Page 12 of Head Over Heels

I reverse down the stairs and Liv follows me into the living room. We sit down with our iPads, but neither of us turns them on again right away. I don’t know what’s in her head, but I’m thinking. Not about Thea any more. About how when I woke up to find myself alone in the living room and realized Liv was upstairs with Katie, I totally trusted that she would do right by my girl.

Since Katie came to live here, Liv’s been amazing with her. Like the way she was earlier, chatting with her aboutFrozen,bringing her spaghetti. And at dinner, when Katie had that meltdown over her spaghetti not being cut the way Thea did it, Liv justfixed it.No muss, no fuss.

“You’re really good with her.”

She shrugs.

“No, you are. She loves you.”

Suddenly I realize I’m being a big, huge dope. The answer to my problems is right in front of my nose.

“Is there any chance—any chance at all—I could talk you into filling in till I find another nanny?” As I’m saying it, I realize it’s a good idea for a lot more reasons than solving my child-care issues. “You’d have a place to stay that wasn’t Eve’s couch. I’d have a built-in babysitter till I can find another nanny. I’d pay you, so you’d have more money to start your new life in Denver.”

I’m half expecting her to come back at me with all the reasons it wouldn’t work—all the reasons she and I would kill each other living under one roof—but she looks thoughtful.

“I could use the money.” She brushes her fingers idly over the dark surface of her iPad. “And it would be great not to have to sleep on Eve’s couch.”

I’m elated. I’ve been wondering since I walked my mother-in-law out to her car earlier how the hell I was going to get through the next few days or maybe even weeks until I could find a replacement, because like I told Jack, it’s not easy hiring a nanny. Liv’s staying here would be the perfect solution.

“We’d need some ground rules,” Liv muses. She gives me a stern look. “No housework, no laundry, no cooking unless I decide I feel like it.”

“Okay,” I say.

She narrows her eyes at me.

Okay, shoot me, I’m only human. Celiahadbeen doing my laundry, and it would have been nice if Liv kept doing it, but I’m not an idiot, either. I can do my own laundry, and for fuck’s sake, it’s way more important to me that Katie has someone to take care of her than that my laundry gets done.

“I will do my own laundry,” I say earnestly. “And we can get takeout if you don’t want to cook. And I’ll pay you whatever the last people were paying you.”

“They had two kids. I charge less for one.”

“You’re not supposed to negotiatedown.”

“Right,” she says, laughing. “Okay. Terms accepted. Also, I get Saturday nights, Sundays, and Mondays off since the store’s closed.”

“No problem. Oh, that reminds me: my parents are going to be here Monday night—they’re stopping by on their way back from a Vancouver trip. You don’t have to be here for that. You might notwantto be here for that.”

She shrugs. “Maybe I’ll see if Eve wants to hang out or something.”

“And—oh. Shit.”

“What?”

“You said no Saturday nights, but—”

“Oh, yeah, right, you have that date Saturday night. Yeah, I’ll watch her then, no problem.”

But suddenly—and I can’t explain why this is—that feels weird. For all the times we’ve met up after dates we’ve been on with other people, it feels not-right to leave Liv here with Katie while I go out with someone. “Um, no, don’t worry about it—I’ll get someone else.”

She levels me with a distinctly Liv look, all suspicion and scorn. “Don’t get weird about it.”

When I don’t immediately respond, she shakes her head. “Chase, what kind of bullshit is this? We have never been weird about each other dating.”

“I’m not being weird,” I say. The thing is, I can’t quite figure out what my issue is. I mean, it’s not like I’d bring anyone back here with Katie sleeping in the house. But it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that I could go home with someone and not reappear in my own house until, I don’t know, four, five a.m. Walk-of-shame territory.

And what? So what? Liv’s right. What’s so different about doing that when Celia’s sleeping in the house with Katie versus when Liv is?

Nothing. Nothing at all.

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