“Okay. So hire a nanny under your name when you can’t do it. I’ll pay you enough. Shit, I’ll pay for the bonus nanny. You know what? I’ll double your salary.”
This was getting absurd, and clarity finally kicked in. “Wait, why would I hire the nanny under my name?”
Jack pulled off his beanie, unleashing a messy mop of dark curls. “I’m not allowed back at the nanny agency. Syd scared them all off and we had four quit in a row.”
“Ah.” I nodded slowly. “So you think I can stand up to your big scary wife better than a twenty-year-old.”
“Ex-wife,” he said sternly. “And yes.”
“Right. Ex.”
“When did you cook up this master plan?” I went on.
“While you were upstairs with Aspen.”
I rubbed my temples, thinking it all over. He closed his eyes and sighed again, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You’re really good with them, you know. And the nannies were too, but I feel like they need someone like you. You’re so positive and they’re just . . . happy with you around.”
“You’re good with them too, but I’m not asking you to quit hockey to watch my kids.”
He let out a frustrated growl. “Come on, Mara. Triple your salary? How much do you make?”
“You really love that question,” I scoffed. “I also don’t like the idea of being your . . . hired help? Wouldn’t that be weird for Aspen and Harper?”
“It’s employee, not hired help. You’d be highly compensated.”
I was quiet, taking it all in. It was both completely sensical and entirely ludicrous. I shivered.
“Will you put on the blanket, Mara?” Jack’s voice was crackly and pleading. “I don’t like seeing you uncomfortable.”
I snorted. “I’m uncomfortable more often than I’d like to admit.”
Jack’s face dropped, his eyes drifting over me. He stood and unfolded the blanket next to me, laying it over me. “Better?”
I snuggled down into the soft wool blend that smelled like the campfire between us. “Yeah, it’s better. I’ve always wanted one of those electric blankets, but I can never justify the cost. My feet get so cold I can’t sleep sometimes.”
“I’ll get you one if you come be my nanny,” he sang.
I laughed and shook my head, sipping my water. “You’re relentless.”
“Wait, wait, wait. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this earlier.” Jack sat up, opening his hands. “Marry me.”
EIGHTEEN
MARA
NOVEMBER
My eyes must have bulgedout of my head. “What?”
“Marry me, Mara. Make me the happiest man in the world and marry me.” He cackled, almost an evil laugh. “You’d get my insurance, which is really good insurance, by the way. And you’d get my money, and if I left L.A., it’d be easier to get custody because we’d be married and Syd wouldn’t?—”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” I said, putting my hands out. “This is escalating quickly. I don’t want in the middle of your custody battle, much less to be your wife.”
“Why not? It makes perfect sense!” He held out each hand in turn. “I get great childcare and happy kids, a positive mother figure.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Second parent, but go on.”
“And you, Mara, would get my insurance, and any money you need, and time off to do what you need to do for your health, and you wouldn’t be my employee. You’d be my wife.”
