21. Sterling
The woman across from me flipped her hair, again. How many times can a person flip their hair and giggle inanely at nothing in the span of twenty minutes? Too many, far too many.
I was done with this interview. I stood. “Thank you for your time.”
“Aren’t you going to show me the baby?” she asked.
I shook my head. “I don’t think that will be necessary.” I swept my arm out, palm up, indicating that she needed to go.
“Mr. Sterling, Ms. Stanholt has arrived,” Wayne announced.
“Please show Miss”—fuck, I forgot her name in all the hair flipping. I glanced down at her resume— “Stevens out and Ms. Stanholt in.”
Hair-flip Stevens twisted up her lips and sneered at me before flipping her hair, this time in aggravation and with a finality I didn’t expect. I had no idea that hair could be so expressive.
“I hope you weren’t planning on hiring that woman as a nanny,” Ms. Stanholt said with stern disapproval as she stepped into the living room.
“Why is that?” I wasn’t planning on having anything to do with her and her hair flipping, but now I almost felt like running after the Stevens girl just to piss this woman off.
“You really should allow me to run a background check on all candidates. After all, my agency is ultimately responsible for the child’s wellbeing.”
That was a stretch, but Peggy Stanholt had an overinflated sense of responsibility.
“I am happy to submit any candidate for a background check. However, I simply haven’t found anyone worth a second interview.”
“Have you contacted the agency I recommended?” She asked every question as if she expected me to have completely ignored her recommendations.
I openly and freely admitted that childcare was so foreign and new to me that it wasn’t worth playing ego games and struggling my way through it. Not when Georgie was the one who actually suffered.
“Where do you think Miss Stevens came from? Everyone I’ve interviewed has been sent over from the agency you suggested.”
“How many candidates have you already met with?”
I let out a heavy breath. “I met with four yesterday, and I have six lined up for today. And more tomorrow.”
The baby monitor carried Georgie’s babbling into the living room. “Excuse me, Georgie is awake. I’ll be right back. Make yourself comfortable.”
I didn’t care whether she did or didn’t. I jogged down the hall to Georgie’s room and opened the door. She stood in her crib, her hands on the railing as she rocked back and forth. She smiled and made more sounds that were almost words. She said something that sounded like Dada.
I stopped just before I reached the crib.
She reached out, and this time, she was very clear in her noises. She said, “Dada.”
I rushed to her and swung her up into my arms, placing a big kiss on her cheek. “Did you call me Dada?”
She repeated the sound and placed her sloppy open-mouthed, practically a bite, kiss on the side of my chin.
I swung her around and onto the changing table. “You are in a good mood, baby girl.”
She smiled and kicked. After she was changed, I picked her up and carried her back out to where Ms. Stanholt waited for us in the living room. It should have been Cecelia. She would have been so excited to hear that Georgie called me Dada. I wanted to tell her, and I hated that I couldn’t.
“I have another nanny interview in a few minutes. Are you planning on sticking around?” I asked.
“I thought we had discussed my being available and sitting in for your interviews this morning. Don’t you recall?” She sneered down her nose at me.
“It must have escaped my mind,” I admitted. I probably forgot about it within moments of her insisting that she be here.
“How many have you already interviewed?”
“Two yesterday, and two so far this morning. I haven’t been impressed with any of them yet. Neither has Georgie.”
“The baby doesn’t exactly have a say,” Ms. Stanholt pointed out.
“Maybe not, but I’d rather not expose my ward to someone who scares her.”
Peggy Stanholt rolled her eyes.
“Mr. Sterling, your next appointment has arrived,” Wayne announced.
“Send her in.”
A moment later, a nondescript middle-aged woman followed Wayne into the living room. She interrupted herself multiple times to make baby noises at Georgie, but the baby ignored her and tried to hide in my shoulder.
“She’s such a playful little girl,” the woman said.
“She can be,” I said. But at that moment, Georgie was trying to get the woman to stop looking at her. “She is not at the moment.”
“Nonsense. Let me take her.” She held out her hands as if she was going to grab Georgie off my lap.
Georgie started to cry as the woman got closer.
I twisted away in my seat. “Not right now.” I couldn’t read her expression, but she looked disappointed as she sat back down.
“Did you have any additional questions, Ms. Stanholt?” I asked. I was done with the interview.
Ms. Stanholt started to ask something as I took Georgie and left the room. I carried her into the kitchen to get her a bottle.
I set her on the floor next to me as I opened the refrigerator. Georgie grabbed onto my pants leg and pulled up onto her feet.
“Did you just stand up?”
She looked up at me, and her butt wobbled back and forth before she landed on it. I grabbed a bottle and swooped her back up. “You are getting so big and strong.”
I was so proud of her. I pressed a kiss to her cheek and hugged her. She took the bottle and leaned back. I shifted her so she could lean back and drink. Her big eyes locked with mine.
“I’m going to tell you something,” I whispered so that only she could hear me. “I hope they never find your biological father. You look so much like your mother. I miss her. But I have missed her for far longer than she’s been dead. I lost her long ago. I don’t want to lose you.”
I leaned over and kissed the top of her precious little head.
When I returned to the living room, Ms. Stanholt was alone. The other woman had already left.
“She seemed like a reasonable candidate.”
“No,” I said as I sat down.
“Why not?” Ms. Stanholt asked.
“She couldn’t even tell when Georgie was trying to not be looked at by her. That wasn’t some game of peek-a-boo. Georgie was literally trying to hide and get away. I don’t want a nanny who is that oblivious to the body language of the baby.” I placed the baby next to me on the couch. She leaned against me, not a care in the world.
“You are running out of time. You should have begun the nanny hiring processes from the very beginning.”
“Maybe so,” I started. “But if that were really the case, your agency would have been more upfront, don’t you think?”
She stared at me blankly.
“Fine,” I said. “I will find a nanny, and you will get me an update on exactly how the manhunt for Georgie’s biological father goes,” I said.
Ms. Stanholt pinched her face and began to huff. “I don’t have access to that information.”
“I need to know. It would be helpful when I contract a nanny to let them know whether it”s a short term or longer term position.”
We had a bit of a stare-down. I wanted information, and the Stanholt woman just looked pissed.
“Fine, I’ll see what I can do.”
“Your next appointment is here,” Wayne announced. “Shall I send this one in?”
The next two hours passed with interviewing candidates. The meetings didn’t last long. The nannies tried to interact with Georgie, but she wanted nothing to do with any of them. One woman even made her cry.
I wouldn’t have said any of the candidates were someone I’d consider calling back.
“Are you planning on coming back to the interviews I have scheduled tomorrow?” I asked as Ms. Stanholt gathered her things.
“I trust you can make initial assessments without my being here. I would like to be included in the second round of interviews.”
I nodded. I was going to have to call a second agency at this rate. I picked up Georgie after Ms. Stanholt left. I carried her to the kitchen. It was time for lunch, and then it would be time for her afternoon nap.
It had been a long morning. As Georgie crammed little bits of chicken and rice into her mouth, I popped a full-sized chicken nugget into my mouth. It seemed easier to just ask Wayne to make one meal for the two of us. Just as Georgie was becoming a functional kid, I was becoming the parent of a soon to be toddler. I chuckled as warmth spread over me. I liked the thought of being her father.
But there was an obvious hole in the little family we were becoming. Cecelia was missing. She belonged here with us.