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"Jazz honey," she'd drawled the second I picked up the phone. "I'm so sorry to do this to you, but I can't watch Marky today, and not for a while, either. My sister called. She fell in the kitchen; slipped on some dishwater and broke her hip. I need to fly to Florida and help her for a while. I don't know when I'll be back. I'm so sorry."
"Oh my gosh, don't worry about it. Go be with Aunt Didi." I rushed to reassure her, because what else could I do?
I reassured Gia, promised to go over each day to feed her cats, water her plants, and bring in her mail, but inside I was spiraling out of control. Gia going out of town for an undetermined amount of time was going to make getting my work hours in impossible, and it added to my barely manageable to-do list having to take care of her things each day. Add that to the fact that she was supposed to be keeping Marcus late today because Marlee had her very first soccer practice, and Trevor had parent-teacher conferences after school. I was fucked. So, so fucked. Picking Marcus back up was going to cut into my morning cleaning time, which would cut into my work hours, which were already going to be a fight because I had to actually get dressed semi-decently for soccer and conferences. I couldn't just show up in my worn-out yoga pants and scruffy t-shirt. And having Marcus around all day added an extra level of impossibility. But I grinned and beared it, grabbed my purse, and had almost reconciled myself to the fact that I was gonna be in trouble and my happy days of avoiding Bain like the plague were over.
And then he texted, just as I was rushing out the door, mentally rearranging my day just to fit everything in.
Good morning little one. Are you being good?
I knew what the text would say: the same thing it said every day, but I opened the thread and looked down to read it, anyway.
I shouldn't have. I wasn't in the mood. I shot off a quick text without thinking as I ran to the car.
No. This is impossible. I quit.
My phone rang seconds later as I raced down the street to Gia's, and I happily ignored it, telling myself that since I hadn’t hooked up my Bluetooth and Bain wouldn’t want me talking while driving, he'd understand.
It rang twice more while I was going over cat and plant instructions with Gia, once in the car on the way home, and again while I was walking through the door with a grumpy three year old on my hip.
"Oh my god! What?" I hollered when I put Marky down and finally picked up.
"What's the last rule, baby girl?" Bain growled in his freakiest voice.
The sound of it instantly sent shockwaves of need to my pussy and had my tummy flipping. I was glad there wasn't a mirror nearby. I'm pretty sure I visibly shrank down to a naughty little girl. It sure felt like I did, anyway. I hadn't heard his voice in almost ten days,
"It's too hard," I whined. "One thing goes wrong and the whole day spirals out of control. And now Gia had to go out of town for a family emergency. So I have Marcus all day every day, plus I have to feed her cat and water her plants and pick up her mail. I have no idea how I'm supposed to get any work done today because I was already running behind, and on top of it all, Trevor has parent teacher conferences, and Marlee has a soccer game. By the time I get them home and fed, and do homework and get stuff ready for tomorrow, it will be at least 9 o clock, and I'll still have to clean and probably catch up on work, because there is no way I'll get four hours in today."
"And this is where you say: Daddy, I'm overwhelmed and need some help. Can you come over and help me?"
"W-What?" I sputtered, sure I hadn't heard him correctly. His response wasn’t at all what I had been expecting to hear. "No, Bain. I couldn't ask you to do all that, and I certainly wasn't expecting you too. It's my responsibility. My problem, not yours. I was just…venting. You caught me at a bad time."
"I know you weren't expecting me to, but I'd like to. You have a business to run. Jazz, I'm self-employed, and I have five business partners to help me pick up the slack on a company that basically runs itself. You have three kids depending on you, a job that is mentally draining, and a Daddy who expects you to follow your rules. And the only help you had to count on was Gia. Now she's out of commission. Let me help. Please."
I gulped, flushed, annoyed when tears teased the corners of my eyes. Why was this man always making me cry? "I mean…I guess you can…if it's not too much trouble." I tried to ignore the fact that my heart sped up, nearly pounding out of my chest at the mere thought of seeing him again.
"It's not too much trouble," he reassured me in that silky smooth voice of his. "What time do you pick up the kids from school?"
"Two-thirty," I mumbled.
"I'll be there at one. Be ready."
He hung up the phone without another word and I set the phone down, pressing my hands against my flushed cheeks as I tried to stop my heart from racing. I glanced at the clock. It was ten-thirty. He was coming in two and a half hours, far before we had to leave to pick the kids up, which meant he’d be here in my space, not just with me, but with my kids—well, one of them at least—and then he would be coming along with us on normal parent outings. The things Henry should have been doing with me. And instead of making me sad, I felt relieved and even excited.
Everything had just gotten a lot more complicated.
Somehow being acutely aware that Bain was going to be spending the afternoon and evening at my house, meeting my kids for the first time, made it easier to get through the parts of my day that had seemed overwhelmingly impossible less than an hour before. I got the cleaning done, even with Marcus going behind me making messes. I somehow managed to get an hour of work done while he ate lunch. I turned on a show for him so I could shower and look presentable far earlier than I’d planned to.
By the time Bain knocked on my door at exactly one o’clock, I was dressed in a soft pink sweater I hadn’t worn in over a year, and fitted black jeans with blank ankle boots that almost never saw the outside of my closet. My hair was pulled into a French braid, I’d stepped into a spray of the perfume I saved for special occasions, and I was wearing pearl studs in my ears. I thought I looked pretty good, but it was nothing compared to the sight of Bain when I pulled the door open. His usual business casual attire had been replaced with a relaxed fit t-shirt and dark wash jeans with a navy sports blazer over the top. It fit him perfectly, clinging to his muscles in all the right places. He looked even more handsome than he usually did, and my mouth went dry just looking at him.
“Hi,” I managed to stutter, my eyes still trained on his pecs. “You look nice.”
“Thank you. You look pretty damn spiffy yourself. I have to admit, I was expecting more of a ‘frazzled mom in a messy bun and yoga pants’ look from the way you sounded on the phone this morning.”
“You should have seen me an hour ago,” I quipped.
He grinned and the awkward silence of all the words unspoken since our last encounter fell between us. Shit. I really hadn’t thought this through before accepting his offer. I searched for something to say, and came up short. Nothing seemed right, and it wasn’t the time to get into the heavy stuff, although I had no doubt he’d make me later.
“You look nice,” I repeated, slapping my head the second it was out, and I realized I’d only managed to repeat myself, bringing us right back to where we’d started. My only defense was that I’d never seen him so dressed down and I really liked it. He looked more human somehow, more relatable. It definitely eased some of the anxiety I was carrying about the kids being around him all day. A stranger in a suit was a lot more intimidating than a stranger in jeans.
