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“Bath or a shower and then bed. I’ll close up my office and meet you there for a story,” I say, and he begrudgingly drags his feet to the bathroom and turns on the water. “Do not overflow the bath!” I yell because we have done that. I don’t need to clean up the great flood tonight. I am tired. It’s been a long day, and I am more than ready to settle him into bed so I can have a few minutes of adult time to myself.
I close off my workday and email Nathan, asking him to arrange for Sienna to start with us on Monday. She can move her things in over the weekend if she needs to. It’s the weekend. I am sure we can deal until Monday. I turn off the lights as I go to see if he’s done with his bath yet.
Nova is singing in the tub—he cannot sing, and I can’t tell him that in so many words because he thinks he’s the next Justin Bieber. I listen to the sound that would make stray dogs howl for a minute or two before I knock on the bathroom door and speak.
“That’s a no from me,” I say and make a buzzer sound like the talent show he’s been watching. “Can we hurry up, buddy? It’s getting late.” He grumbles and speaks.
“It’s summer. I can stay up late. You know that, right?” I know hecan,but my sanity demands he doesn’t. I need the temporary tranquility that bedtime brings with it, and even though he’s on vacation, I am not. “My friends play games until late-late.”
“Your friends don’t have me for a dad,” I remind him. I don’t want him to compare himself to other kids. Not now or ever; comparison is the thief of joy. Nova pulls on his favorite PJs, crawls between his stuffed animal collection, and gets comfortable.
“Two chapters, please,” He asks me with eager eyes as I open up the book we have been reading at bedtime for the past few weeks. We read a chapter each night, and I take turns reading to him and him to me.
“Two chapters is cheating,” I scoff at him. “We want the book to last.”
“It’s a ten-book series, Dad. There are enough books. We won’t run out.” This is the best part of my day. Something I don’t ever skip. I am here to put him to bed each night, no matter what. I pull out our bookmark and sit next to him in the bed. He wiggles until he’s next to me and can see the pages of the book. I read two chapters to him because he’s on vacation. When I am done, Nova pulls his covers up and makes himself a cocoon to fall asleep.
“Night, Dad,” he says with a yawn.
“Night, Nova.” I pull his door halfway shut and before I am out, he’s already asleep, tired after putting his interview skills to work today. I hope that Sienna will take the job. He really did take a shine to her. I liked her too, maybe too much, and for the wrong reasons.
* * *
Fridays are usually reasonable days—which is why I said the nanny could start on Monday. But I don’t usually have Nova all day. I have peace until school gets out; today, there’s none of that. I am being pushed and pulled in all directions and can feel my nerves fraying fast. I take a chance and make a call to Nathan. I am needed at the office. I have a staff mutiny over the move, and I don’t think Kim is coping.
“Nathan, it’s Lance Cole,” I say after impatiently waiting to be transferred to him.
“Hi, Mr. Cole. How can I help? Sienna’s contract is signed, and all the arrangements are made for you.” I know this is wrong, but I cannot cope alone today.
“I know I said Monday, but I really need her to start now. Well, in like an hour. I have had some things come up, and—”
“No explanation needed, Mr. Cole. I will arrange for Sienna to be there within the hour, and we can adjust the contract dates to start from today. It’s no problem at all.” Oh, thank God.
“I appreciate it, thank you. I am sorry to mess her around.” I am not normally one to change arrangements at the last minute. He tells me again not to apologize and ends the call. I am relieved that I don’t have to tell Nova he has to spend his entire day at the office. I know he hates it there.
“Nova,” I call him from my office. “Can you come here for a sec?” He comes bounding into the office, half dressed, half in PJs, carrying his Nerf-gun and wearing an easter mask he got with some chocolates.
“I don’t want to go to the office, please, Dad,” he says right away, knowing that’s most likely why I called.
“You don’t need to go to the office, but I do.” He frowns at me. “Sienna is going to start earlier. She’ll be here in about an hour. You guys can work out the day, go to soccer, and I will be back to have dinner with you later.” Nova looks a little disappointed, he likes when I go with him to his sports. A smile creeps onto his tiny face. It takes him a second to realize exactly what I said, he sits down on the leather chair.
“Sienna is my new nanny, yasss!” He fistpumps the air. “I wanted you to come to soccer today, but it’s okay if she takes me. She knows soccer. I googled her, you know.” Lord help me that he knows how to google. It makes it impossible to get anything past him now. I also googled her, though. She does know soccer. Probably better than I do.
“You googled her, huh?” I am interested now. “What did you learn?”
“That she is smart and played soccer.” That’s great. As long as he didn’t learn anything else he shouldn’t. “What did you learn?” he asks, the little bugger knows I looked her up, too.
“I learned not to judge anyone by what you see online and only by what you see in real life.” I use it as a teaching moment. He doesn’t need to know what I learned by looking at her pictures. I went down a Sienna rabbit hole last night after he went to bed, and I know I shouldn’t have.
“Cool.” He shrugs. “How long is an hour?” he asks me, excited.
“Long enough for you to go get the rest of your clothes on. You don’t want her to think you can’t dress yourself, do you?” He notices that he’s only half changed and hops off the chair and speaks.
“Thanks for saving me dad.” And leaves, he will probably forget what he’s going to do halfway and still be in PJs when she gets here, but at least he’s happy about having a nanny. It could be worse. He could be angry at me that I can’t do it all, even though I do try.
I busy myself getting ready to go into the office, and quietly hope like hell I am doing the right thing—with Sienna and all of these changes. It’s a lot all at once.
FOUR
