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“No,” I replied quickly.
My mother furrowed her brows, then turned back to Hadley. “Why don’t you run your bag up to your room, sweetheart, before the waffles are done.”
“Okay!” Hadley said, grabbing her overnight bag and rushing up the steps.
I knew what my mother was doing, and I decided to put a stop to it before she even opened her mouth.
“Nothing happened. She’s the nanny.” I flinched as Dalton’s words came back to me. “She’s just a friend, and that’s all she’ll ever be, so don’t even go there, Mom. I’m not the least bit interested in her that way.”
Pulling out the orange juice, I grabbed a cup from the cabinet and poured a glass. I glanced up and saw my mother staring at me. Except…she wasn’t really staring at me. More like past me.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Emma standing there.
My chest grew heavy, like someone had just dropped a fifty-pound weight onto my body.
Emma forced a wobbly smile as she walked in and set a piece of paper down on the island. “Excuse me. Here’s the recipe you asked for, Patty. I’ll leave y’all be.”
I stood there like an idiot, not saying a word as I watched Emma walk away. The door closed quietly, just like it had last night. I closed my eyes and cursed myself.
“At no time did I think you and Emma had slept together last night. I honestly just wasn’t sure what time you got home. Emma said you went out last night, and she heard a car pull in late. I assumed you needed a ride home, since your truck isn’t here. That led me to conclude you got drunk. That’s why I told your daughter we couldn’t wake you up.”
Placing my hands on the counter, I had to control the urge to throw up.
“Now, I don’t know what you did to her, but Emma wasn’t herself this morning. She said she was going to do some hiking today to clear her mind.”
“Hiking? Alone?”
“Yes. I asked her not to go by herself, but she insisted it would be fine. I saw something in her eyes, Aiden. Pain, maybe. I don’t know…but that comment you just made leads me to believe something almost happened between the two of you.”
“No, nothing happened.”
Her brow lifted. “Did you say something to her?”
Hadley raced back into the kitchen right as I heard Emma pulling out of the driveway. A part of me wanted to rush outside and stop her. Ask her to come in and have breakfast with us, but another part of me said I needed to let her go.
“Lines were blurred last night, but I handled it.”
“Is that so? Who was blurred? You? Her?”
“What does that mean?” Hadley asked.
I ruffled her hair and grinned. “Nothing. How about you and me spend the day together horseback riding.”
Hadley’s eyes lit up. “Yes! That sounds like fun!”
“Aiden, darling, do you need to talk about this?”
Without looking at my mother, I pulled the waffles that had just popped out of the toaster and put them on a plate. “No. Everything is fine, Mom.”
It was a lie I’d not only have to convince myself of, but everyone around me.
When Mom didn’t say anything, I looked up at her. For the first time in my life, I saw disappointment in her eyes.
Exhaling, she said, “She’s more than simply the nanny, and the least you could do is treat her as a friend, not an employee.”
I swallowed hard. “She works for me, Mom.”
“What a shame.” She shook her head. “I never thought you could be so cold toward another person, Aiden. If you’re not careful…” She looked at Hadley, then back at me. “You’ll be searching for a newemployee.”
