Page 54 of Worst Nanny Ever
My heart swells and feels stretched.
Mrs. Applebaum, who was waiting behind her desk at the front of the class, heaves a heavy sigh to let me know I’m inconveniencing her. She’s a stout woman who could be sixty or six hundred. She has a rounded ageless face but iron gray hair bound into a low, tight bun and a pair of spectacles so small it’s impossible they could actually improve her eyesight. Her sweater, covered in little knit pumpkins, is the only cheerful thing about her.
I privately suspect she chose those glasses just so she could deliver that perfect withering stare. She’s doing it now, and I smile broadly at her, pretending I don’t notice.
“You might as well set them down on my desk,” she grouses. “Children. Line up if you’d like one of these don?—”
But the box is already being attacked. Two children go for the same donut at the same time, ripping it in half, and then get into an argument about it, even though there are plenty of other whole donuts.
I glance at Mrs. Applebaum, who studies me with another of her masterful withering stares.
“Thank you, Mr. Thomas. What atreat.”
“Travis,” Ollie whispers in a very audible undertone, standing behind the two kids who are each holding half of a mangled donut, glaring at each other.
When I turn to look at him, he says, “Mouse” pointedly, nodding at one of the kids, a dark-haired boy wearing a T-shirt.
As soon as the boy—presumably Mickey—hears the word “mouse,” he shrieks.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
HANNAH
To be totally straightforward, I’ve been having trouble sleeping.
I can’t stop thinking about Travis. He told me he loves drumming because he likes riding the line between control and chaos, and that basicallyishim. So super self-controlled that each weeknight has a specific dinner and his laundry is always done immediately after his bin is full. So chaotic that he can play like he did the other night, like his soul would leak out of his body if he stopped. And the way he kissed me…
I can’t stop thinking about how it felt to be his complete focus, if only for a few minutes.
Lust isn’t the problem though. Ilikehim. My whole body reacts whenever I hear him opening the door to his house, like I’m one of Pavlov’s dogs.
I positively live to tease him, but also to make him smile.
It’s disconcerting, because I’ve never felt like this before with anyone I’ve dated, and Travis is supposed to be my boss. Obviously he’s more than that, but I wouldn’t exactly call him a friend. I don’t want to fuck my friends.
Shaking off all thoughts of Travis, I headinto Tea of Fortune five minutes early to meet the one and only Eugene Peebles.
I feel like patting myself on the back for getting the jump on Eugene, especially since I’m more of an accidentally-five-minutes-late kind of woman. But when I walk in, he’s already there, sitting solemnly at the table in the back where Travis and the band sat a couple of weeks ago.
How do I know it’s him?
Every bit of him screams the name Eugene. He’s got these double-bridge glasses and a bushy but entirely unhip mustache, plus a dishwater-gray button-up shirt. Honestly, his parents knew what they were doing when they named him.
And, sure, Imighthave looked up his photo and asked a few Big Catch staffers some questions about him.
Dottie, who’s sitting at one of the tables at the front with her friends—Ann, Constance, and Sophie’s Aunt Penny—practically leaps out of her chair when she sees me. Since she’s way past retirement age, Dottie treats the café as more of a gathering place than a job and only works when she feels like it.
“I thought your Wise Women Group only met on Wednesdays and Saturdays,” I say, giving them a wave.
“Usually,” she says, “but Ann asked for an emergency session so she could show us her rash.”
“Shouldn’t she go to a doctor?”
“Oh no, I had just the salve for her. Your friend Eugene is sitting in the back already, dear, but I wanted to have a word with you. That poor man’s aura isverygray.”
“You know, I actually believe that,” I say as we meander toward his table, walking past other groups sipping tea.
Dottie places her hand on my arm, gently stopping me on the plush rug.
