Page 14 of Falling for the Single Daddy

“Sometimes, that worries me,” I admit. “Sometimes, I wonder…” I glance over at the hammock, but Emery’s eyes are closed, and she’s breathing gently. She can’t hear us. Even so, I lower myvoice. “What if she seems fine, and then, one day, it all just comes out as one big explosion of trauma?”

“You’re giving her an amazing life,” Callie says. “She’s got a loving parent. Her interests are encouraged. You’re doing a good job, Gray.”

I smile. Her words mean a lot. “Thank you.”

“What about the other thing?” she murmurs.

“That’s none of my business,” I say. “Your childhood is of no concern to your employer.”

“But you pieced it together, I assume.” She seems almost angry. At herself, at me? I’m not even sure. At her past? Maybe that. “You knew I wasn’t talking about acamp.”

“I guessed that.”

“I was born into a cult,” she says. “It was run by controlling men who dictated what everybody did, but especially the women. We worked inside a compound. We were ‘home-schooled,’ which meant they filled our heads with crap about dedication to the supreme leader. His name is Josh Taylor, but they gave us silly things to call him. I only managed to see sense because I snuck in a cellphone and became addicted to watching videos, documentaries, and stuff from real life. It all fell apart. And when I left, I promised myself I wasn’t going to let anybody control me again.”

I want to offer her some comfort, hold her hand, but she’s looking at me as though I was part of the cult, as though I was this Josh jerkoff. Her message seems depressingly clear—I’m not going to let you control me, Gray.

“What happened with the stockbroker?” I ask.

She chews on her lip for a second. “You don’t miss anything.”

“Your previous job was for a stockbroker. He gave you a stellar reference. But earlier, it sounded like things didn’t go so well.”

“He was a creep,” she snaps. “An older man who thought he could take advantage of the young, dumb girl. A man who didn’t realize I’d made my heart hard years ago.”

My tone lowers as I lean forward. “What did he do to you?”

“Nothing… like that.” She sighs. “It was comments. It was a touch that lingered too long—making jokes to his wife about me being his girlfriend. It was always just over the line, but never so far that I felt like I could do anything. But the final straw was when he touched me,reallytouched me. I freaked. I threatened to report him. He was a coward. We made a deal—a severance package, a good reference.”

“Jesus,” I growl. “That bastard.”

She stares at me with wide eyes.

I almost tell herI’m not like him. But that would mean bringing this beneath-the-surface communication out into the open. It would mean acknowledging the time in the gym and making it real.

“I don’t know why I told you that,” she says a moment later, visibly calming herself down.

“I think you do,” I reply.

She arches her eyebrow. “Oh?”

“It’s because I’m Mr. Aldridge, and you’re my employee. It’s because you’re my nanny. Because we both have our roles.”

She flinches as if shocked I’d come so close to addressing what’s really happening here. Then she nods and folds her arms, her breasts pressing together. “Okay. I guess we understand each other, then.”

“You’re the best thing to happen to Emery in a long time,” I say. “Nothing’s going to happen to jeopardize that.”

“Guh-good,” she murmurs, stuttering, hesitating, looking at me as if she wishes she could take this all back.No takebacks. That’s what Emery said, and she’s right. Without coming out and explicitly saying it, Callie has told me to back off.

“You’re doing a good job,” I tell her. “Who knows… this position could last for a long, long time. Emery has to come first. She really likes you. You bring out the best in her.”

“You don’t have to convince me. I’ve already taken the job.”

She’s right. But it’s not her I’m trying to convince. It’s me.

Maybe you can be—That’s what Emery started to say earlier. Clearly, she was going to tell Callie that she could be her new mommy, but Callie cleverly cut her off. But seeing them together makes me feel many crazy things, too. It makes me wonder what it’d be like to find a woman—and when I think of ‘a woman,’ I’m just kidding myself—and building a family for my daughter.

A short while later, Emery hops down from the hammock, yawning and stretching her arms over her head. She skips over to us and then sits on Callie’s knee. Warmth grips me when I see them so comfortable together.

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