“Of course I can. Diabetes isn’t going to stop us from causing trouble.”
Leo giggles, diving back into his cereal as he sways from side to side with excitement. Meanwhile, I get up and set my bag aside.
Evan follows my movements and stands behind me in the doorway, so his son can’t see him, and he lowers his chin, eyes flicking between Leo and me.
“I appreciate you explaining that to him.”
I nod and smile.
There’s uneasiness in his gaze, a vulnerability to his expression, but as soon as it appears, it’s gone, replaced by that scowl I’ve convinced myself is his face’s resting state.
He’s hovering.
“He’s safe with me, Evan.” I use his name as a comforter. “I promise I’ll call you if anything goes wrong, which it won’t do.”
“He’s very important to me, Flo.”
“I know.”
He sighs, eyes fixated on his son for just another second, and the door clicks shut as he exits with a forced flat smile, taking his musky scent with him.
Leo replaces him, showing off his milky baby teeth, all pearly white. “What should we do?”
I motion to his empty bowl of cereal. “Let’s clean up your breakfast first, and then we can do anything you want.” I pull my notepad from my bag, along with my large reading glasses. “I’ve made a list of things we can do this summer, and I have a feeling you’re going to love them.”
Perhaps I shouldn’t be sharing this with him yet, getting him all excited and promising him the best summer of his life since Evan hasn’t actually given me the job permanently.But as long as nothing goes wrong, he has no reason not to hire me.
I genuinely want to give Leo a summer he won’t forget because it seems no other nanny has managed that for him yet. And I can already tell the kid deserves it.
“Don’t you think the fort’s big enough, bud?” I blink at the line of kitchen chairs placed on the main house’s porch, thick, fluffy blankets draped over the back of them to create some oddly shaped, droopy fort.
“No! We need more chairs!”
This kid is full of energy. He reminds me of myself when I was young. I was always bouncing off the walls, eager to be active and up to mischief. It’s probably why we get on so well.
It makes me wonder why Leo’s mom isn’t in the picture. Of course, I wouldn’t overstep the boundary by asking, but who would give up a kid like this? For what reason? I understand parents don’t always get on and don’t always stay together—mine didn’t—but it makes me wonder what happened for Leo’s mom to leave.
“I don’t think your dad has any more chairs we can use, Leo.”
His bottom lip droops, and he studies his creation, unimpressed by its size. It causes my heart to melt, and my eyes drift over to my cabin.
“Wait there,” I tell him as I rush over to it, reemerging a few seconds later with my two kitchen chairs in hand.
Leo’s grey eyes shine with excitement as he fist bumps the air, exclaiming a loud, “Oh, yeah!” He takes the chairs from me and lifts them onto the porch, though I help him without him realising, and arranges them in line with the others, tugging the blankets to drape over them as well.
“Happier?” I question, stepping back and studying the fort, crossing my arms over my chest and humming.
Leo copies my actions, crossing his arms just like me and humming, which makes me laugh. “It looks so good! Dad might let me sleep in it tonight!”
“Yeah, good luck getting him to agree to that.”
The voice makes me jump, and I turn to see a dark-haired woman poking her head out of her silver car as it creeps down the gravel pathway, before stopping, parking and hopping out. She pulls two large shopping bags full of what appears to be meat from the backseat.
“Remember what happened last time you and your Dad slept outside?” The dimple on the left side of her face deepens as she laughs.
Gracie—I assume. She has the same steel-like eyes, and I now realise she’s the woman from the photos I’d seen thefirst day I showed up here. She’d been wearing sunglasses in the photographs, but looking at her now, there’s no denying she’s related to Evan.
Their gene pool is strong. Fuck. She’s drop-dead gorgeous.
