Page 115 of The Nanny Goal

“Do you need to make it today?”

My thumb twitches as I scroll through the email. “No. I’ve got a few days.”

“Take that time, then.”

I nod. “Yeah.”

“Do you want to talk it out?”

How do I explain that since Switzerland was a done deal, and on the other side of the playoffs, I’d pushed it out of my mind?

But now this email has thrown me for a loop.

You have a choice, Emery Granger.

I don’t want a new choice. I want the old choice that I already made. I want the strength of that conviction.

“I don’t know what the right thing to do is here.” My voice sounds raw. Ifeelraw. “I can’t go to New York. It’s too soon.”

“Why is it too soon?”

I lift my head in surprise.

Shannon is looking at me so carefully, like she’s afraid I might break.

I won’t break. I’m fine.

“Alexei needs me until the end of playoffs.”

“What do you need?”

“I—” I drag in a breath. “No, I know, but Inessa…”

The thought of abruptly disappearing from her life steals my breath.

“If I were in your shoes, what would you tell me?” Her words sound carefully chosen. “And I don’t mean the advice you’d give if you were trying to be polite or keep the peace. I mean the thing you would tell me because you really love me and want me to be happy.”

That lands harder than I expect. I swallow against a sob that wants to leak out around the lump in my throat. “Oh, Shannon. I do love you.”

“Then give me good advice. I have a plan, and conditions have changed. What would you tell someone who has a big, beautiful dream, and a heart that is trying to hold all the space for someone else’s life at the same time?”

CHAPTER37

ALEXEI

I drag myself in the front door of my house at two in the morning, really over this wholevibes-aren’t-vibingweek, and I find Emery asleep in my bed.

Everything immediately feels better.

I quickly change into a t-shirt and sweats, and climb in with her, wrapping myself around her soft little body.

As I correctly thought two weeks ago, I sleep spectacularly with her in my arms.

* * *

“Shhh, don’t wake him up.”

“I’m up,” I mumble, right before Inessa burrows herself in between me and Emery little a warm little bowling ball of joy.

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