Page 24 of Billionaire Babysitter

He presses his hand to his chest in mock offense. “Is it so hard to believe that I would do nice things for other people?”

“Yes,” I say dryly. “Where’s this Lucas been for the last two weeks? It would be nice if we could see him more often.”

“I’m sorry you don’t see him more often,” he says. Then, realizing that he’s said something slightly too sensitive, he adds, “You’re really good with the kids. I wish I knew what to do with them.”

An apology too? It’s hard to believe he’s not had a traumatic brain injury that’s rewired his entire personality.

“You had a small family, right?” I ask. He nods. “There you are, then. That explains everything. In my family, I’m the oldest, but I have five sisters — it’s me, then Allie, Katie, the twins Sally and Suzie, and the baby, Ivy.”

“Think of the cost of the Christmas presents!” he says. I laugh at that. Of course that’s the first thing he thinks of.

“We never used to do extravagant Christmases. My parents could never afford it.” I snap my mouth shut, realizing that I’ve said too much too. There must be something wrong with me; I’ve never felt compelled to open up to him before. Yet here we are, having a candlelit dinner, drinking wine and talking to each other like old friends. God, our relationship is weird. “I guess Christmas in your house must have been pretty extravagant.”

“Yeah,” he agrees, but doesn’t expand any further than that. “What do your parents do?” he asks.

I scoop a great pile of noodles into my bowl, twizzle them on my fork, then cram them into my mouth. They’re buttery and delicious and it’s an effort to not slurp them all up. “My dad’s a carpenter,” I say.

Lucas nods, his eyes intense and sincere. I’ve never really noticed how blue they are before. When he smiles like this, I can almost agree with all the assessments of people who say that he’s attractive. Almost.

I keep going, feeling weirdly fuzzy that he’s taking an interest. “He always works long hours. He used to take on extra shifts too. I keep telling him he needs to cool it down, or else he's going to break his back. But he never listens to me. He loves what he does, and he works hard because of it. Because of that, and because of us.”

“He sounds dedicated,” says Lucas. “Like the kind of guy you can rely on.”

I smile. That’s my dad. Stern and practical, but a love. There’s no one else in the world who can make me feel as safe as he does, no one else who can hold me and tell me everything's going to be okay, and I believe it. “He is. He’s the best. Mom’s great too. She’s done all sorts of things over the years, from secretary to fast food. She’s always done part-time jobs. Just to help my dad out when things are tough. But her main job’s always been looking after us.”

“You're close to your family,” says Lucas and it’s not exactly a question, but it’s not exactly not a question either. It’s somewhere between awe and disbelief. And it makes me so curious about him.

“Are you not close? You and your brother?” I dig, hoping I can uncover something.

“Jason. We don’t talk too much,” he says, his tone clipped in such a way as to indicate he’s done talking about it.

“That’s a shame,” I say. “I don’t know what I would do without my family.” I reach over with my fork to grab a dumpling. It’s full and juicy and just a little spicy. It’s one of the most perfect dumplings I’ve ever eaten.

“I’m doing okay without,” says Lucas.

I have a feeling that there’s way more to it than he’s letting on, but I don’t want to spoil the first night he’s ever, ever been kind to me.

“I feel like I haven’t seen my family in ages,” I say.

“How come?”

And there’s the old Lucas I know and love. It’s nice to see he’s still in there somewhere. It makes all this feel much less like an act. “Because I’ve been here withyou, dipshit. I put a good chunk of my paycheck into my parents’ pension fund, and I usually go over to my mom’s for dinner on a Wednesday so I can catch up with them and my sisters. Sally and Suzie are away at college, though. I really haven’t seen them in ages and ages.”

“You miss them?”

“Yeah,” I sigh. I miss them more than he could ever understand. “But it’s great to see Katie and Ivy. And even better when Allie comes too, but she and her wife are always off traveling the world. They’re travel bloggers; they go to the best places — but they always come back to the street we grew up on, near the river, and near enough to a hospital that we always used to watchambulances go past and tell gruesome stories about where they were going.”

I’m rambling now, so to shut myself up I take a big sip of wine and down three more dumplings. I wish I never had to get full, because this is so good. It’s also helping heal the ache in my heart of missing my family. In part, they’re why I’m doing all this. To give something back.

Doesn’t make it any easier, though.

“You should go this week. To dinner.”

“What, and leave you and the kids?”

“We can manage,” Lucas scoffs, rolling his eyes at me.

The truth is, I’m pretty sure he can, now. Definitely, if this is the Lucas we’re getting from now on. If he can act likethiswith the kids, he’ll barely need me at all anymore.

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