Page 24 of The Au Pair Affair

“Started that way, but she’s moving in tonight.”

“No shit?”

Burgess confirmed with a monosyllable, still in shock that it was happening after the rocky start they’d had.

“Chloe says she’s a jaw-dropper, B. You interested in this girl as more than a nanny?”

“I’m not answering that.”

“Why not?”

Burgess gave him an exasperated look. “Are we really going to stand here and talk about girls like a couple of rookies?”

“As long as we don’t use the phrase ‘smash that,’ we get to live.”

“Still no.”

“I’ll get it out of you eventually.”

Burgess stomped to the driver’s side of his SUV and hauled open the door. “You won’t.”

A grin spread across Sig’s mouth. “Do I spy a twinkle in your eye, Cap?”

He snatched his shades off the dashboard where he’d left them, put them on, and slammed the door on Sig’s knowing face—just in time for the side door of the locker room to fly open, two rookies in towels bursting onto the pavement in nothing but bare feet and towels.

“Dude, give them back,” Mailer shouted, jabbing a finger at Sig, who dove into his ancient truck at the speed of light, laughing as he went. And two very mature grown-up men drove out of the parking lot blaring their horns and waving Orgasm Donor sweatshirts out their windows. In other words, just a typical day of hockey practice.

“Late to my first day of class,” Tallulah muttered, while hustling down the empty hallway. “Awesome.”

She rounded the corner into the lab, giving a tight smile when every pair of bored, jaded grad student eyes landed on her. There was one seat left open beside a guy about her age that she recognized from orientation. Glasses. Commiserating smile. Slouched and grouched, like any self-respecting career student.

Thankfully, the seat was also in the back and she slid into it without the professor commenting, quietly taking a notebook and pen out of her backpack while waving at some of the other friendly faces she’d met a couple days prior.

That morning, she’d been forced to drop her belongings off at Burgess’s apartment, because check-out time at her hotel had been 11:00. She wasn’t about to rack up charges for another day, even if the detour had ultimately made her late. While at the penthouse she now called home, they’d compared Tallulah’s schedule and Lissa’s, finding there was blessed little conflict. The custody agreement Burgess had with his wife was pretty amicable and straightforward. Lissa spent the weekdays at his place, weekends with Mom and the fiancé, allowing for adjustments due to special occasions, vacations, or illness.

For instance, today was Friday, but Lissa’s mother had a late business meeting, so she’d pick up Lissa in the morning, instead of tonight. Burgess had explained they didn’t want Lissa to feel like a business arrangement, and Tallulah couldn’t agree more. They were doing it right.

What is his ex like?Tallulah wondered, fully ignoring the professor as he flipped through the syllabus, reading it word for word. More interestingly, what had Burgess and his ex been like together? Really, it was none of her businessat all. And she totally hadn’t GoogledBurgess Abraham Wifeon the bus ride to campus. A few pictures had come up of them at the ESPY Awards ahandful of years ago, Burgess rocking a tux, his ex-wife looking happy enough to be there.

Not a lot of chemistry. At least in the pictures. There, she said it.

Was that a salty thing to acknowledge?

No! It was just an impartial observation.

Which had perked her up more than her triple-shot latte.

Ughhh.

“As you’ll read on page three of the syllabus, there will be three individual assignments during the semester and one project where you’ll be working in pairs. I expect equal effort, people.” He stopped and made eye contact with all of them, letting the directive sink in.

“He knows we’re not in our first year of undergrad, right?” mumbled her table partner.

“Seriously.”

“To make things easy,” continued the professor, “your assigned partner is whoever you’re sharing a table with today. No doubt you’ll need to meet outside of class at least once to complete the assignment, so it behooves you to spend some time getting acquainted.”

Tallulah kept her breathing steady, even sending her seat partner a quiet nod, but on the inside, her thoughts were tripping over each other. They’d have to meet outside of class. She’d have to meet with a stranger.

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