Page 3 of Nanny for the Mercenaries

I shot her a look, but I felt the same pang of disappointment in my chest. It made sense. The two of them were usually seen together, and they were always perfectly groomed. They had a daughter, who had huggedbothof them before going into the daycare room. And Brownie was wearing a blue and neon pink tank top.

Life isn’t fair sometimes.

Lisa and I finished our squats, then started doing what she called a standing military press, which involved pushing the bar up over my head. The two guys grabbed a trapezoid-shaped bar and began doing deadlifts next to us. For the next ten minutes, all of us were quiet as we focused on our workouts.

When they were done, Blondie walked over to the dumbbell rack on the other side of the room. Brownie lingered for a moment.

“See ya next time, Kettlebells,” he said to me with a little wave. “And for what it’s worth, we’renotgay. Or at least, I’m not. I can’t speak for Archer back there. I think all Brits are alittlebit gay. But me? I’m definitely into the fairer sex.”

I felt my cheeks redden. “I didn’t mean for you to hear me…”

“Not a big deal. Just wanted you to know.” His smile remained a moment longer, and his eyes bore into mine with intensity. Then he started to turn away.

“Do you want to get a drink sometime?” I blurted out. “Like, tonight?” Behind me, Lisa started choking up water from her bottle.

Brownie stopped and turned back around, a surprised expression on his chiseled face. He ran a hand through his chestnut hair, which perfectly fell back into place.

“I… uh, I can’t,” he said.

“Or some other time,” I added hopefully. “It doesn’t have to be tonight.”

This time his smile held a note of sadness. Or perhaps pity. “I can’t. I’m going out of the country for a while.” He nodded, and then added, “Thanks anyway.”

I watched him walk away, my cheeks burning with embarrassment.

2

Jordy

Men didn’t get asked out a lot. Even men who looked like me.

Okay, that probably sounded arrogant as hell. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just the truth. When I wasn’t out on a contract, I exercised every single day. No days off, baby. Keeping my body in top form was literally part of my job. I also happened to think I was good looking. And I had a kick-ass sense of humor, in my totally unbiased opinion. I’d never had a problem with women. When I was in the Army, I was always able to score while the other guys in my unit struck out.

But the fact remained: girls didn’t askmeout very often. I was always the initiator. That’s just how life was. So when Trish, my gym crush who I jokingly calledKettlebells, asked me out? It was like getting a thousand high-fives all at once. I grinned so hard that my cheeks hurt.

And then I remembered that I couldn’t say yes.

Three fucking jobs. Why did they have to pop up now?

“It’s just my luck, you know?” I told Archer in the locker room while we changed out of our workout clothes. “Been thinking about this girl for months, fuckingmonths, and she asks me out today. Right before we head overseas.”

“How unfortunate for you,” Archer replied dryly.

“And the worst part is I can’t even tell her why.” I pulled my tank top off and replaced it with my polo. “She probably thinks I’m bullshitting her. Giving her some lame excuse.”

Archer grunted.

“What?” I said. “I’ve known you long enough to tell when you’re thinking something but don’t want to say it. So, spit it out.”

He carefully folded his workout shirt into his bag and then stood up to face me. “You always do this, Jordy.”

“I always do what?”

“Develop a crush on a girl right before we go out on a long contract.”

I barked a laugh. “No I don’t.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the locker. “Mel, right before Prague. Then there was Amy before we flew to Kyoto. Oh, and that saucy little tart you fancied before we spent nine weeks in the Amazon.”

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