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“Yeah, you’re right.” He pursed his lips and cleared his throat, as if trying to figure out where to begin. “Just thinking about the women we interviewed; the ones we didn’t go with.”
I chuckled, thinking back on the three disastrous interviews we’d had.
“Which one were you thinking about the most?” I asked. “That hippie girl who made sure to ask within five minutes if we had a problem with her hitting her weed vape pen while on the job? Or how about the one who showed up thirty minutes late and rolled her eyes when Tyler asked what the holdup was?”
Mac chuckled, shaking his head at the absurdity of it.
“Oh, or how about my favorite—that sugary-sweet Mary Poppins-type who was all smiles during the interview and seemed perfect. Until we pull her up on the background check to find out she’s a two-time convicted felon for fraud and identity theft?”
“That one was all my fault,” he said. “Met her at the grocery in town and thought she was perfect.”
“Not giving you s-h-i-t, brother,” I replied, spelling out the word so Henry didn’t pick up on it. “Just saying that this process is shaping up to be a heck of a lot harder than we’d anticipated.”
“No kidding. That’s why…” He trailed off, as if not sure he wanted to put out there what he had on his mind.
“Come on, now.”
He sighed. “That’s why I think we might want to give Aubrey a shot at it.”
I couldn’t do anything but regard him with total damn surprise.
“Wait, what? Aubrey? The woman we just met only minutes ago? The one who owns Downing Farm?”
“Yep.”
“Aubrey’s fun,” Henry said. “Can she come over?”
Mac raised his brow, as if to say, “see what I mean?”
We approached the truck. I squatted down a bit, taking Henry off my shoulders and putting him on the ground. We’d parked at the border of Thousand Acres, the magnificent land stretching out into the western distance. It was nearly all white by this point, and I was eager to get out of the cold.
Mac opened one of the back doors to the four-door truck, nodding for Henry to climb into his car seat.
“I want to sit up front!” he called out. It was a discussion we’d had tons of times before. Henry was one of those kids who was convinced he was a grownup, and too old and wise to sit in a kid’s seat.
“Into the seat, young man,” Mac said with a gruff tone. “I won’t hear another word about it.”
“Aw…” Henry complied, stepping over to the truck and putting his little gloved hands onto the seat. Mac stepped over and tried to help him up. “I can do it!” he replied, a defiant tone to his voice.
Mac shrugged and chuckled, stepping back and letting Henry do his thing. It took a bit of work, but he managed to get one foot up. Mac, being as stealthy as he could, put his hand on Henry’s butt and gave him a tiny push to get him the rest of the way. Once that was done, Mac strapped Henry into the seat.
A few moments later, we were seated in the truck with the heat going and I pulled my gloves off, rubbing my hands together and warming myself up. Mac was behind the wheel, and I knew better than to try and argue with my big brother about driving.
“Anyway,” I said once we were on our way. “Whyexactly, did Aubrey make you think about the nanny thing?”
“Because I think she’d be perfect for the job.”
I cocked my head to the side, wanting to be sure I’d heard right.
“Are you serious? You just met this woman, and you think she’s perfect for the job? The job she doesn’t even know about, let alone a job that she might not even want if she did know about it? I mean, she’s got a ranch to run, man.”
He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, the inside of the cab silent aside from the growl of the powerful truck engine as the truck trundled over the snow.
“Let me explain my thinking.”
“That’d be a good start.”
“First of all, she was great with Henry. She found him, took care of him, and was very sweet towards him.”
