6. Madison
MADISON
“Excuse me?” I said, rising to my feet and shaking my head. “Sorry, Lord Crankypants, I must have heard you incorrectly. Did you order me to be your nanny?” If he thought he could just lay down the law, then he was in for a big shock. There was no way I was going to be bossed around like this.
Alistair huffed out a harsh breath, looking tired and stressed. “Fine, then. Would you be my nanny? There…is that better?”
“No!” I said, crossing my arms, getting more and more offended. “Who the hell are you to tell me what I’ll be doing? You’re practically a stranger!”
He rolled his eyes. “Do you always feel the need to have a deep, meaningful relationship with your boss?”
Ugh, the nerve of this man! “I feel the need to have a choice about which jobs I accept and which I refuse. And I’m definitely refusing this one.
I didn’t come here begging for a job. I crawled into your kitchen because I didn’t want to freeze to death.
I didn’t want anything more from you than shelter. ”
“And I very kindly provided it,” he said, a dark eyebrow crawling up his forehead.
I pursed my lips, wondering what reality he was living in. “Um, yeah, ‘kindly’ might be a stretch.”
He paced back and forth in front of me. “The way I see it, you’re stuck here until your vehicle is repaired.
I’m in urgent need of childcare. Instead of paying to stay at the inn, you can stay here for free and earn a salary at the same time.
You may not like me, but you do like Kenna, and she’s the one you’ll be spending your time with.
Is it such an outrageous offer?” he said.
“Besides, it’s only until I’m able to source someone fulltime.
It’s not like I suggested immortal servitude. ”
Bah! Dealing with him in any capacity was sucking years off my life.
“Thanks for that lovely offer,” I quipped.
“But it’s a hard pass from me.” The fact that I liked Kenna was even more reason to say no.
The more time I spent with her, the more likely I’d get attached.
I always got invested too fast; it was the story of my life and the downfall of every one of my romantic relationships.
If I got too invested in Kenna, then leaving was going to suck. Why would I set myself up to get hurt?
“Why would you even want me to be your nanny?” I said before he could say anything else. “You clearly don’t like me, and it’s not like I have any professional qualifications. I’m not some fancy Mary Poppins who’s swooped in here to save the day.”
“I don’t think Mary Poppins ever entered through the dog door.”
I rolled my eyes. “Exactly. Also, on a side note, will you stop listening to my personal conversations?”
“The conversations you’re having out in the open in the middle of my house?” he clarified.
“I wasn’t standing in the middle of anything. I’m tucked away in the library.”
“Of my house. With the door open.”
“Have you ever heard of boundaries?”
“Yes, I usually start by not breaking into people’s homes on Christmas Eve. Maybe that’s just a personal one for me, though.”
Asshole! I resisted the urge to tug on my hair. The man was impossible. And he was delusional if he thought I’d ever consider working for him.
“Can we just be sensible about this?”
I crossed my arms. I didn’t care how much he grumbled in that disarmingly sexy Scottish brogue or how good he looked in nothing but a towel.
As soon as the roads were clear, I was going to get the hell out of here.
“I’m not being your nanny. End of story.
Case closed. Stop looking at me like you expect a carpet bag to appear in my hand! ”
He scowled, more pissed off than before. It was all broody and hot. Those dark eyebrows and blue eyes made for an intense stare, but I wasn’t going to give in.
“I suppose you have some more important work to be getting back to,” he said mockingly. “An all-important job you can’t afford to be away from with your van that won’t start and your dog that won’t shut up.”
An indignant scoff exploded from me. “As a matter of fact, I do!”
He snorted.
My hands curled into fists at my sides. As if he knew anything about my life or what I was doing here!
Heat coursed through me, so hot my vision went red.
It was none of his business why I was in Scotland.
Like I was going to tell some stranger my personal story.
Nope, no way; he was far too much of a jerk.
I knew the best thing to do was ignore him, but the implication that I was some aimless wanderer with nothing important going on in my life really ticked me off. The man could go kick rocks. Preferably off the side of a cliff.
“As I said, I’ll pay you,” he added.
“Yeah, and I ignored that part the first time you said it, because I don’t care,” I snapped. His audacity was astounding. It felt like I had steam coming out of my ears. “I don’t want your money!”
“I can pay you a lot of money,” he clarified.
“No amount of money is worth calling you my employer.”
“Your vehicle is stuck in a ditch. You’re trapped in a small town in the middle of nowhere Scotland. Those kinds of things come with unexpected expenses. Don’t tell me you couldn’t use something to line your pockets.”
Would the repair be eating into my savings in a big way? Heck yeah. Was I going to admit to that? Heck no. But before I could tell him where to stuff his money, Princess raced into the room, giving Alistair a long look before she started barking at him.
He groaned. “Does it ever end?”
“She wants attention. You’re ignoring her.”
“Princess has far too many demands for how much space she occupies,” Alistair said. Princess barked louder, longer, approaching him and then racing away again, like she didn’t fully trust him. “Can’t you stop her?”
I crossed the room and swept Princess into my arms, abruptly realizing that if she was up, so was Kenna. As mad as I was at him, I didn’t want the little girl to hear us arguing.
“Daddy?”
Kenna appeared in the doorway, rubbing her eyes. “Why is everyone shouting?”
“No one is shouting, sweetheart,” Alistair said, gathering Kenna to his side. “We were simply having a…lively discussion.”
That was one way to put it.
“Why don’t we go back to the playroom?” he suggested.
“Are Madison and Princess coming?” she asked, lighting up at the thought.
“No,” he said, jaw clenched tightly. “Madison needs time to do her very important work.”
“Oh,” Kenna said softly. Alistair picked her up, settling Kenna on his hip, and she frowned over his shoulder as they marched away.
Part of me felt a little bad.
The kid was genuinely so sweet. In another reality, I would have loved to be her nanny. In this reality, working for Alistair? Not in a million years.
Princess wiggled to be set down, and I obliged. Before she could race off to find Kenna, I snapped, “Princess! Let’s go.”
She scurried after me, tongue lolling out of her mouth as she chased me all the way back to the guest room.
I made sure to close the door behind me before I exploded.
“My ‘very important work.’ Agh! I could have very important work to do. What does he know? Just because I don’t have a castle and some fancy home office doesn’t mean I’m not doing something important. ”
Princess pawed at my shin.
“We’re on a mission,” I said as a mixture of sadness and frustration swelled inside me.
“A mission to find out more about my mom and to see if I can find that missing piece that’ll finally make me feel like I belong.
And staying here, playing Beauty and the Beast with grumpy Alistair, isn’t going to accomplish anything! ”
Princess spun around once in agreement. At least, that’s what I pretended she meant.
“We have to move on,” I said with a sigh. “Last night was one thing.” It was dark. We had no other options. “But there has to be somewhere else we can go.”
Princess nipped at my toes. I yelped, picking her up and depositing her on the bed. I flopped down next to her on my stomach, and she gave my cheek an affectionate lick. It was just the right amount of encouragement. I whipped out my phone. “Let’s get out of this creepy castle.”
Princess rolled onto her back, snuggling into my side while I opened the Voyages Inc.
app. I’d been using the thing religiously since I’d arrived in order to plan my travel and excursions.
It had been a lifeline until it had sent me careening down a snowy road into a ditch.
I’d sworn I wouldn’t use it again, but I didn’t have any other apps loaded, and this one had all my preferences.
Once the map loaded with my location, I zoomed in on Braeburn, exploring the town. An inn popped up called the Deerhound. “Hey, this isn’t that far. Look.”
Princess bounded over my back like I was a hurdle.
“Girl, focus. We gotta figure out if we can get here.” I clicked on the inn. “It’s only a few miles by road. What do you want to bet we can shave off some of the distance on foot if we go as the crow flies? You know, cut through some sheep field or something.”
Princess barked at the mention of sheep.
She really liked sheep, especially when she got to bark her fuzzy little head off at them.
“Calm down for a second. Okay, let’s look at the facts.
I don’t want to be here anymore. Our grumpy host only wants us here if we agree to nanny for him.
And that’s a non-starter because we’ve got places to be. ”
Princess barked.
“I don’t know what places yet. I just know it’s not here.” Staying another night wasn’t logical or reasonable when there was a perfectly good inn down the road. “All right, pack your stuff.”
Princess bounded off the side of the bed, rolling around on the plush carpet as I layered up in my warmest clothes. I added my coat, hat, mitts, and scarf, then unzipped my duffle. “Hop in,” I told Princess. “You’ve got to ride shotgun.”
She barked.