Page 6 of Late Nights & Love Lines
It’s why The Single Dad Hotline has been so perfect for me—very rarely do people expect me to stay, and now Lottie, my friend and boss, has even made that a rule of my employment—I’m temporary. The fill-in. The substitute. The one who moves on at the end of the week.
“Lottie has a proposition for expansion that will be very beneficial for you, and my beach house will be open to you for an entire year.” Elijah trips over himself to get the words out.
Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble planning this little scheme.
My toe stops bouncing. Lottie said that she had something huge to discuss with me, but it’s his personal concessions that make the itchy sensations in my palms evaporate as quickly as they came.
“You’ll let me have access to a beachfront property for an entire year if I nanny for your partner for three weeks? That seems excessive. What’s wrong with him? Are his kids the spawn of the devil? There’s no way you’re going to all this trouble to get me to babysit for a couple of weeks.”
“It’s important.” Elijah shrugs as though it’s no big deal, but now, up close, his stress shows in the wrinkles around his squinting eyes. I’m going to freaking cave because I understandthis kind of duress. I really do get a sense of fulfillment from helping people. “Lottie said based on both of your personality tests that you’re the best fit and honestly, you’re the only one I trust.”
Damn him and his stupid trust. I may not trust others freely, but I work hard to make sure those close to me can always count on me.
“I’ll do it under one condition.”
Leo and Beck exhale a windstorm between the two of them.
“What’s that?” Elijah asks with a grin sliding back into place.
“I get the house whenever I want it this year, and you agree to host two events for The Single Dad Hotline, using your fancy-schmancy contacts at your fancy-schmancy spas for Lottie when she expands to single moms next year. The nanny program will be in full swing by then too.”
Lottie has mentioned numerous times that Elijah’s company owns the fanciest spas in the world—not that I’ve ever been—and that means the people who go to them have the kind of money that can afford Lottie’s services.
“You have me over a barrel and can ask for anything you want, but you ask for something for my sister instead? You do remember that she grew up with the same silver spoon in her mouth that I did, yes?”
“I do. But she’s the one who keeps my lights on. So do we have a deal?”
He shakes his head. “Deal. Leo, the camp owner, will fill you in and give you directions to the house. Beck and I have to get cleaned up for a meeting.”
He hugs me tightly even as I press against his chest. I have a love-hate relationship with his brotherly affection, but finally, he releases me and walks away, and I shake off the heebie-jeebies.
“The Sinclairs are great,” Leo says, walking up the steps and holding the door open for me when it’s just the two of us. “Butneither of them is cut out for the woods, so please tell me you’ve at least spent some time camping. Otherwise this nanny event is going to be a giant pain in my ass.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. Lottie is a lot of things, but outdoorsy she’s not.
“What did she do, fall into poison ivy or something when she was here last week?”
As I enter the building, I find a very large sleeping black freaking cat, and a groan escapes from deep in my chest.
Leo chuckles. “No, luckily the previous owner had the poison ivy removed last summer. But, last I heard, Lottie’s struggling with the idea of sharing a communal bathroom, and it may have impacted her arrival time. That’s Lucky,” he says, pointing to the superstition of all superstitions. “You’ll see a lot of him. He splits his time between here and the house.” He shrugs as though that’s normal.
“Good grief,” I grumble. I’ll ignore this damn menace of a cat for as long as humanly possible. “Any idea when Lottie’s planning to show up?”
He walks around the counter to a numbered pegboard display of keys. “Your guess is as good as mine, but you’ll be lucky to even get her into a cabin when she does show up, so be prepared to do the heavy lifting.”
His grin tells me he’s going to love torturing her. “My fiancée told me I can’t give her too much shit, but with Lottie, I won’t have to try very hard. She hates it here. I’m not sure why she thought this was a good place for a kickoff.”
My face scrunches up, and I close my eyes. “That was my idea.” Camp was my safe space growing up, at least until they took it away from me like everything else.
His laughter is rich and fills the room. “You and I are going to get along just fine. I haven’t known the family all that long, but I know they’ll be happy to have you. They bought the propertyon the other side of camp. You’re welcome to bring the kids here anytime.”
Leo’s fingers trace over numbers on the board, and my gaze narrows in on the little pegs as he passes them.
He wouldn’t.
“Here it is. Twenty-two Coastal Drive. The kids seem nice too. The oldest, a girl, is…struggling, I think. She didn’t talk much when she was in here earlier.”
Teenage assholery. This should be fun.
