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I did my best not to judge the fact there wasn’t anything remarkable about the vehicle. It was older, but it was clean. There wasn’t anything about it that said money, which I figured was likely because this person was used to carting kids around.
Simple could be good. It could be just what Lucy needed.
But then, when the woman stepped out of the driver’s seat, I did a double take.
The woman was petite and curvy in all the right places, and she had such a smart, sharp way of dressing I almost couldn’t take my eyes off her. She wore minimal makeup, which made the bright lipstick she wore suit her features perfectly.
She was elegant in every sense of the word, and when she took her sunglasses off, and I saw her eyes sparkle in the sun, I was sure my mouth fell open.
“Daddy! You’re not pushing me!” Lucy shouted.
“Sorry,” I said, snapping back into the moment. I gave her another push and smiled as the woman walked over to us.
“Alex?” she asked.
“Yes, Cassie?” I replied, extending my hand.
“It’s good to meet you,” she said. “Thank you so much for pushing the interview to now. I get caught up with some things, and it’s not always easy to move my schedule around.”
“I know how that is, which is why I’m looking for help,” I said with a smile. She grinned in return, and I had to force myself to look back to Lucy.
“And this must be Lucy,” Cassie said. “Hey princess, how are you?”
“I’m not a princess!” Lucy shouted.
I laughed. “She’s a little headstrong.”
“That’s a good thing,” Cassie said. “How old are you?”
“Three,” Lucy said as she held out her fingers.
“Wow, a big girl,” she said. She then looked at me. “She’s darling.”
“I’m glad you think so,” I told her. “So, I’ll be perfectly honest. I have never had to hire anyone to help me with Lucy before. I haven’t even had a babysitter outside of friends or the daycare at the gym, so I’m not sure how to do any of this.”
“Well, it’s simple,” Cassie said, her warm smile never leaving her face. “I like to do what I call a working interview. I would love your business, of course, but I want to do what is best for the child. She’s the one who is going to be spending her time with me, so my top priority is that she is a good fit.”
I smiled and offered her the swing. “Would you like to take over here then?”
“I would love to,” she said. “Lucy, do you mind if I push you for a while?”
“Okay,” Lucy said. “But you have to do it high like Daddy does.”
“I’m a pretty good pusher,” Cassie said with a warm smile. “But you can tell me just how high you want to go.”
She had such an easygoing way of engaging with Lucy that it was tough for me not to be enraptured with her. I found myself glancing at her hand, checking to see if there was a ring on her finger. I knew it was foolish. I had been stupid with how fast I had fallen for Jordan, but there was still something about Cassie that was irresistible.
Lucy seemed to like her immediately. She was talking and laughing, telling her about how she had been at daycare the day before.
“That’s great, sweetie,” Cassie said, giving her Cassie’s full attention. It was the first time I had ever seen someone do that for Lucy outside of just telling her how cute she was, and it showed me that Cassie really did take how Lucy felt seriously.
“So, what are you looking for as far as scheduling goes?” Cassie asked.
“I hate to say sporadic, but that’s largely what it is,” I said. “I’m going to need someone three days a week for sure, half days anyway, and I don’t know if you do on-call kind of things, but it would be nice if you did.”
“We can be flexible,” Cassie told me. “It all comes down to your needs and the needs of your daughter. I take it you don’t work the standard nine to five?”
“I do not,” I told her. “I do what I can to be consistent, but with my line of work – which can be a lot of sponsorship of social influencers and such – I can’t say for sure when I’m going to be on the clock, so to speak. I just want to make sure I have someone who can help out with Lucy when needed. But on topof it, I don’t feel she has very much womanly influence in her life, and as she is getting bigger, I would like for her to have that before she gets too big.”
