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“But?” I hate that my hope rises on this one little word.
Please be my savior.
Hadley sighs and says, “It seems we both could help each other out. My van broke down and I need money to pay for the repairs.”
“And I need someone to watch my unruly children.”
She nods and bites down on her bottom lip. “Yes, you do.”
Piper tugs on my hand. “Daddy, I’m hungry,” she whines.
“In a minute, peanut,” I tell her.
To my surprise, Hadley reaches for Piper. “Why don’t we consider the rest of the day a trial run?” As if on cue, my phone buzzes. I reach for it in my pocket and pull it out, ignoring the caller. “You can take care of whatever you need to do.”
“It’ll only be a few hours,” I tell her.
We arrange when and where to meet up before I turn and leave my children with a stranger. What’s that they also say, desperate times call for desperate measures?
When Serena left, I worked from home for a while. I made sure life for Piper and Colton was as normal as possible despite their mother being gone. Serena’s absence was palpable. She kept the house and our family running smoothly, and without her, everything fell apart. I hate admitting, or even acknowledging, my own failures, but being a single parent is not one of my strengths.
Eventually, reality caught up with us, and working from home is no longer an option. The needs of my clients are too great and too complicated for me to manage from a tiny home office.
I take one glance back at Hadley, Piper, and Colton, who are sitting at a wooden picnic table eating hot dogs and drinking lemonade. They’re all smiling and laughing. Jealousy churns in my gut. Even though I’m their father, rarely do I get them to smile and laugh so freely. But a few minutes with Hadley, a woman she barely knows, and they seem happy and comfortable.
My phone buzzes again, and when I glance at the caller ID, I know it’s a call I can’t ignore. Reluctantly, I answer it, walking and talking as I make my way back to our large Craftsman-style home overlooking the beach. This house has been in my family ever since my grandfather built it and when I married Serena, I knew this was the only place I wanted to raise a family. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say it’s sort of been a prison for me since she left. My office in Portland is an escape and I’ve been eager to return which is why I’ve been searching for a nanny.
Once I’m settled in my office, it’s back to business as usual for me. Everything fades away, the strand of shops and restaurants at the edge of the beach, the crowd of sunbathers, the crashing waves against the shore. It’s easy for me to slip right back into work, but that doesn’t stop me from watching through the windows, searching for any signs of my children, hoping I didn’t make a mistake hiring a nanny seemingly off the streets.
