Chapter 6
CHAPTER
SIX
MONROE
Clay pulled into the driveway of an adorable two-story coastal home as the garage door opened.
As soon as he parked, he jumped out of the truck and hustled over to my car. “Go ahead and pull into the garage next to my truck. I’ll make sure you’ve got a remote to open and close it.”
“Oh. Okay. Thanks.” I slowly pulled into the garage and turned off the car.
Kaleigh was already halfway out of her booster seat by the time Clay opened the back door to help her out.
“Slow down kiddo,” he chuckled.
The second her little sneakers hit the ground, she spun toward me. "Monwoah!" She slipped her tiny hand in mine, practically tugging me out of my car. "C'mon! I gotta show you my room!"
"Kaleigh." Clay's voice carried the practiced patience of a man who tried to master the art of toddler persuasion. "Give Monroe a chance to breathe."
“Oh.” Her face fell for a split second as she looked up at me.
“I would love to see your room.”
“Really?”
“Of course. As long as your dad says it’s okay.”
Kaleigh looked over at Clay and stuck out her bottom lip. “Pleeeeeeaassse.”
Clay’s lips twitched as he fought back a smile. “Can we get inside the house first?”
“Fiiiiiiiine.” she sighed dramatically.
Clay scooted around us and unlocked the door. The moment he pushed it open, I could smell the scent of cinnamon and whatever he cooked for breakfast that morning lingering in the air.
I closed my eyes for just a second and breathed it all in.
No cigarette smoke.
No stale whiskey.
It smelled like…home.
Not my home. But a place where love lived within the walls.
Kaleigh kept my hand in hers as she led me through the kitchen. “Daddy burns grilled cheese in here sometimes.”
“I did that once.”
She stopped and looked at him. “Twice.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing as Kaleigh pulled me along again. She pointed to the living room on our way by. “That’s where we watch princess movies and where Daddy falls asleep when he’s watching hockey.”
“I heard that,” Clay grumbled behind us.
Kaleigh shrugged. “It’s true.”
I laughed out loud.
She led me up the stairs like a girl on a mission. The first door on the right was closed.
“That’s Daddy’s room. Sometimes he lets me have a sleep over with him, but he says big girls sleep in their own beds. Do you think I can sleep over with you sometime?”
“Oh. Uhm. We’ll have to see, okay?” I refused to promise her something I wasn’t sure Clay would agree to.
The door on the left was the bathroom. “Mavy drinks from the toilet sometimes,” Kaleigh giggled.
“Jesus Christ,” Clay whispered behind us. “I swear the damn dog has manners too.”
Kaleigh stepped into the next room on the left. She let go of my hand and held her arms open wide as she spun around. “And this…is my room!”
I stepped inside and couldn't help but smile. The room looked exactly like I’d hoped a little girl's room would.
Soft shades of lavender and white covered the walls.
Tiny fairy lights were strung across the headboard of a white bed that was almost completely hidden beneath an army of stuffed animals.
A bookshelf overflowed with picture books, while a child-sized easel stood proudly in the corner beside a toy kitchen.
Every available surface held evidence that a little girl lived here.
"Kaleigh..." Clay chuckled from the doorway. "Did a tornado come through here while we were gone?"
"Nooo." She looked genuinely offended. "I was playin' before school."
"I can see that."
She ignored him completely and reached for the largest stuffed unicorn on her bed."This is Princess Sparkle Butt."
The unicorn was promptly shoved into my arms.
“Princess Sparkle…” I tried not to laugh.
“Princess Sparkle Butt. Because she sat in glitter and now it’s stuck on her butt,” Kaleigh explained.
I looked over at Clay who just shrugged. “I tried, I swear.”
“And this is Tiny.” She held up a dinosaur.
“Nice to meet you, Tiny.” I played along, shaking the dinosaur’s paw.
Kaleigh beamed at me before grabbing another stuffed animal. "This one is Mr. Moo."
A cow. Makes sense.
Then came Sir Hops-a-Lot, a rabbit missing one ear.
Captain Bubbles, a dolphin wearing a pirate hat.
Rosie, the flamingo.
Mittens, the tabby cat.
Each one had a name. A personality. A story. And I listened to every single one.
By the time she finished introducing the entire collection, my arms were overflowing with plush animals.
"I think they all seem very nice," I said.
Kaleigh giggled. "They like you."
"I hope so."
"'Cause you're gonna live here now."
Her words caught me completely off guard.
My smile faltered for just a fraction of a second before I looked toward Clay. Had they talked about that on the drive over?
He looked just as surprised as I felt, so I guess not.
"Kiddo..." he started gently.
"What?" she asked innocently. “Where else would she stay, Daddy?”
Before either of us could figure out how to respond, Kaleigh climbed onto her bed with a book in her hand and patted the empty spot beside her. "Sit."
I kicked off my shoes and climbed onto the comforter beside her.
She immediately handed me the book and leaned over, whispering loud enough for the entire room to hear. "Daddy doesn't have a good princess voice.“
I glanced toward the doorway.
Clay looked thoroughly offended. “I have a great princess voice.”
Kaleigh shook her head. “No, you don’t. You always sound like there is a frog in your throat.” She then went on to do her best impersonation of Clay trying to sound like a princess.
I laughed so hard my stomach hurt and out of the corner of my eye, I caught Clay smiling.
Not the polite smile he'd worn all afternoon. Not the careful one he'd used in the conference room. This one reached his eyes.
My baby deserved that kind of love too. Maybe they wouldn't have a father waiting at bedtime or reading bedtime stories in ridiculous princess voices...but they would always have me. I'd make damn sure of it.
“Can you read this to me?” Kaleigh asked, pointing to the book she’d handed me. “With real princess voices?”
“Absolutely!”
As I opened the book, I caught Clay disappearing from the doorway.
By the second page, I had one princess speaking with a dramatic British accent and another sounding suspiciously like she'd grown up in Brooklyn.
Kaleigh giggled through most of the story. When the princess rescued the dragon instead of the other way around, her giggles had faded into sleepy little sighs.
I closed the book and looked down. She was out, one tiny hand still rested on my forearm like she'd wanted to make sure I hadn't disappeared.
As carefully as I could, I slipped my arm free and slid out of her bed before tiptoing out of the room and heading back downstairs to find Clay.
I wasn’t the least bit surprised when I found him in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with a cup of coffee in his hand.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“She fell asleep. I hope that’s okay.”
He nodded. “Most days she takes a nap after preschool.” Clay sat down his mug. “Can I get you a drink? Coffee? Tea? Water? I think I’ve got some soda in the fridge.”
“Water would be great.”
Clay grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge before turning back to face me. “So, what do you think?”
“I think she’s an incredible kid,” I answered honestly.
He smirked. “I meant about the job. Are you sure you can handle all that energy?”
“Oh.” Heat flooded my cheeks. “Right.”
Clay crossed his arms over his chest. “No pressure.”
“Liar.”
He chuckled. “Hey. Just because I’m in a time crunch doesn’t mean I want you to feel rushed into a decision.”
I looked down at my hands and bit my lip. I believed him. In the very short amount of time that I’d known Clay, it was clear to me that the man never said something he didn’t mean.
“You know Sloane meant what he said. If this doesn’t feel right…”
“I can still take the admin job.”
He nodded. "No hard feelings on my end either. I need you to be sure. Not for me, but for Kaleigh.”
I let out a slow breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For giving me the chance."
“I didn’t really have a choice,” he teased with a smile.
"I still can't believe Sloane talked me into becoming a nanny."
"I still can't believe he hired one without asking me."
We both laughed.
“Does that mean you’ll take the nanny job?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m in.”
Clay seemed to visibly relax. “Good.”
He sipped his coffee. I drank some of my water. Both of us let the silence linger for a beat then Clay cleared his throat.
“So…what made you decide to move to Florida?”
I froze. Shit. I should have known he’d eventually ask. It was a simple enough question. Harmless even, but it set me on edge. An all too familiar feeling of fear and anxiety made my stomach turn. I could not throw up right now.
I took another drink of water and blew out a breath. “Needed a fresh start.”
Maybe it was just my imagination but the way Clay was studying me, told me he didn’t completely buy that that was the full story. Thankfully, he didn’t push further. But, I had a feeling that at some point he would.