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“You’re late.”
He shrugs. “It’s just you, so it doesn’t matter. Please tell me that your ma isn’t still taking care of your kid.”
“I have a nanny.”
“Since when?” he asks in disbelief.
“About a week.”
His eyes narrow. “I’ve talked to you since then. Why didn’t you tell me?” I shrug, and he ignores it. “Is she good? Is she taking care of the baby like she should?”
I glare at him. “For someone who self-appointed himself as my baby’s godfather, ‘the baby’ is a girl and she has a name.”
Derek rolls his eyes. He refers to Bree as the baby all the time just to piss me off. “Fine. Is she taking care of Bree? How is she?”
Before I can answer, the waiter walks up to take our drink orders. My phone buzzes with a text as he walks away. It’s a selfie of Bree and Raelynn with a message that she wants to talk to me if I’m not busy. I tap the picture and turn it to Derek.
“She looks fine, doesn’t she?”
He snatches it from my hand to hold it closer to his face. “Who the fuck is holding the baby?”
“My nanny, Raelynn.”
Derek’s gaze lifts to meet mine. “This woman?” His eyes drop again. “This ‘hot as hell, I’d totally fuck her in a heartbeat woman’ is your nanny?”
My jaw clenches, my eyes narrow, and I wish I could punch him. “Don’t talk about her like that.”
He looks at me again. “When you said nanny, I expected someone like your mom. Middle-aged, maybe older, motherly, but not someone who when you see her, she gives you an instant hard-on. No wonder you didn’t tell me about her. You have the hots for your nanny, don’t you, EJ?”
I yank my phone from his hand. “No,” I snap with too much denial. “She’s just a woman taking care of my princess.” I glance down at the photo, but somehow, it’s trying to start a video call with her. Derek opens his mouth, but I hold up my hand as she answers.
“Hey, Elias,” Raelynn says. “Hold on.” Her face disappears and now I see the ceiling. Elias? Derek mouths, trying not to laugh. “No no, Bree,” I hear her say. “Come on. You can look at your DaDa while I talk to him.”
I frown as Derek slides out of his side of the booth and moves next to me, so he can view the screen, but stay out of sight.
“Is everything okay?” Raelynn asks, bringing my eyes back to the phone. “Where are you?”
“In a restaurant. Is everything okay there?” Bree tries to grab her phone, so I add, “Hey, princess.” She gives me a big, goofy grin.
“Yeah. I, ah, just wanted to let you know that Brayden stopped by last night. He said he just wanted to see Bree. He hung out for a bit, fell asleep, and then left. I felt like maybe you’d want to know he stopped by.”
“Okay. That’s fine.” Also might explain the text I got as I was walking into the restaurant. He wanted to know if she would be alone for Thanksgiving and if so, could he have her number so he could invite her over to his house. “He might text you and invite you to his house for Thanksgiving. You should go.”
Her eyes widen a little. “Oh, okay. Well, you should be eating or whatever. If you want to talk to Bree later, call me back.” She pauses and then adds with a slight smile, “Still no coherent words.”
I laugh a little. “Good to know. She’s probably saving them for when I come home.”
Bree reaches for the phone again. Raelynn isn’t fast enough and Bree disconnects the call. Derek moves back to his side of the booth. He eyes the menu and doesn’t say a word. That’s bad. So, so bad that he isn’t talking yet. The waiter returns with our drinks and takes Derek’s order. I decide to order the same thing as him since I didn’t really look over the menu that well.
“How did you even find her?” he eventually asks.
“She was looking for a job, and she went into Brayden Hayes’s girlfriend’s workplace. He was there and got her an interview with me. She’s just a twenty-two-year-old single mom who happens to be my nanny.”
“Wait. She has a kid?”
“A five-year-old,” I say with a nod. “It’s just the two of them.”
He whistles quietly. “Well, that puts a spin on things.” He folds his arms and leans forward on the table. “Are you seriously trying to tell me that you don’t find her attractive? I mean, you’ve seen what she looks like, right? She’s even your type.”
