Page 11 of Falling for the Nanny

“Doesn’t she need me?” Lily asked, and it was a punch right to my gut.

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. How did I explain to a seven-year-old that someone can love her more than anything and still have to leave? Why the hell did she even have to learn that lesson for the second time before her eighth birthday? “What can I do to make it better?” I asked finally. Maybe we could finally get the damn pony Lily thought she wanted or go back to Disney over the summer. Anything to take her mind off the loss of Mrs. Barnes.

Lily rolled over onto her back and stared up at the ceiling where tiny glow-in-the-dark stars were stuck. “Well,” she said slowly, “maybe…” She snuck a glance at my face to see how generous I was feeling.

I was feeling extremely generous. We could go to Disney in Paris if that would make it better. Get two goddamn ponies. She just had to say the word.

“I think it might help if…”

Another look at my face. I nodded encouragingly.

“...if I had Cat,” she finished.

My face froze. Lily wasn’t the type of kid to ask for more than one thing. If she picked an American Girl doll for her birthday, she didn’t then drag me to the window of another toy store to look longingly at a ride-on unicorn. If she was picking Catherine Bowen over everything else she knew she could ask for, that meant something.

“What about Disney World?” I tested.

She shook her head.

“A pony?”

A long hesitation, and then a decisive head shake.

I blew out my breath, trying not to verbalize the litany of swear words running through my head right now. “Catherine Bowen, huh?”

A small grin crept across Lily’s face. She knew she had me. I still knew in my gut that it was a bad idea, but my heart was overriding it now.

I was going to hire Cat Bowen whether I liked it or not.

CHAPTER 7

CAT

The next morning, Parker was explaining something called Moore’s Law to me in long, unnecessary detail when I got the call from the agency. I glanced down at my phone and said absently, “Yeah, Parker, I got it.” I stood up and walked out onto our small balcony, passing Alyssa who was about to make a double batch of their grotesque strawberries and whey protein shakes. She looked askance at me, but I shook my head and rolled my eyes to show that it wasn’t going to be a good call.

The morning was crisp, and I was glad it was going to be a short call since I hadn’t bothered to grab my hoodie. I wrapped my arms around myself and squeezed my phone between my shoulder and my ear.

And then nearly dropped it when I heard, “Hi Cat, we have an offer. Do you want to accept?”

“You have an offer from…”

“The King family. They want you to start as soon as possible.”

My mouth dropped open. There was no way. Hot dad had all but told me I wasn’t going to get the job. “I’m sure you’re great with kids, but I’m looking for someone a little older.” This critique was accompanied by a skeptical glance.

“Are you sure?” I asked, rubbing my hands over my bare skin to ward off the chill. I stared out over the parking lot, the scrubs of trees. I could hear the sound of traffic on Fairfax County Parkway in the distance. It was only ten miles from the Kings’ mansion in Great Falls, but it felt like another world.

“I’m sure,” the woman from the agency laughed. “I emailed you the contract. Read it over and sign it by the end of the day if you want to take it. Let me know as soon as possible if there’s an issue.”

I walked back inside in a daze.

“Well?” Alyssa asked expectantly, dividing the contents of the blender into two glasses. At the look on my face, she set down the blender. “What?”

“He hired me,” I said, hardly believing it even as I said the words out loud. “They sent me the contract.”

I leaned against the kitchen counter and checked my email on my phone. Sure enough, there it was. I didn’t bother reading it closely, just scrolled down to his name. David Alexander King. Lily Sophia King. The proposed start date was two weeks from today. Just enough time to give Little Tykes my notice. Not even a day off between jobs to wrap my head around this huge life change.

I looked up at Alyssa, the phone lolling in my hand so loosely that she grabbed it and set it on the counter. “Should I take it?”

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