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“How’d you end up with her?”
He gave her the brief version that didn’t make Tina Marlin look so bad. “She had to work, and her babysitter crapped out at the last minute. There was no one else.”
“Wow, that’s awful. She’s lucky you’re a decent guy.”
“She wouldn’t have dropped her off if she didn’t trust me,” Leon said.
“I don’t mean to sound critical,” Ava replied, sensing she’d hit a nerve.
“I just don’t want Violet to ever think her mother doesn’t love her or didn’t care about her. You know how fast rumors start.”
“Yes, trust me, I know.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” He’d heard his family gossiping about her sunbathing fiasco.
“There’s really nothing to tell except that moron who lives next door to me spied on me, and when I took the top off my bathing suit to get some sun, he took pictures and posted them on Facebook. His wife was the worst, making up lies about the reason Alex’s ex took the kids away from me. Alex was my husband. You know what happened, right? I don’t feel like going into it.”
“I do know, so you don’t have to say anything else. I’m sorry about that jackass lying about you. But why didn’t you fight it?”
“I had just sued her husband and won, and frankly I was sued out. His ex had the rights to take her children back. They wanted to go with her, case closed. I was sort of floundering when this opportunity came up.”
“You mean to watch Violet?”
“Right. I’ll never have my own kids, and this is a nice way to be around a baby and hopefully watch her grow up.”
“Why won’t you have your own kids?”
“Because I’m too old, Leon,” she said, glancing over at him. “Get real.”
“You don’t look old to me,” he said, feeling bad about upsetting her.
“I’m in my late thirties. Do I have to be specific?” She laughed after that, so he felt better.
“No, you don’t have to tell me. You look young. I thought you might be in your mid-twenties.”
“Right. I think you might be teasing me, but I’ll take it.”
“I really mean it,” he said, staring at her profile. “You’re beautiful. You don’t look like late thirties. And anyway, what does that look like? You are what you are. I don’t even think of age. Look at my mom. She looks so good for her age. She’ll be the first one to tell you that she’s had plastic surgery.”
“I haven’t had any, but the gossipers say I have. It’s lies.”
“I’ve never heard anything.”
“Well, that’s good, I guess. We don’t exactly travel in the same circles.”
“After we drop the food off, if the baby is still sleeping, I’m going to run out and buy a stroller,” he said. “Do you want to come along? You can pick out the one you like since you’ll be using it the most.”
“Okay. I’d like that.”
She pulled into the gas station, and he insisted on pumping her gas. She watched him move around the outside of the car, and her heart might have sped up a little bit, scaring her. He was a child and, worse, a mamma’s boy.
Tapping on the window, he waved the squeegee at her with his eyebrows up. She laughed and nodded, mouthingyes. While he washed the windshield, she tried not to look at his body, his big, muscular arms and, more foreboding, the bulge in his jeans. Her neighbor Joey Saint, Leon’s older brother, was buff, but Leon was big. Broad shoulders and huge biceps contrasted with his narrow waist and hips. His back was massive, and for a second, forgetting herself, she imagined holding on to that back with her legs wrapped around his waist…
“All done,” he said, getting into the car.
“Oh God, you paid for my gas. I should have given you a credit card.”
“That’s fine,” he said, smiling at her. “Glad to do it. You’re my baby’s nanny.”
