Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
A few nights later, Iris was heading back to her room from the bathroom when she nearly collided with Olive in the dark hallway.
‘Olive! What are you doing up?’
The little girl didn’t answer; she just kept walking down the hall, her blankie trailing behind her. She had a vacant look on her face that reminded Iris way too much of a horror movie. Was her head about to start spinning on her neck?
‘Olive, where are you going?’ Iris followed her back out to the main living space. Archer was cleaning up the kitchen and he looked up when they entered.
‘What’s going on?’
Iris shrugged. ‘I’m not sure. Hoping it’s not a poltergeist situation.’ God, she was totally right. Children were scary. Just when she thought she had this one figured out, she’d got possessed by the devil. Or something like that.
‘A what?’ Archer shook his head. ‘Olive, you should be in bed.’
The girl didn’t respond or even look at him, just made her way to the front door and started fiddling with the knob. Iris and Archer looked at each other in confusion.
‘What the hell is she doing?’ Archer whispered.
‘Trying to escape? In her sleep?’ Iris suggested.
‘You think she’s sleepwalking?’
‘Honestly, I think that is the least horrifying scenario right now.’
Archer crept up behind her and Iris followed him. He was Olive’s dad. He could get murdered first.
‘Hey, Olive,’ he said softly. ‘Let’s go back to bed.’ He put his hands on her shoulders and tried to steer her away from the door.
‘Be careful,’ Iris hissed. ‘Aren’t you not supposed to wake a sleepwalker?’
‘I don’t know,’ he hissed back. ‘What happens if I do?’
‘I don’t know!’ Iris had goosebumps up and down her arms. Something about the dark house and Olive’s unseeing eyes were really freaking her out.
‘It’s fine,’ Archer whispered, his voice firm and steady. It was a comforting sound in the dark. ‘Come on, sweetie, back to bed,’ he coaxed, gently moving Olive back to her room, and thankfully, she let her sleepy shuffle take her back to her bedroom. Archer went with her, tucking her into bed while Iris waited in the hall. Just in case.
‘Is she okay?’ she asked when he emerged, closing the door softly behind him.
‘I think so. Scared the crap out of me, though.’ He slouched against the wall behind him.
‘Me too. That was creepy.’
He smirked. ‘Creepy?’
‘She looked like a horror-movie kid!’
‘I’m really starting to question the media you’re consuming. Murder podcasts and horror movies?’
Was he teasing her?
‘I was ready to call a young priest and an old priest.’
Archer laughed. The sound was low and rich in the silent house. Iris leaned against the wall behind her and slid down to the floor. Archer looked at her like he might return to the kitchen and leave her there alone, but instead he slid down his wall as well, mirroring her position.
‘I don't know how I’m going to sleep now, wondering if she’s going to get out of the house.’ The teasing smirk was gone and now he just looked tired and worried. Again, it struck Iris how much he’d given up to be here, how much he’d sacrificed already for his daughter.
‘You put those locks on. I don’t think she can get out.’
He nodded but still looked doubtful, like he knew intellectually that she couldn’t get hurt, but some part of him would always worry that she would.
Parenthood, man, what a mindfuck.
‘I guess this is what it’s gonna be like,’ he said quietly, as though he wasn’t talking to her anymore. His foot brushed against hers seeking the comfort of contact. ‘One thing after another. We just figured out the eating thing, and now she tries to escape in her sleep.’
It was a serious moment. He was worried about his kid, but something about the insanity of the whole thing struck Iris as funny.
Giggles escaped from her and she clapped a hand over her mouth. Archer’s head snapped up in surprise.
‘Are you laughing?’
Her shoulders shook with the effort to hold it in. ‘Yes?’ she squeaked. ‘I’m sorry, but it’s kinda funny. She had us both totally freaked out.’
Archer shook his head, but that smile was creeping back on his face.
‘I think this is an “if you don’t laugh you’ll cry” moment,’ she said between giggles. ‘We are both in way over our heads here.’ Probably not something she should admit to her boss, but it felt better this way, that they were in this together, that they were going to figure out how to deal with Olive together.
For now.
They would be in it together until Iris was sure Archer could handle things on his own and then she would leave because this … this level of worry and exhaustion and … and total helplessness was not something she planned to sign on for the long term.
Parenthood was not for her.
‘So, you really didn’t know about her?’ Iris asked the question she’d been dying to ask since she took the job.
‘I had no idea.’
‘You and her mom weren’t…’
‘We worked at the same restaurant, slept together a few times, and then I left for Europe. I didn’t hear from her after that.’
‘Wow.’
‘Yeah,’ he sighed.
Iris couldn’t imagine having news like that dropped in her lap.
‘Do you want kids?’ he asked.
‘God, no,’ she blurted out and then immediately felt awful for her reaction. ‘Sorry,’ she winced. ‘I mean, kids are wonderful, I just never really pictured myself as a mom… What about you?’ she went on, feeling braver in the dark. ‘Did you always want to be a dad?’
‘God, no,’ he echoed her, with a wry smile, meeting Iris’s eye across the hall. ‘But here I am.’
She smiled at him. ‘I guess your old life wasn’t very conducive to having a kid.’
‘Definitely not. A lot of late nights, long hours. I’m not sure how people fit kids into that lifestyle.’
‘But here you are,’ she whispered.
She wasn’t sure he’d admitted it to himself yet, but Iris knew he was all in now. Archer was Olive’s dad, and he wasn’t going anywhere. He was going to do what was best for Olive. Iris could see that, even in the dark, even with Archer looking like he needed about a week of solid sleep. Whether he knew it or not, Archer was a good dad.
Archer’s foot pushed against hers again. ‘Thanks,’ he said.
‘For what? Believing your child was possessed?’
His laughter washed over her like a caress in the dark. ‘No, just for … cheering me up, I guess.’
He was looking at her, his gaze tracing over her face, slipping down to her bare shoulder and back again. Iris knew she’d been flirting with him since she moved in, and she also knew that she shouldn’t be flirting with him at all…
Nothing could happen between them.
Obviously.
He was her boss, and she needed this job, and she certainly didn’t need to get caught up with a guy with a kid. And he couldn’t be seen as the type of guy who has a fling with the nanny. That would definitely conflict with the whole doing what was right for Olive thing he was working on.
Iris could leave at any time if she was just his nanny, but if she was anything else…
She shook her head.
Nothing else was on the table anyway, but what was the harm of a little flirtation? It was hard for Iris to resist. She’d always been a flirt. She liked the banter, the teasing, the small touches. Was that so wrong? It didn’t always have to lead anywhere.
It was harmless, really.
Except when she met Archer’s gaze again, even in this dark hallway, even though it was only their feet pressed together, Iris already knew nothing about this was going to be harmless.
He looked dangerous in the dark. His hair was disheveled again because he’d been messing with it in that way that made Iris want to substitute her fingers for his, and a dark stubble covered his jaw. It would burn. If he kissed her that stubble would burn her skin. A shiver ran through her at the thought.
She thought about the dedication and sacrifices he’d made to achieve what he had. About how he was so damn good at what he did. Iris had never really dedicated herself to anything. She flitted from job to job, man to man.
She was a flake.
Archer clearly found her attractive. And she him. But they would never mesh well together. She would drive him crazy with her inattention, her inability to stick with anything.
And she knew she was in trouble when even this imagined rejection hurt her feelings.
‘I should get to bed,’ she said. ‘For real this time.’
‘Right. Of course.’
She got up, but Archer stayed where he was, like a sentry outside of Olive’s door.
‘You going to stay there all night?’
He shook his head. ‘Nah. Just for a bit longer.’
Iris stood looking down at him for another moment, at the worry still etched onto his face, at the exhaustion in his eyes and she wanted to help. To do something to make that smile come back.
But, like she told him, she was in way over her head. Unqualified to be a nanny. Unqualified to be anything other than an employee to this man.
So she gave him a small nod and went to bed.
It took a long time to fall asleep, wondering if he was still out there keeping watch.