Chapter 5 Flo #3
Their gene pool is strong. Fuck. She’s drop-dead gorgeous.
“The coyote didn’t mean to pee on Dad’s shoes!” Leo defends, and a laugh tears from my throat, imagining Evan’s less-than-impressed face waking up to a sneaker full of coyote urine.
“Still doesn’t mean he liked it, kid.” She sticks her hand out to me as she reaches the porch. “Hi, I’m Gracie, Evan’s sister.”
“I’m Flo, this week’s nanny,” I joke with a light tone, and Gracie’s lips flatten.
“Yeah, Evan is… hard to please in that department.” Her eyes slice over to the fort, and she releases a whistle in admiration. “Wow, good work, kid. I’m impressed.”
“Flo helped!” Leo can’t wait any longer, and he drops to his knees and crawls into the fort, splaying out on the couch cushions we’d thrown in there to make it more comfortable than just lying on the hard decking.
“Do you need help bringing anything inside?” I gesture down to the bag full of ribs, steaks and burgers and hitch a brow up. “Carnivore only diet?”
“Oh, no, I’m helping supply the meat for the Storks’ team barbecue tomorrow. Ironic to be given that task as a vegetarian, but the boys need to get their game fuel somehow, huh? I’m good, though, thanks.”
I have no doubt the team eats like animals, so I hope Gracie has more meat where that came from because that’s definitely not going to be enough.
“I hope Evan’s being easy on you.”
A casual shrug rolls my shoulders. “He’s being…
. Evan, I suppose. He was in a rush this morning and left a little early, or maybe he just didn’t want to spend any more time with me than necessary, but we’re just trialling it for the moment, ” I say with a chuckle.
“But I’m not here for him, I’m here for Leo. ”
Gracie stands a couple of inches above me, and I’m considered relatively tall for a woman, standing at five feet seven. She’s slightly intimidating, and I’m not too sure why. There’s just something about her that screams I don’t like people easily.
“Well, that’s a first.” Her lips curl slightly.
“What is?”
“Someone being here for Leo rather than Evan.” She keeps her voice low so Leo can’t hear us. “It’s not usually what happens around here.”
I understand Evan is a good-looking man, but do people really go to the trouble of applying for the nanny position just to be in with a chance of hitting it off?
“I mean, he’s a grown man who can look after himself. He doesn’t need a babysitter.”
I’ve never liked the idea of being a housewife. It just doesn’t appeal to me. Over my dead body will I wake up at the crack of dawn to fold a man’s laundry, or get onto my hands and knees to clean the whole house while they sit around and drink beer all day.
Sure, I have maternal instincts, and I’d love to have a family one day, but I’ll do it alongside having a job because the thought of relying on a man to pay the bills, while I cook and clean, isn’t something I want. Others might, and that’s fine, but working has always been something I want to do.
Gracie snorts. “Tell that to the countless women who’ve only taken the job in an attempt to jump into bed with my brother.” She shivers, disgusted with the thought. “It makes it easier that you two aren’t crazy about each other. It means Leo will remain the priority.”
It’s not the first time my boss has disliked me, so it doesn’t bug me too much. Alexander constantly pitted me and my colleagues against each other for no reason other than entertainment. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Well, I’m here now, so you can clock off if you’d like? Evan was very clear about giving you free time when someone’s around.”
My eyes drift over to my cabin. It just looks so… lonely.
The sun’s also beginning to set, and any average person would take the time to go and visit a friend or head to the grocery store for a browse, but I can’t. My mind just won’t let me. Ever since… that night, the thought has terrified me.
It would be the normal thing to do. But I’m not in a hurry to do the normal thing tonight.
I should spend the time researching and planning my six-month trip—I only have a certain amount of time to commit before the company closes the applications—but I want to put it off for the night. I’d rather spend time with Leo.
“I think I’ll help Leo with the fort for a little while longer if you’re okay with that?”
“You cool with that, Leo?” Gracie yells through the blankets, and we hear a loud, “Yeah!” in response.
She turns to me, laughing. “If it’s alright with him, it’s alright with me. I’ll be inside if you guys need anything.”
I watch her disappear, and I clamber inside the fort, the immediate humidity taking me off guard and making it hard to breathe.
“Flo, will you sleep out here with me tonight?”
“I don’t know, Leo, I’m not sold on the idea of a coyote peeing on my shoes. These are new.” I grin at him, gesturing down to my tattered sneakers, which are most definitely not new.
“But camping sounds fun.”
Nodding towards the main house, I ask him, “How about we go and make those brownies you so badly wanted to bake the first time I was here, and we can eat them out here while we watch a movie on my laptop?”
He shoots me a toothy grin. “With extra chocolate chips?”
This kid knows me too well. I hold my palm up for a high-five. “With extra chocolate chips.”
Thirty minutes later, Gracie, Leo and I are nose-deep in the recipe books Evan has lining his kitchen shelves. Most of them are covered in a thin layer of dust and don’t appear to have been used in years, but once we stumble upon a killer fudge brownie recipe, we get to work.
“Save some batter for the actual brownies,” I tell Leo, whose mouth is full of it, and he giggles, bare feet smacking against the kiddie stool he’s standing on as he dances with glee.
However, the smell of flour, eggs and chocolate is soon overpowered by a fresh, manly scent, and Evan appears in the doorway of the kitchen, leaning against it with his arms crossed.
Our eyes clash, and I pick up on the confusion swirling within his irises.
“You’re still here.”
I raise my shoulders, wetting my hands under the faucet and drying them on my ripped denim shorts. “Brownies were too tempting.”
Evan releases a soft hum of understanding, but he’s studying me, almost like he can’t quite understand why I’m here. Or maybe it’s because he doesn’t want me here. Probably the latter.
“Daddy, we couldn’t lift the pool!” Leo exclaims, and Evan’s gaze drifts out of the window to the baby blue paddling pool that’s still full to the top.
We had tried our best earlier, but we couldn’t flip it over to get rid of all the water, and after spending over thirty minutes using mugs to scoop it out and pour it onto the grass, we gave up.
“I’ll do it.” Evan’s voice is low, and he exits the back door through the kitchen.
I follow after him, not wanting him to think I was going to leave it for him to do. “I’ll help.”
“I can do it, Flo.” He doesn’t sound frustrated with me. He just sounds tired.
“Really? You’re not going to accept help to tip over a kiddie pool? The rubber duckies aren’t going to judge, West.” I gesture to the plastic ducks slowly floating on the water.
He simply stares at me.
Not taking no for an answer, I join him, getting onto my haunches and slotting my fingers between the bottom of the pool and the grass, raising it in the same direction Evan is angling it.
However, I don’t support the plastic of the pool as it flips, and sun-warmed water slaps me in the chest, soaking me immediately.
The now soggy white top I’m wearing clings to my skin for dear life, and it suddenly feels like the fabric is suffocating me, my nipples immediately hardening, on show from my lack of a bra.
“Shit,” Evan mumbles, shaking his head. “You okay?” His greys drop to my chest, and it’s like he’s frozen as I shake the water from my hands.
I’m aware he’s staring.
He’s aware he’s staring.
But neither of us says anything about it as we study each other.
“I’m fine… just wet.” I gather the bottom of my top in my hand and twist it together to wring out the water. My midriff is slightly on show, and I know I should tear my gaze away from the ogling single dad standing before me, but I can’t.
I like it—the way he’s looking at me.
I like it and I shouldn’t.
It appears as if he’s trying to memorise all of me before what he’s looking at disappears as he clutches onto the limp plastic of the paddling pool a little too tightly, grey eyes turning from ice to a storm—dark and intense.
His jaw twitches as he grinds his teeth, and my stomach flutters. But Evan soon drops his gaze and clicks his tongue, eyebrows pinching. “You should go and change.”
My laughter rings out, and I flatten the fabric of my top back down. “It’s fine, it’s hot so it’ll air dry. I should help Leo and Gracie finish those brownies. It was my idea, and I can’t leave them to clean it all up.”
Water trickles down my legs, and it cools the burning sensation for a moment.
Evan’s gaze falls to my wet chest again, mouth pressing into a firm line. “But Leo will see—”
“He’s a kid, Evan, he’s not going to notice. The only person I’m sure will be looking at my nipples in there will be you.”
His face falters at the word nipples. And the fact that I’ve just put it out there that he’s staring.
“But since you’re my boss and we’re both professional, I’ll go ahead and assume that’s not a problem for you?”
I’m very aware I’m playing with fire here, but the rush is far too addictive.
Teasing Evan is fun, especially when he’s scrubbing a hand down his jaw the way he is now, looking like he wants to avert his gaze but can’t.
I shouldn’t get a kick out of taunting this man.
He has the ability to snap his fingers and have me off his land in a second, but something about doing it just comes so naturally to me.
“For fuck’s sake,” he grunts under his breath, tilting his head up to the sky.
“What was that?”
“I said no, not at all.”
I nod, lips flickering with amusement. “Okay then. Glad we’ve put that out there.”
His eyes are hard. “Yep, me too.”