AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The entire reaction on my part had been an overreaction as far as I was concerned, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he thought the same thing. He certainly hadn’t commented on it outside of asking whether I’d burned myself, and I immediately wondered if he was having any of the same kind of physical reaction himself. I knew it was last night that had me feeling this way, but with how quickly we had broken apart from each other, it made me wonder just what he felt about the interaction now.
The only issue with it was that I had no idea how to bring it up to him and not come off as being clingy or weird about it. What was I supposed to say anyway?
“Why aren’t you being weird?”
“Why aren’t you having the same kind of clumsy reactions as I am?”
“Did that kiss last night mean anything, or were we just caught up in the heat of the moment?”
“Are we going to talk about this, or do the ignore-it-to-death thing?”
All the questions that ran through my mind were legitimate questions, but none of them felt like quite the right thing to say to him after the way it had gone down and with how I felt about it now. I just wanted to know if we were on the same page – but then, I also wanted to know what that page happened to be, too.
Neils finished making the pancakes and set them out on the table; then he returned with plates and toppings.
“How fancy,” I said. “Thank you for doing all this for breakfast this morning. It’s so nice.”
“Well, I was thinking this might be a nice little tradition for the three of us to start if you two would like,” Neils said.
“Oh?”
“What is it?” Libby asked.
“I was thinking Sunday morning could be the day that we have pancakes for breakfast and just catch up with how the past week has gone. It could be a good way for the three of us to connect with each other and get to stay involved, but with us all having our separate things we enjoy doing, it gives us time to really be a family of sorts.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” I said, jumping on the idea for Libby’s sake. Anything that Neils could weave into the week that was a lowkey way to spend time with her was sure to come back and turn into a good thing in the long run, and I wanted to plant the seed of excitement in her over the idea.
“Yeah?” Neils asked. He gave me a look that seemed almost surprised, and I hoped he didn’t pursue it any further than what we were talking about right now. I was only going to be there until he finished his book per our contract, then I would be leaving. He would be able to take over the parts of Libby’s schedule that I’d been doing, and it would go back to being the two of them.
So, calling us a family of sorts felt a bit emotional for our situation. The fact that he could consider me as being part of this family filled me with excitement, but it also added a level of confusion to my place as well. I was the nanny, and he knew that. He knew he was paying me to be here, so why did he bring up something like that?
With all these thoughts and doubts running through my mind, I still nodded.
“Absolutely,” I said. “When my dad got home from deployment, he did something similar, and that really turned into a time when we were still able to connect with each other even during weeks when we were both too busy to have time together otherwise.”
“That’s what I’m hoping for,” Neils said. “I know your schedule is only getting busier with each passing year, Lib, and I don’t want to lose touch with you as you get into more independent activities.”
“Okay,” she said with a shrug.
“You’ll appreciate it, trust me,” I told her, eager to keep chiming in so it didn’t become obvious to Neils just how jumpy I was feeling today. I was sure with his ability to read people as well as he did, he likely noticed there was something off about me, but I wasn’t going to be the one to bring it up, and unless he said something about the kiss specifically, I decided I wasn’t going to bring that up, either.
He had been just as much part of the moment as I had been, and if he was happy with just ignoring it, then I could go with that, though I was incredibly confused over the fact that he chose to do things that way.
“So do you ladies have any plans for the day?” Neils asked.
“I don’t know yet,” I said as I turned to Libby. “Do you? We didn’t really have a chance last night to talk about what you were planning on doing today; then I wound up sleeping in way more than I usually do. I’m going to wind up thinking that today was really short since I feel like I’m losing like four hours of my time.”
Libby laughed. “Maybe you’ll just have to stay up late tonight to make up for it.”
“I thought about that,” I told her. “But I think I’m going to go to bed early tonight to try to catch up on the sleep I’m missing. That might help me get back to normal.”
“Right,” Neils said. “I’m sure you’re just tired from being up most of the night, and that’s why you were a little fidgety in the kitchen this morning.”
I looked at him, agreeing with what he suggested, but more confusion filled my mind as I did. He had to realize it had far more to do with what we had done last night than it did with sleep deprivation. Was that his way of trying to get me to talk about it? It couldn’t be with Libby right here at the table with us.
There was no way he’d want her to be aware of that. But with him acting like it hadn’t even happened, what was I supposed to do with that information? I was starting to question once again whether the entire thing was nothing more than a dream. But if it was, then I really had gone crazy because nothing had ever felt so real to me as that.
What was going on here?
