And what dumbass had let her slip through his fingers?
At least Briar didn’t know what I was thinking. Either I was a better actor than I thought, or she truly wasn’t interested. I never caught her eyes on me. She was totally focused on Zoe and their lunch. It was everything I’d ever wanted in a nanny.
So why was it annoying me?
“Are you done with your lunch?” Briar asked, addressing me for the very first time.
“I, what?” I blinked and discovered that my bowl was empty, and Briar was gathering our dishes. “Oh yeah. I’m done. Thanks.”
She smiled and added my bowl to her stack before carrying them to the sink. The faucet ran as she rinsed the dishes, and I heard her open the dishwasher.
I opened my mouth to ask her to grab a washcloth for Zoe, but she was already carrying one back. She neatly cleaned Zoe’s face, despite my daughter’s scowl and attempts at dodging the washcloth.
“So what’s next?” Briar asked with a bright smile.
I cleared my throat. “How about we start a cartoon for Zoe while we go over a few things?”
“Sure.” Briar deftly unstrapped Zoe from her highchair and lifted the toddler into her arms. Zoe wrapped her arms around Briar and rested her head against Briar’s shoulder. My daughter looked like she loved exactly where she was, comfortable in the person holding her.
I don’t think I’d ever seen her take to someone so quickly. Not since Rome’s wife first started coming around. And even then, it took my girl a minute to warm up to Sophia. I struggled to swallow against the lump that suddenly appeared in my throat.
“Everything okay?” Briar asked.
I nodded tightly before saying roughly. “Yeah. Come on. This way.”
A few minutes later, we had Zoe happily plopped down in front of the tv with Mickey Mouse on the screen. I sat on one end of the couch, and Briar sat on the other.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and waved Briar over. “You need to be a little closer to see this.”
She stood and walked over to my end of the couch. Then she sat close to me but not so close that we were touching. My head swam at her subtle scent—fruity, like cherries? It was refreshing and so different than my ex. Ariel had loved to douse herself with all those designer perfumes that had made me choke. Whereas Briar was a literal breath of fresh air. She couldn’t have been more different from my ex if she’d tried.
Maybe that was what I’d found so annoyingly attractive.
“What did you want me to see?” She asked after a long, awkward pause.
I blinked back into the present. “Right. Um, this is the app we use to monitor Zoe when she’s sleeping.”
I ran her through the security codes, my nanny cams throughout the house, and Zoe’s schedule. The whole time, she took notes on her phone, nodding along, and avoiding eye contact.
“Adam said something about you starting a movie soon? What is my schedule going to be like when you’re filming?”
This time she looked up from her phone, and I got to see her pale blue eyes. They were gorgeous.
But she was my employee.
I shook my head. “We start filming in three days. I’ll be on set upwards of twelve hours a day, plus the commute. And it’s a six-week shoot. Fortunately, we don’t have any location shoots. I haven’t found someone to relieve you so you can have time off yet, but that’s the goal. Until then, it’ll be long days for you,unfortunately. But my brother, Rome, should be done filming his movie soon-ish. He and Sophia will be available to give you some days off coming up. And I’d like you to bring Zoe to set some days, but we’ll talk about specifics later.”
Briar’s eyes got wider and wider the longer I talked, but she didn’t say anything.
I raised my eyebrows at all she wasn’t saying. “Any problems with what we’ve gone over?”
“I’m going to meet Roman Grier?” she whispered.
I tried not to laugh. Or be insulted. Rome? Really? Now it was my turn not to say anything.
Briar’s face slowly started turning red. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud. This is all just so surreal.” She shook her head then squared her shoulders. “But no, it’s fine. I understood from talking to Adam that days off would be hard to come by while you’re filming. And I’m fine with that. Zoe is a gorgeous, fun little girl.”
I nodded and turned my attention to my clasped hands and not how gorgeous Briar looked with flushed cheeks. “Okay. And uh, I should’ve said this earlier, but I’m impressed so far. You passed my little test at lunch and handled Zoe easily. I think this is going to be a good match.”