Page 21 of Architect's Christmas Nanny

When I get back to the city,she told herself.I’ll get Fee to help me.

Fiona Baxter was her best friend, and everything Jillian wasn’t—brave, brash, and brilliantly independent. She could never understand why Jillian preferred to spend her nights off reading or watching funny movies with Josie when the clubs of the city and the dating apps awaited her.

Jillian adored her friend, but she had always thought Fee was a little on the wild side.

But maybe a little time on the wild side was exactly what she needed right now.

“What are you thinking about?” Brad asked suddenly.

“I was just thinking about Fee,” she admitted.

“Hm,” Brad said, frowning.

Brad and Fee had never gotten along. Jillian wasn’t really sure why. Though Fee had plenty of guesses.

He’s just an old stick in the mud,Fee had said once.

He’s jealous that you can go out and he can’t,she’d guessed another time.

He wants you all to himself,she said one night when they were out dancing.

That had made Jillian smile and Fee had yelled at her.

You can’t fall in love with him,she had said.He just seesyou as one more useful thing in his house. Like an oven or a refrigerator.

When Jillian had protested that it wasn’t true, Fee had laughed and made her promise not to fall in love with him.

It was probably too late by then, but Jillian had pledged to try. And now she knew for sure it was too late. But thankfully, Brad was pulling his car up in front of the elementary school, so she could focus on something else for a while.

“I’m going to get out,” he told her. “But I know it’s cold. You can stay in with the heat going.”

“No way,” she said, hopping out.

The best time to see Josie was the moment she walked out the door of the school, when she was excited to share how the day had gone, and when she still remembered details, like what she had eaten for lunch, and who she played with on the playground.

Brad smiled, but his eyes looked sad.

The bell rang before she could ask why, and the doors opened, allowing kids to flow out onto the playground like a colorful stream in their big, puffy coats with hand-knitted scarves, movie character hats, and bright smiles on their faces.

Back home, Josie was normally the first one out. But today the stream of kids was down to a trickle by the time she trudged out, eyes on the ground, feet dragging. And just like that, all of Jillian’s problems faded into the background as she wondered what it was that had made Josie so sad, and what she was going to do to fix it.

7

BRAD

Brad watched his daughter’s small, slumped form lumbering out of the school as if she were a hundred years old instead of nine, and felt his heart ache.

He was already beside himself today over Jillian. He’d spent his whole lunch with Amanda wishing he felt something for her—anything. It would have made things so much simpler if he knew it was possible to have feelings for anyone but the one person he was determined to let go.

But of course all he could think about was Jillian. At one point, he even swore he saw her in the store out of the corner of his eye, but when he looked again, it had only been Lucy Webb. And when he finally did spot Jillian in the café window just a few minutes ago, talking and smiling with his mom and her friends, he’d felt like the color had come rushing back into his world.

But she seemed so quiet and strange on the short rideover to the school. And now he didn’t have time to find out what was going on with her, because Josie was clearly out of sorts.

“Hey, Josie,” Jillian said quietly. “I’m so glad to see you.”

Josie didn’t answer. She just ran for Jillian, wrapping her arms around her nanny and seeming to melt into her.

“Come on,” Jillian said quietly. “Let’s get out of here and get a snack and you can tell your dad and me everything that happened today.”

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