Page 53 of Falling for the Nanny

“Because I fucked up with her, and I need to get her back.”

I could tell by the way his eyebrows quirked up that I’d surprised him. He looked me over again, and this time he seemed to catch how my eyes were bloodshot and my hair was disheveled from raking my fingers through it in frustration. “Listen, Cat’s a pretty good friend of mine. I’m not going to just tell you where she is.” He said it bluntly, but not rudely. I sensed that whether he pissed me off or pleased me was a matter of supreme indifference, and I reluctantly respected him for it.

“All right,” I recalibrated. “I think she’s blocked my number. Can you tell her I’m here?” I nodded toward the bar. “I’ll be here until closing.”

“We don’t close until two am, man,” the waiter said. “You’re really going to sit in there for twelve hours?”

“If that’s how long it takes,” I said grimly.

“I know you’ve got a million bucks or whatever, but if you’ve fucked up with Cat, she’s gotten a million options.”

“Believe me, I know.” I gave him a nod of gratitude and found a spot at the end of the bar.

The bartender eyed me with concern. “Do you want a drink?”

I pulled out a hundred dollars and slid it over to her. “No. I just want to sit here.”

At first, she looked aghast, palming the hundred-dollar bill like it was blood money and shooting me uneasy looks from the other end of the bar. Fortunately, I still had my laptop in the car, and once that was open in front of me, she seemed to relax.

I couldn’t, though. Every time the small bell over the door chimed, indicating a customer had come in, I twisted around, my hopes rising. Every time, it wasn’t her.

But I wasn’t leaving.

If there was even an infinitesimal chance that Cat would show up, she would find me here.

Waiting.

CHAPTER 31

CAT

I couldn’t believe it when I got the text from Jason.

“Hot dad” is in the bar waiting for you.

I showed it to Alyssa, who widened her eyes at me and covered her mouth. “Are you going to go?”

I shook my head definitively. “Absolutely not.”

Another text from Jason came in. He says he’s going to be here until we close. He’s scaring Jacqui.

“Who’s Jacqui?” Alyssa asked, reading over my shoulder.

I shrugged. That was the last question on my mind. I had about a million others spinning through my head. Like what the hell was he doing? What was he thinking?

“It’s because of Lily,” I decided. “She loves me. I bet that…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. The thought of Lily finding the pool house empty, realizing that I’d left without saying a word to her, was too painful. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I should let him know that I’m at least going to say goodbye to her. I’ll tell her I got in the MFA program.”

“You should say goodbye to the kid,” Alyssa agreed. “You loved her, too.”

Do you want me to get rid of him??

I stared at this last text, feeling like I was being torn in half. My pride wanted to tell Jason yes, get rid of him. My heart wouldn’t let me. I looked helplessly at Alyssa like she would tell me what to do.

To my surprise, it was Parker who got up from the table and came back with a pad of paper and a pen. Something between a laugh and a sob got caught in my throat as I watched him draw a line down the middle and write two labels at the top. Pros and Cons. It was just so Parker, but for the first time, I didn’t think it scornfully.

“Okay,” he said officiously, “what are you risking by talking to him? What are the potential negative consequences?”

“Um, my pride,” I said immediately. “He basically told his friend that I’m disposable.”

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