Page 26 of The Nanny Goal

Harper joins us, holding up a keyring. “I have Mrs. Artyomov’s car keys. If Alexei can’t come back to pick Inessa up, one of us could take her home and put her to bed.”

Shannon glances at her watch. “We have some time before we need to make that decision.”

On the couch, Inessa rubs her eyes with her little fist.

Harper winces. “Think she might nap here?”

“I might need to take Charlie home for that to happen,” Becca says.

“What!?” Charlie exclaims. “I don’t wanna go home!”

“Which probably means we should have left half an hour ago,” his mother retorts. “Ten more minutes of playing, and then we’ll go find Daddy.”

Inessa watches this exchange, and when Becca saysDaddy, her lower lip just out. “Papa?”

“Your grandpa is busy right now,” Becca says.

Inessa shakes her head. “No Deda. Papa.” Her face crumples. “Papa.”

Ah. Papa is Daddy. Deda must be Grampa.

“She wants Alexei,” I say.

And then I get an idea. I pull out my phone and type his name into the search engine.

Thank God the internet is chock-a-block full of photos of Alexei Artyomov—something I never thought I’d say.

Inessa grabs my phone, her eyes wide and her voice watery. “My Papa.”

“Yep.” I show her how to scroll. “That’s your Papa.”

She jams her thumb down on a photo and giggles when it goes blurry.

That gives me an idea. “Can I see that for a second?”

She warily hands me back the phone, but crowds closer so she can see what I’m doing. I quickly save a couple of photos, promising myself that I will not keep them. This is just about entertaining a little girl who doesn’t have anything to do with the grown up, complicated feelings I have for her dad.

Then I open a photo editing app I sometimes use. I select the first download, then apply a clown filter to it.

Inessa shrieks in surprise. “Papa!”

I gesture to the different filters. “Do you want to play?”

She reaches for the phone tentatively, and when I don’t pull it away, she locks on and smashes her little thumbs down on the different filters.

When Becca finally scoops Charlie up and makes him say goodnight, Inessa barely notices that her friend is leaving.

Shannon flicks on a lamp, turns off the overhead light, and closes the conference room door. People start to filter into the outer office now that the game is over—and Hamilton won.

Harper, Kiley, and Ani slip out.

Shannon gets her laptop and sets up at the far end of the table.

I curl up on the couch, and Inessa slides right up against me. We spend the better part of an hour morphing the photos I saved, and searching for more. Sometimes it seems like she’s on the verge of tears again, but she’s pretty easily distracted.

And then her head drifts to the side, leaning heavier and heavier against my arm, until my phone falls into her lap.

Harper steps back into the room, carrying a child-sized bright pink winter coat, and I lift my finger to my lips.

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