Page 129 of The Nanny Goal

I take a step forward, but then there’s a creak from Inessa’s room, followed by a thump.

I wait for the inevitablePapa?but it doesn’t come.

Instead, Inessa comes into the hallway and immediately turns into the bathroom door.

“Emmy,” she says happily, throwing herself around Emery’s leg.

“Morning,” Emery says softly, her voice tight with a bittersweet sadness. “Do you want to see Charlie today, hmm?”

“Yep.” Inessa moves around her, climbing up onto the closed toilet.

Emery instinctively hovers her hands behind my daughter, but lets her be fearless.

Quietly, I fade back into the shadows of my bedroom.

They aren’t going to have much more time together, and Emery has made it clear she doesn’t want to spend any time with me right now. The least I can do is give them their space.

But I want…

Fuck, I really want to keep watching them.

She’s leaving.

Yeah, she’s going.

But she’s leaving her heart here, too. I have to get out of my own way and find a way to show her that we’ll protect it. That we’ll miss her, and we’ll wait forever for her to come back.

CHAPTER42

EMERY

I’m a zombie this morning. I barely slept a wink, tossing and turning all night. It didn’t help that I could stillfeelAlexei inside me. Even this morning, I feel so changed by what we did yesterday—and the fight after—that I wonder if I will always have this cell-level awareness of what it was like to be that close to another person.

Thatperson.

My person.

My frustrating, emotional jerk of a person.

He’s not even a jerk, that’s the worst part. I know he thought we would have a couple of months together before I left, and I’ve yanked that out from under him.

But it’s not like New York is on the other side of the moon. It’s a short flight. Probably an eight-hour drive.

And on top of our crappy communication and my terrible timing, I now have the stress of my family on top of all this.

He’s thinking about my brothers finding out about us.

I’m not.

Whatever, they are idiots. If they try to pull any macho “don’t touch our little sister” bullshit, I know how to handle them.

But once they know, then my parents will know.

And the only thing worse than my parents expecting me to drop everything to celebrate my brothers’ job performances would be my mother expecting me to drop everything to become a WAG.

Even if it feels in my heart of hearts that I love Alexei as much as he loves me, that’sours. That’sprivate.

I have spent my entire adult life coming to terms with the fact that I don’t want the life my family crafted for me, and now I’m a few gossipy text messages away from that being the only life they will ever see for me.

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