Page 27 of Nanny for the Damaged Ex-SEAL

I snort out a laugh.

"Daddy's always late," he explains.

"He’ll be ready soon. He just needs to show me where the school is today then we can go every other time without waiting."

He nods his head vigorously.

When Connor comes down twenty minutes later, he has on a Mufti shirt, buttoned to his neck, gray shorts, and black sneakers. He looks really good. The specks of gray hair make him even better looking. He smells amazing, too. I swallow hard. I shouldn't be thinking about him like that. He's my stepmom’s cousin, which practically makes him family. It's a no-go area. But it’s interesting to me that I find him attractive while swearing so hard to stay away from men after what Jake did to me. I'll have to purge myself of this attraction because it's going nowhere. But I'm thankful he's stopped being snappy. He's more pleasant now. That's all we need.

"Are we ready?" he asks Ethan.

"Yes," Ethan answers as I help him into his backpack. Ethan runs out of the house.

Just as I'm about to step out I say to him, "Connor, Ethan needs a new comb. The old one broke this morning."

He turns with a serious face. "Sir."

"What?"

"Sir, call me Sir. Or Mr. Brunt."

I swallow hard, confused by what he’s just said.

"But I've always called you Connor."

"That was then. This is now. You're my employee now," he says and steps out.

A hot pit of fury boils down to my belly. But I keep quiet and join Ethan, who’s been let into the back seat.

Bria is laughing hard with her head on her desk. I sit across from her in her office, staring as she chokes with laughter. I clutch harder at my bag and wait for her to finish.

"This isn't funny! He's trying to intimidate me. I was so dumb to think for a second that he was going to change."

Bria wipes tears from her eyes. "But he's right. You are his employee," and she starts to laugh again.

I'm frustrated. This is funny to her, but it isn't to me. I know what Connor’s trying to do and I'm not going to put up with it.

"I'll quit before he makes me feel like shit."

"Quit? Why?"

"Have you been listening to me?"

"Yeah, but quitting is a little extreme, isn't it?"

"He disrespected me."

"How? By telling you to call him Sir or Mr. Brunt?"

"It's not just that. It's how he said it."

"Well, just ignore him and call him Mr. You called your former bosses that, didn't you?"

I stand up and go to the window. "You don't understand."

"I do. But if you want, I could talk to him, or you could tell Dad or Amy. Amy, preferably. I know they’re cousins, but they’re just like siblings because they grew up in the same house with the same family. He listens to her."

I shake my head. "No, you'll only make this worse if you talk to him. And Amy will tell me to be nicer to him. I can't be nicer than I’m already being."

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