“Did you see Grace’s father? I had hoped to tell him a few things about her. You know, just to bring him up to speed.”
Mr. DeVille finally looked away from that chandelier and smiled at me. “That won’t be necessary. It seems Mr. Groves had a change of heart. I suspect the reality of dealing with a five year old finally dawned on him. He just called Mr. Allen to say he won’t be coming.”
I looked around to see if Nico was nearby. If Grace wasn’t going with her father, did that mean she was staying here?
“With all due respect, Mr. DeVille, if Grace is staying with her uncle, then I should continue working here. Is it possible you can find another person to fill my new position?”
A slow smile spread across his mouth. “You must be reading my mind. I think you should stay here. As for the other position, not to worry. It’s taken care of. But the final decision isn’t up to me. It’s up to Mr. Allen. If he wants you to stay, then that works for me, but if not, then I’m afraid I can’t do anything about that. Why don’t you see what he wants to do while I wait here and admire this interesting chandelier?”
I dropped my suitcase, letting it hit the fine marble floor with a thud, and ran toward Nico’s office. “I’ll be right back, Mr. DeVille!”
By the time I reached the end of the hallway, I needed to catch my breath. No matter what Nico thought of me, he had to admit I was the one person who should be with Grace. If he intended on being petty and cruel, then I’d give it right back to him and let him know I wasn’t leaving without a fight.
I marched into his office to find him sitting behind his desk very much like that day when Grace and I brought him that picture she made him. He looked about as miserable too.
My heart started racing, but I took a deep breath and said, “If Grace isn’t going, then I don’t want to go either. She and I should stay together. She’s had a hard enough time with what happened to her mother. To take away her closest friend in the world would just be cruel, and as much as I think you’re a son of a bitch, Nico, I don’t think you’re someone who wants to be intentionally cruel to a five year old girl anymore.”
He looked up at me with shock written all over his face. “Why am I a son of a bitch?”
“I don’t really want to talk about that now. I’m here to tell you I think if you send me away from that little girl because you don’t give a damn about me and only wanted sex from me, then you’re an ass.”
Nico stood from his chair and walked over to me, still looking surprised I was saying any of this at all. I bet he thought I’d just be some pathetic lay who would beg him to stay with her.
Well, he needed to erase that thought from his head right now. I only wanted to stay because of Grace. Nothing else. The fact that I still cared for him and could barely stand in this room without wanting to kiss him didn’t matter.
All that mattered was Grace.
“Is that what you think? That I only wanted you for sex and I don’t care about you?” he asked in a voice full of hurt.
“Well, you left without even saying goodbye. That sounds like you don’t care, which logically leads me to believe you just used me for sex. Not that I care, because I don’t. I only care about Grace. So are you going to be a decent human being and let me stay with her now that her father has decided not to bother actually being her father? By the way, I have to tell you this poor child has the worst people in the world related to her. Her mother is in prison for stealing from people, probably elderly people on a fixed income who couldn’t afford to lose a penny, much less their life savings. Her father is a flake who turned this house upside down and a little girl’s life with it and then decided to just go catch a wave or something. Hang ten, douchebag. And you, well, you thought it was okay to leave the two of us without even letting us say goodbye. You people are a piece of work.”
By the time I finished, Nico’s dark eyes stared down at me, wide open and full of what looked like anger. Well, he better be prepared to defend himself with all his anger if he planned on sending me away and bringing in another nanny.
God, I hated that idea. What if Grace didn’t like her? What if she was like Agatha?
Or what if Nico liked her and the new nanny and he ended up together, happily ever after?
“Are you finished?” he asked brusquely.
I set my jaw defiantly and nodded. If he was going to send me away, I planned to look him dead in the eyes when he did it. He’d get to see my judgment of him being an asshole with every word he spoke.
For a long moment, he remained silent, but then he pulled me to him in a kiss that took my breath away. I felt like my head was spinning, and when he finally released me, I didn’t know if my legs would hold me up.
“So does that mean I get to stay as Grace’s nanny?”
For the first time since I walked into this office, he smiled. “Yes. I can’t believe you thought I’d let you go.”
“Well, Mr. DeVille told me it was up to you, and since you basically just walked out without saying goodbye to Grace or me, I figured you didn’t want me here anymore.”
I lowered my gaze to the floor and added, “Because you didn’t care about me and all we were was sex.”
Nico said nothing, and as the seconds ticked by, I struggled to keep myself from crying. Why wasn’t he saying anything? He really didn’t care about me at all? Then why the hell did he just kiss me like that?
Finally, in a low voice, he said, “I left because I couldn’t face losing you and Grace. I love you, Tia. It was so much more than sex between us. You made me want to be a better man. No one has ever accomplished that with me. I never want to let you go.”
Did he mean that? He loved me?
I looked up at him and saw he was serious. “You love me?”