Page 51 of Nanny for the Damaged Ex-SEAL

She snorts again and shakes her head. "It’s almost 10 a.m. It's Friday, I'll be going to pick Ethan up at 2 p.m. Please, go take a shower."

I groan and roll out of bed, landing on the floor. She laughs and closes the door. We're going grocery shopping today. I drag myself off the floor and into the bathroom.

We park the car in the grocery store parking lot and walk, hand in hand, up to the entrance. Just as the automatic doors slide open to let us in, I spot Amy and Charles about fifty feet away in the produce section. I quickly turn to go back out, but Aria is trailing behind me, and before I can communicate to her that we need to get out of here, Charles sees us.

"Shit."

"What?" Aria asks as she stretches to look around my body. I don't need to answer her, because she sees her dad, too.

They beckon to us, and we try to act normal as we approach them. When two people are intimate, you can tell. And this is why we’re awkward. I feel like Amy might notice something. She has the eyes of an eagle, she sees everything. She might suspect something, and if she does, our jig is up.

We try to stay far apart from each other.

"Hi, Dad," Aria says, and hugs Charles.

"What are you doing grocery shopping? I thought you had meals delivered to your house?" Amy directs at Connor.

"Yeah, well, I canceled that because Aria does it now. I mean, we do it together. I drove her down here."

"This is why I say you need to fall in love. You should be doing these things with your partner. It bonds couples. Just look at Charles and me. What will you do when Aria leaves?"

I want to say she's not leaving, but I know Amy. She'll launch into a long speech about how Aria will get married someday and leave me to do things for myself. I'm tempted to say I'll just get another nanny if she leaves, but I don't want Aria to feel like she's replaceable, because she's not.

Amy is about to continue her lecture when someone calls her name.

"Oh, that's Maggie! Charles, Maggie is from my book club. Let’s go say hello."

"See you two at Amy's birthday party," Charles calls as they walk away.

"See you," we say in unison.

When they're out of sight, I let my shoulders drop and I'm more relaxed.

Aria does a mock swipe of her forehead. "That was close. Do you think they noticed anything?"

"I don't think so. I wasn't expecting to run into them here."

"I think we look like a nanny and her boss out on errands. Don't we?” she questions.

"Of course we do."

"Ethan, stop playing. You need to do your homework so that you have time to play during the weekend. If you don't do it now, you'll do it tomorrow or on Sunday."

"He'll do it tomorrow. We'll do it together,” Aria says from the kitchen.

“You two ganging up on me now?’

Ethan giggles. “Yes.”

“What betrayal,” I cry dramatically, and ruffle his hair.

Thirty minutes later, Ethan is in bed, and I have Aria all to myself finally. My favorite time of day.

"You know, I still can't get it off my mind that if our family finds out about what we've got going on, it might all come crashing down," I say.

"That's why we have to keep it between us. When Bria was here the other day, I felt so guilty. I wanted to tell her, but I couldn't."

"We can't tell anyone. Not even Bria. It's hard to know what anyone would do in this situation. She seems to be open minded but…I don't know. Let’s just keep it between us."

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