Page 21 of Nanny Crush
“Oh yeah? What kind of cool game?”
He gets up and pulls something off the island. He brings it over to me, and I see the reward chart.
“We get a treat at the end of the week if we are good and do what we’ve supposed to.”
“Ahhh. This explains the chores,” I say with a smile as I look up at her.
She smiles back and lets out a little giggle, but she keeps eating.
When we finish up, Xander helps Sasha load the dishwasher, and I help with cleaning up the kitchen. I sweep the floor, and Sasha thanks me. I smile and nod as I watch her moving around the kitchen with ease. When everything is done, she takes Maddy upstairs and gets her cleaned up. I sit with Xander in the living room, and we watch a cartoon and talk about things like school, Sasha, and how things are going for him.
When Sasha and Maddy come back down, Sasha motions for Xander to come upstairs and get cleaned up. She gets the bath going and comes back downstairs to sit and watch Maddy play. Sasha sits on one end of the sofa while I sit on the other. The TV is still on a cartoon, but neither of us are watching it. We’re both just watching Maddy as she plays.
“She likes to hide in there, huh?” she asks as we watch Maddy climb into her toy box.
I laugh. “Yeah, she’s a little different.”
She smiles. “She popped out of it the first day and scared the hell out of me.”
I laugh. “Don’t feel bad. She’s done it to me a time or two also.”
“So, does Xander get into a lot of trouble at school?”
I shrug. “He’s very much off and on. He’s as smart as can be when he does his work, but I think that he’s smart enough that it doesn’t take him as long to catch on as the other kids. So, while the other kids are still learning, he’s already figured out the topic and he’s bored and that’s what leads him into trouble.”
She nods. “Does the school not have advanced placement or anything? If he’s not being challenged, no wonder he’s acting up.”
“I honestly don’t know. I just take the notes, have a talk with him, and carry on.”
She presses her lips together and nods. Xander is out of the bath and he’s running back down the steps in his pajamas. He jumps onto the couch and his eyes go back to the TV.
“Hey, Xander?” Sasha says, getting his attention. “Can you tell me what twenty plus fifty is?”
He thinks it over a moment and answers, “Seventy.”
Sasha smiles. “Very good, Xander.”
He goes back to watching TV and she looks at me. “Kids in their second semester of kindergarten don’t know that. They’re still focusing on adding single digits. I think I’ll talk with his teacher and see what we can do to challenge him a little more. I bet his behavior will straighten out once we do.”
My brows pull together. “They can do that?”
She nods. “Not every kid learns at the same pace, so they have many different teaching techniques. I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”
When Sasha calls bedtime, both kids curl up beside me, and I read them a bedtime story. Sasha sits at the end of the couch, watching us and listening as I read to them. She wears a smile the entire time and it looks like pride shining in her eyes. I can’t explain the look or the feeling it gives me, but a tingle forms in my stomach and, to be honest, it frightens me. The moment the story is over, she takes the kids to get them into bed, and I go straight to my office, needing to put some distance between the two of us.
I flop down in my desk chair and let out a long breath, and I run my hand over my head. I lean my head back and close my eyes, trying to figure out how in the hell I can stop this crush I seem to have on her. Obviously, there’s no way we can ever be together. Not only is she my live-in nanny, but she’s also quite a bit younger than me. I can’t imagine what people in town would say. She must have parents somewhere – how would they feel about their daughter dating a divorced man with two kids who’s ten years her senior? The whole thing would make me laugh if it wasn’t me who’s caught up in it all. My mind knows it can’t happen, but that’s not stopping my heart and body from wanting her anyway.
She has no interest in you so there’s nothing to think about anyway, I tell myself.She’s into young guys who don’t have kids or failed marriages to their name. She likes guys who spend all their time in a gym, not behind a computer. Guys who have fast cars, not pickup trucks. There’s nothing about me that she would find appealing, so I just need to keep my head down and give up on pursuing things with her.
With that out of the way, I sit up and punch my password into my computer to get back to work. I have a long series of emails from the team to read over, and then I have to return a few calls. I haven’t gotten any more work emailed to me yet so there’s nothing to do at the moment. I feel relieved for the first time in months. My work is done for the time being. It’s no longer stacking up and begging for attention.
I shut my computer down and exit my office. The house is dark and quiet now that the kids are in bed. I figure I’ll have a drink and call it a night. I walk into the kitchen and find Sasha sitting at the table with a cup of tea. The kitchen is dark. There’s only a little light that’s filtering in from the windows.
She looks up at me and smiles. “Done with your work?”
I nod. “Yeah, I’m calling it a night.” I start for the fridge and pull out a beer.
“I was just enjoying the peace and quiet before I go to bed. I like to make sure the kids are good and asleep before going to sleep. It keeps them from waking me up.”
