Page 59 of A Nanny for the Reclusive Billionaire

“Trust me, you’ll feel better getting it off your chest.” Brooke put her arm around Mallory and gave her a quick squeeze. “And who knows? I might be able to help. Remember what a hot mess I was when I found out Eli had lied about his job and hidden that he was buying this building?”

“Hot mess is putting it lightly. You were drowning yourself in junk food and diet soda.”

“That’s not the point. The point is you talked me off the ledge and convinced me to listen to him.”

“That was different.”

“How?”

“I was the one giving the advice. I’m the sensible, look-before-you-leap one. You’re Miss Close-Your-Eyes-and-Jump-Without-a-Net.”

Mallory swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood, stretching her arms over her head. Her back creaked in protest, making her wince. It was going to take hot yoga or a deep tissue massage—or both—for her body to recuperate from three hours of being in the middle of a sumo sandwich.

But at least her body had a shot at recovery. She wasn’t sure her heart would ever mend.

Brooke lifted a shoulder and let it fall in a careless shrug. “That might be true. But I’m the one with a smoking-hot husband who lives to give me orgasms, and you’re spending the foreseeable future sleeping alone in our guest room.”

“Ouch.”

“I’m sorry. That came out wrong.”

“You don’t say?” Mallory arched a brow at her sister, who responded by rolling her eyes. “I rest my case about which one of us is the better advice-giver.”

“What I meant was sometimes leaping without looking isn’t so bad. As long as there’s someone there to catch you.”

“Catch, yes. Trap, no.”

“Explain.”

“First I need sustenance. Please tell me you have something in your cupboard besides potato chips and Ho Hos.”

“Sure.” Brooke sprang off the bed, her stockinged feet making a softthudon the polished oak floor. “I’ve also got an unopened package of powdered mini doughnuts, half a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, and some Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.”

“I see marriage to a multimillionaire hasn’t given you a taste for haute cuisine.”

“Billionaire,” her sister corrected. “And if you asked me, there’s no finer dining than a handful of Cheetos, a pack of Slim Jims, and a couple of Twinkies, with a Diet Coke chaser.”

Mallory followed Brooke to the kitchen. She pulled up a stool at the massive center island while her sister managed to rustle up a not-entirely-unhealthy assortment of cheese, crackers, and a few sad-looking grapes. Mallory thought of the omelet she prepared the night Rhys first kissed her. Or their food foreplay after they rescued Oliver.

She stared at the pathetic plate in front of her. Oh, how the lovelorn had fallen.

“Okay.” Brooke took the stool across from Mallory and propped her chin on her hands. “Enough stalling. I fed you. Let’s hear all the dirty details.”

Mallory took a chance on a sad grape—bad idea, she thought, grimacing at the sour squirt as she bit into it—and launched into the whole saga of her trip to the movie theater with Oliver and Rhys’s reaction.

“That’s it?” Brooke pulled the plate toward herself and sandwiched a piece of cheese between two crackers. “You bailed because he got mad at you for taking his kid to the movies without asking first?”

“No, that’s not it.” Mallory snatched the plate back. “I bailed—your word, not mine—because I wasn’t about to stick around and do nothing while Rhys kept Oliver under house arrest.”

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting a teeny-tiny bit?” Brooke asked through a mouthful of cheese and cracker.

“You wouldn’t understand. You weren’t the one under lock and key. Mom and Dad let you do whatever you wanted, wherever you wanted, with whoever you wanted. While I had to fight tooth and nail to go to school three hours away, and they only let me do that after I promised to come home after graduation and work at the Worthington.”

“Fine.” Brooke reached down and pulled two cans of soda from the under-counter beverage refrigerator. She popped the top on one and slid the other across to Mallory. “For the sake of argument, I’ll concede your reaction was totally normal, given the circumstances. But who says you have to do nothing?”

“Rhys.” Mallory opened her soda and drank. “I tried reasoning with him. He wouldn’t listen.”

“How hard did you try?”