“Then we will cross that bridge once you raise $20. In the meantime, I won’t say anything.”
“Thanks,” he said. “You’re pretty cool.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Sure. I think you’ll make a good nanny.”
“Well thanks,” I said. “That means a lot. I hope your dad sees it the same way.”
“He will,” the kid said. “Him and I always see eye-to-eye.”
ChapterFour
MATT
The work call took longer than I expected, so twenty minutes after I left Stephanie in the dining room, I finally hung up with the CEO of Becker Technologies’ newest client, a home security start-up based right down the street from our offices.
I was standing in the kitchen, stressed because the call hadn’t gone well, and because I now had to go find the very same woman I saw in Hawaii that morning at breakfast and tell her that I simply could not hire her.
I hadn’t realized it was her until I saw her in the light of the living room. Then, once I put two and two together, I realized what a sticky situation I was in. The whole dilemma was made that much worse by the fact that she looked even prettier that day than I remembered her looking in Hawaii, which I hadn’t thought was possible.
So, it was obvious—I couldn't have her living in this house, taking care of my son, and working as my employee. It would drive me mad. Being so close to her but not being able to make a move, not being able to remark on how stunning she looked or ask her out to dinner, it would be too difficult and then I justknewI would end up doing something stupid. If things ever became not so strictly professional between us, then I’d either have to let her go or she would quit and then I would be disrupting Will’s life, which I hated to do.
Nope. It was settled. I couldn’t give this woman the job. Luckily, she came highly recommended and she had an amazing resume so she would find another gig in no time. I could even recommend her to one of my friends who has kids or something. It would all work out in the end.
With this in mind, I put my phone away and headed in the direction of where I heard voices. Hers as well as my son’s. I found them sitting together on the couch, pouring over a book that I recognized immediately to be Will’s favorite dinosaur book. The one he rarely left the house without.
“Hey buddy,” I said when I saw them. “What are you doing back so soon? I thought Mrs. Mecham wasn’t going to drop you off until dinner time.”
“I told her you would be home,” he said. “You told me this morning that you were meeting the new nanny at lunchtime and I wanted to meet her too.”
I smiled and rubbed the back of my neck. “Right, well—”
“She’s great, Dad,” he said. “She likes dinosaurs, and she said she’s never been to the San Francisco Zoo but that she was thinking of getting passes so that we can go whenever we want!”
“Zoo passes,” I said. “That’s a good idea, but Will—”
“I didn’t mean that you would have to pay for both of them or anything,” Stephanie quickly added. “I already budgeted to buy one for myself, and I just thought it would be fun for Will to have one as well. Oh, and I did a lot of research before coming out here, and if you don’t already have a public library card, we should get you one because they do all sorts of cool events throughout the city and stuff.”
“Oh, Dad can I?” Will asked.
“Sure, yeah,” I said. “But before we do any of that, Will, I need to talk to you for a second.” I smiled at Stephanie. “I’m sorry, I know I’ve already kept you waiting a long time, but would you be fine sitting here for a bit longer?”
“Not at all,” she said. “Take your time. I’ve got nowhere else to be.”
I nodded. “Thanks.” I motioned with my head for Will to follow me and we went into my study. I shut the door behind us and sat down in the chair across from the one he chose.
“What’s up, Dad?”
“Er, well, for starters, I—-Well, okay, you tell me, what do you think of Stephanie?”
“I love her,” he said, and I was blown away. Will hardly ever said the word ‘love’ when referring to people he didn’t know very well. Hell, he only just told his uncle Ezra that he loved him for the first time last Christmas, and that was a pretty big shock to everyone who was in the room at the time. Will wasn’t such a shy kid, once you spent enough time with him, but he took a while to warm up to people, so it was surprising enough that I found him chatting away with Stephanie like they were old friends. But now he was saying helovedher? I couldn't believe it.
“Will, I’m being serious.”
“So am I!” he said. “I really like her. She’s nice, and she likes a lot of the same things I do. Plus, she smells like flowers.”
“Right, but we can’t hire a nanny just because she smells good.”