6. SIX
SIX
Colton
“So she’s single, right?” Leroy nudges me out of my daydream about Natalia, and I look around at my friend while trying to stop Jayden from squirming off the diaper mat.
“Huh?” I play dumb when I know exactly who he’s talking about.
He chuckles. “Oh, you’re in for a world of hurt.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Horseshit.”
My best friend reads me way too well and isn’t afraid to call me on it.
OK, so I’ve spent a long time thinking about whether Natalia is single and whether or not she would be interested in me.
I mean can you blame me? She’s just my type—beautiful, soft, caring, intelligent.
Older. I’ve always had a thing for older women. She’s practically perfect.
Leroy once again cuts in over my drifting thoughts. “You know she’s off limits now, though, don’t you?”
I blink.
“You’re her employer. She’s living in your house. You can’t go there, man.”
Well shit. I guess I knew that some level, but because our arrangement is temporary I hadn’t put her in the same category as my other nannies. Besides, I wasn’t crazily attracted to either of them.
All the more reason for me to find her replacement quickly! I don’t want to be the creepy boss. “Yeah, yeah. I know that. I’m not that guy.”
At that moment Natalia comes into the living room, her eyes looking suspiciously red and her face blotchy. I instinctively surge to my feet, ready to fight whoever just made her cry.
“What happened?”
Whoa! I need to be more chill. I cough, making an effort to regulate my tone. “Are you OK?”
Before she can answer, I notice the stream of pee coming from Jayden, who is still half naked on the changing mat. The stream of pee is going absolutely everywhere.
Leroy smothers a laugh.
Thinking quickly, Natalia grabs a spare diaper and holds it over Jayden until he’s finished. “Ooops. Cheeky boy.” Then she takes a fresh wipe, cleans him off, and has a new diaper on him in the blink of an eye.
I think I’m in love. Oh gods, maybe my friend is right.
Is it my fault she smells like Sunday morning breakfast and lazy mornings in the sun, though? I can’t help it.
I fetch a spare towel and a washcloth to clean off the mess. Some days being a father is just a series of jobs that stack up one on the next and the next until I think I’ll never get anything finished.
“Welp,” Leroy stands. “I’m going to leave you to it. I have to get back home before my mate tells me I’m ignoring her again. I’ll call you when I have the gear to do the roof repair, Natalia. In the meantime I’ve put a cover up so you won’t get any more damage. It was nice meeting you.”
“Nice meeting you too,” she tells him with a smile and holds Jayden’s hand to help him wave goodbye to my best friend.
I want to ask her about why she’s been crying since I can literally smell the sadness coming off her in waves. But it’s none of my business. I just want it to be.
I’ve got thirty minutes before the new nanny the agency is sending arrives for her interview. And then I have training.
I’d much rather spend the day hanging out with Jayden and Natalia, finding out what her favorite food is or what she likes to watch on TV or if she likes having her hair brushed or her feet massaged more.
The sooner I find her replacement, though, the sooner I can ask her if she’s single and would like to go on a date with me—or just skip the date and move in and stay forever.
I let out a snort of hot breath through my nostrils, reining in my bull. Yeah, he gets carried away when I like someone new. He’s the sort to get mighty attached, mighty fast. But I’m old enough to know that I have to go slow.
I get myself under control and look around, assessing the state of the house. It’s a mess. A new nanny probably won’t want to stay if she comes in and finds things looking like this. With a sigh, I start tidying things up, cleaning the kitchen and making things presentable.
Natalia gives Jayden a bottle and settles him in his stroller. “I’ll take him out so you can do the interview in peace. I think now that he’s fed, he’ll probably be ready for a nap, so I’ll be out a while. Give me a call if you want to check on him, OK?”
Did I mention she’s perfect? I honestly don’t know what I’d have done today without her. I’ll have to think of some way to repay her properly. Besides paying Leroy for the work on her house, of course. I’ll have to start thinking of a gift, something special she would really like.
When the doorbell rings, I’m still wrapped up in thinking about what things a woman like Natalia would like.
That must be the applicant.
I realize the problem as soon as I open the door.
The face of the young woman standing on my porch is eerily familiar because I’ve seen it in miniature many times before, on her avatar.
It’s the face of the lady who was online stalking me for the last three months before I blocked her.
Or I thought I had. And now she’s standing on my stoop grinning at me like I’m going to be pleased to see her?
“Surprise!”
“Siobhan? What are you doing here?”
She gives me an incredulous look. “I’m applying to be your new nanny, of course. The agency called you last week.”
“No.” I’m shaking my head like that could somehow change this nightmare playing out in front of me. Siobhan is seriously unhinged. She spent three months messaging me multiple times every day, turning up at games, acting like we know each other.
One time she even convinced security to let her into the player’s lounge and somehow got into the shower rooms. It’s a miracle those photos didn’t get leaked, but I managed to convince her to turn over her phone and let me delete them—thank god.
“Listen,” Instinctively, I shut the door behind me so she can’t see into my house, as if that will somehow stop her from knowing my address.
“I know you think there’s something here—”
“There is something here! You just can’t see it yet, Colton. We’re fated mates. I’ve read all about it. Meant to be together. You need to stop fighting it.” Her eyes light up with the same passionate look she always gets, and I silently groan.
She steps forward, reaching for my face. Meanwhile I’m reaching for the phone in my pocket, only to realize it’s not there.
Shit. I’ve locked myself out of my own house without my phone, and Siobhan has me backed up against the door.
I don’t want to touch her. I’m much bigger and stronger, and of course I could defend myself, but the team’s lawyer was very clear.
Never lay a hand on someone smaller. Especially a woman.
Once that shit leaks to the media you can never play it down.
“Siobhan, I’d like you to leave.”
“Shhh. I’m not leaving. This is only just the beginning.”
By this point I’ve got both my hands raised in the air like someone is holding a gun to my head and Siobhan is running her hands up my torso.
Over Siobhan’s head I spot Natalia round the corner with the stroller, totally oblivious to my predicament. She has her headphones on and is looking down, saying something to Jayden.
She doesn’t even look up until she reaches the bottom step leading up to the porch. Then she stops and pulls off her headphones. “Hey, sorry to interrupt you, I just forgot—” She breaks off.
Her eyes widen and then narrow again, her chin setting in a stubborn frown. “What’s going on?”
Siobhan spins. “Who is this?”
Gods bless Natalia, she folds her arms across her chest and scowls up at Siobhan. “His girlfriend. And you are?”
Instead of answering Siobhan turns back to me, and the change in her expression is alarming. She’s gone from infatuated to teary eyed and distraught. “But you don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Why does it matter to you if he does?” Natalia asks. “I thought you were interviewing the new nanny. Is this her?”
“I—” Siobhan’s mouth is flapping open and closed. “There’s nothing online about any girlfriend.”
I can only stand here stunned as Natalia takes stock of the situation and pivots so quickly my head is spinning. She lifts Jayden out of the stroller and strides up the three steps, brushing Siobhan aside. “Babe, I forgot Jayden’s blanket, so I just dropped back to get it. Is everything OK here?”
Siobhan silently mouths the word babe, staring in horror between me and Natalia.
“I, ah, I accidentally locked myself out,” I admit, feeling sheepish.
Natalia hands Jayden to me and reaches into the tiny pocket in her skintight Lycra bike shorts and fishes out the spare I gave her only moments before. “That’s OK, I have mine.”
Siobhan makes a whimpering noise. “But we were going to be fated mates.”
Natalia turns and gives her a cutting look.
“Awww, we all make mistakes. Sounds like this was a big one. Now shall I call you a rideshare or can you make your own way back to wherever you came from?” Her tone is perfectly polite.
It’s only the bite in the last few words that gives away how unwelcome Siobhan is.
Siobhan makes a move as if she’s going to rush past Natalia, but Natalia isn’t having it.
She blocks the smaller woman with her body, planting her hands on her hips.
“I wouldn’t if I were you. Having a restraining order looks so bad on your record, and you’ll find it hard to find work if we have to take one out against you. ”
“But you went on a date with me,” Siobhan wails at me.
I lose my temper then. “Because you blackmailed me with nudes!”
To Natalia’s credit, she reacts as if she’s known this all along. “Babe, I can’t believe you haven’t called the police yet. Should I do it?”
Siobhan lets out a choked noise. “I’ll go. Don’t call the police. Just tell me why.”
Just when I think Natalia can’t get any hotter, she makes a low noise of sympathy and reaches out to wrap her arm around Siobhan’s shoulder, gently guiding her down the steps and onto the drive.
“Now, now. Don’t be upset. You weren’t to know.
I’m sure your very own fated mate is out there somewhere, it’s just not my boyfriend. ”
“I don’t believe it!” Her protests get quieter as Natalia steers her toward the road.
“Uh huh. I know. We’ve been keeping things quiet. Is this your car?”
“What am I supposed to do now?”
Natalia opens the car door and somehow convinces Siobhan to get in, still looking shell shocked. “Well, you just have to pick yourself up and keep doing the next day and the next day until one day things feel better. They will, I promise.”
“Really?”
“Uh huh. Absolutely. You’re young and pretty. You have your whole life ahead of you.”
“I do.”
“Colton is a sweetheart, but between you and me, he snores pretty loud and he never picks his towels up off the floor.”
Jayden coos happily when Natalia gently shuts the car door and turns back to us. Very purposefully, she walks back up the steps toward the house. All the while, the car is motionless on the street.
I guess if Siobhan is feeling anything near as speechless as I am, she’s still gathering her wits.
Before I have a chance to prepare myself, Natalia reaches up and takes a fistful of my shirt, not even looking back over her shoulder at the car.
Then she drags me down and plants a sweet, partly open-mouthed kiss over my lips with just enough heat to leave my knees weak and my brain scrambled while Jayden laughs with delight.
I’m still standing there trying to remember how to use my legs as she walks into the house like she owns it and the car on the street pulls out and drives away.
Gods, did I think I was in trouble before?
How am I supposed to function with this goddess of a woman under my roof without things getting very, very inappropriate now that I know the exact whipped-cream-and-cherry flavor of her lips and the way she leaves me covered in hot tingles?
I stare down at Jayden, who is watching me curiously. “I think I’m fucked, buddy.” Then I wince. “Shit. I really have to stop swearing in front of you.”