He turned his eyes to me. “Well ladies, I should be moving along. It was good seeing you both. And April—I’m sure I’ll see you again before too long.”
Without another word, he walked past the two of us and was soon among the crowd on the sidewalk, his silver hair disappearing among the masses.
“That was nice,” said Willa. “I wonder why Dad never has him over to the house.”
“I’m sure your dad has his reasons,” I said. “And we should be getting home.”
“OK, OK.” She took a big bite of her cookie and chewed it happily, crumbs falling down to her feet. “Have one! They’re so good.”
“Maybe when we get back.” I took Willa’s hand, making damn sure to keep her close as we headed back to the house.
Cookies were the last thing on my mind.
Anton. There wasn’t a chance in hell he was there by some kind of coincidence. I was sure he’d been following us, and him being so open about it was no doubt his way of letting me know I was under his watch.
Not even two days into the job, and the pressure was already building. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I knew I had to tell Jason about me losing Willa for a moment. Not only did he need to know the truth but I could only imagine how bad it would look if Willa were to let it slip, Jason learning that I’d kept something like that from him.
We were soon at the house, stepping through the doors right as Willa popped the last bit of her cookie into her mouth. Jason was already home, seated at the kitchen bar with his iPad propped up in front of him.
“There’re the girls,” he said, clicking the power off, the screen turning black. “How was school?”
“Good!” said Willa as she bounded into the kitchen, opening up the fridge and grabbing the milk. “Dad, who’s Uncle Anton?”
Jason froze for a moment, clearly not expecting that question.
“Anton?” he asked.
I sat down in the chair next to Jason. His cologne hit me right away, but I was still so shaken up that not even my attraction to him was enough to put it out of my mind.
“We…had a little incident on the way home from school.”
Now Jason’s attention was fully on me. “What? What kind of incident?”
“It’s not a big deal,” said Willa. “We—”
I spoke up quickly, wanting to be the one to break the news. “We were getting some cookies and I…lost Willa for a second.”
“You lost her?” He wasn’t quite pissed, but there was definitely a hard edge to his voice.
“Just for a minute or two. The place was packed, and she just kind of…ran off.”
Jason said nothing, and for a moment I worried he might fire me on the spot. I was still on a trial run, and the thought of being fired sent a flash of panic through me.
“Willa? Is this true?”
“Yeah,” she said. “But it was only for a second. And then Uncle Anton was there. He got me some cookies, and it was fine.”
Jason kept his eyes on me for a long moment that felt like an eternity. “Willa—go to your room.”
“What? Don’t I need to start my homework or something?”
“Now.” His tone made it clear he wasn’t screwing around. Without another word, Willa took her glass of milk and left.
Then it was just me and Jason. I was nervous as hell, no idea what he was about to say.
“Anton Cutter was there?” he finally asked.
“Yes.” I kept my answer short and simple, figuring the more I spoke, the more likely I was to let out a detail or two I shouldn’t.