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One
Emerson
“I’m sorry, Emerson. It’s the only assignment we have at the moment.”
I eyed Ardith, my boss and the head of the employment agency I’d been with for the past seven years. Yes, employment agency. The place specialized in home help, house cleaners and nannies. That was me, Emerson Crane, nanny extraordinaire.
Nanny unemployed at the moment, too. When the school year ended two weeks ago, the family I had been with for the past few years had finished packing and made the trek across the country to Texas, the mom and two kids reuniting with the dad who’d started his new job there a month ago.
I could have gone with them, but I didn’t want to leave Grand Rapids, where I’d grown up and where most of my friends and family still lived.
“But, Ardith… A single dad who wants a live-in nanny? I’m sure he’s expecting more of a grandmotherly type.”
She smiled, her crimson lips curling into an amused bow. Not many people could pull off that color, but Ardith rocked it. And it kind of matched her shoulder-length hair that was the same deep-crimson of my favorite autumn leaves. With her green eyes rimmed with just the perfect amount of kohl, she was never anything less than stunning.
Unlike me. My mousy brown hair was in a braid, bun or ponytail ninety-five percent of the time. My nondescript brown eyes were lined with the barest of mascara. And my plain-Jane looks, well, they were forgettable. My genes hadn’t even supplied me with height, and occasionally, I got mistaken for a middle-schooler. That could be a problem during school pick-up, though any confusion usually cleared after a week or so. By then, the staff recognized me.
But that was in the past, and it looked like I wouldn’t be doing middle-school carpool for a while. If I even got this job, since the parent, this guy, had to agree I’d be a good fit. So why was I trying to talk myself out of the position? At the rate I was going, I’d end up with a secretarial job—with an another agency since Care-Co didn’t hire for that.
“You’re one of our best, and he’ll be happy with whoever he gets. It’s my understanding he’s a little…frazzled. The mother is out of the picture. His own mom helped him for a bit, but she can’t travel with him.”
And that was the other thing. Not only did he need a full-time live-in nanny, but he owned his own business and would be traveling the country for various commitments over the next few months, commitments that would keep him away from Grand Rapids for extended periods of time. Not wanting to be away from his baby that long, he needed the nanny—likely me if he agreed to the placement—to travel with him.
“Will she be taking over after the trip?” Or trips. Since it would involve city-jumping, what would it be called?
“That’s the plan.”
I nodded, thinking, even though I already knew I would take the job. Usually, I preferred to mull things over, but what choice did I really have? And if I wasn’t what he was looking for… Well, that solved the dilemma, right?
“And you’ll look for something else for me? Something I can start in the fall?”
“Of course.” Her words said yes, but the lift of her brow said otherwise. It said… Actually, I wasn’t sure and that made me antsy. Either she thought I wouldn’t be accepted for the position at all, or she thought I’d still be with the family into the autumn.
Honestly, both options made me uneasy. I liked the control that came with having details nailed down. Schedules, routine and expectations. Traveling would throw that off, but I could still manage. The trips, the possible long-term end date and my future being up in the air? I didn’t like it.
Again, what choice did I have?
“Okay,” I said, in resignation, though I couldn’t be sure what I agreed to. “I guess you need to give me the details.”
Ardith pulled out the folder, her glossy, deep red hair gliding over her slim shoulder as she moved. Her delicate fingers, tipped with the same color as her lips, opened the manila folder.
“The child is Noa DeMilo. She’s four months old.”
My eyes widened slightly at the last name, but I tamped down the threads of adrenaline trying to move through me. In a city as big as this one, what were the chances? It wasn’tthatuncommon of a last name.
“The father’s name is Luca DeMilo—”
Oh, hell. Hell, hell, hell!
Apparently, chances were good.
“He’s thirty, and I guess he’s some kind of tech genius, based on everything I learned about the company he listed for our profile investigation. He owns Demi-Tech, a company that specializes in business software and apps. We ran a full background check on him, of course. Nothing strange there.”
I wouldn’t think so—unless he ever got caught hacking. I had been convinced that was one of his hobbies, back when I lived at home and he lived next door to us. He’d been the proverbial computer nerd—except for the part where I thought he was mysterious and gorgeous. How other girls didn’t notice, I had no clue. But there hadn’t been any females fawning over him. I should know. When my nose wasn’t in a book, I’d spied on him.
We’d never met. To him, I was probably a little kid who lived on the same street as him. To me…he was the hero of my young, teenage fantasies.
I could only hope he’d aged poorly, or I would be screwed.
