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“Out celebrating a friend’s birthday,” I say before taking a sip of my beer. On the living room floor, Lilah and Elaine play with each other, and on the TV an episode ofThe Mandalorianplays.
“How’s that going?” Reed asks in that usual low rumble of his. His wedding band glints on his finger as he raises his own beer bottle to his mouth.
“Yeah, you used to having a nanny yet?” Caden adds on with a raise of his eyebrow.
A wry smile turns up the corner of my mouth. “Day by day,” I say with a shrug of one shoulder. “Sometimes, I half expect to come home to Andrea hanging out with Lilah, and have to do a double take when I see Alex instead. It’s a little less jolting now, but it still takes some getting used to.”
“Daria’s on the fence about getting a nanny,” Caden says, legs stretched out before him and feet crossed at the ankles. “Elaine’s having fun in daycare, so I think taking her out of it would be a difficult adjustment.” He lets out a slow breath, eyes on his kid. “And even though the daycare is private, there’s always a fear of, I don’t know, some freak making their way inside the daycare.”
Reed throws our friend awhat the fuck?look. “That’s not morbid at all,” he mutters.
“Caden’s not wrong,” I say with a clench of my jaw. “But then again, the same can be said for having a personal nanny.”
Reed blinks, and I’m pretty sure this conversation is only convincing him to never let any future kid he and Willow have out of their sight. JJ glances at me. “You said Andrea vetted Alex, right?” His eyebrows furrow together. “I’m sure she wouldn’t steer you wrong.”
“I know,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “But it’s always a worry, you know? Never really goes away.” I shoot him and Reed a grim smile. “You boys will understand when you become dads.”
JJ blinks while Reed sinks slightly on the couch, the sight amusing. “How terrifying,” he says, but I do see his gaze soften subtly, like he is imagining having kids with Willow.
We end up ordering food, pizza and wings and the works, while the girls play until they tire themselves out. Caden and I put them both in Lilah’s bed, the monitor on the coffee table as we continue with our impromptuStar Warsmarathon. Except, I find myself, at times, getting distracted from whatever is happening on the screen.
My gaze keeps sliding over to the window, looking out for any signs of headlights as the night drags on. I realize it’s because I am waiting for Alex to return home, to make sure she gets back okay. But it’s still fairly early in the night. If the guys and I were feeling like we were back in our twenties, we wouldn’t be back home until three or four. There is no real reason for me to feel any kind of worry, but there is no escaping the knot in the pit of my stomach.
Besides, I’m pretty sure this is the first time Alex has gone out since she started working for me. For the entire month, she has kept her focus solely on Lilah, only going out for a late dinner or maybe a drink or so before coming back before the clock even hits eleven. I don’t entirely keep tabs on her, but Alex is talkative. In the morning, she will fill the silence with her chatter, and I found myself getting used to it pretty early on. The house can get pretty quiet when it’s just Lilah and me, since Andrea moved out. Alex’s chatter is… a nice change.
Around one in the morning, the guys call it a night and head out, Caden carefully carrying Elaine into his car. Lilah is still sound asleep upstairs, and I can’t bring myself to head to bed once the house is cleared out. Instead, I stay in the living room and watch an old hockey game playing on TV, all of the lights off save for the blue glow coming from the television screen. Left hand gripping the remote, the fingers of my right tap steadily, impatiently, on the armrest of the couch.
She’s a big girl, I keep telling myself. There is no reason for me to stay up waiting for her. It’s crossing some kind of boundary, isn’t it? Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe it’s just an employer making sure his kid’s nanny gets back safe and sound.
I take in a breath, rubbing a hand down my face. I should go to bed. Mind my own damn business.
It’s almost two-thirty when headlights bleed through the living room window. I am up on my feet before I can help it, walking over to the couch in front of the window and pressing my weight on a knee on the couch, peering out the window. My eyes narrow slightly against the glare, watching as the backseat door opens and a light-brown-haired woman stumbles slightly out of the car. I purse my lips, noting that she shuts the door and bends to look into the car through the window, teeth gritting because I, yet again, have a clear view of her ass in skintight jeans.
She pushes away from the car, waving goodbye as she does, and I realize there is another woman sitting in the back. Probably a friend she shared the Uber ride with, which relaxes me a little. As the Uber drives away, I keep an eye on Alex, making sure she makes it into the guest house safe and sound without tripping on the cobblestone.
It’s not until she gets to the front door of the guest house that she has trouble. I can hear the tell-tale sound of keys dropping on the ground, of her frustrated groan, and I swear I think she pouts down at it. She sways on the spot, and before I know what I am doing, I am striding out of the back door and crossing over to the guest house.
Cicadas chirp, the air slightly chilly, as I walk over and call out, “You need some help?”
Alex’s head snaps up, her shoulder leaning back against the brick, a grin spreading across her face that knocks the wind right out of me. The unexpected sensation has my muscles tightening, but I continue my way over to her. “Mr. Leo!” she exclaims brightly and, despite myself, I feel a small smile tugging at my mouth at the way she addresses me. “What’cha doing here?”
Her cheeks are rosy and her eyes glazed over, but even that doesn’t stop the smile from being on her face. “I live here,” I tell her mildly, bending down to pick up her keys. A smile twitches at my lips as I see the multiple keychains she’s got hooked on her keys; a plastic daisy, a crocheted strawberry, and a metal one that simply readsyikes. “And I’m helping.”
“Nooo,” Alex sounds, stretching the word out. “You live over there, silly,” she says, pointing to the house at my back. Snorting out a laugh, Alex leans back against the wall as I put in the key for her. “If you lived here, we’d never get out of bed.”
I instantly freeze, my grip on the keys tightening. For a split second, I think I heard her wrong, but I know for a fact that I didn’t. My pulse wouldn’t be picking up, nor would my blood feel like it’s on fire if I hadn’t heard her correctly.If you lived here, we’d never get out of bed. Her words, her voice, echoes in my head, and electric shocks zip through my body in response to them. And I focus on that one particular word—we’d. Alex and I…together.
Either it was just a drunken statement given no real thought, or Alex has been thinking about me the same way I have been thinking about her. And, in that moment, I find myself wondering if she has touched herself while imagining me being the one to do it, just like I have thought of her. Blood rushes south, my dick swelling at the mere idea of Alex’s fingers sinking into her pussy, with my name on her lips as she gets herself off to the thought of me.
I look at her, and she’s still got that glazed-over look in her eyes, a lazy and drunken smile on her face, and I snap myself out of the thoughts that had overwhelmed me. What the fuck am Idoing? It’s bad enough that I got myself off to her in the secrecy and privacy of my bathroom, but to fantasize about her like this, when she is right in front of me and so obviously inebriated, is fucked.
So, I don’t expand on her statement and instead focus on unlocking her door, ignoring the blood that I can feel so clearly pounding heatedly through my veins as I push the door open and hit the light switch by the wall.
“Here you go,” I say, taking the key and holding it out for Alex.
She grins, taking it from me, and my fingers curl into my palms afterwards following the charge that rushes through me when her skin touches mine. “What a guy,” Alex chirps, her other hand sliding along the wall as she walks into the guest house.
I linger in the doorway, watching as she holds onto the door to balance herself as she takes off her shoes. She doesn’t topple over, which is a relief, and I can hear her humming an unknown tune as she gets rid of her shoes. A smile twitches at my mouth, but I need to leave. “Make sure you lock the door, Alexandra.”
