I shrug. "Ruthie told me the last permanent nanny she had is now her art therapist. Apparently, she had a career change that Liam and she were both completely supportive of, but the handful of people that have filled in since have been pretty shitty."
His eyes go wide as he follows me toward the vegetables. "Did she say that?"
I chuckle. "Not in those words. But she said two quit out of nowhere, and the one that stayed was always late and rude to the dog. I think there was another one too. I guess he just had a bunch of bad interviews before mine."
Trevor comes up behind me and throws his arms around my neck. "But then he met my perfect baby," he brags, kissing my cheek.
I use the rather long cucumber in my hand to playfully jab him in the shoulder until he releases me. "Stop," I laugh.
"What? It's true. And if you want, I can usemycucumber tonight to show you I mean it." He winks, and I roll my eyes.
"Trust me, Liam does not think I'm perfect." I lay the vegetable in the front of the cart and nod in the direction of the rest of the aisles.
"Why do you say that?" Trevor asks, following me.
"Because he just—"
"Hey, can you grab some of those protein bars I like? The peanut butter ones?"
"Yeah, they're further up," I say, pointing toward the middle of the store.
He tips his chin up. "Cool. Go on."
I inhale deeply trying to remember my thought while simultaneously trying to decide if I should get pretzel twists or pretzel rods. "So, he—"
"Get the twists," he blurts, interrupting again as I reach for the rods. "Sorry, keep going."
I shake my head, throwing his choice into the cart. "No, he's just standoffish like I said. And every time I think we're getting somewhere, he shuts down again."
"What do you mean?"
"For example, Ruthie has online schooling, right? Well, earlier she wanted to go outside and play, but she hadn't finished her math yet. So, Ilet her take her laptop to the park and hooked her up to my hotspot. She got five minutes of time to flip over the bar at the jungle gym for every problem she finished."
Trevor shrugs. "Sounds good to me."
"That's what I thought. But when Liam got home from his team meeting and Ruthie told him about how great she thought it was, he blew it off."
Trevor grabs a box of Triscuits and pretends to pitch them into the cart. "Well, maybe he just has a stick up his ass because he's getting replaced next season."
I grab Wheat Thins—the superior cracker—and sit them beside the box of frozen perogies I picked out earlier. "I don't think that's it. I just think it's something about me in particular."
"Maybe he thinks you're hot."
I nearly choke on my own spit, my reaction unnecessarily defensive. "What? No, that's crazy. I work for him. And he's like chronically single Brooke said. There's no way. Plus, he's older, and he has a kid. He would never."
I pause before rounding the corner to the next aisle to find Trevor still steps behind me, frozen with his hands on the cart. "Jesus, Tessa, I was kidding."
He shakes his head and laughs, and I force myself to join him. "No, I know. I'm just saying." Trevor walks closer to me as we head toward the next aisle. "There's no way Liam likes me like that—I'm not even sure he likes me at all."
I turn, expecting to check out the cereals they have stocked on the end-cap, and instead, I crash right into someone coming the opposite direction. I immediately spring into action, leaning down to pick up the items that fell from the other person's basket, when Trevor rams me from behind with the cart.
"Ah!" I fly forward, landing in the arms of the stranger, my face merely inches from his crotch.
"Oh my God."
"Shit, my bad, babe."
"Tessa?"
