Florida was their dream. After they passed, I’d been looking for photos one night and found pictures from a trip they’d taken a couple years before the accident. The one I still had under my pillow was them in front of a vacant storefront by the beach. They were hugging and smiling like they’d just won the lottery.
That was all I knew, but I’d pieced the rest together myself.
They were probably saving up to do it. To buy that unit and start their dream restaurant.
It was the future they wanted for us, and I’d decided at that moment I was going to make sure it happened. For them. For us. For Griff.
Except it had felt far away and indistinct. Now the two largest obstacles had practically evaporated. The unit was vacant. And the money…
I thought about the eleven thousand dollars Jack was going to pay me for my first month. About how it’d only take two more before I could make the down payment for the unit.
Was I seriously going to do this?
But running off to Florida would mean abandoning Ben and Jack. Not going to Florida would mean someone else might end up renting the unit. And there was no way to know if it’d ever be available again.
Dammit. For once. Just for once, could something my life please happen the easy way?11JackChris and Belle lived in a sprawling Manhattan penthouse. The evening light filtered in from floor-to-ceiling windows in almost every direction. Despite the large space, it felt full of voices and commotion.
I sat with Ben, Nola, and Griff at Chris’ dining room table while we listened to the racket coming from the kitchen.
“It’s not phallic,” Belle insisted.
“I mean,” Chris said. “I’m not judging. All I said was I’m not going to be the one to eat the tip.”
“You’re a child,” Damon said in his deep, no-nonsense voice.
“He’s not completely wrong,” Chelsea said a little hesitantly. “I didn’t really think of the shape. I was just trying to get the frosting even.”
Beside me, Nola was sitting bolt-straight in her seat. She had her hair pulled back in braids and wore an emerald green dress. For the past few minutes, I’d been battling my willpower not to look to my side and admire her smooth thighs or the hint of her cleavage.
She’s Ben’s nanny. You will not fuck Ben’s nanny.
“You alright?” Nola asked. She touched her fingertips to my forearm, then pulled them back almost immediately. I’d noticed she was a toucher. She was that person who would put her hand on total strangers as she spoke—a soft touch to the arm or the shoulder. A little slap on the chest. It was the sort of thing that probably had made a thousand people before me fall to her charms.
Except, I reminded myself, I wasn’t going to be one of those people.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
She pursed her lips, mocking me a little as she spoke in a deep voice. “Because you look like you have indigestion or something.”
I gave her a look, then shook my head. “I’m not big on the whole family dinner thing.”
In the background, Chris and Chelsea had begun a full-blown debate in trying to convince Belle and Damon that the cake was indeed phallic. For about the tenth time since we’d arrived, I wondered what the hell I was doing here.
“You’re the one who invited me to this.”
Because it was an excuse to see you in a less professional environment, and I’m pathetic. “And I’ve been known to make mistakes.”
She scooted herself sideways a little, resting her chin on her hand as she gave me a look of interest. I could tell from the glint of curiosity in her eyes that I’d said too much.
“Really?” she asked. When she shifted in her seat, her thigh had moved against mine, and the innocent touch was distracting, to say the least. “Everything I saw about you when I internet stalked you made it look like you were Mr. Perfect. What kind of mistakes have you made?”
A brief but vivid vision of sliding my hand up her leg captured my attention. I imagined the hem of her dress scrunching upwards until I felt the soft fabric of her panties. Fuck. I tried to remember how long it had been since I got laid, and decided however long it had been, it was too long. I was losing it.
Mistakes I’ve made? Hiring a nanny I want to sleep with, for one. Inviting you here. Thinking I could trust my willpower. “Nothing I can remember.”
Ben had been talking to Griff about something, but I realized he’d picked up on the conversation and was watching. In a very uncharacteristically Ben move, he cleared his throat. “Actually, daddy makes a lot of mistakes. He always cuts himself by accident and bumps into things. And he falls down sometimes. Oh, and—”