Page 1 of Nanny for the SEALs

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Katie

Don’t do this, Katie!

I read the text my BFF, Dawn, had sent me three hours ago. She told me not to follow my boyfriend Ben, but I had to find out for myself. I was working two jobs to pay the rent and everything else in L.A. since we moved here three years ago. I’d left my family and friends to live in this city, and I was exhausted. Ben told me he’d had an acting offer, and I left Ohio and every dream I ever had to be with him.

You support my dream, and then when I hit it big, I’ll support yours.

That was the deal we made when we left home. Now I knew he was cheating on me. I felt it in my bones and I smelled it on the perfume on his clothes. He had auditions all the time and we argued. I mean, we used to argue before, but not like now. Now it was different, everything was different, and I didn’t mind working so much because I had a dream—we had a dream—but I was tired.

Tired of being taken for a fool.

It was a Saturday night. What agency would call someone to go for an audition at eleven p.m. on a Saturday night?

None.

I had exactly six hours and counting until my morning shift started at the diner, and instead of catching up on some well-deserved rest, I was following Ben.

I pulled up my beat-up SUV, which was clearly on its last legs. It’d nearly died on the way here, and Ben had accused me of being too sentimental and promised to replace it with a new one once he hit it big.

I coughed as I thought about all the lies he’d told me. I hadn’t eaten in the last two days—well, not exactly starving since I’d had a couple of candy bars, but I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a meal.

I turned off the engine, put my overgrown dark bangs behind my ears, and took a deep breath. It was then that I walked closer to the building Ben had stopped at, and realized it was a strip club.

What the hell was he doing here?

Curiosity got the better of me as I crossed the road and hovered at the side of the curb. Ben high-fived the bouncer as if they were old friends. He looked hot in his dark shirt and matching pants. The same ones I bought for him when I could have done with clothes myself, but he needed to look decent for auditions—that was what he told me. But instead, he wore his decent clothes to a strip club.

A blonde girl with a clipboard came out, hovering along the streets and complaining to the bouncer. I drew closer to hear what was being said.

“She’s late. So damn late. The guys are going to kill me!” she screamed. Like everyone in L.A., she was blonde, beautiful, tall, had long legs, and a gold-sequined hotpants just to emphasize her long legs.

The tall bouncer said, “Well, they shouldn’t have brought their kids to work.”

“I know, but it’s not their fault, and I told them I had it all under control.”

“What time should the nanny have been here… Excuse me?”

The last part of the conversation was directed at me. The streets, which were once empty, were filling, so I drew closer so I could hear what they were talking about easier. All I could think about was getting inside. Clearly, I couldn’t go in as a stripper—I was wearing jeans, no make-up, a pink shirt, and compared to her, I was on a completely different level. Cleaner did spring to mind, but then I had no idea how it all worked in a strip club.

Nanny.

They needed a nanny. I’d babysat nearly every kid in my family—and there were one too many kids in my family. Mom used to tease that in a few decades, our family could be a whole town by itself with the way the generations had gone from having one or two babies to at least three to five in each household.

“Yes,” I said weakly, then realized if I needed to convince them, so I had to be more assertive and try to convince her. “I’m from the agency.”

The girl, who was frowning and acting as if her world was coming to an end, suddenly smiled, then frowned. “Well, you’re late. I mean, you should have been here like…” she looked at her phone, “four minutes ago.”

I shrugged. “Sorry, parking was bad.”

“The agency filled you in?” she asked, ignoring my complaint.

I shook my head. “No.”

“Typical. Okay, so you need to take the twins home, get them ready for bed, and that’s it until the guys tell you otherwise. They said depending how well you do tonight, they may make it a full-time gig. Got it?”

I nodded, taking in the information and wondering if this was really a good idea. What if the real nanny showed up?

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