I didn’t read it. “I have a degree in early childhood education from one of the best schools in the state. I was head of my department–”
“At a school that’s been shut down,” she cut in. “Just… read it, please. You’re a kindergarten teacher; a talented one. You’re perfect for it.”
I slumped back against the couch behind me, and took another long swallow of the gross rosé. “How did I get here? I had it all figured out. My whole life plan. It was perfect.”
“This job’s perfect.”
“I said no, okay?” Her persistence riled me up, and it came out harsher than I intended. But I couldn’t give a fuck about my tone when my fiancé left me and I lost my job all in the same week. “I’m a teacher, Liv. Not a nanny.”
“What you are is unemployed and almost homeless.” She checked me with that no-bullshit look of hers. Then she swapped the bottle in my hands for her phone. “You’re gonna apply, and I’m gonna watch you do it.”
“Infinity student loans and debt from a wedding I’ll never have,” I grumbled. “I’ll have to babysit for a hundred years to get my head above water.”
“Maybe not,” Liv said, wincing through a bitter sip. “Look at the bottom.”
She was right. In the field marked ‘salary’, the poster had writtenPays handsomelyand it prickled my senses just enough to give me pause. Because if this nanny gig was handsome enough, I might be able to chalk it up to a brief detour before getting my life back on track.
2
Ethan
“Still nothing?” Miles’ last thread of composure was fraying. But not faster than mine.
“I don’t know, Miles, you tell me. Does it look like something to you?” I held the phone from my ear, the endless ringing fainter now, but still burrowing into my teeth until it stung.
He rounded the dining room table and leaned against it. “Do they even have reception where they are?”
I exhaled sharply through my nose. He was trying to talk me down, just doing a really bad job of it. What the fuck did I know about cell reception in Kenya? I wasn’t even sure if Gabe and Sissy had landed yet. All I knew for sure was that my wonderful brother and his wife weren’t returning my texts or emails, and my calls kept going to voicemail.
A shriek echoed through the house, and we whipped our heads round to the source of it. Adrian’s well-intentioned fort in the middle of my living room wasn’t doing too great. My nieces were more interested in structural demolition than the tea party he kept begging them for, and were taking turns launching themselves at the precariously balanced cushions.
“Ethan, that’s a $10,000 Trussardi.”
“Thirteen,” I winced. “Because nobody talked me out of getting the cashmere upgrade.”
“They should’ve been more upfront about its vulnerability to nine– and six- year-olds.”
Emma pulled off a perfect swan dive into the heap of cushions, Adrian groaning and laughing beneath her. I was beginning to think one of the reasons they loved him so much was that he just let them do whatever the hell they wanted.
“The seat of power has officially shifted,” Miles said, shaking his head slowly.
I tried Gabe again as Sadie, the youngest, offered her hand to help her big sister up. The same hand sticky with grape jelly from the sandwiches they had a minute ago. Miles and I were equally dumbstruck as we watched a bright purple streak blot the muted gray upholstery.
No amount of willing my brother to pick up made it happen, and I discarded my phone on the dining room table in exasperation. It was no use. We were heading into the busiest season for our company, and all signs pointed to us having to do it with my nieces and nephew in the mix.
“Hey, buddy.” I walked over to Will, sitting in the armchair next to the fireplace. He hadn’t moved since breakfast. Hadn’t so much as looked up from his Switch. I tried again. “Will–?”
Only when he paused the game did I realize how annoying that undercurrent of constant sound effects had been. But with that small reprieve, it only made Emma and Sadie’s shrieking and giggling seem louder.
“Thanks, Uncle Ethan. I’m dead.” He stared up at me, totally unimpressed.
“What?”
“It’s battle royale.” He spelled it out like I was a kid, and he the adult. “I pause it, I die.”
I held back the thing I actually wanted to say and went with, “I’ll make it up to you. But you wanna help me out and give your sisters a turn on that thing?”
Anything to get them to sit still for ten consecutive minutes seemed like a good idea. Until Sadie showed up beside me, hands on her hips and sparkly hair bow askew.
