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And then she was gone.
5
After her alarm went off for the third time, Sloane ran out of swear words and had no choice but to haul herself out of bed. Chucking a handful of sleep-mussed hair from her eyes, she plodded to the coffeepot, pausing just long enough to hit the auto-brew button with the back of one hand. The memory of Gavin’s scorching hot kiss slammed back into her conscious thoughts with all the grace of a stampeding bull, and she swiped a hand over her lips in an effort to get them to stop tingling.
Well, hell. It hadn’t worked for the two hours she’d spent twisting around in her bed last night before finally dropping off to sleep at three A.M. What on earth made her think it was going to work now?
“Hrmmph.” She directed the grunt at her cell phone, whose beep signaled an unread text message. Carly’s number flashed across the top of the screen, and Sloane palmed her phone with a bleary grumble as she trudged to the bathroom. Time was of the essence, and while she drew the line at texting and driving, she could text and brush her teeth with the best of them.
How was babysitting? Money=good, yes? Gav is a good guy. Trust me! PS, rehearsal Friday, 5 P.M.sharp!
She made a sour face around her mouthful of toothpaste, and not just at the prospect of attending her best friend’s wedding rehearsal, an event that would likely send her mother into the stratosphere. If her sister Angela wasn’t ready to pop with baby number three any minute now, Sloane’s mother wouldn’t hesitate to attend the wedding and make her life a living hell in person.
She made a mental note to send her sister Angela a thank-you note and stuffed her mother’s disapproval down, knowing she’d have to cross the you-need-to-settle-down bridge again soon enough. Dwelling on the inevitability would only make it worse.
At any rate, Sloane thought as she rinsed her toothbrush, Carly was right. The moneywasgood, and she needed it desperately. She’d tried like hell last night to get a workable idea on paper, or at least do a little legwork so she could dive right in once she got to Greece, but her muse had remained solidly unimpressed. So much for the possibility of tutoring being the light for her creative fire. Right about now, Sloane had all the spark of wet logs in the wilderness.
Dry humping in the living room notwithstanding.
“Oh, forget the kiss, girl! And anyway, a deal’s a deal.” Adding a temporary nanny gig to her résumé might not have done much for her creativity, but at least the job got her one step closer to packing her bags. Still, the rest of the cash wasn’t going to simply appear via Fairy Godmother, and she was going to have to come up with one hell of a fallback plan in order to get herself to book-writing paradise.
Sloane made her way back to the kitchen, pouring a cup of coffee with one hand while dialing her cell phone with the other. Just because she’d dismissed her misgivings about playing Mary Poppins for a couple of weeks didn’t mean she couldn’t dish out a little well-placed attitude. After all, Carly had all but offered her up on a platter.
“If you’re calling to give me a hard time, save your breath. You need the money, and I can’t run a restaurant without a general manager.” Her best friend’s sleepy voice murmured over the line without the benefit of a hello, and Sloane bit back a laugh in response.
“Your preemptive strike will get you nowhere. I can’t believe you threw me to the wolves.”
“It was only one wolf, and besides, it’s a perfectly workable solution.” Leave it to Carly to be so matter-of-fact.
The dark, piercing gaze Gavin had sent right into her bones just before he’d kissed her last night shockwaved through Sloane’s memory, sending an electric hum through her blood like she’d been slapped upside the head with a tuning fork. “There is nothing workable about me and your GM. He’s wound tighter than a Salvation Army drum, I swear to God.”
She tucked the phone to her ear and flattened her palms over both forearms to give the goose bumps that had sprouted there a vigorous rub. After all, the kiss he’d planted on her had no sooner moved from oh-yes to oh-hell-yes when Gavin not only snapped out of it, but fell all over himself to make a formal apology. The whole thing had left Sloane in a moment of rare embarrassment, wondering if she’d conjured the sizzling passion out of thin air. Hell, shehadbeen grasping for romantic ideas all night. She’d probably just been projecting on the nearest available male body.
Never mind that it had been the first male body to ever stir a potential orgasm between her thighs, and that she’d wanted him so badly, she’d climbed him like a tree.
At least her fight or flight instincts hadn’t dallied in getting her out the door. Thank God some things still worked flawlessly.
Carly chuckled, yanking Sloane’s sizzling thoughts back down to planet Earth. “Just because he takes his job seriously doesn’t mean Gavin’s a bad guy. Look at it this way, babysitting his sister is less painful than selling your eggs to a fertility clinic, right?”
“Marginally.” Sloane headed down the hall to her bedroom with her cup in hand and the phone still tucked to her ear, shaking off the last of the weird ripple coursing through her. Arriving at her dresser, she set her hands to work in a flurry of motion, tugging a few things mercilessly from the drawers. “You know kids and I don’t mix.”
“It’s only for two weeks. And besides, if anyone’s tough enough to handle a thirteen-year-old, it’s you.”
Sloane made a disdainful noise and paused to slurp her coffee. “Please. The first and pretty much only thing the kid said to me was that she didn’t need me.” She hesitated before admitting, “And I have to be honest. She’s basically right.”
“I thought Gavin said she was having trouble in school,” Carly said, sounding confused.
“Oh, she’s failing. Or she was.” Sloane sent another slosh of coffee down the hatch, cradling the mug in one hand while snapping up more clothing with the other. “But as soon as I started working with her, it became pretty clear she’s no slouch in the smarts department. She had an F because she didn’t do the assignments. Not because she couldn’t.”
The bewilderment in Carly’s voice grew even thicker. “I don’t get it. Why would she intentionally flunk a class if she knows it’ll land her not just with a tutor, but in Gavin’s poor graces too? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“It does if she’s trying to work him down to his very last nerve. Nowthatis something this kid excels at.” She threw back the last of her coffee and stuck the empty mug on her dresser next to two partially drained water bottles and a handful of Post-its bearing scribbled book notes. “Anyway, you’re right. The gig isn’t that bad. If I’m tough enough to stand up and give a toast at your wedding, then I am indeed tough enough to handle the next two weeks with a cranky eighth grader.”
Carly’s voice sparked with excitement. “Hey, speaking of which, did you pick a dress yet?”
Sloane shook her head even though Carly couldn’t see it and padded into her closet for a pair of jeans. “I still can’t believe you’re not picking the bridesmaids’ dresses yourself. Seriously, you’re the most laid-back bride on the planet.” At last count, Sloane had been in six weddings over the last ten years. She had the battle scars and the bad wardrobe to prove it.
“Are you kidding? We’re lucky I picked a dress for me. No way am I picking yours too. Just wear black to go with the guys’ suits, and you’ll be fine.”
