She’s on the couch, giving Evelyn a bottle.
I steel myself and open my mouth.
But Caroline speaks first. “Feel better?” she says, giving me a casual smile.
Caught off guard, I nod. “Sorry,” I say, gruffly. “I should have locked the door.”
I can admit, apologizing doesn’t come easily to me.
Especially when I wasn’t wrong.
She puts her hand up. “It’s fine. Let’s not make a big deal out of it. You close the door, I’ll knock, we’ll be fine. You’ve been under a lot of pressure lately, so I can’t say I blame you.”
“I have been under a lot of pressure.” Deflated now that she’s not giving me a reason to fight, I wander over to them and run my hand over Evelyn’s downy hair.
She gazes up at me, making adorable little sucking sounds as she drinks her formula.
“Any port in a storm, right?” Caroline grins.
I grunt in acknowledgment. “This is a damn hurricane, that’s for sure. Hey, what was it you wanted?”
“The formula. The canister on the counter was empty. But I found it in the bags of groceries by the front door.”
“Sorry about that,” I say, the apology easier this time. It just rolls off of my tongue. Look at me. Mr. Mellow. “Thanks for not running out of here screaming.”
Caroline shrugs. “It’s natural. A great tension release.”
I wonder if she’s getting fucked regularly, and that’s why she’s so calm all the time.
I envision some beefy gym rat sweating all over her and wish I hadn’t.
I have no idea what her type is. Nor is her sex life any of my business.
Talk about a conflict of interest.
If I fuck the nanny, I’ll really be complicating things, and God knows I’m in no shape to be in a relationship.
I’ve never been a relationship type of guy, anyway, preferring the freedom of being single and doing whatever I want. Now? Forget about it. I’m a mess. I can’t learn how to become a parent—if Evelyn is mine—and navigate dating on top of that.
If I want to have casual sex, it needs to be with someone other than the nanny.
Caroline stretches her right arm out, which pushes her glorious breasts forward in her little tank top.
Or I can work really hard on finding a couple of permanent nannies so I can do whatever I want with Caroline, which is to strip her naked and lick her from head to toe.
With that idea in mind, as well as the fact that I’m undeniably drowning in domestic chaos, I check my email on my phone and find the nanny agency has sent me several nanny candidates’ dossiers. I scroll through the possibilities. They’re all young and have great backgrounds.
I turn my phone to Caroline. “What do you think of her? She was a senator’s nanny.”
Caroline eyes my phone. She reads with her lips moving. Then surprises me by reaching out and scrolling my screen until she gets to the woman’s photo that has been attached. “She looks uptight.”
I just see a woman who is giving a hint of a smile in an attempt to remain professional. She has high cheekbones, is attractive, and has sleek brown hair. “Shouldn’t a nanny be, I don’t know, disciplined?”
“Who else did they send you?” She glances down and readjusts Evelyn’s bottle.
“This one. Her name is Primrose. She’s twenty-one.” I study her picture. “She’s also gorgeous. Like, wow, gorgeous. I better not pick her. Too tempting.”
Caroline snorts. “Is that even real? She sounds like a catfish.”
