Cam
FOUR
I didn’t sleep well.
I kept waking up and checking the time because I didn’t want to be lolling in bed while the rest of the family was having breakfast and getting ready for school and work.
And a month of sleeping in the car had marked me.
I still braced myself for a cop shining a flashlight in the window and telling me to move on.
It didn’t help that the house had me sweating buckets—no, make those gallons—as though I‘d gone to sleep in the tropics. I peered out the window beside me. Nah, no swaying palm trees.
But the heat and the clock weren’t the only things keeping me up. The framed print over the dresser was two inches too high, and it irked me. Worse, the blue in the print fought with the colors on the wall.
By five A.M. I gave up on sleep and scrolled through the phone, and then a minute later, I leapt up and grimaced as my ankle twinged. It wasn’t bad enough to be called a sprain, maybe a sprain’s distant cousin.
Even if Price sent me on my way this morning—which would involve walking and using some of Meara’s logo money for a can of gas—I refused to act as a guest. I could cook up a big breakfast as a thank-you for letting me stay the night.
Rummaging through my bag for clean clothes, I found one shirt and a pair of briefs, but yesterday’s jeans would have to also be today’s.
My guest room had an attached private bathroom, but I worried I’d wake the rest of the house if I took a shower. But one sniff under the arm and I was ewww-ing and sneaking into the bathroom.
Rubbing the condensation from the mirror, I stared at myself, still bleary-eyed after the shower but ready to make an impression in the kitchen.
The house was dark and quiet as I crept down the hallway.
But the fridge didn’t give me inspiration because it was packed with meat.
Whole chickens, a roast, sausages, hot dogs, bacon, lamb chops, and a mysterious lump wrapped in wax paper.
Who needed this much meat? I hadn’t been into the back garden but perhaps the family bred dogs, big, hungry fierce ones, and I pictured the kids throwing the meat over the fence as zookeepers did with big cats. Yikes, I hoped the gate was secured.
There was no yogurt but pushed to the very back, I discovered a carton of eggs as if they’d wandered in by mistake as I had yesterday. And in the freezer along with labeled packages of more meat, was a packet of frozen blueberries. Today’s breakfast would consist of blueberry pancakes with bacon.
The family stirred just after dawn as I placed the stack of pancakes on the kitchen island with a plate of bacon, done just how I liked it. Not burned but with a hint of its past life accompanied by a sharp crisp.
Jack charged in with the wings still attached and skidded over the tiled floor. His little brow furrowed as he poked at the bacon.
“It’s dead.” His eyes filled with tears, and I prepared myself for an awkward and painful conversation, because how did I explain to a four-year-old that the cute pig he may have seen at a petting zoo was now part of the menu.
“Ummm, yes.” This wasn’t my job to explain how animals were made into food, and I worried Price would think I was overstepping.
“Really dead.” But Jack raced to the fridge and pulled out a hot dog. He folded a pancake and put the sausage inside before chomping down on it.
“I love your pancakes, Cam.”
I took that as a win, and we high-fived one another.
Isla and Bea appeared. Isla tore a pancake in half and stabbed it with a fork. “There’s no meat. Just these blue things that Ledger sent over, saying we should eat more fruit.”
“They’re yummy.” Jack was on his second pancake after inserting another straight-out-of-the-fridge hotdog.
The sisters inspected the bacon and shared a glance before Bea stabbed a piece with a fork.
“Careful.” Isla put a hand on Bea’s arm. “Are you ready for this?”
Bea held it between them before Isla gave a nod and the older sister took a bite. She made a face as she chewed, and we all stared at her.
“You can do it,” Jack shouted and clapped.
Bea finally swallowed the bacon and washed it down with a glass of water.
“So you guys have a dog or dogs?”
“No.” Jack had finished his food and was now pretending to fly around the kitchen. He grinned. “But we have hot dogs.”
“Just one dog, perhaps? A big one?”
“No.” Isla was picking out the blueberries from the pancake. “Dad’s beast isn’t fond of dogs.”
Bea swung around and glared at her sister. Isla gulped and laughed, saying they called their dad a beast ‘cause he was cranky in the mornings.
“Is he?” Jack asked. “No, he is my daddy who gives me cuddles.”
“Morning.” Price sauntered into the kitchen, and for a man with three kids, a job, and a large estate to oversee, he looked pretty damn good.
He was wearing suit pants with the jacket slung over his shoulder.
There was neither a salt nor a pepper hair out of place, and he was sporting the biggest grin.
I froze under his gaze and didn’t know where to look. That smile that lit up his face, those broad shoulders, and his distinctive cologne that reminded me of the rugged outdoors left me lost for words. I gulped and studied the pile of pancakes.
“Something smells amazing.”
“Dead bacon.” Bea offered her father the plate. Their eyes met before he took a piece and ate it. He didn’t appear to suffer as Bea had, though I could have sworn he was faking that grin.
“I just got off the phone with Meara.”
I gripped the island, preparing myself for not only not having this job but being banned from the agency because I had no sense of direction and couldn’t find my way out of a paper bag, as my dad used to say.
But if I couldn’t stay here, it wouldn’t just be the loss of a possible income that upset me.
Leaving this man, who I’d only met yesterday, wouldn’t be a thanks and goodbye.
Whatever this pull was that had me gravitating toward him, would sever, and it’d be painful.
“Meara sends her regards and she'll email the contract.” He poured me a coffee, and I took note of his slender fingers wrapped around the mug. “You’re ours now.”
My head shot up at him calling me “ours.” He was talking about the job, not that I was theirs or his. I tried not to think about what it would be like being this man’s partner and sweated more than I had been.
“You weren’t placed with anyone yet, and you were just supposed to chat to Ledger and shadow him. And the candidate she’d lined up for us, she’s sending to another family up the road.”
“I’m hired?” It sounded too easy, and I was worried that saying it out loud would break the spell.
“Yes. There’s a trial period to start, much like other placements.” Price paused and added, “Assuming you survive us.”
I had room and board coupled with a salary. Oh my gods, I wanted to kiss the guy, but that would be inappropriate, much worse than telling my former boss his logo sucked. Yesterday I’d been rationing gas and ironing a shirt on the back seat, and now I had a home and a job.
I put my hands behind me and clenched them, tamping down the desire to plant my lips on someone, anyone.
Price ran over the details of the job, and I tried to look like a professional and not a man who’d nearly kissed his new boss. Most mornings he’d run the kids to school on the way to work, but on the days he worked from home or was on a business trip, that would fall to me.
“Can you drive?” Isla asked the question, but all three children put their faces on the window and studied my car. If I could match words to their expressions, they’d have read, That’s debatable.
“I can. Berty and I have been everywhere together.”
They glanced over their shoulders at me with blank expressions.
“My car. His name’s Berty.”
They responded with a collective, “Oh.”
The rest of the day would mostly be mine. The pending contract stated I couldn’t have a second job with someone else during the day, but there was nothing to stop me from picking up online freelance jobs from home.
“I can fly.” Jack was standing on a stool, readying to climb on the island, but I whisked him off.
“No, you can’t.” Bea didn’t look up.
“I will.” He put on a pouty face. “When I’m bigger.”
I held both his hands and kneeled in front of him. “We don’t stand on the stools or the kitchen counters. Do you know why?”
Jack looked at Bea, but she shrugged. “No.”
I rubbed his head. “Because you might hurt yourself or someone else.”
“Oh. And you don’t want me to?” His eyes grew wide.
“Nope.” Damn, this little boy was winding his way into my heart.
He hugged me, and the wings slapped my cheeks. I was going on a mission to replace them with non-mechanical ones, but not today.
“Also your feet are gross.” Isla was poking her pile of discarded blueberries with a fork.
Jack’s face crumpled. “No. Daddy, tell Isla my feet are not stinky.” He flung his arms around Price’s legs.
“When you remember to take a bath they’re not smelly.” Price kissed the top of his son’s head. It was such an affectionate gesture that I got teary, so I grabbed the plates and rinsed them before putting them in the dishwasher.
“Everyone in the car in fifteen minutes.” Price added that I should come with them this morning and he’d drop me back at the house before continuing on to work.
I took Jack’s hand and asked him to show me his bathroom. Price had sent me the layout of the house last night and everyone had their own bedroom and attached bathroom.
“Let’s get your teeth brushed.”
He made what I assumed was a scary face, showing his front teeth, and skipped down the corridor.
The girls were in the car and Price was in the entryway when we were done, and he made me memorize the code for the front door.
He closed the door and told me to unlock it.
But I made a mistake, pressing a one instead of a seven, just as I had yesterday.
My boss put his hand over mine and warmth rippled through me.
But not just temperature heat. Sweat trickled down my spine as I concentrated on the door, but it was the man behind me that held my attention.