It was imperative to me that she not feel jailed in my home.
And if things went well with the conversation, then eventually I was willing to hire another nanny. Someone else to come in and help take care of the kids so we could be together as a real family. That would take time, of course. I couldn't throw all of that on her at once. But if she took my offer to move-in and things continued to go well, then that was my next step.
To tell her I wanted to be with her and offer anything I could provide so we could be a family together. Take vacations together. Enjoy one another’s company late at night after the kids had gone to bed.
Or on the weekends when my mother took them.
I wanted to take her out to a formal dinner to discuss this. That was what people did when discussing potential job moves. I didn’t have an office to call her into, but I could take her out on a ‘strictly business’ dinner. I could get her out of the house and into a more intimate scenario where we could talk moving her up the chain, so to speak.
I could gauge her reaction from there to figure out if I should announce my intentions or not.
A blast of cold water ripped me from my trance. My crystal glass went tumbling to the concrete, shattering into a million pieces. I heard one of my kids gasp as I looked up, and I saw Natasha holding the hose out in front of her. They were soaked from head to toe and watching with puckered lips.
Waiting to see what I would do.
“Uh oh,” Clara said.
“Uh oh’s right,” I said.
“Is he in his good suit?” Joshua asked.
“I am,” I said.
“We’re so dead,” Nathaniel said.
“You’re not the one holding the hose,” I said.
I panned my gaze to Natasha as a grin slid across my cheeks. She turned the hose on again and blasted me as I got up from my chair. I ran towards her and picked her up, then threw her over my shoulder. I whipped her around in circles as she sprayed the kids and I listened to the giggles falling from their lips.
This was what I wanted for my life. My kids, Natasha, and our Sunday family days.
And I would give anything Natasha wanted in order to make it happen.
Fourteen
Natasha
Carter had invited me out to dinner and I had been hesitant to take his offer. He told me it was strictly business and that he wanted to talk with me about something important. I wasn’t sure what he wanted to talk with me about, but I had something I wanted to talk about with him as well.
And I couldn't contain my excitement.
I’d finally gotten an email back from Clark. It took me months to get in contact with him, but apparently things were going well. Bria was being liberated and a lot of the rebel forces were being pushed back. Clark and his team were establishing medical tents and building fresh water wells. Patching mud huts and building a school for the area. He sent me pictures of all the efforts and I saw how the kids I had helped were growing up. Videos were sent of children who once couldn't talk waving and talking in full sentences.
It brought tears to my eyes to see.
But this latest email brought with it an offer I couldn't turn down. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be handed my dream job, but I had been. I went through the phone interviews and the rigorous background check. I updated the necessary people as to what I had spent my time doing when I got back to the States. I outlined things I wanted to do if the job was going to be offered to me and I even went so far as to tell them they wouldn’t regret hiring me.
But I still had yet to talk with Carter about it.
I was excited about the announcement, but I wasn’t sure how he would take it. I knew he cared about me and I cared about him. Him and his children. We had all grown close and became a little family unit. But I was the nanny and I couldn't stay there forever. Even though some days I felt like I could. Spending every day with his kids. With him.
But I had been officially offered the position of a lifetime, and I couldn’t turn it down.
I didn’t want to accept until I talked with Carter first.
I respected him more than that.
I was hoping he would understand. That he would rejoice with me and usher me into a new beginning with my career. I stood outside of my apartment waiting for him to pull up, the wind whipping through my hair.