Page 62 of Nanny for the Firefighter

Mia reaches up at me on cue. “Dada!”

“Hello, baby girl. Are you having fun?” I smile down at her, and she splashes in the water, getting it right in Bridget’s face.

“Splash!” She squirms a little, getting Bridget to start spinning again. “Fishy!”

“Why yes, you are a fishy! Good swimming.”

Grinning, I walk back toward the house but pause just before the door.

“Well, kiddo, do you think that we should make Bridget some dinner? She can hang out with us tonight?”

Mia is on board, squealing and clapping, and I look to Bridget with my brows raised.

“So, how ‘bout it? Would you like to stay for dinner?”

She grins softly, meeting my eyes with a quiet joy that melts me right down to my core.

“I’d love to.”

I nod. “Great. I’m going to go get out of the monkey suit. I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

The water splashes as Bridget walks with Mia toward the steps.

“Sounds good.”

When I get back downstairs, much more comfortable in an old t-shirt and jeans, Bridget is standing in the kitchen in her bathing suit, humming like she usually does.

A thin sarong is wrapped around her waist, and it’s doing nothing to hide her incredible curves.

For a moment, I’m frozen there on the threshold of the kitchen, just staring at her and listening to her sing to herself—a familiar song about wild horses.

Goddamn, she’s gorgeous.

I know Bridget is self-conscious, and I have to imagine that it has something to do with Jai. The idea that he made her feel shitty makes my blood boil, and I fondly imagine the look on his dumb face right before punching him.

Because I don’t care what anyone says, Bridget is beautiful. She’s smooth and sensual, and that hourglass body creates a silhouette of full hips and tantalizing breasts that make it very difficult to focus right now.

Bridget isn’t a stick, and I wouldn’t want her to be. The fact that Jai went and made her feel like a whale just because she’s shaped like a normal human is infuriating.

And I aim to show her just how desirable she is.

Just maybe not right this second, considering we’re supposed to be cooking for Mia.

“All right,” I get moving, walking up to Bridget as she stands at the counter, “what do we have?”

Bridget looks up at me with a smile, and I grin back, listening to Mia screaming happily in the living room with Tru on.

“Well, I actually picked up some groceries earlier, so if you’d like we can make marinated chicken and veggies?”

With a nod, I lean just a hair closer to her, nearly touching my nose to hers.

“Sounds great. You start whipping up the marinade, and I’ll get chopping.”

Before long, we’ve created a delicious dinner, and Mia is all about the broccoli and carrots. Her favorite part of any meal.

“I can’t believe she likes broccoli so much,” Bridget says. “You lucked out.”

I laugh, mussing up Mia’s curls as I smile down at her. “Oh, I know. But she’s also a huge fan of C-A-N-D-Y.”

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