Page 7 of The Nanny Next Door

Damn it, that was true. A flash of an image in my mind, Olivia’s crestfallen face when I disappointed her yet again, had me deciding quickly.

“Fine,” I said bluntly. “I’ll meet her. No guarantees.”

“There never are in life, are there? It’s going to work out. In fact, I have a feeling it’ll be wonderful. Just you wait,” Felipe said, ending our phone call on a much more hopeful note than my logical brain could comprehend.

I wasn’t one for emotions, even simple hope, but this had better work out if Felipe knew what was good for him.

5

LILA

Nerves had me shaking in my discount heels as I approached the fancy café where I’d be meeting with Felipe. It felt less like I was going to my first ever “business lunch” and more like I was walking into a trap. And honestly, I could have been doing exactly that. What kind of idiot accepted vague job offers from random, albeit stunningly handsome, men on the sidewalk? What if, despite the beautiful kindness I’d seen in his strikingly green eyes, Felipe was really just another creep like Mr. Mayhew?

No way, my little fluttery heart told me. He was kind, and chivalrous, and dashing. He was just… lovely.

It was an inadequate word for it, really, even if it was true. Dazzling may have been closer to the full truth. Maybe I’d have to whip out a thesaurus to find the perfect, Felipe-worthy word when I inevitably journaled all about him. I could already imagine the flourishes I could give to my tale of our city street meet-cute and the little romance it set off in my head.

I smoothed my business-like skirt—a bargain-bin pencil skirt that looked appropriately professional despite its secret elastic waistband, thank God—and swallowed hard around my scratchy throat. My mouth was bone dry from the worry of it all. For a second I almost panicked, fearing that there would be no normal, non-sparkling water at the high-end place I’d never have entered without Felipe’s invitation. What if my voice cracked from my parchedness and I embarrassed myself? But as I walked through the sleek glass doors of the swanky eatery, I realized I was being ridiculous. Sure, that was partly because I immediately saw one of the poised, white-shirt servers glide past me while carrying a pristine glass pitcher of the non-bubbly stuff, but I’d take the win regardless.

When I mentioned to the pretty hostess that I was meeting someone, craning my neck around to look for the fairy tale prince I’d met on the street, she immediately understood. “Ah, you’re the guest of Mr. Rojas. Right this way, Miss.”

Mr. Rojas. Why did that title make my insides feel warm and gooey all of a sudden? I followed the hostess on a winding path through the bright, swanky interior of the café. She brought me to a white-clothed table where Felipe sat, dressed in a well-tailored gray suit that was meant to be casual with its lack of a tie. It still made him look like a movie star, but I was pretty sure anything would. I smiled, raising a hand to greet him, and he smiled back with the perfect white teeth he’d used to charm me before.

As I got closer to the table, though, I noticed that Felipe wasn’t alone. Another man sat beside him, staring at me with an expectant gaze.

Where were all of these hot men coming from all of a sudden? Twenty-two years of hardly even a crush, and now I’d met two model-handsome men in the span of a week. Felipe’s companion was absolutely gorgeous, though in a completely different way from the olive-skinned, dancer-like Felipe. This man was tall and slender enough that I could sense his towering height even while he was seated, and his sharp features and too-blue irises made him almost too intimidating to look in the eye. The coolly detached expression on his face didn’t help, either. I did get a sense that I’d seen him before, though—his neatly-styled dark blonde hair and sharp cheekbones reminded me of something, and it was honestly scary how even that sense of familiarity didn’t make it easier to see and be seen by him. My skin prickled with uncomfortable warmth for more than one reason as Felipe stood to greet me with a luminous smile.

“Ah, Lila,” he almost sighed as he pulled me in for a quick, friendly hug. It was still plenty professional, at least on his end, but my heart fluttered erratically in my chest regardless. His body was warm and firm against mine, and his arms held on with a genuine tightness that made it less fake than some cursory hug of politeness. I could have stayed there forever if the circumstances would allow it. “Lovely to see you again. I hope you don’t mind that I invited my friend and colleague, Miles Kramer, to lunch with us. He’s the one who needs your nannying services, you see.”

“Oh,” I let out as I approached my seat. Felipe pulled the chair out for me like a true gentleman, and it was hard not to swoon as I sat down, his sleek suited form hovering behind me. I cleared my throat. “Um, yes. That’s perfectly fine. Nice to meet you, Mr. Kramer,” I tacked on for the blue-eyed man.

“Miles,” he corrected. “Likewise.” He said the last word in a tone that said it was very much not nice to meet me, but at least we were on a first-name basis.

A pretty waitress approached our table within the next few minutes. She was taller and much thinner than me, with the kind of willowy build I’d once envied, though she looked to be within a few years of my age. Her elven face glowed with youth and likely some expensive makeup products my roommate Christine would lust after at Sephora. When she spoke, she looked directly at Felipe, then Miles, ignoring me completely.

“Mr. Rojas, Mr. Kramer. What can I get you two this afternoon?” Her voice was a seductive purr, and I looked down at the table to fidget with the neatly-rolled silverware in front of me.

“Ah, I believe it’s the custom to allow the ladies to order first.” Felipe smoothly pivoted it back to me. When I glanced up to meet his eyes, he was smiling at me with encouragement that made me want to giggle for some reason. “Order whatever you like, Lila. My treat.”

I wasn’t sure whether I imagined the sour expression that seemed to settle over the server’s face or not. Most likely, I was just feeling a little out of place in such conventionally beautiful company. After a lot of years of struggling with how society treated me and other people with my body type, I’d learned to love my curves—cellulite and back rolls and all. Still, I couldn’t help but feel a little self-conscious sitting with these attractive men. Some long-buried part of my brain, full of insecurities I’d mostly learned to discard, wondered what this pretty young woman thought I was doing with a couple of guys who would look much more logical paired with someone like her.

No time for this now, Lila, I told myself. You’re basically at a job interview. Be confident—or at least fake it better than this.

That meant, at the very least, giving the waitstaff my order before her shift ended. I squirmed in my seat and attempted to read the menu that I’d been ignoring until this moment. Even though I knew Felipe was rich—his suits alone would have told me that even if my roommates and I hadn’t Googled him last night and learned about his massive net worth—it felt wrong to go for something terribly expensive when he was paying. My working-class, Midwestern parents had raised me better than that. Besides, Felipe had already been kinder to me than made sense after the clumsiness of our first meeting.

“I’ll have the chicken Caesar salad,” I said when my eyes finally remembered how to read—no prices listed on the menu, of course, but a simple salad couldn’t be terribly pricey, could it? “And just water is fine.”

“Sparkling or non?” The elven waitress asked, and I wanted to laugh, likely out of nerves as much as real humor.

“Uh, regular, please.” As far as I was concerned, sparkling water was just watered-down dish soap. Yuck.

“I’ll have the same,” Mr. Kramer—Miles—told our server without looking at her. He didn’t even acknowledge her as he handed over his menu for her to take. In fact, his eyes, ice cold but stunning in a majestic glacier kind of way, hadn’t left my face since I’d arrived.

Relatedly, my cheeks hadn’t stopped burning the whole time, either. Even the slightly heavier makeup than I was used to that Christine had helped me apply likely couldn’t hide the blazing red underneath. Already, this lunch felt endless. There had better be a good nannying job at the end of it.

Felipe, Miles, and I attempted to make casual small talk about the weather for a little while, the two men clearly stalling for a reason I didn’t understand until they both looked over my shoulder at the same time. I heard footsteps approaching, and my stomach sank. I’d sort of been looking forward to this lunch-interview when I thought it would be just me and Prince Charming Felipe, and now there was yet another lunchmate?

“Pardon my tardiness, gentlemen,” a smooth, deep voice broke through the quiet. It was like warm caramel and silk, and hearing it from behind me sent a shiver through me. “I had a meeting run a little long, which is typical. Who’s this?”

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