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She stacked her hands on her knees. “Yes, feel free. I’m happy to answer all your questions, Elliot.”
Oh, this chick. My middle finger was twitchinghard. No way was she getting this job. I was, however, eager to see her get the Elliot Levy treatment since he appeared equally unimpressed with her and her attitude.
Elliot rapid-fired a couple scenarios at her, and to her credit, she had very good answers. She clearly knew a lot more about taking care of babies than I did. What she didn’t have was warmth. I couldn’t imagine her snuggling a baby to sleep or comforting a small child. There was nothing nurturing about her. I might not have known when to seek medical attention should Joey have a fever—I refused to believe she’d ever get sick, but if she did, I’d be in her doctor’s office faster than he could sayinfluenza—but I did know how to give powerful hugs and patch up a boo-boo.
“How do you handle bad days when a baby is fussy for no discernible reason?” he asked.
Elliot was pretty good at patching up boo-boos too, come to think of it. We both had a leg up on this chick.
I laid my hand on his arm. “Not that Joey’s fussy. She only really cries when she’s hungry.”
Mary quickly but unmistakably rolled her eyes. The gesture hadn’t escaped me. From the way Elliot tensed beside me, it hadn’t escaped him either.
“Well, I—”
Elliot cut her off by raising his hand. “How am I to interpret your eye roll?”
Her mouth flapped open and closed. “What? No, I didn’t—”
“No, you did,” he replied. “From where I’m sitting, you rolled your eyes because either you don’t believe Josephine isn’t a fussy baby, or you don’t consider what Catherine had to say about her own child valid. Which is it?”
She grew beet red from her throat to her forehead. “That isn’t what I meant, Elliot. It’s just—”
“It’s Mr. Levy, and I know exactly what you meant.” Elliot rose to his feet, towering over Mary and me. “We’ve heard enough, Mary. We won’t be using your services. I’ll show you out.”
Before I could utter a single word, Elliot hustled Mary from the room, leaving me gawking after them.
I had whiplash. Elliot had hijacked my interview then dismissed her without any say from me. Not that I’d been planning to hire that awful woman, but still, it was the principle. This was about my child. If anyone was going to do the dismissing, it should have been me.
Moments later, Elliot reappeared, hands in his pocket, a deep frown tugging his mouth down.
“The agency needs to know what kind of person they’re sending out on interviews.” He shook his head with disgust. “She tried to slip me her number before I tossed her out. As if I’d have any interest in someone who showed no respect for you.”
I stood up, crossing my arms over my chest. “What are you doing, Elliot? When I asked if I could hold interviews here, I didn’t mean for you to show up to them.”
He waved off my concern. “It wasn’t a problem for Daniel to reschedule my appointments.”
“You never reschedule your appointments.”
His gaze landed on mine. “I haven’t had a reason to.” Crossing the room, he stopped in front of me, wrapping his fingers around my forearms. He unfolded them and lowered them to my sides, but he didn’t let go, holding on to my elbows in a firm grip. “Are you mad at me?”
“A little, yeah.”
“There is no way you wanted that woman to watch Jo. I did you a favor by ending the interview early. Myself a favor too. I couldn’t sit through any more of her condescending answers, could you?”
“No, but that isn’t the point. I need to be the one who has the final say. You can’t take that away from me.”
He tapped my arm twice, and it reminded me of the way he tapped his mouse when he was annoyed with me.Tap, tap, motherclucker, I’m a little annoyed with you too.
“You do have the final say.” That tapping finger stroked along the crook of my arm, back and forth. “But you agreed I could sit in on the interview when I arrived.”
“When you showed up without warning.”
“I wasn’t aware I needed warning to show up in my own home.”
I huffed. “I could have been naked.”
His brow winged, but this time, it wasn’t dubious. More like devious. “More reason for me not to warn you.”
