Page 8 of Nanny for the Athletes

I let out an annoyed groan. “I chatted with them for maybe five minutes total. And most of that was in between periods! I don’t want to be with someone who treats me like a child, and doesn’t support me, and shows up in the middle of the day to give ultimatums. So yeah, maybe we aren’t right for each other.”

I could tell that Trip wanted to back down. He had puffed himself up and expected me to kowtow to him, and now that I was resisting, he didn’t know what to do.

“If I walk away, we’re done,” he said, doubling-down on his ultimatum. “You can’t come crawling back to me when you need help.”

I stood my ground and said nothing.

“Suit yourself,” he said, and then got in his truck and drove away.

I went back inside and cried at my grandma’s kitchen table. Hank curled up at my feet, and Princess leaped up into my lap to snuggle. It made me feel less alone.

But deep down, I realized something important: I wasn’t that sad. Trip was showing me who hereallywas, and I was grateful to learn that now rather than farther down the road. I was only crying because breakups were emotionally damaging, even when they were for the best.

It would have been easier to deal with if my new business was doing well, though.

The business wasn’t my only issue right now. I wiped my tears and looked around the kitchen. From here I could see into the adjacent dining room. To my left was the den, and a guest bedroom beyond that. All of them were filled with cardboard boxes and stacks of junk. I hadn’t realized how much of a hoarder grandma had become in the last few years. We had always been close, and went out to lunch every single Saturday, but she had rarely invited me to her house. She always made excuses why we needed to meet somewhere else.

It would take weeks working around the clock to get rid of all the junk in the house. And once that was done, there were approximately abillionother little things that needed to be done to make this place more livable: ripping out peeled wallpaper, replacing rotten floorboards, installing a new HVAC system. I had thought of it as a fun project to work on while I started my new business. Now, it felt like a Sisyphean task.

And that wasn’t even touching on the mortgage issues. Grandma had done a cash-out refinancing on the house in order to pay for medical bills, which meant locking into a high interest rate on a house that no longer had any equity. Even worse than that, the house prices in the area had dropped since the refinancing, meaning the house was worth less than the loan.

I can’t think about that right now, I told myself while petting Princess.One problem at a time.

Suddenly, I heard car tires crunching up the driveway again. Hank bolted out the doggy door. Princess and I followed more slowly. “That was fast,” I said to myself. “I didn’t expect Trip to change his mind so quickly.”

But when I walked outside, it wasn’t Trip’s truck in the driveway.

4

Beth

The car in the driveway was a blue Jeep 4Runner. Hank ran up and barked excitedly, while Princess stayed close to my leg, waiting to see what was going on.

“Hank, come here,” I said, calling the dog back to my side.

My breath caught in my throat as the man stepped out of the Jeep. He looked effortlessly stunning in a charcoal Brunello Cucinelli suit, exuding a magnetic charm that was impossible to ignore. The suit clung to his athletic frame in all the right places, emphasizing broad shoulders and a chiseled chest, a subtle testament to the strength beneath the fabric. His confident stride, along with a calm certainty in his dark eyes, radiated an air of strength and leadership.

Who is that?

Behind him, a black-and-tan German Shepherd hopped out of the car. The dog started to lope forward toward Hank and Princess at my side, but then the manclickedtwice with his tongue. The dog immediately circled back around to its owner and sat patiently on its haunches.

“Good girl, Heidi,” the man said in a deep, commanding voice. Then he turned to me and said, “She’s friendly, if it’s all right for her to say hi.”

Heidi the German Shepherd was still sitting politely, but her tail was swishing on the gravel with barely-contained excitement.

“Sure! Hank loves other dogs.” I glanced behind me, and saw that Princess had run back up on the porch and was watching from a safe distance. “That’s Princess, one of the dogs boarding with us right now. She’s shy, but gets along with bigger breeds.”

The man made another clicking sound with his tongue, and Heidi came trotting up to us. She and Hank circled each other, sniffing butts and checking each other out with wagging tails. Once their introduction was over, I crouched down to say hi to her. She gave me a few investigatory sniffs, but then she and Hank went running off into the field together to play.

“Don’t take it personally; it takes a while for Heidi to warm up to strangers,” the man said. “Is this Lizzy’s Dog Boarding?”

“It sure is!”A customer! I have a customer!“I’m not sure if I have you on the schedule for today, but we do take walk-ups.”

Up close, I saw that the man’s face was a study in rugged handsomeness. His jet-black hair framed a square jawline, accentuating the sharp angles of his face. Strong, expressive eyebrows arched over his dark, penetrating eyes, adding depth to his gaze. Those eyes held a certain intensity, and they seemed to carry the wisdom of experiences beyond his years. His skin, lightly bronzed by the sun, further enhanced these striking features. As he smiled, his lips revealed a set of perfect, white teeth that radiated confidence and warmth.

He looks familiar. Why does he look so familiar?

“My name’s Christian.”

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