Page 24 of Sweet Thing

“Not at all! I’ve done a lot of growing up this last year.” I exchanged a quick glance with Rosie, who gave me a smile of support. She was the only person who knew about the assault in Greece, and while I was sharing light-hearted crushes with Summer, I wouldn’t be talking about that.

“So he overheard you saying something nice about him.” Summer waved it off. “No big deal!”

“Exactly. It was just a crazy lapse in judgment, but no harm, no foul.” Rosie was being remarkably quiet about it all, so I gave her a chance to weigh in. “Right?”

“Sure. You know your limits.”

“What does that mean?”

“If you’re going to take this nanny job, you have to understand the boundaries.”

I bristled. “Who said anything about taking this nanny job? I specifically said I wouldnotbe taking it.”

“Yeah, but that was before you helped him with his equipment.”

“Hilarious.”

Rosie grinned. “His baby equipment.”

I shivered, not unpleasantly. “I’m not taking that job.”

“You heard Summer. How likely is it he’ll have a nanny by—” Rosie checked an imaginary time piece on her wrist. “Tomorrow? And when that doesn’t happen, who’ll be on the hook to watch this baby?”

My heart sank as the obvious conclusion dawned on me. “My mom.”

“Your mom. The same mom who just got through raising a toddler and already has her hands full now that said toddler is in the fearsome fours.”

“That’s not a thing,” I interjected. “It’s terrible twos. And Tilly’s in preschool.”

“My point still stands. Your parents are the nearest Lars has to family in this town. Your dad’s practically his best friend and your mom is always cooking him meals. Aurora even named a martini after him.”

“She did?”

“Yeah, Hatch said. Scandi Noir, she called it. Finlandia vodka with grapefruit.”

“Oh, that sounds awesome,” Summer cut in.

“Doesn’t it?” Rosie went on. “So in the absence of an actual nanny, your mom will take it upon herself to look after the kid and it’ll be weeks before official childcare comes through. And she has her job, right? Your brother was saying she just contracted a new project.”

My mom ran an information consultancy firm where she helped companies manage and leverage their knowledge assets. It was deep, in the weeds work. One of the reasons why I’d stayed home to look after Tilly was so she could continue to run her business without interruption.

As well as being remarkably well-informed, Rosie was right. Elle Kershaw was a freakin’ saint and who else would volunteer to help? Sure, there were other hockey WAGs, but which of them would jump in at the deep end like my mom had done already?

It didn’t mean that I should be volunteering my services, though. “He’ll find someone.”

Rosie nodded wisely. “Sure, he will.”

ChapterSix

Lars

A wailthat could wake the dead—or at the very least Dex O’Malley, my Rebels teammate who could sleep through anything—sent shockwaves throughout the house.

So much for a good-natured baby.

The moment Adeline left the house, it was as if Mabel knew that she was on her own. That the one person now responsible for her welfare was the definition of disaster. Over three hours since our trusty threesome became a desolate twosome, and Mabel’s lungs would not let up.

The only time she was quiet was with a bottle in her mouth, but I couldn’t feed her twenty-four seven, could I? (That would be a negative. And yes, I checked online.) Now I was learning from the World’s Teacher, aka YouTube. One woman with Mary Poppins vibes, including the accent, seemed to know what she was talking about, so I bookmarked her channel and played a couple of relevant videos. I’d burped the baby—shirt ruined—and now I was holding her to my shoulder and pacing around the house because apparently movement was supposed to calm her.

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