Page 82 of Nanny for the Bossy Billionaire

Without missing a beat, I launch myself across the island and snatch a slice of pizza from the box and start running because even without seeing him, I know Gabriel is right behind me.

As I sprint as fast as I can through his house, I cram the slice of pizza into my mouth, laughing the whole time.

When I finally allow him to catch me and he sees the pizza is gone, he’s jeers at me and returns to his kitchen.

I’m glad I came here tonight. I needed someone to talk some sense into me, and that’s exactly what Gabriel has done.

I have to get Naomi back. I don’t know how I’m going to do that just yet, but I’m going to try everything in my power to make it happen.

29

NAOMI

I’ve never done acid, but I suspect this is how it feels.

It’s like I’m living in someone else’s skin. Everything feels so trippy, so surreal. My life has changed so drastically in the week I left Reid that it feels like an alternate reality.

First of all, I’m back home with my parents.

It’s almost as if I’ve stepped back in time, except, my parents are making an effort to understand me. Things are still awkward because we are fundamentally different people, but it’s a different kind of awkward than it used to be. I would describe it as two kids whose parents are forcing to become friends. We don’t have anything against each other, but we also don’t have anything in common. I don’t know where our relationship is going, but I hope with time we will be able to find some common ground.

Another thing that’s weird is that I am preparing for my mentorship with Chef Gabriel Aranda.

I have made my decision.

I am going to Paris to learn with him. If everything goes as planned, then my life is about to change in a big way. I often have to pinch myself because I can’t believe all the good fortune I’m having when it comes to this. I keep waiting for Chef Aranda to call and take his offer back, but that has yet to happen. The good thing is that with every day that passes I get more and more comfortable with the idea that this is really happening for me.

Finally, the thing that is the most unsettling is that Reid and I are broken up.

He had come to mean so much to me so quickly that I had allowed myself see a real future for the both of us. I know it was stupid, but I did. Also, jumbled up with my feelings for Reid is my guilt about Ethan. I just left him high and dry.

He got Ruth to call me the other day. He kept asking why I left, and each time he asked it broke my heart a little more, because I couldn’t give him an answer that would satisfy.

Although I am miserable, I think I made the right decision. If Reid thinks that I should put my life on the back burner for him while he’s unable to compromise for me, then we have no business being together. The problem, however, is that although my mind knows this, my heart is having a hard time catching up.

When I haven’t been making failed attempts to bond with my parents, I’ve been holed up in my childhood room, nursing my broken heart.

A knock comes from the door, and my mother pops her head inside.

“Hey,” she says, her voice small.

I sit up in bed. “Hi.”

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Um…sure.”

She walks in and sits at the foot of my bed. “Naomi, we’ve never had the kind of relationship where we talked about boys or men, but I am concerned.”

“Concerned about what?”

“At first, when you came here and said you wanted to move back into the house to repair our relationship I was thrilled, but with time, I’ve realized it was more than that. I know you’ve been seeing Reid Harris and have been living with him, but ever since you got here he hasn’t visited, even once. Which leads me to believe you came here to get away from him.” she pauses and her voice gets even smaller. “Sweetheart, did he do something to you?”

“Oh my God, Mom. No, he didn’t.”

She holds her hands up. “Okay. I just had to ask.”

“Yeah, no. Reid would never hurt me like that.”

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