The three men shared a look.
Jack leaned forward. “I’ll pay you ten thousand a month.”
Chris tilted his head. “You know my brother was going to cover it, right?”
Jack shook his head. “This is for Ben. I’ll pay whatever she needs.”
A strange sensation spread through me like warmth or excitement. Something about the way this Jack guy talked to me and acted made me feel like I was under his wing somehow. I felt safe. It might’ve been the first time since my parents died that I felt like I wasn’t completely and totally alone in trying to get through everything.
With a rush of mortification, I realized my eyes were watering. I quickly wiped at my eyes, then nodded. “Ten thousand should cover the basics.”
And before I knew it, I was shaking hands with the men. Jack took my hand last, and he placed his other hand on mine. It was rough and hard, but warm. He met my eyes. “Thank you,” he said.
Why did I feel like I’d just gotten so far in over my head that I’d never see the surface again?5JackMy salary and endorsement deals meant I could essentially take my pick of the living spaces Manhattan had to offer. I’d eventually decided to put us up in a nice apartment in a calmer part of the city. We gave up a little bit of the extra space and luxuries some of the more sought-after areas offered, but it meant Ben was zoned for a more normal school where I thought he’d have a better shot of making friends.
Assuming he ever decided to give that a shot, at least.
Ben hadn’t turned out the way I expected. We didn’t spend our afternoons playing catch and talking about his favorite athletes. Instead, I’d learned to crudely draw and to appreciate his passion for art. It was one of the only ways to spend meaningful time with my little guy, so I made it work as well as I could.
Ben was across from me with his head down and his hand scribbling away. One of his favorite things to draw were birds. Originally, he’d tried to get them as realistic as was possible in his talented, six-year-old hands. Over time, it was more common for him to draw a sort of cartoon representation and try to make a humorous scene. Maybe the bird was pushing its brother out of the nest, trying to get into a trash can, or any other nonsense he could dream up.
I leaned back, evaluating my own work. As sad as it was, Ben was twice the artist I was. I’d drawn a penguin pushing his friend in the water while a killer whale fin poked up from the waves. I showed Ben, hoping to at least get a grin from him.
He tilted his head, stopping what he was doing long enough to point at my penguin. “Penguins have beaks. That’s a dog’s nose.”
I glanced down. I knew penguins had beaks. I wouldn’t have—
Oh. Yeah. I was in the middle of erasing and trying to fix my mistake when the doorbell rang. Ben didn’t look up, but his hand went still. I patted the top of his head. “It’s alright, bud. Just the nanny. Remember we talked about it? I’ll be here the whole time until we know she’s someone we can trust.”
After a moment, Ben resumed his work.
I opened the door and found the little waitress from a few nights ago standing outside my door. The last time I’d seen her had been in Damon’s conference room.
I wasn’t proud of it, but the couple days since had given me more than enough time for my mind to wander. Try as I might, I hadn’t been able to completely block out the fact that I was attracted to the woman. Ben came before anything else, but I was still a man. And Nola, well… Nola was exactly the kind of woman I probably didn’t need distracting me at a time like this.
Her thick red hair was done into two intricate braids along the sides of her head that she twirled together and wore over one shoulder. She was in a simple gray t-shirt and jeans, but even the loose clothing couldn’t hide the wide swell of her hips and the shapeliness of her legs. I dragged my eyes to hers, which was only slightly less distracting.
She looked nervous as hell—like a baby doe who had wandered into a bear’s den and been told to make herself comfortable. I tried to convince myself I wasn’t the bear she feared, but with the way my heart was pounding at the sight of her, I wasn’t completely convinced.
“You didn’t bring Griff?”
Nola pursed her lips, then shook her head. She was afraid to say whatever she was about to say, I gathered.