Page 76 of Single Dad's Hot Nanny

He sighed. “Then what’s been up with you? We were fine until we got to Boston.”

My eyes lowered to the floor. I was reluctant to share my true feelings in fear that he’d think I was being childish. However, I had to come clean. My eyes met his, and my shoulders slumped in defeat.

“It’s just... I don’t fit in here, Michael. This world you live in—it’s not mine. I’m a nanny. I’m not like your friends or the women you’re used to being around. I don’t have a gazillion degrees or money. I don’t fityou.” That realization hit me hard when we got here.

For a moment, he just stared at me. “Mia…” His tone was disbelieving. He shook his head. “I don’t understand why you’d feel that way.”

I threw my hands up. “Come on, Michael. Isn’t that why you bought me all of this?”

His gaze followed as I swept a hand over the gorgeous soft pink creation of a dress and the insanely expensive shoes and jewelry. “You didn’t want me to embarrass you. This is how you all lookeveryday!” Seriously, the women in his circle were freaking fabulous twenty-four-seven, it seemed. “I can’t afford any of this… I’m not sophisticated and… and… I don’t have any direction in life…” The moment those last words spilled from my lips, I wanted to kick myself. I hated that I’d allowed my parents’ opinion of me to affect me like this.

Michael gawked at me, and he wasn’t really a gawker. “I brought you the dress and everything else because I wanted to do something nice for you, Mia. I…” He cleared his throat and combed his fingers through his hair.

My eyes narrowed to slits. Was that a slight hint of color I saw in his cheeks or were my eyes playing tricks on me?

“I had hoped to impress you,” he murmured. “When I invited you to come with us, you were supposed to be my date for the wedding.”

My lips parted, but I wasn’t sure how to respond, except with a lame, “Oh…”

“When you jumped to the conclusion that I wanted you to come along to babysit, I didn’t correct you. I should have.”

“Why didn’t you?”

His eyes flicked to mine. “I’ve been changing the rules too often since you and I…”

“Reunited after that one-night stand?” I finished softly.

He made a grunting sound and nodded. “I was embarrassed to be so unsure about us. Uncertainty isn’t a suit I usually wear. I’ve been doing and feeling things with you that I don’t typically experience, Mia.”

I swallowed hard. What was he saying exactly? “There’s an us?”

Those sharp green eyes seemed to pierce me all the way to my soul. “I want there to be. I’ve been thinking about something more than casual.”

My heart jumped and did a couple of pirouettes. However, I kept my cool… barely. “I would like that too, but…” My teeth sank into my lip to punish the flesh. “I still feel so out of place in your life. You’retheMichael Hayes.” That was how my brother reverently said his name all the time. “And look at your friends. They’re all successful, brilliant, and wealthy. They’re so polished, so sure of themselves. And I’m just… me.” The twenty-two-year-old whobarelystarted to get her life together just the other day. The one who was still caught up in trouble that I couldn’t even tell Michael about.

“That’s right. You’reyou.You’re the woman who steamrolled into my life and made it better. No one gets me the way you do. No other woman has ever come into my life and proved to love the most important part of me—my kid—as you have. You belong with me, Mia.”

There went my heart doing acrobatics again. It then raced with hope and excitement as he covered the distance between us. Still, I asked. “Surely you want to be with someone like Elena. She’d probably be a better fit for you.”

“So you’re telling me what I want now?”

Raw, ugly jealousy always surfaced when I thought about how good they looked together, but I wanted him to be sure he wanted to be withme. I shrugged. “You two look good on paper.”

He snagged my chin. “I don’t want to hear another word about any other woman. I know what andwhoI want.” His gaze dropped to my mouth, and I almost groaned out loud. That magnetic pull between us that neither of us seemed able to resist was on full blast.

“I want you too, Michael.”So much.“I want something more, but I still work for you.”

“Mmm-hmm.” He stared at my mouth as he lowered his head.

The sound of thatmmm-hmmsaid he wasn’t worried about it. I decided that I wouldn’t either. Finally, I was getting what I wanted, and I’d take it.

32

MICHAEL

Our lips hovered so close, the warmth of Mia’s breath teased my skin. The air between us immediately became charged with that familiar, palpable tension. My entire body hummed with the anticipation of getting closer to her. I only ever felt this phenomenon with her. I’d been trying to wrap my head around it, trying to figure out why I felt the things I did with Mia, but I stopped overthinking it and embraced it.

I slid a finger across her lush bottom lip. “Are we going to do this, Mia? Be together?”

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