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“I’d expect it’s something she’s very excited about. Does she have a party planned?”
I look at Vicky as we make it to the top of the staircase. Her face falls, and she shakes her head.
“No. I was about to start planning it, but I don’t have the time anymore.” She considers me for a moment before her face lights up. “I guess that job will fall to you now. Maybe you can get Dr. Morrow on board with planning as well.”
“He doesn’t usually help?”
“I suppose he helps by paying for it all, but he always stays so busy.” She shrugs and then stops outside of a closed door. “It’s about time he quit working himself to the bone and started enjoying his life again. Maybe you and Ivy can help with that.”
Doubtful, but it’s a nice sentiment. If he didn’t even want to spend time with me for the show’s sake, I don’t think he will want to plan a party with me. Even one for his daughter. It wasn’t hard to figure out that he prioritizes work over everything else. Seems others think so as well.
“Here’s your room,” Vicky says, pushing the door open and stepping back so I can enter.
It’s spacious with a large bed sitting right in the middle of the back wall. A matching dresser and vanity pull the room together, and the dark wooden floor is covered with a fluffy-looking rug that has the same hues as the gray comforter.
“It’s beautiful.” I set my suitcase at the end of the bed and toss my pillow on top of it.
“It’s very comfortable. I cleaned everything as best I could.”
“This was your room? It doesn’t look like anyone has ever lived in it.”
“I’m a pretty tidy person. Works out well for being a nanny.”
“Me too,” I say with a smile, feeling like Vicky is definitely my kind of people.
“Right through here is your bathroom, complete with a separate shower, freestanding claw-foot tub, and a spacious countertop.”
“I’m going to be living like a queen,” I say, and she laughs.
“You won’t want for anything while you are here. Now, let’s get down to business.”
She turns to face me, narrowing her eyes. I think mine widen at her assessing look, feeling like a trapped animal. I’m not sure what she’s talking about, but I think she’s about to get personal.
“I shouldn’t be telling you this, but Simon had a wife, Ivy’s mom.”
I assumed there had been a woman at some point since he has a daughter.
“She was a nasty sort. They were high school sweethearts, but she did him really dirty, and I won’t put up with that from anyone else. He’s a good man, and he’s very loyal. But he’s like a wounded animal now, putting up walls and hiding who he is from everyone else. I know you don’t know him very well, but I’m willing to bet that he hasn’t made a good impression either with being Ivy’s dad while you were her teacher or with this whole charade of a dating show. But I like you, and I think if anyone can bring him out of his shell, it’s someone like you. He will fight you, but if you can stick it out, good things will come.”
She takes a deep breath and looks at me. I think she’s waiting for a reply, but that was a lot to hit me with all at once, and I’m not sure what she wants me to say. I don’t know if she’s right or not, but I’m also not sure that I have the energy to expend on something that is only a maybe. Maybe he will start to warm up to me. Maybe I can break through his walls. Maybe he would view me as something other than an inconvenience … or maybe he sees me as a convenience since I’m doing him a solid. Either way, I don’t know. But I do know that I’m in for a wild ride.
“He is sort of off-putting—that’s true,” I say, worrying my lower lip. “But I don’t think I’m the one who’s going to tame the beast, so to speak. He got matched with me on a dating show and then offered me a nanny job instead and told me we didn’t have to interact outside of filming.”
“Oh boy. He’s not making this easy, is he?” Vicky shakes her head. “He didn’t want to do the show; he was backed into a corner by work, and I think he might just be trying to fight back in his own way.”
“He might have mentioned that it wasn’t his idea to do the show. But I don’t know.” I heave a sigh and shake my head, leaning against the bathroom counter. “I don’t think he likes me.”
“He doesn’t like himself. He’s too in his head, thinking he’s the problem. One day, he will see that he has so much to offer. You both just have to be patient.”
Vicky is acting like it’s a done deal—that Simon and I will be living happily ever after. But I don’t see any happy in our future, only trying to ignore each other for the next six weeks until we can be done with this whole thing.
I sink down into the sectional couch, my body swallowed by the fluffy designer pillows, and I pull the chenille blanket from the back, wrapping it over my prone body. Vicky just left after showing me the rest of the house and where all of Ivy’s things are. She’s a chatty Cathy, that one. But I like her, and her chocolate chip cookies are delicious.
My stomach growls, and I consider getting off the couch to go get another one from the tray in the kitchen. I stare up at the ceiling and wonder how I let myself get here. Not specifically on this couch, but in my predicament. I know part of it is my soft heart—the one that helps me teach children and react with grace in tough situations—but the other part, that’s what scares me. Deep down, I know a part of me is wildly attracted to the dark broodiness of Simon, and I don’t want to be. I want to be okay with walking away from this experience with my heart and soul intact, and now that I’m lying on the couch in his house, playing nanny to his daughter in an elaborate scheme to give a middle finger to Blindly Ever After, it seems like I might be leaving more of myself behind than I’m comfortable with.
This money had better be worth it.
I’ve yet to see the contract and my salary for doing this for six weeks, but any income is better than no income at all, which is what I had lined up for my summer, except for what I get for helping Desi at Doggy Style. I have dreams of getting out of my apartment and buying a home.
