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“I am that,” she said, laughing, but thinking,I hope for more.
Chapter 4
Lunch turned out to be fun. Rather than lunching with three women, he was lunching with three girls. No wine was served at this meal because Roberta was a recovering alcoholic, so Leon couldn’t get a feel on whether or not Ava was a daytime drinker.
Baby Violet woke up for a feeding, and that was when Leon decided to try to keep her up.
“When she’s done with this, I’m going to run up to the mall and get a stroller. She’s going on an outing.”
“If you want to keep her awake, driving in the car isn’t going to do it,” Roberta said.
“It’s just a short ride, and when I get her out of the seat, I’ll jostle her around a little bit to get her going.”
They knew he was teasing. “Let us know how that works for you,” Roberta replied, walking them to the door.
“So are you worried about a romance brewing under your nose?” the women asked.
“I won’t stand for it,” Roberta answered. “She’s got to be twenty years older than he is.”
“It’s closer to fifteen,” Candy replied, trying to placate her mother in law.
“That’s enough. I’ll remind him that if he dates her and it doesn’t go well, he’ll lose his nanny, and I’m not a babysitting grandmother.”
“I’m surprised, frankly,” Carol said. “I thought you’d snap up the chance.”
“No, I will do it from time to time, but I don’t want a permanent babysitting job. He really should have thought of this before jumping into bed with the mother.”
On the way to the mall, Ava and Leon talked nonstop. On arrival, they put the baby carrier on Ava when they discovered it was too small for Leon. The baby would ride on Ava’s chest. Leon helped her get the baby securely in the carrier and made a point of looking at her breasts when the chance came up. There was a limit to how well-behaved he’d be. He’d just look.
“Is that too tight?” he asked, pulling the strap around her back.
“It’s good,” she said, adjusting the baby.
“You look like her mother,” Leon said. “I mean, you look like you do this all the time.”
“When I take her outside, it’s in her little seat in the backyard. I haven’t tried this on my own yet. I’m not sure I could get her in it safely.”
“It’s a nonissue if we find the stroller you want.”
Although he didn’t notice, Ava did; they had lots of admiring second glances. Wondering if people thought she was his mother, she was certainly old enough. But he was right when he mentioned that she didn’t look her age. Taking good care of her skin had paid off; she used sunscreen on her face, didn’t drink or smoke, watched her diet and exercised.
Why was she even thinking of these things? She was his baby’s nanny, and that was it. Nothing was going to come of their relationship short of her being paid to watch his baby. If he knew she was thinking of these things, he would have been pleased, because he was thinking the same way. Watching her when he could from the corner of his eye, he liked the way she moved. Her body was lush and inviting, and he longed to see her in that coveted bikini everyone talked about. But it was more than that.
They were comfortable with each other. She was interesting to talk to, putting him at ease, and seemed interested in him, as well. Being with her was so different than being with women/girls his age who were needy or self-absorbed.
In the infant store when Leon was looking at the strollers, the first awkward moment came when the salesclerk told Ava how good she looked for just having had a baby.
Rather than get into a weird conversation, Leon piped up, “She does, doesn’t she?”
The woman smiled and walked away.
“Aw, that was sweet of you. I was getting ready to say I’m the nanny.”
“It’s no one’s business,” he said shortly. “I like that she thought you were Violet’s mother.”
“Do they think I’m your mother, too?”
The impulse was to pull her into his arms and kiss her, but he restrained himself. “You do not look like my mother. No way.
