefit from having a friend to play with. Sure, two kids at once was an extra level of difficulty on my workload, but I wanted a few kids of my own one day, and I’d have to learn how to juggle that twenty-four, seven. Better to get a jump on my multitasking super-mom skills now, even though I was sure all of that was years and years away.

“That actually sounds amazing, if everyone’s okay with it,” I answered him carefully, almost wondering if this was a test. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced this would be wonderful for lonely little Olivia and troubled baby Jamie to have each other. Neither of them had particularly warm and fuzzy guardians in the picture besides me. “I mean, I’m on board for this arrangement, as long as it works for Mr. Kramer.”

He seemed to see the anxiety-laced doubt in my expression because he said, “Ah. Yes, Kramer can be a hard one to crack. Maybe his business partner would be a better angle from which to approach this.”

“You mean Felipe?” I asked, hoping my voice didn’t sound as giddy as I felt. “I can reach out to him, if you’d like. Um, since you have so much on your plate, and I already have his number since he set up our lunch, and… yeah.”

Mr. Pierce’s dark eyes scrutinized me, probably ascertaining my true motives right away. I wasn’t exactly capable of subtlety when someone like Felipe was involved. His charm and warmth, his storybook handsomeness… it was hard to believe I’d ever met someone like him at all, and though I’d never been this shameless about pursuing someone before, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to speak to him again when it presented itself. Just the thought of having a reason to talk to him again made me feel like a kid on Christmas Eve.

“Very well, Ms. Dawson. I’ll leave it up to you to make the arrangements. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

With that exciting prospect still hanging in the air in front of me, he turned and left me alone to get acquainted with Jamie. I had no worries about forming a routine with the baby, despite the lack of direction from his uncle. I wasn’t even concerned with figuring out the logistics of helping both kids at once. But knowing that I had to figure out the best way to reach out to Felipe Rojas myself… yeah, that was a lot more nerve-racking.

9

LILA

After I’d safely tucked Jamie into bed for the night, making sure to pepper his little blonde head with plenty of kisses for his benefit as well as mine, it was time to head home and debrief my nosy roommates about this whole dual-nannying gig. I took some time to make sure Jamie was out like a light before I left him in his room, relishing the sight of his sweet face so peaceful in sleep. Then I grabbed the baby monitor and went down the hall to knock on Mr. Pierce’s office door.

I was almost too nervous to rap my knuckles across the smooth, black surface of his door when I was standing in front of it, though. Maybe I had a little bit of trauma left over from Reggie Mayhew’s icky dad. But Aaron Pierce had his own significant amount of intimidation factor to contend with, too. Still, I made sure to tap hard enough to make my presence known, and he responded with an immediate, slightly muffled, “Come in,” from the other side.

His office was as perfectly suave and brooding as he was. Dark walls and flooring, sleek modern furniture, pops of red in the decor to balance out the black and further highlight how delicious he looked in that burgundy suit. Well, actually, he’d shed the jacket at this point. I spotted it hanging on the back of his leather desk chair, and his thick forearms were exposed as he typed away on his sleek gunmetal-gray computer, his black shirt sleeves rolled up. He’d undone a button or two at his throat as well, and I tried not to immediately home in on the visible smattering of hair on his chest, the silver strands mixed in with near-black. A twisted part of my brain wondered if those hairs would be silky soft or coarse. An even more unhinged part of me wanted to slide my hand down his shirt and find out.

Though he’d told me to come in, Mr. Pierce took a long moment to pull his eyes away from his work and acknowledge my presence. In fact, he didn’t look at me until I strode forward and placed the baby monitor on the edge of his desk. He raised his eyebrows. “Can I help you, Miss Dawson?”

“I was just letting you know that I'm leaving for the night,” I explained. “Jaime's asleep pretty hard, but just in case he wakes up, you have the baby monitor.”

He blinked at me. "And what am I supposed to do with that?”

It was almost funny hearing such a competent man not understand something so simple. But I knew if I even tried to laugh at him, I'd be fired in an instant. So instead, I explained, "You just listen in case he wakes up and starts fussing. Like I said, he should be okay until the morning. At this age, he's probably sleeping through the night most of the time. But if he wakes up and gets cranky, he probably just needs to be held for a little while. Easy peasy."

Even through his impassive expression, I could sense his hesitation, almost panic. Maybe he had expected a live-in nanny too, and all rich guys were just awful at communicating their expectations. Or else he just hadn't considered the fact that I needed to go home and sleep at night, leaving him alone with his nephew for eight hours or so.

“We might have to come up with some sort of living situation for you here to avoid this in the future," he said in a tone that was almost breezy for him. “I don't have time to focus on… fussing.”

Oh, gosh. I wasn't looking forward to having to figure out how to reject an offer of free housing a second time, nor did I love the idea of splitting my time, even while unconscious, between the homes of two billionaires who didn't seem to like me much. Although I couldn't deny the fact that the prospect of seeing Aaron Pierce in his pajamas was alluring. Even just the sight of his forearms had me borderline foaming at the mouth, though, so I probably couldn’t handle it if he walked around shirtless in expensive boxer-briefs.

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