Page 12 of Worst Nanny Ever
It’s the first time he’s touched me on purpose since he got here. Emotion swells in my throat. He’s looking at me like he’s actually glad I’m his father.
It’s because I was rude to someone, but at least she deserved it.
“Why does she care about your father, though?” he asks. “Hasn’t he been dead forever?”
I laugh under my breath at his typical candor.
“No, not forever. He died just before you were born, though, so I guess for you it has been forever.”
“Did he have an accident?”
“No, he was sixty when my parents got married. Older, like your d?—”
Like your dad, I almost said.
The look on his face says he knows it, and my instant regret is so thick I nearly choke on it.
That man is not Ollie’s father in any way that matters. He abandoned him without a backward glance.
“He’s not my dad,” he says, his voice hard. “And neither are you.”
He turns back toward his room, and I want so badly to stop him. To tell him that I’m trying. That I want to be his dad, but I don’t know how yet…
“Ollie,” I call, my voice full of all those things I can’t seem to say. “I’m trying,” I manage.
“I know,” he says, pausing without turning around. “Thank you for letting Hannah come tonight and for being nice to me.”
I watch him disappear into his room. The warm moment between us is already slipping away, and I’m not sure what to do about it.
Hannah arrivesin yoga pants and an oversized Asheville Tourists baseball T-shirt tied at the waist. She looks like she’s hungover from whatever alcoholic kombucha she was drinking last night. Still hot, though, because she’s a redheaded spitfire with wild green eyes and a dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose. I’ve always liked freckles—like constellations on a face—but I don’t want to likeherfreckles. Or her perfectly rounded ass, cupped by her yoga pants. Or the sassy smile on her face that seems to challenge everyone around her to war.
She looks good, but I’ve seen her out enough times to know she likes clothes and makeup. Short, bright dresses and pants that hug her every curve. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she changed into this outfit specifically to send the message that she has no desire to impress me.
This is her way of saying she’s here for Ollie, and Olliealone. It’s the complete opposite of what Rachel did, and it’s honestly a huge relief.
Unfortunately, it’s not having the intended effect. If anything, it’s making me more aware of having a sexy woman in my house, when it’s been so long since I had one in my bed.
“Hannah!” Ollie says, running up and wrapping his hands around her waist. Hugging her as if they’re long-lost pals. “Thank goodness you’re finally here.”
She laughs and hugs him before pulling back and whirling him around. “Look at you! I swear you grew half an inch since I last saw you. How’s school treating you?”
“It’s very boring,” he says. “They keep teaching us about things I already know, and the other kids don’t talk to me because Mickey told them I sleep in the sewers.”
“You didn’t tell me about that,” I say, stricken.
Ollie’s being bullied, and Mrs. Applebaum didn’t say anything? She sure as hell has been communicative about everything he’s supposedly doing wrong.
I’m having an ongoing conversation with both her and the school’s principal aboutwhat to dowith Ollie. He’s in second grade, but the work is much too easy for him, and when he gets bored, he finds “unproductive” ways to entertain himself.
“I tried,” he says hotly, his arms still wrapped around Hannah. “He’s the one who thinks the Mutant Ninja Turtles are real.”
“He probably only said that to convince your teacher he thinks it’s a compliment to say you sleep in the sewers,” Hannah says, her eyes alight with fury. “I think you should offerhimthe compliment of a nickname like Turtle Boy. Or better yet, we can get some turtle costumes from one of those Halloween stores and scare the?—”
“Hannah.”
She turns toward me, her expression a five-alarm fire. “You’re seriously telling me to let this go?”
“No.” I rub my temples, which suddenly ache. I’m tempted to ask why she cares so much, but Hannah seems to throw her entire being into any cause she decides she believes in. “I’m going to have another talk with his teacher.”
