Page 42 of Curvy Nanny for the Grumpy Single Dad

And that was the sad story of my life.

Growing up, my parents were always too focused on my sister’s pageant career, and I told myself at the time that the love that was left for me was enough. Same thing with boyfriends, the little time they could give me was enough, their mild affection wasn’t love, but it was enough.

I’ve had enough with enough!

But tonight, grocery store salad was all I had, and it just had to be enough.

Chapter 26

Dante

“I’ll be back on Monday Lena, I promise.” Lucy crouched down in front of my daughter with a sad smile on her face and she held her pinky up. “See? I promise.”

Lena sighed heavily and flung herself at Lucy, wrapping her little arms right around her, she squeezed tight. “Promise?”

Lucy smiled and nodded as she hugged Lena tightly. “Yeah, I promise. I’ll see you on Monday, and I have a surprise for you. Have a good weekend.” Lucy stood and picked up her overnight bag with one hand and ruffled Lena’s hair with the other. She pulled open the door and walked through it without a glance back at me.

I couldn’t deny how much that stung even if I deserved it. “All right Lena, come on.”

“I wanna go with Lucy, Daddy.”

“I know sweetheart, but Lucy can’t work every day of the week, can she?”

“No.” She shook her head and sniffled. “That’s not fair.”

“Exactly.” I scooped her up in my arms with a smile. “But like she said, she’ll be back on Monday. For the next few days, it’s just me and you kiddo.”

Lena grinned and nodded. “What are we gonna do Daddy?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? I’d relied so heavily—okay, too heavily—on Lucy to plan outings and events over the past few weeks that I didn’t even know where to begin. “We’ll find something, I just know it. How about we go out for dinner tonight, just you and me?”

Lena bounced excitedly and pushed out of my arms before she raced up the stairs to pick out something to wear. I couldn’t help but smile at her excitement. At least my little girl still wanted to spend time with me.

I went in search of Dotty to let her know she could knock off early and found her in the laundry room. “Hey Dotty, I’m taking Lena out to eat, so you don’t have to worry about dinner.”

She shrugged but didn’t turn to look at me. “I’ll just pop it in the fridge and you can have it tomorrow. Or not.”

I frowned at her surly tone. “Have I done something to offend you?”

Dotty shoved the last of the towels into the washing machine and glared up at me. “Offended? No. I’m disappointed in the way you spoke to Lucy. She’s a nice girl with a good heart, and you,” she pointed at me angrily. “You and your angry words broke her spirit. The girl hasn’t had a proper dinner all week because she refuses to leave her room.”

“That’s not my fault,” I insisted even though we both knew it was.

“Sure,” Dotty groaned as she yanked sheets from the dryer. “Must be someone else who impugned her character in front of Lena as well as a virtual stranger.” Dotty glared at me, her anger palpable and her tone accusatory.

The woman who’d been so reliable, my trusted employee for so many years, was now furious with me. “Dotty, I’ll fix it. I promise.”

“If you can,” she grumbled and pushed passed me with the laundry basket in her hands. “If not, just know that I won’t be doing double duty as babysitter and housekeeper.” With those words, she was gone and I was left staring after her, shocked and slightly amused despite the situation I now found myself in. A situation of my own making.

Everyone, it seemed, was on Lucy’s side, which only made me feel worse, like an even bigger fucking jerk because there had been witnesses. Alex and Dotty had witnessed my bad behavior, which meant that I couldn’t forget it if I wanted to. All that was left was to apologize. To make it right.

I made my way upstairs to change into something appropriate for the somewhat fancy dinner Lena was expecting and prepared myself for a weekend of daddy-daughter time.

By the time Saturday rolled around I wanted to call Lucy and ask if she was really planning to come back, but that would be inappropriate. Right? But I needed to know that I could count on her to keep her word. I had important deals in the works that required me to be at the office, present and not distracted by thoughts of the nanny.

Instead of calling her, I sucked it up and finished the weekend doing full-time parenting duty. Lena and I spent an incredible weekend together, and I only thought about Lucy every thirty or forty seconds or so.

It was a good weekend, but I was off my game and Lena could sense that something was wrong even if she never asked about it. She was quiet and obedient all weekend, which only made me feel like a terrible father on top of an asshole.

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