So far, it’d been three days since the interview, and I hadn’t heard a thing.
Three days of nothing but waiting by the phone, cutting out newspaper ads, and ignoring my shithead of a mother as best I could.
I filled one of the empty days babysitting for Mrs. Sharon so she and her husband could go shopping for baby supplies. Their son, Davion, Charlotte, and I played hide and seek, colored until our fingers hurt, and ate ourselves sick with all sorts of junk food Mrs. Sharon had stashed at their house.
By the morning of the fourth day, I’d begun to side-eye the section of the newspaper that advertised a strip club a town over. Charlotte never had to know, and from what I heard, strippers made pretty good money, right?
Then, on that fourth morning, in the middle of a perfectly executed pancake flip, my phone rang.
Shuffling the pan around on the burner, I answered. “Hello?”
Before anyone spoke, a ruckus clattered on the other end, and a masculine voice cursed. “Is this Katerina Sanders?”
Confused, I switched off the stove’s burner. “It is. Who’s asking?”
“Dominic Reed.”
Dominic? “Doesn’t sound familiar.”
An annoyed sigh pushed into the phone. “From the interview a few days ago to be Maya’s nanny.”
Shock parted my lips and slowed my motions to a stop. The onetime familiar, low register of his voice cast me into a statue in the middle of my kitchen, phone in one hand and a paper plate in the other. The muted thump of my pulse acted as background music to the singular thought in my brain that stood out loud and clear.
The husband with the smokey eyes.
“Oh shit. I mean—Hi!” Fuck.
Mr. Reed bypassed my slip of the tongue and got straight to business. “Listen, I need a huge favor.”
“Uh, yeah?” Quickly, I recovered from my internal glitch and gripped the phone harder to my ear. Charlotte playing on the living room floor peeked up at me as I placed her breakfast on the counter.
“We actually hired another nanny—” Figured. “But she fell through this morning, and now my wife refuses to come home and is planning on staying overnight in another town for work, and I’m late to work myself.” My fingernails tapped an anxious beat on the countertop as I listened to him.
Mr. Reed breathed hard into his phone, the sound resonating his stress in my ear. “Honestly, you were my first pick for the position, and since Heather’s not here to have a say, how does a trial run sound? Today?”
“Um…” Bugs gave me a pinch-faced expression, asking me what was going on with her little brows and pouting mouth. I responded with a flick of my finger to finish her pancakes before turning away so it was just me, the phone, and this huge potential opportunity to save our asses.
I’d question later on how in the world I was his first choice, and for now, blindly accept the bone that had been thrown our way.
“Sure, I can swing that. When?”
“Now. Right now.”
Oh fuck. “Uh, now?”
“Yes. How fast could you be here? I’d need you to stay until around 10 tonight if you could.”
Tension wound up my neck as I twisted back towards Charlotte, who was eating happily, syrup globbed on her chin. My heartbeat thunked inside my chest as toppling thoughts ambushed one another as I tried to work out a solution.
Think. Think. Think.
Our mother wasn’t awake, and she wouldn’t be for hours, nor would I trust her to watch Charlotte by herself. I’d already told Mrs. Sharon she could have these few days off, and I’d feel like such a shit for bothering her after that.
“Ms. Sanders, I don’t mean to rush you, but I need an answer.” Mr. Reed’s voice came through my ear, controlled and rumbling. There was no waiver to his voice. No notes of consideration. Just business and demands. One singular demand he shoved at my feet.
“Yeah…” Pinching my eyes shut, I fisted my free hand together in front of me like if I clenched it hard enough, I’d open it back up and the answer would be in my palm.
Aw, hell, I need this job.
“I’ll make it work,” I spit out before I could take it back. “I’ll be there in twenty.”
A momentary lapse in breathing cued his relief.
“Perfect. Twenty minutes, Ms. Sanders.”
The phone went dead, and my mind went completely berserk. The next several minutes consisted of throwing proper clothes on myself and Charlotte and pleading with Mrs. Sharon to watch Charlotte for the day until she took pity on me and said yes.
Promising Mrs. Sharon a lifetime of free babysitting, I was in my car and racing towards the house I never thought I’d step foot in again, stop signs and red lights be damned. The first time I drove there, it took me eighteen minutes. This time, I was parked on the street in front of the stone-faced house and sprinting up to the front doors in twelve.
I didn’t get but two knocks in before the menacing doors swung wide open with Mr. Dominic Reed on the other side—
Clad in full police officer uniform.
“Ms. Sanders. Thank you for coming on such short notice.”
He spoke, and I knew he spoke because sound came out of him, but whatever he said didn’t have a chance in hell at being registered. Not when he looked like that. My brain misfired. My senses surged. I was a mindless defect on sensory overload who felt her desire like a towel-snap across my whole body. Stinging, hot, and wet. So fucking wet.
The sting of just how attractive his six foot something, uniformed body was parched my throat, and I went to swallow down some relief. Except, like a misfortuned dumbass, I choked on my spit and coughed as I eye-fucked my new boss with zero ability to stop. Was he here to arrest me for the twenty plus stop signs I blew through to get here?
If so, I wasn’t mad about it.
The dark blue material stretched across his wide chest and struggled to not burst back to single threads around his curled biceps as he held the door open. Casually, he kicked his booted foot out to prop the door open and took his hand back to shift his utility belt around his waist. Dominic Reed arched a thick eyebrow at me as I tried to maintain my coughing.
“I didn’t know you were a… a cop,” I managed to force out.
Words. Good. Words are good.
“Detective. I’m helping with patrol this week.” When I didn’t stop staring, he cocked his head to the side in an assertive way that brought my eyes back to his. “Is that a problem?”
My brain sputtering back to life, I shook my head frantically. “No, not at all. Just caught me off guard. I didn’t know if I was walking in to babysit or be arrested.” I gave a light chuckle. Mr. Reed only raised the side of his mouth just barely.
“Maya’s inside in the living room watching T.V. I can show you in if you need—”
“Oh, that’s fine.” I waved him off, trying to salvage my shitty second impression by not looking at him too much. My tongue worked far better without the glint of his handcuffs shackled around it. “I think I can manage to find my way through this maze again without getting too lost.”
In my fluttering eye’s attempt to not stare directly at temptation, I did manage to catch a resounding sneer pull his full lips apart. “This house is ridiculous, I know.”
Mr. Reed breathed a sharp breath as he patted his hands over his pockets and padded chest, doing a final check of items.
“Alright, my cell number is on the counter. She’s already had breakfast, and there’s a twenty on the counter so you can order a pizza for you two for dinner. If you have any questions about where things are, Maya should be able to answer most of them.”
His dark eyebrows flattened to a straight line. “Do you have any questions you can think of now?”
“No, no, I’m good. Keep the kid alive. Eat the pizza. Don’t burn down the house. I’m a pro.”
A twitch of a smirk lifted the corner of his mouth as he side-eyed me. “Risky humor for a trial run.”
I shrugged. “I enjoy toeing the line of recklessness and financial stability.”
Mr. Reed hesitated for just a second, steel-gray eyes framed by faint amusement. Then it was gone, and he and I were switching places, putting him outside and me standing in the frame of the door.
“If you need anything, just call. I have my cell on me at all times.”
“Got it. Now, go! Catch some bad guys or eat a donut or something else stereotypical.”
That joke clearly didn’t play as well; he admonished me with a cutting glance that pulled my stomach inside out and then stalked off without another word. I stood there watching him go, trying so very hard to keep my eyes from drifting down as he moved with purpose to a silver Explorer in the driveway. With a strangled sigh, I closed the door between me and his perfect ass and locked it in place.
I sighed, talking to the door. “That man needs a stiff drink and an orgasm.”
“What’s an orgasm?”
The small voice erupted through the air, and I sucked back a gasp as I whipped around. I slammed my back against the door, my hand slapping across my chest to grab onto my next breath and hold it still as my stare fell to the little girl in front of me.
Maya stood there in princess pink pajamas, eyes wide and curious as she looked up at me for an answer to a question that never should have come out of her four-year-old mouth.
Fuck me and my flippant, twenty-year-old mouth.
“Uh…” My heartbeat danced erratically as I tried to think. “Just something your mommy needs to give your daddy.”
“Oh…” Her large blue eyes blinked just once, and she pulled her bottom lip into her mouth as she nodded. “Okay.”
My chest caved in as I let out a thankful breath. That was not something I wanted to come back and bite me in the ass if I managed to secure this job.
Both Maya and I stood in a familiarizing silence as we adjusted to each other and the time we’d be spending together tonight. I looked all around the pristine, forcefully put-together house and grimaced at all the breakable shit around us. Rough housing was clearly out of the picture, but this poor kid needed some fun in her white-picket life.
If we can’t play inside…
Jerking my head down to Maya, I smirked.
“Where do your parents keep the fireworks?”
