CHAPTER1
“What did you do?”Aly Gomez snapped. How much could one person take? Because she was pretty sure she was at her breaking point.
“You always assume it’s me,” her brother, Andy, grumbled.
“Because 90 percent of the time itisyou.” She flung her hand in the air as she paced the front porch of the house she was remodeling. Being halfway across the country wasn’t ideal when she was the sole legal guardian of a difficult eleven-year-old. “You put earthworms in Sarah’s bed the day she quit, and you filled Tanya’s closet with garbage. The poor woman couldn’t get the stank out of her clothes for two weeks!”
Andy snickered.
“It’s not funny, dude; you’ve been officially labeled a nightmare with these people.”
He sighed.
This entire thing was too much. Too hard for a twenty-four-year-old and an eleven-year-old to figure out, but there wasn’t another option.
“Where are you?” She glanced at her watch. It was three where she was, so that meant it was six in Jersey. He was done with his swim team practice.
“In the locker room.”
Aly took a deep breath and reminded herself that she could do this. “Why did I get a text fromanothernanny telling me she’d quit?”
“This was not my fault,” Andy cried, his tone defeated.
She softened. “Okay,whathappened?”Please, God, don’t let it be another problem with the house. A month ago, she’d had someone temporarily repair the roof. And one of the bathrooms had a pipe burst in the shower, so it was out of commission. The furnace was unreliable, and she’d had to replace the fridge about six weeks ago. The place was a money pit.
“Last week, she said that if she had to get up at four a.m. for swim practice again, she was quitting. Coach scheduled four morning practices at five thirty and two evening practices this week.”
She clenched her jaw. Although her brother was a pain in the ass, this wasn’t his fault.
She blew out a hard breath. “Okay, I’m sorry. This one isn’t on you. I’ll find a nanny who doesn’t care about early mornings.”
How she’d make it happen was a mystery. Just like she had no idea how she could continue to manage the upkeep on the house. They needed something smaller. A place without a yard. Just last week, she’d paid almost four hundred dollars for a second leaf cleanup. And she’d have to do one more before winter. Even with how much the TV show paid, she was barely getting by.
Aly stared out at the street. She’d been through so many nannies in the last year that she’d developed a reputation. Actually, it was her brother with the rep, but it made the search for childcare nearly impossible. And there was no way she’d find someone tonight. She wasn’t even done with her workday.
Before her mother got sick, Aly’s job had been ideal. Her mother had never been great at holding down a job or a relationship. She flitted from one thing to another, getting bored quickly. The only things her mother ever stuck with were her kids. But when Aly had gotten this gig, life got easier. She had a steady income, and she was happy to help her mom out. Being the financial provider of the family was something she could do. But raising her much younger brother wasn’t in Aly’s skill set. And the day-to-day stuff with Andy hadn’t been her job.
Until last year.
“Alley-cat.” The voice had her back straightening. If her costar wasn’t the world’s biggest twat pocket, the nickname probably wouldn’t bug her as much. It was amazing how one person could be so good at making her feel incompetent. “Ya done yet?”
“Give me a minute, Logan.” She turned away from him. The man was exactly what the show wanted in a star. He had big biceps that he showed off in his sleeveless flannel shirts and a panty-melting smile. Aly couldn’t stand him. “Andy, I’ll have to wait until morning to look for a nanny. Is there a friend you can stay with?”
“The Demodas always let me stay.” Andy’s voice perked up. “Maybe I can just do that until you come home.”
Aly clenched a fist, her short nails biting into her palm. This was Andy’s grand plan. And she got it; Steve was his best friend, and the Demodas had one of those perfect-family, happy-home situations—the kind Aly had wished for when she was Andy’s age—but that didn’t mean she could dump Andy off on them for the next few weeks.
“You can stay there tonight, but I’ll find a new nanny tomorrow. Thursday at the latest. And you have the credit card if you need something, right? If you go somewhere, don’t feel like you can’t get what you need.”
If she couldn’t be there, she didn’t want Andy to feel like he had to depend on his friends’ parents for money.
“I know what I’m doing, Aly.” Andy’s eye roll was practically audible.
He wasn’t impressed with his sister. And she got that too. She was barely keeping it together. But she’d start doing better.
Hopefully.
Maybe.