Page 15 of Confessions of a Christmasholic

‘If I offered you some money, would you take it?’ he quietly asked her.

Sutton bit her lip. Despite being in a dire situation, she never, not once, thought of asking him for money. She already owed him for the broken lights and the cleaning bill for the couch. But if he gave her some cash, she could find a cheap place to stay, hole up and make some plans. But paying for accommodation was expensive, and she doubted he’d give her enough for more than a few days. Would that give her enough time to find an under-the-counter job? Probably not. A free place to stay and food would be a far better deal. But she wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

‘I’d so appreciate that.’ At the very least, she’d asked for enough to get her to Heathrow.

‘Actually, I have a better idea,’ Gus stated after a minute’s silence. Air invaded her lungs again and Sutton sat up straighter. ‘Eli sent me a message earlier, congratulating me on hiring a nanny for the twins for the holidays. So, what do you say?’

Was he asking her to look after his kids?Ugh,no. She’d borne the lion’s share of taking care of her siblings, three active boys. When her half-brothers were old enough to look after themselves, she made the conscious decision to keep as far away from kids as she possibly could. She’d even chosen to specialise in working with adults who’d had a stroke, a car accident or any other significant or traumatic brain injury, thereby avoiding school-going children.

But beggars and choosers and all that.

Of courseshe’d look after the twins if it allowed her to stay in the country. Hell, she’d do pretty much anything to stay. The UK was where she hoped to settle, to make her home. She aimed to find a steady job and settle down because she wasn’t close to her mum, and her siblings were scattered across the world – Alex studying in the US, Jamie working as a dive master in Thailand, and Brynn heading to Saudi Arabia when he finished his nursing degree. She could be anywhere, go anywhere.

She needed to live in a new place and start a new chapter. She had her Occupational Therapy degree, and she’d worked hard for it. With it, she could get a good job, support herself and live a normal life. Maybe she could get a dog or a cat and take weekend trips to places like Prague and Oslo. Companies would start interviewing in the new year and she needed to stay in the UK for as long as she could. Leaving now would be disastrous.

But while Sutton really appreciated his offer, she couldn’t understand why he’d made it as she’d done nothing but cause him problems!

‘Why would you want to hire someone who stumbled onto your lawn, drunk as a frog? Someone who destroyed some very expensive lights, passed out on your couch and let dirty dogs onto your furniture?’

‘I’m offering you a job, Sutton, one that includes accommodation and food, and a decent daily wage,’ he murmured, a small smile touching his mouth. ‘Are you trying to talk me out of it?’

No, of course not. By offering her the temp job of looking after his kids he’d handed her a lifeline. She just had to look after his kids. If it meant her not having to sleep in a train station or a shelter, or finding a soup kitchen for a meal, she could do that, couldn’t she? Of course, she could. She wasn’t an idiot.

‘I so appreciate the offer...butwhy? Why would you hire someone like me to look after your precious babies?’

His steady look didn’t change. ‘You should know that last night I went through your stuff,’ Gus calmly informed her.

‘You didwhat?’

‘I had a stranger passed out on my couch, and I wanted to know who I was dealing with,’ Gus explained. ‘I needed to know whether you were a crazy woman or a danger to me or my kids, and if I needed to call the police to haul your drunk arse, as pretty as it is, out of my house.’

He thought she had a pretty arse. Woo hoo…do concentrate on what was important, Sutton!

And yes, when he put it like that, she understood why he needed to go through her stuff.

‘After I dropped off the kids, I swung by my office and made some calls to South Africa, and I spoke to about half a dozen people, all of whom gave you excellent references.’

As they should, because she was smart and professional.Normally.

‘I asked them if they’d hire you to look after their small kids, and everyone said they wouldn’t hesitate.’

Why did the hint of admiration and respect in his voice make her feel ten feet tall?

‘Going through my backpack is such an invasion of my privacy,’ Sutton told him, for lack of anything else to say. And to stop herself from throwing her arms around him in appreciation. Or cry from relief.

‘You trespassed on my lawn,’ Gus countered. ‘Broke my decorations, passed out on my couch—'

Okay, okay. She closed her eyes, utterly relieved. ‘I’m so, so grateful, Gus. Thank you.’

Gus leaned his hip against the kitchen counter and folded his arms. The dog called Pig padded into the kitchen, sniffed his hand and plopped down at his feet, a canine carpet. ‘Look, Sutton, I think you’ve found yourself in an awkward situation. But I’m curious as to how a woman with an advanced degree in occupational therapy, who has glowing letters of recommendation from previous employers, lecturers and hospital administrators, ends up penniless and homeless on the other side of the world?’

Since talking about Layla was like having open heart surgery without any pain relief, she ignored his question and the curiosity in his eyes. She shrugged, looked down at the floor and followed the line of the tile with her toe.

‘I can only stay for three weeks,’ she told him, changing the subject and trying to ignore her throbbing head. ‘I have to be back in London the afternoon of the twenty-fourth, Christmas Eve.’

Was she a fool thinking the situation with Layla would be resolved by then? If Layla repaid her, would she still want her to join her in London over Christmas, or did her hurt and sense of betrayal run too deep for Sutton to be around her? She didn’t know, but that was for later.

‘That’s fine,’ Gus agreed. ‘I’ll be done with my Christmas commitments by then.

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