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“Of course,” Melissa twittered and offered me a wide smile. “Enjoy your evening.”
I moved away from Ares and Sia to settle myself against the wall. I made a show of opening my bag full of samples from the supply house. Withdrawing a particularly colorful swath of silk, I ran it through my hands, noting the interest on Sia’s little face.
“Bribery?” Ares asked, amused.
“Whatever it takes,” I agreed, smiling up at him. I dipped my head but could not ignore the question bubbling inside me. “So…the nanny? She wants you.”
“You jealous?”
“Should I be?”
Sia let go of her dad’s leg and slowly edged toward me.
“No. She’s twenty-two years younger than me.”
“Good Lord, you must be really old. How old are you anyway?”
“Young enough for you, brat.” He settled on the floor beside me, the bag of glorious color between us. “I’ve already told her she needs to move out. You have nothing to worry about. I’m 100% not committed to you.”
Sia dropped to her diapered bum and slowly shifted up between us.
“She’s very quiet,” I murmured.
Ares’s eyes widened with alarm. “Is that a problem? Should she be talking?”
His alarm surprised and endeared him to me further. “No, no! She’s fine. Brayleigh is loud and bubbly. She never stops talking. That’s probably why Inky seems so quiet.”
“Inky?”
“She looks like a little doll, her details drawn on in black ink,” I murmured. “Don’t think I missed that your nanny lives with you.”
His lips twisted to the side. “She had her own apartment but lost it. She takes the night shift whenever I’m out of town, it only made sense to offer her a place to stay while she looked for a new apartment.”
“Hm.”
Sia dipped her little hand into the bag, her eyes on me.
I smiled at her encouragingly and folded the sides of the bag down for her. Choosing a vibrant swath of magenta, I draped it over her little hand.
“She’s nothing to me. Not for a moment has she been anything other than Sia’s caretaker. She’s not a … friend.”
Friend?
“Oh, so we’re friends.”
“Aren’t we?”
“I guess we’re FWB, is that what you’re saying? Actually, we’re NDFWB.
“What is that?”
“You really are old,” I teased. Sia pulled a fistful of ribbon from the bag and lay it across my outstretched legs. “FWB. Friends with benefits. But that doesn’t really fit as thus far, I’ve received no benefits. So, I changed it to NDFWB. Non-dating friends without benefits.”
“No.”
I laughed at his short reply. “Well, aren’t we?”
“No. We’re,” he thought for a minute, “on layaway.”
