Page 19 of Nanny for the Bossy Billionaire

I get another answer in the negative.

“Do you have first aid training?”

Her face lights up and she sticks her finger in the air, prouder than I’ve ever seen her. “Yes, I do! That was actually the truth.”

I roll my eyes.

“Do you even like children?”

She looks down at her feet, which she is using to kick the rug she is standing on. “I don’t…notlike kids. I don’t have a lot of experience with them. But, I have become very fond of Ethan.”

I can feel a migraine starting to form behind my eyes. I massage my temples as I start to pace in front of Naomi.

“Why? Why would you enact this elaborate ruse to get a job you don’t want, in a field you have no experience in?”

She sighs. “I want to be a chef.” She says it as if it explains everything.

I stop pacing, and stand in front of her, towering over her petite frame. “Is that supposed to make some kind of sense to me?”

“Your best friend is Chef Gabriel Aranda.”

All of a sudden, it makes sense.

She continues, “I would literally sell my left arm to get an apprenticeship with Chef Aranda. So when I found out that his best friend was employing in a role that I could figure out on the job, I applied.”

I shake my head. “Wait…youwant to be a chef?” She nods. “You? The woman who regularly burns pancakes?”

“Listen, I’m actually quite good in the kitchen! It’s not my fault that the recipes you need me to make for your son require a degree in chemistry to put together.”

“Please, help me understand the thought process behind all of this. Either you are insanely good at your job, in which case I wouldn’t want to let you go to Gabriel. Or you are so bad that I would be out of my mind to recommend you to Gabriel. Either way, you lose.”

There’s a pause.

“I have to admit, I didn’t think that far ahead. I guess I figured if I ran in the same circles as Chef Aranda for a while, that eventually we would run into each other and I could perhaps talk him into taking me on.”

I huff. “Clearly, you’ve never met Gabriel. The man is by the book. He would never take on an apprentice just because they walked up to him at a garden party and introduced themselves. He takes his career very seriously.”

“To be honest, I suspected as much. Which is where you would come in.” Her expression lights up.

“Again, why would I do that?”

She shrugs with a smile. “Out of the goodness of your heart?” My face remains like stone. So she adds, “I’m sorry. It’s just that this is something I’ve wanted for so long. So when the opportunity presented itself, I took it.”

I clear my throat. “It turns out I was wrong about you. Of everything I thought you could possibly be, an opportunist was never on the list.”

“I’m not an opportunist,” she says forcefully.

“Then what would you call this? You used my son in order to get close to me, in order to get close to my friend.”

“Yeah, when you put it like that, I do sound opportunistic, but you have to believe I meant no harm.”

“I am less concerned with intentions, and more concerned with effect. I’m afraid I no longer trust you. I’m not comfortable with you being in my home.”

“What are you saying?”

Before I can drop the hammer, Ethan runs back to us. He’s sucking on a bright orange popsicle, which he holds in one hand while he has another in his other hand. He stops in front of Naomi and hands it to her and yells, “Popsicle!”

Naomi smiles at him and takes the ice lolly from his hand.

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