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“Look,” she jumps in before I can ask any of my planned questions. “I didn’t know you were the person hiring. I talked to Stacy, is that your wife? She didn’t say my name.”
“Stacy is my assistant,” I tell Breanna. I can hear the judgy tone she has in her voice. If I was dumb enough to get married, I wouldn’t be out at a club feeling other women up, but that’s what Breanna seems to think.
“Right, well, she didn’t mention anything about you or your name. So…”
“So you don’t want the job,” I confirm. “You’re just trying to figure out a graceful way to leave.”
“No! No leaving!” Jaxon jumps up, suddenly wanting to be in the exact middle of the conversation. I reach for him, and he burrows into my side.
“Jaxon,” I say in a low voice. “Remember those marshmallows you really wanted to eat?”
Jaxon jumps up like an uncoiled spring. “I can have them? I’m going to eat them all! Yum! Yum! I love marshmallows!” He shoots off to the kitchen to eat the marshmallows that I’ve been saving for when I need a few minutes on my own.
I make eye contact with Breanna, my face falling into a more serious look so that she knows my smile wasn’t for her. “No one is requiring you to stay for an interview.”
“Thank you, but if you recall, you insisted I needed a job. Here I am, taking a job. My availability matches your hours, though who knows why you would need an overnight nanny.” Breanna purses her lips and shoots me a disgruntled look.
I look right back at her, no shame at all in my gaze. “It’s not your business to question what I’m doing when you’re taking care of my son. If Stacy gave you the right details on compensation, then you know I’m paying above and beyond what is typical in this area, especially for someone with…” I look her up and down, “... no experience.”
Breanna hands over her one-page resume with a snap. “I was in school for elementary education. I wasn’t able to finish my master’s, but my bachelor’s should be sufficient for a job like this.”
“My son is three, not an elementary student.” I accept her resume and briefly scan the details. They match with what Stacy told me.
“The same principles apply.” Breanna continues to study me.
Even though I’ve already read everything on her resume, I continue to look at it while my mind scrambles for what I should do. Breanna is my only prospect. Stacy assured me that she was eager and would do well. If I don’t have someone to stay with Jaxon, my only option come Monday would be to… bring him to work with me.
I shudder as I imagine him tearing up the waiting room and terrorizing my patients. I’m desperate, but I try not to let it show.
“Are you available for the hours Stacy specified? I have my schedule one month in advance, and I usually have one on-call shift a week.”
“Yes, everything she told me works. I don’t have another job or any sort of social life at this point.”
I glance at her, and she blushes just a little. But she keeps her gaze firm. “I need the job, and if you think I can take care of Jaxon, then I’m asking you to give it to me.”
I don’t want her to know how desperate I am for someone to stay with him. I glance over my shoulder and let my eyes linger on the hallway that leads to the kitchen.
When I turn back to Breanna, she’s still looking at me with the same steady gaze. Mine flickers down to her body, but I don’t allow my mind to start imagining the things I could do with her.
“If I hire you,” I say, making it clear that I’m still thinking over my options even though my options are really nothing right now, “our relationship is strictly a professional one.”
Breanna’s eyes don’t even flicker as she nods. Her lips tighten a little. “I wouldn’t want anything else.”
This tiny show of insolence annoys me. She can’t just say that she needs the job, so she’s willing to ignore any attraction she has. She acts like the almost-physical chemistry we experienced was a figment of my imagination, as though she is not wildly attracted to me when I know she must be.
Jaxon comes streaking in from the kitchen, the plastic bag of marshmallows in his hand and his cheeks bulging with more.
“Daddy, these are yummy!” I know I’m going to be paying for this sugar high later, but I don’t care. It gave me the few minutes I needed to talk with Breanna.
I almost want to laugh at the irony as Jaxon spins in a circle, then plops onto the ground. I told Breanna to get a job. And here she is, two days later, getting a job.
“Jaxon, you know you can’t have food in the living room.”
He looks at me, and I see him weighing the pros and cons of starting an argument. Instead, he shoves two more of the huge marshmallows in his mouth, then hands me the bag. His mouth is so full that he can hardly talk. “It’s just in my mouf,” he says, pointing.
I laugh. Here is he, toeing the line. It’s not technically in the living room if it’s already in his body, is it? We had this discussion about coming in the living room with food in his belly before.
He pats Breanna’s knee and says something unintelligible to her. She looks at me, startled, unable to interpret.
