Текст книги "Playing the Player"

Автор книги: Lisa Brown Roberts

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Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 16 страниц)

A gasp escaped me before I could stop it. “Did you just… Are you calling me Bird Brain to my face?”

He smirked. “Not exactly. But you’re getting the general idea.”

My hand itched to slap him. But the way he was looking at me set off an internal fire, and not an angry one.

“Movie!” Gillian shrieked at the top of her lungs, screeching to a stop right between us.

Max walked calmly into the room, carrying a stuffed pink dinosaur. “Can we have popcorn, Trina? Please?” His voice was a whisper, and he bit his lip.

Was Max scared of me? My heart thudded to my feet. I dropped to my knees and looked into his big brown eyes. “Yes, of course we can, Max. What’s a movie without it?”

He gave me a tentative smile. I reached out to touch his dinosaur. “What’s his name?”

“Her name is Peggy. It’s short for pegasaurus.”

I glanced at Slade, who studied me closely. I turned back to Max, flustered by Slade’s intense gaze. I didn’t want him trying to figure me out.

“I thought pegasauruses had wings?”

Max nodded, his face serious. “Hers haven’t grown in yet.”

“I see. Let’s make some popcorn, okay, kiddo?”

He gave me a tiny smile and nodded.

I stood up and glanced at Slade. “Any idea where the popcorn is?”

He shook his head, those cat eyes of his still fixed on me. He hadn’t been lying before—he knew I was hiding something. Damn him.

“It’s in the pantry,” Max said, tugging me into the kitchen.

Once the popcorn was ready, we all settled on the big couch in the family room.

“I hope it’s not a princess movie,” Gillian said. “Cuz I’m tired of those.” She pulled Spike onto her lap and rubbed his belly.

“I’m too little to watch Jurassic Park,” Max announced. “Even though I really want to. My dad said it’s too scary.”

“He’s right,” Slade said. He reached over to punch Max lightly on the arm. “Maybe when you’re double digits.”

Max frowned and Slade turned to me, laughter in his eyes.

“When you’re ten, buddy,” he explained.

“I’m going to drive a car when I’m ten,” Gillian announced.

Slade and I shared an amused glance, but I looked away quickly and queued up the documentary.

“Before we start,” I said, “I want you to know this movie is very important. After we watch it, I have some coloring worksheets for you, so pay attention.”

A snort of laughter from Slade made the kids jump. “Worksheets? Seriously, BB?”

Gillian looked back and forth between us. “Who’s BB?”

I narrowed my eyes at Slade. “I am.”

He mimicked my expression, narrowing his eyes. “You sure are.”

I wanted to smack that smirk right off his perfect, acne-free face. This wasn’t the guy whose smile had me reaching for more lavender oil. This guy needed to get fired. ASAP.

“What’s the movie, Trina?” Max asked, digging into the bowl of popcorn on my lap.

Turning away from Slade’s mocking expression, I hit play. Everyone sat quietly while music played over a montage of oceans and deserts. Gilly kicked off her shoes and leaned against Slade.

Traitor.

“Even though approximately seventy percent of our planet is covered by water, many parts of the earth still struggle with drought.” The narrator’s smooth voice filled the room.

“It’s not a cartoon,” Gillian said, sounding disappointed.

I could feel Slade’s self-satisfied gloat from across the couch, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of eye contact.

“No, it’s not. But it’s more important than a cartoon.” I passed her the bowl of popcorn. She took a handful, but gave me a sour look.

I darted a glance at Slade. He raised his eyebrows at me and mouthed “Worksheets?” then rolled his eyes.

Just wait ’til I typed up my report on him tonight.

We made it through another ten minutes before Gillian slid off the couch. “This is boring,” she declared, hands on her hips.

Max glanced up at me. “The popcorn’s good, BB. But we like cartoons.”

Oh great. Now the kids were calling me BB?

“Yeah, BB. Let’s watch Despicable Me.” That came from Slade. I glared at him, but he just laughed, tucking his hair behind his ears.

“Yay! Minions! Minions!” Gillian shouted.

Max slid off the couch and joined her in the minion chant. Slade added his own voice, extra low.

I dropped my head to my hands. Once again, I’d been undermined by my supposed partner.

“This is not on the schedule,” I muttered.

Slade leaned in close to me and whispered, his voice tickling my neck, “Live dangerously, BB. I dare you.”

Startled, I raised my head, but before I could respond Slade launched himself off the couch and started digging through the tub of movies next to the TV. “Do you have Despicable Me?” he asked Max.

“I don’t know,” Max said. “Maybe?”

“You guys!” I yelped, jumping up from the couch. “This is not the plan. We’re going to watch the documentary.” I grabbed my binder and slammed it on the coffee table, jabbing my finger at the cover. “It’s on the schedule!”

They all stared at me, then at my binder, then back at me.

“I hate the binder!” Gillian screeched. Before I could stop her, she ran to the table, grabbed it, and took off running. Max tore after her, Spike close behind.

Slade stood up, shaking his head and laughing. “I think that’s called a mutiny. Or maybe a coup.”

“You!” I pointed at him, trembling with anger. “You’re worse than the kids. You’re supposed to be my partner, Slade.”

His laughter stopped and he spoke through a clenched jaw. “I am your partner, Trina.”

“Oh really? Is that what you call it? Flaking out at the museum? Encouraging Gillian when she did that awful puppet show? Undermining me just now when you knew we were supposed to watch a documentary?”

He stalked over to me, his eyes flashing. “And just who the hell put you in charge anyway, Trina? You haven’t listened to any of my ideas. You treat me like me I’m another kid you have to babysit.”

“Because you are!” I sounded hysterical. I hated it, but couldn’t control it. “But you’re worse, because you’re not five years old. I might as well be nannying by myself.” My chest heaved. “I wish I was.”

He jerked back as if I’d slapped him.

“Fine,” he snapped. “You want to fly solo? Do it. I’ll give my resignation today. I don’t need this crap. I can find a job where I’m not treated like a child.” He stormed out of the room and the front door slammed, rattling the china plates hanging on the kitchen wall.

I stood there trembling, clenching and unclenching my fists. Tears filled my eyes. I wanted to scream. To shatter something against the wall. I knew everything would fall apart. I knew it. But I’d felt sorry for Slade’s mom and look where it had gotten me.

Breathe, I told myself. Keep breathing.

It’s what you wanted, right? To do this on your own?

I couldn’t believe he’d just walked out. I should text Max’s mom to let her know. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, but hesitated. It could wait until she got home. It wasn’t like an emergency. I could handle the kids just fine without him.

Where were they, anyway? I pulled at my hair and started the hunt.

“Gillian? Max? Where are you?”

No response, but I heard a humming noise. Was that a vacuum cleaner? I followed the sound. Now I heard laughter mixed in with the grinding noise. Spike barked excitedly from behind the office door.

I threw open the door. Max and Gillian knelt on the floor next to a shredder, shoving paper into its noisy jaws.

“Stop!” I shrieked. “You could lose your fingers!” I rushed across the room to turn off the shredder, but it just made a horrible thunking whine when I hit the power button. They’d shoved in too many pages, and now it was jammed.

“What are you shredding anyway?” I tugged the papers out of the shredder, tormented by visions of important financial paperwork being destroyed on my watch. I smoothed the mangled page and my stomach plummeted.

Appropriate Play Behavior for Five-Year-Olds. The words swam in front of my eyes.

I stared at Max and Gillian, horrified. “My binder?” I whispered. “You shredded my binder?” I sank to the floor.

This was too much. Slade had walked out on me, and now this? My binder lay open next to the shredder, all of the pages torn out of it. Some of the paper had been hand-shredded, thrown around the room like confetti. The rest had been pulverized in the mechanical shredder.

Failure. That was me. Complete and total failure. Tears spilled down my cheeks. Spike climbed onto my lap, trying to lick my face. Then Gillian burst into a crying jag, and Max followed suit, sobs racking his tiny body.

“I’m sorry,” Gillian wailed. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.” She shoved Spike off my lap and clambered onto my crossed legs. Max joined her, forcing himself onto my lap and wailing that he was sorry, too.

“Holy cannoli, Batman. What fresh hell is this?”

We all looked up at the sound of Slade’s voice from the doorway. His gaze swept over us, taking in the mess and the still-shuddering shredder.

“You cussed,” Gilly accused him, wiping tears from her cheeks.

Slade crossed the room and sat down next to us, stretching out his long, muscular legs. I averted my gaze, and stared at Spike instead.

“What happened?” He sounded anxious, which surprised me.

I wondered if my face was all splotchy and red from crying. Not that it mattered. I closed my eyes and rested my chin on Gillian’s head.

Maybe I was the one who should resign today.

“We shredded the binder.” Max’s voice was barely audible.

I slowly opened my eyes to find Slade staring at Max like he’d just confessed to a federal crime.

“Dude,” Slade whispered. “For real?”

Max nodded and lowered his head, unwilling to meet Slade’s eyes.

Slade whistled, a long, slow whistle of amazement, then turned his gaze on me. “Should I call an ambulance? Are you going into shock?” Barely contained amusement danced in his eyes.

I wanted to hit him. To yell at him. But I didn’t have the energy.

Clearly I sucked at this whole nanny thing, since the kids hated me enough to destroy my binder. Why couldn’t I make them happy? I wanted them to have a fun summer but it wasn’t working. Fresh tears spilled from my eyes, and I turned away from Slade, embarrassed. I desperately wished he hadn’t come back to witness my collapse.

“Hey.” His voice was soothing now, not mocking. “I think everybody needs to take a deep breath.”

“We didn’t mean to make Trina cry,” Gillian wailed. She buried her face in my chest and a fresh crying jag overtook her. I pulled her in close and whispered in her ear. “Shh. It’s okay, Gilly.”

Where had that come from? I never called her Gilly.

Max squirmed off my lap and started gathering pieces of paper. “Maybe we can tape it back together.” Spike grabbed a shredded page from Max’s hand and ran out of the office, his tail wagging victoriously.

“Spike! Come back here.” Gillian launched herself up, running after her dog. Max joined the chase.

A long, shuddering sigh escaped my body. I pulled my knees up to my chin and glanced at Slade. “So you win,” I said. “You’re right. My ideas suck.”

I thought of the moms, so confident I could handle their kids, and somehow teach Slade something, too. Like what? How to alienate children? How to reduce everyone to tears? How to drive away my partner?

Slade leaned over, his arm brushing against my back as he reached behind me to unplug the shredder from the wall. Silence enveloped us as the blades shuddered to a stop. Thundering footsteps and shrieking voices floated down the stairs as the kids chased Spike from bedroom to bedroom.

Slade sighed next to me, and I averted my gaze from his lean, muscular body. His shoulder bumped mine, and I looked up. He gave me a crooked smile. “I know what you need. Ice cream.”

I reached up to wipe my tear-dampened face. I could only imagine what a hot mess I was. “Ice cream,” I said dully. “What does that have to do with this disaster?”

“Nothing. That’s the point.” He jumped up and put out his hand. “Come on.”

My hand reached for his, and I let him tug me to my feet, desperately trying to ignore the tingles set off by his touch.

We sat under a canopy of shade trees with dripping ice cream cones in our hands.

“This is the best ice cream I ever had.” Gilly batted her eyelashes at Slade.

I agreed with her, but I didn’t bat my eyelashes at our savior, who sat with his back against a tree, watching us all with a satisfied smile. Besides, she was doing enough flirting for the both of us.

Somehow Slade had managed to catch Spike and put him in his dog crate, wrangle the kids and make them clean up the binder mess in the office, and allow me some precious alone time to compose myself.

Max held out his dripping cone to me. “I like putting gummy bears in my ice cream. Wanna bite, Trina?”

I smiled and shook my head. “That’s all yours, kiddo. I’ll stick with peppermint.”

“So the kids and I had a little chat while we cleaned up the office.” Slade licked his ice cream, and I felt my whole body flush as I watched his tongue move over the triple scoop perched precariously on his cone.

I stared at my chipped toenails to avoid looking at him. Maybe Desi and I could give each other pedicures tonight. Maybe she could help me make sense of this crazy day. This crazy week.

“Trina?” Slade’s voice brought me back to the moment.

“Your chat,” I said, still staring at my toes. “Did you guys decide to fire me?” The irony was not lost on me.

“What? No. Of course not.”

This time I met his eyes. He didn’t look like he was lying. In fact, he looked startled.

“Really? You don’t think it’d be best if I bowed out and you took over?” I glanced at the kids, who’d wandered a few feet away to pet a friendly Golden Retriever.

“Believe it or not, no, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He paused. “But if you’d asked me this morning I’d have answered differently.”

My face swiveled toward him in time to catch his fleeting grin.

“So, what changed your mind?” I took a too big bite of ice cream, and my eyes watered from the instant brain freeze. At least it distracted me from how warm the rest of my body felt under his intense stare.

“You changed my mind.” He took another lick of his cone, and my gaze shot to my toes again.

“How so?”

“Well…when I stormed out of the house I was totally going to quit. But then I realized it was crappy to bail on you in the middle of a mutiny. And when I found everyone falling apart like it was somebody’s funeral….” His voice trailed away.

“What?” I prompted, daring to look at him again.

He shrugged, keeping his eyes on the kids. “I guess I felt sorry for you. And the kids. I mean, I know you care about them. And they like you, too. They just…want to have more fun, you know? That’s what we talked about when we cleaned up the binder mess.” He took a breath. “So I’ve been thinking…maybe that’s where I come in.” He turned toward me, his expression uncertain.

I felt a tiny smile playing at the corner of my lips. “So, you bring the fun, is that it? And I bring the crushing discipline and order?”

He laughed, deep and sexy, and my breath caught as I watched amusement chase the uncertainty from his expression.

“Not exactly.” He brushed his hair out of his eyes, and the urge to run my fingers through it hit me full force. If we actually were going to keep working together, I’d have to get this irrational hormonal reaction to him under control.

Was that what I wanted? Us to work together? To not get him fired? I glanced toward the kids, who’d moved on to pet a black Lab lounging at his owner’s feet.

The kids loved Slade. And he appeared to care about them. Even if he didn’t care about my schedules and plans, he cared about the kids.

I swallowed the last bite of my cone and wiped my sticky hands on a napkin. Of course I couldn’t fire him. He’d totally saved the day today. Apparently he had a knack for staying calm in a crisis. That could definitely come in handy.

“I was thinking more along the lines of us trying out an actual partnership,” he said. A cloud passed over the sun, shadowing his face. “As in, you plan a day, then I’ll plan a day.”

My stomach clenched. Let Slade plan a whole day of activities? I could just imagine what he’d come up with.

“Come on, Trina. Give me a chance to prove you wrong.” His voice was light and playful but his eyes locked onto mine, and for a fleeting moment, I wondered if his words had more than one meaning.

Gilly and Max charged back into our personal space, killing the mood.

“Let’s go!” Gilly tugged on Slade’s arm and Max tugged on mine.

“Duty calls,” Slade said, pretending to let Gilly haul him to his feet.

We walked to Slade’s car, the kids running ahead of us down the sidewalk.

“So will you consider what I said? Think about it over the weekend?” Slade asked. He kicked at a rock, his feet juggling it down the sidewalk like a soccer ball.

“Sure.” I had a lot of things to think about over the weekend. After today, I wasn’t quite sure if up was up or down was down. I needed to reconsider everything, especially my own vision of how this summer was supposed to be.

“Cool,” he said, and for the briefest of moments, his hand brushed against mine, sending shivers up and down my spine.

Nanny Notes: Mutiny

CONS: Kids hate the binder. And my ideas. And me?

PROS: Slade knows how to calm everyone down. Surprisingly cool under pressure.

CONS: Not going to fire him after all.

PROS: Not going to fire him after all.

Chapter Eleven

Slade

Friday, June 7

“Up for more skinny-dipping tonight, big guy?” Text delivered 8:49 p.m.

“Slade? Did u get my text?” Text delivered 9:53 p.m.

“Sorry. Can’t make it.” Text sent 10:17 p.m.

“U get a better offer?” Text delivered 10:33 p.m.

“Slade? U there?” Text delivered 10:47 p.m.

I powered off my phone. It was easier rejecting someone via text. I felt kind of bad, but we’d both agreed this was a no-strings-attached deal. And now I was officially cutting the strings.

Besides, I was way too distracted by the day’s events to hook up with anyone. Except maybe… I shook my head to clear away the unbidden image of kissing Trina.

The same image that had taunted me all day long. When we’d been in the middle of our screaming match in the Gonzales’ family room. When I’d found her crying on the floor, surrounded by her shredded binder. When I’d watched her eat her ice cream cone. When I’d said good-bye to her at the end of our crazy day, which I hoped had ended in a truce.

Obviously, I was losing it.

She so wasn’t my type. At all. So what the hell was going on? Why couldn’t I stop thinking about her? Why did I feel this weird pull to be with her? Why did it bug me so much when I saw her crying?

I needed professional help. How convenient that I lived with two professional shrinks… Like I’d ever talk to them.

I opened my Facebook app on my phone. I had 723 friends, including Trina. I wondered when she’d friended me. Or had I friended her? I never turned down friend requests, but I was kind of surprised to see her in my list.

Clicking on her profile, I wasn’t exactly shocked to see that her relationship status was single. Still, I was surprised at the wave of relief that surged through me. I clicked on her page. Thirty-two friends.

Wow.

Should I feel sorry for her, or was she just picky? And how had I made it onto her selective list of friends? We had two mutual FB buddies: Desi and Alex. I saw that Trina and Desi had checked into the Alamo Theater around 7:30 p.m. “Girl power!” Desi had posted. “Movies and pedis.” Again, I felt strangely relieved to see that Trina was out for a girls’ night, not a date.

I clicked on Alex’s page. “Romantic dinner at the Melting Pot. Six-month anniversary!” And a lovey-dovey pic of him and Tim posing cheek-to-cheek at a candlelit table. I grimaced at his disgustingly romantic photo, but I clicked “like.” He was my best friend, after all, and I was happy for him, even though I didn’t agree with his whole fall-in-love-and-life-becomes-perfect philosophy.

It was still early enough I could find somewhere to go…and someone to go with…but after scrolling through all the drunken photos, I set my phone aside. I flipped over on my bed, and my gaze landed on the binder resting precariously on a stack of junk on the table.

With a resigned sigh, I reached for it and flipped to the first page, which I’d bypassed the other night when I’d only read the schedule.

“Dear Slade,

If you’re reading this, I am totally shocked. Seriously, a tear in the universe probably just opened up a wormhole to another dimension. But anyway, if you are reading this…thank you. I hope you don’t think it’s completely lame. If you’ll just play along, and flip to the next page(s), maybe it will help you understand my plan for the summer.”

My heart rate picked up considerably. No wonder she’d been so pissed I hadn’t read it.

“I’ve known Gillian since she was two, but I don’t know Max very well. He seems kind of serious, from the few times I’ve met him at Gillian’s. I’m hoping he’ll relax around you, since you’re a guy.

“The Moms want the kids to do some educational activities this summer, so I’ve come up with a big list of possible field trips, books to read, even a few documentaries. That probably sounds dorky, but maybe we can make it fun? You always know how to make people laugh. Even in the most boring classes. ”

Guilt covered me like a heavy cape of shame. I’d made the kids laugh all right, after encouraging a full-on mutiny that led to a complete and total Trina meltdown. I ran a hand through my hair.

I glanced at my alarm clock. 11:37 p.m. Too late to text her. Knowing her, she was probably already asleep. Picturing her in bed made me swallow and reach for my water bottle.

What would I text, anyway? Sorry I was such a dick, but hey, that’s how I roll.

Maybe it was good we had a weekend apart before we saw each other again. We could both clear our heads and figure out how to make this nanny thing actually work.

Because we would work this out.

I’d make sure of it.