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“Seriously? The hot guy from last night is my cop neighbor?” she asks, frowning.
I nod. “Yep. What are the chances?”
She shakes her head. “That is nearly impossible.”
“A more important question here is: Why didn’t you recognize him and warn me?”
She scoffs. “I’ve never met him and I’ve only ever seen him in passing. Plus, the club was dark and I’d been drinking.” She shrugs. “How was he?” Her brows raise and she smiles.
I roll my eyes. “That’s the problem. He was amazing.”
She leans against the island, crossing her arms over her chest as her smile stays in place.
“Last night, he was such a nice guy. He was flirty but wasn’t pushy. He opened up to me and told me a little about him and his past. We really connected. And then back at the hotel, he was amazing in bed. He was giving, not stingy at all. He was talented—he made me come like four times. Everything was great. But today? He’s cold. He looks at me like I had all this planned to trick him or something.”
She waves her hand through the air. “Don’t let it bother you. You’ll probably never see him again. I mean, no more than I’ve seen him the last year I’ve lived here. I hear him and his daughter in the backyard every once in a while, but there’s a fence so I don’t see them. He usually parks in the garage too, so it’s not like you’ll see him moving from his truck to the house. At most, you might see him get his mail.”
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Maybe she’s right. Maybe I won’t have to see him. And over time, I’ll be able to forget all about the night we shared. Everything will go back to normal.
Anna and I have a quiet Sunday night in. We order some pizza for dinner and then watch TV until it’s time to call it a night. Sleep finds me easy as I didn’t get enough the night before and I wake on Monday feeling well rested. My alarm goes off at five-thirty. I’m excited about my first day at work so it’s easy to pull myself out of bed. I shower and get dressed before going to the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee. The house is still dark with the curtains drawn and quiet with Anna still sound asleep. With her being the owner of a boutique here in town, she gets to enjoy sleeping in every day as the store doesn’t open until ten A.M. Maybe she’s right and I did pick the wrong career path…
I have a quick breakfast and pour myself some coffee to take to work with me. The drive only takes minutes. In fact, I didn’t really need to drive at all but I didn’t want to walk when it was still dark outside. I didn’t expect a daycare to open so early in the morning, but I guess it makes sense when parents are needing to drop their kids off so they can get to work on time for jobs that normally require an eight A.M. start time.
I park and I’m walking into the building at seven on the dot. A woman with dark hair is behind the counter and she looks up at me with a welcome smile. “Emery?”
“That’s me.” I smile, holding up my hand to shake.
“Stevie. It’s good to finally meet you.” She shakes my hand. “Now that I hear your voice, it’s easy to place you since we did the interview over the phone.”
“Thank you so much for doing that, by the way. I’m not sure how many people would hire someone without meeting them.”
She waves her hand through the air. “Oh, I did my homework.” She laughs. “I double checked all of your achievements, reached out to every one of your references, and of course I ran a background check. You have to do that sort of thing when it comes to children.”
“Of course. I was happy you did all that. I’m sure those safety measures really give parents the peace of mind they need when dropping their kids off.”
“Come on around the counter and let’s get started.” She waves me forward.
The daycare is set up in a way that no child can run out the door on their own. In the center of the room there is a counter where each child is to be signed in and out. I walk around to the backside of the counter.
“We should have about twenty or thirty minutes before kids start arriving so I’ll walk you through everything.” She leads me to the back and through a doorway. “This is the employee break room slash kitchen area. We provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks for the kiddos and we have cooks that prepare the food for them so you’ll never be alone in here. This fridge here is for our personal use and the large industrial one is to store the food for the kids. You’re welcome to store your lunch in here, but please remember to take your stuff out by the end of the week.”
I nod for her to continue.
“Here’s some lockers where we can store our belongings. It’s really just a safety measure. We’ve never had anything come up missing before but you’re welcome to use a locker and you can even bring your own lock for it.” She pushes out the door. “This is the main play area for the kids. We’re a small town so we don’t have the need to divide up into classrooms. We do try to keep the kids grouped as best as possible. For example, Ms. Stacy will have the preschool aged kids playing in one area while the younger toddlers play in another and Julie and Becca handle the babies. Any questions so far?”
“What age will I be working with?”
“You’ll be with our preschool aged kids, but you may be asked to move around if we find ourselves short handed one day.”
I nod. “Perfect. I mean, I love babies as much as the next girl but I like playing with the older kids.”
Stevie nods. “Those preschool kids are something else. They can say the darndest things. Let’s go back to the counter so I can walk you through our morning routine of checking kids in.
It isn’t long before the door opens and our first parent walks in.
“Good morning, Mary,” Stevie greets as the woman signs in her child. “Good morning, Tommy. How are you today?”
The little boy frowns and crosses his arms.
