My solace on the back porch was interrupted when my older cousin came sliding out of the house like he had business he had to attend to. He was on the phone speaking rapidly with someone and I tried to move away to give him some privacy but he held up his hand for me to stay. As he paced the wide stone back porch, he kept glancing at me before nodding his head and agreeing with whoever was on the line. Something told me he was going to find his way out of having to commit any time to the family this year and I just hoped he took me with him.
“Everything okay, Dee?”
He looked up from where his face had been buried in his phone and waved the device in the air. “I have an urgent placement I need to fill.”
His agency was one that dealt specifically with families that needed discretion when hiring nannies, babysitters and home health workers for elderly family members. He’d been in charge of taking care of us growing up whenever he was in the country. His mother said it was a way for him to build a bond with us, but I think she wanted to keep him busy so she didn’t have tobe bothered with him. Despite how terrible I’m sure we were to him, he was great with children and it blossomed into a full-fledged business.
Dalton didn’t just grab girls who were here on visas like so many other people did, he trained them in deportment, manners, healthcare basics and ensured they met minimum cleaning requirements. My grandmother detested the idea of his agency because it was little more than slavery reinvented. She was against anyone using outside help because a woman should be at home looking after her family. Never mind that she’d used all the help to raise her kids while she’d built an entire multi-media and multi-specialty company. She said she worked as hard as she did so that her kids wouldn’t have to. Their desire not to work was ingrained in them and they definitely got her maternal instincts.
“What’s the assignment?” I was curious because I’d worked with him on assignments several times to avoid the family gathering. Because I was a native of the area, families were more than happy to hire me for the entire summer to watch their kids while they took time off. He seemed unusually worried and I had to wonder why that was. My cousin had the top-rated agency on the East coast and you had to pay even to get put on his waitlist.
“A newborn.” He shook his head at me and then went back to typing on his device.
His response shocked me because most people didn’t have emergency placements. His taking the client on meant it must be a special case. “Oh wow, that’s special and so young. A night nurse?”
“Full-time nanny.” When he sighed I could tell that this was weighing on him. He wasn’t going to pull someone off of an assignment so if he was bothered, the client must be a big deal.
Damn I wonder who it is.
“For a newborn?” Even the richest of people dealt with their kids for a while. They might have help, but it wasn’t normally full-time until they went back to work. Unless this was the type of woman who was only around for the money. Then she probably didn’t want to be bothered with her husband’s kid unless it was necessary. We’d all seen it growing up. There were a few that Dalton had to turn away because of that very thing. One woman had wanted a four-nanny rotation in case someone got sick.
“Special circumstances, to say the least. I’m doing this as a favor to a friend.” He ran his hand over the close-cropped curls on his head before he turned to me. Dalton’s look went from stressed to curious to looking as though he’d had an epiphany. “Are you still infant CPR certified?”
“Don’t insult me like that. I work with neonates predominantly, remember?” I felt like backing up toward the house but no matter what was going to come out of his mouth, it was far less dangerous than what was waiting for me inside those doors.
He glanced back toward the house before turning to look at me again. Even in the darkness, I could tell that his deep navy suit was still as impeccable as it had been when he came over for dinner. Despite not wanting to be bothered, I think we both showed up to let the people in this family know they hadn’t broken us down. We still were able to thrive despite how they acted and more than anything we were happy. But now it seemed like he was trying to give me a golden ticket.
“Weren’t you just saying you needed to get out of here? You think they’re going to be any better this summer? Gran still has her illusions of the good old days that weren’t good for anyone. She and Aunt CeeCee are gonna be snipping at one another for the next few months. You know once the season starts and the people flood the Hamptons and Sag Harbor she’s gonnacomplain about the outsiders, not being able to get a table at her favorite restaurants and the waits at her favorite stores. Why subject yourself to that?”
He knew I didn’t have an answer for him besides tradition. I didn’t want the people who’d bullied me to think that I was too weak to endure their bullshit but I was tired of it. The older folks talked shit and our parents stayed silent to stay in their positions within the company. That was the problem with nepotism instead of simply being the best at your job: it could be taken away with the whim of your benefactor since you didn’t have to earn it. That kind of living was something that I hated. And I knew my mother would want the same quiet obedience from me if I ever had kids and I wasn’t sure if I could do that.
Scratch that, I knew I couldn’t do that to my kids. The trust fund that had been established for me was one that couldn’t be denied me. Before my dad tired of my mother and her family’s shit, he ensured he set me up financially. He wanted nothing from my mom in the divorce despite her being the one with more wealth. His only request was that whatever he would’ve gotten was to be held in trust for me, my education and living expenses. My mother, to this day, hated me for not turning the money back over to her like she demanded after their divorce. Add to that the trust that was set up for every grandchild and given to them on their twenty-fifth birthday, I had a financial portfolio that many people would envy. Because of the money that had been accruing untouched since I was a kid, my net worth was probably higher than a lot of my family because I usually reinvested my dividends so that it would grow.
I glanced back at the wall of windows and could see our family still inside the dining room. They were clearly still trading shots at each other over the dessert they would blast me for having.
“I’ll take it. Where do I need to go and how soon do I need to be there?”
I must have lost my mind.
That was all I could think of as I left the family compound with Dalton. With my suitcase in hand and my mother’s questions being hurled at my back. When he refused to say a word and I wouldn’t give her the answer she sought, she resorted to her usual tactic: name-calling. Lord knows it was hard when your mother was your biggest hater but I tried my best to ignore her. I knew I didn’t look like the daughter she wanted. She envisioned a short, petite, delicate child but that’s not what she got. I was almost five foot seven and although I was a girly girl I wasn’t petite. I had thick thighs, thick calves, a belly pudge she abhorred and a face she deemed as pretty enough. I was pear-shaped and carried my weight on the bottom so I was busty but didn’t have seven handfuls of titties, which I was thankful for. Even if it was only so she wouldn’t have something else to be annoyed with me about. The staff had been more than happy to load up Dalton’s car and I let them know their tips were still in my room. Despite their working for my family, I still gave them money at the end of each season. It was more of an apology for having to put up with my family all summer. They tried to refuse it since I wouldn’t even be there but my family still would be, and that was reason enough to leave extra. My mother was going to be talking shit for weeks to come and I knew her attitude was going to be even worse than normal. They’d more than earned that money.
But now I was in Texas in spring, which felt far hotter than Sag Harbor ever did during the summer heading to meet my client.
According to the file that I had on my agency-issued iPad, the little girl was being released from the NICU in a few days and I was the only person Dalton was sending to interview. If her parents and I got along, I’d be hired and move in immediately to care for her full-time. I didn’t know how long this assignment would last but Dalton had a contract request that lasted through the end of next February. The time frame was odd but he told me I’d understand when I met the client.
The car service pulled up to large iron gates of a neighborhood and it only confirmed my suspicion as correct. Based on the size of the homes and the sprawling, well-manicured lawns this was a top-tier client. Probably a lawmaker or business tycoon. Given the state we were in, I wasn’t sure that I was gonna be okay working for them. I knew Dalton wouldn’t leave me in some bullshit, but he was family after all. Our folks had been known for doing whatever necessary for money.
I thanked the driver and slid out from the car. I was in a well-established neighborhood. The kind where you had to be notified before you could be let into the gates. Despite how I lived, I sometimes hated the additional scrutiny that came along with places like this. So many people acted as though they couldn’t believe someone who didn’t look like them could afford a home in the same area as them. If I were of the same ilk I’d just laugh at their gated community while I had a gated home, but I tried not to be a piece of shit. I just hoped that moving in and out of this place if I took this job wasn’t going to be a problem.
The house was set back off of the street and it had the type of charm that only older homes had. I wasn’t sure what type of updates had been made to this place, but it was full of character. The front was made of lighter-colored brick that was paintedover or over-mortared to give a creamy cast to the stone. The roof was dark with a steep pitch to the room that gave it an immediate presence. The home snaked around the property in several directions and I had to wonder how big it actually was. There was a hard stone driveway and I couldn’t tell if it was slate or some other stacking stone. Combing the sheer size with the mature landscaping and the amount of property the home looked extremely stately. And private.
That, I could get with.
I rang the doorbell that was ornate enough to be featured next to the large wooden double doors that were the front entrance. I had to walk under an arched stone entrance to the porch and the door mirrored the same shape. Two large black iron lanterns hung on either side of the door, matching the ones that were on either side of the arched stone entrance. Whoever designed this place took a lot of pride in it and it showed as every detail blended seamlessly with another.
When the door opened I almost lost my ability to breathe. The man in front of me was young, fine as hell and not at all what I was expecting.
“Hello, my name is Sterling Williamson, I’m here to meet Mr. Briggs.”
