Page 47 of Worst Nanny Ever
“Want me to sit with you for a minute?” I ask.
“Yeah, can you rub my back?”
My heart swells as I settle in beside him and start rubbing his little back. I start humming and then singing, and when his breathing evens out, I kiss the side of his head and leave the room.
Travis’s bedroom door is open a crack, so I stop beside it. I hear the pattering of water in his shower.
An aching awareness settles between my legs. He’s in there naked. The water is pounding down on him, his body bared to the tiles and shower stall. Will he touch himself after what we did in the music room? Is he running his hand over himself right now, thinking about me?
I stand in the doorway, well aware that I should go sit in the living room like a normal person, but not quite able to move.
Then the shower switches off, and I still don’t move. I’m waiting. For what, I don’t know…until it happens.
Travis opens the door and leaves the bathroom with a towel tied around his waist, revealing the vee of muscles leading down to an area I’ve grown very curious about.
His hair is a wet tumble, his eyes dark and determined—until they land on me.
For a long moment, we just stare at each other, and then he straightens. In a voice that’s full of authority, even though he’s wearing nothing but a towel, he says, “You can wait for me in the living room, Hannah.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Yes,sir.”
The dark look on his face says he doesn’t appreciate me flirting with him right now. Fair enough. I’m teasing myself too.
I return to the living room, which is infested with glitter. The vacuum would risk waking Ollie again, but I feel a little guilty about the joke now, so I grab the broom from the kitchen to sweep up the worst of it.
I’m about to load up a second dustpan with glitter when I hear Travis emerging from the back hall. He approaches me and gently removes the broom from my hands. I take in his damp, toweled-off hair, the fresh smell of him, and the T-shirt he has on, which matches mine.
“I was trying to help,” I say, suddenly feeling short of breath.
“Please don’t feel like you need to help with any of the housework.” He smiles at me, but his eyes are dark and unreadable.
“Something tells me you’re not saying that because you value and respect me so much as a nanny.”
“You’re pushing the glitter into the rug,” he says, “but yes, I do value and respect you. Even though I will absolutely lose it if you bring another glitter bomb into this house. Actually, I’m instituting a no-glitter-ever-for-any-reason rule.”
“That’s fair.”
He props the broom against the coffee table and gestures to the sofa. “Let’s sit for a minute.”
I sit first, and I notice he settles onto the other end of the sofa—a far cry from the other night when we were snuggled under that blanket together.
He gives me a long look and then says, “I’m sorry, Hannah. That was beyond inappropriate. I don’t know what got into me. I’d understand if you don’t want to work here anymore, but I’m begging you to stay. Ollie needs you.”
I scoff, “Iknow what got into you. It got into me too. And I don’t regret kissing you. It was good.”
“It was better than good,” he says darkly, as if he resents that truth. “But it can’t happen again. I’ve taken enough from my son.”
I’m tempted to press him on that. He hasn’t taken anything from Ollie. If anything, he hasn’t given Ollie enough of himself. So much of Travis is tucked away, hidden in a lockbox no one’s given access to, Ollie included. But I know he wouldn’t appreciate it if I told him that.
Instead, I say, “You’re right. It shouldn’t happen again. Because of Ollie, and also because you and Rob are friends. I won’t let things get weird with Sophie.”
He surprises me by smiling, although there’s a sharp edge to it. “If you can get over the fact that you both slept with that dumbass Jonah, then you could probably get over anything.”
“Does it bother you that I slept with Rob’s brother?” I ask with interest.
“I just don’t like him,” he says. “I’ve never liked him. He’s a little shithead.”
The firm set to his jaw suggests otherwise. Heisjealous, and Ilikethat he’s jealous, which isn’t usual for me. But I can tell his emotions are already like a poorly bandaged scab, so I’m not going to pick at them any more tonight.
