I opened my eyes as she stepped out, the door softly clicking closed behind her. I pushed my chair back and turned to pour myself a drink from the cart in the corner of the room. If I had to give a fucking interview, I needed a stiff drink. I walked to the cart where I uncapped the bottle of whiskey.
There was a quick tap on the door before I heard it open. I didn’t bother to turn around. I picked up a glass and started to fill it.
“Have a seat,” I said.
I put the cap on the bottle, and I turned to walk back to my desk with the drink in hand. I took my seat and wheeled up close before I looked at the new nanny that my personal assistant had apparently hired. My eyes met hers, and I froze.
I knew those eyes. The sparkling green was familiar, and it tightened my stomach when I looked into them. It wasn’t just any woman sitting across from me. It was my late wife’s younger sister. Only she’d grown since the last time I saw her. She’d changed, grown into herself. The last time I saw her, at the funeral, she was just a teenage girl. Short, too skinny, and in serious need of a makeover. It was easy to see how much she’d blossomed over the years. Her height hadn’t changed much, but she did seem to be proportioned better. She had curves where there had been none before. She had definitely filled out in her chest, and thinking about it made my stomach sick, but even I had to admit she’d turned into a really beautiful woman.
She was nothing like Chloe, though. Beautiful, yes, but she didn’t look a thing like her sister.
I always thought it was strange how opposite the two were. Chloe was tall with blonde hair and blue eyes. Sasha was short, with raven-colored hair and green eyes. Even thinking her namecaused my entire body to tighten like I had to hold myself back. I wished it were a good thing, but all it did was anger me.
The two of us sat there, staring at one another for what felt like forever. She didn’t speak, and neither did I. She watched me with just as much interest as I had. She didn’t look nervous under my gaze. She held her chin high, her plump lips were pursed together, and those green eyes were slightly narrowed, almost like she knew she couldn’t completely trust me.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I finally asked, clenching my jaw the second I got the words out.
Another way the two sister were different was in their personalities. Chloe was soft spoken, shy, and sweet. Sasha, however, was outgoing, loud, and smart-mouthed for the most part. At least she had been when I’d known her.
When I asked my question, she didn’t shy away from my harsh tone as I had hoped. She just quirked a brow and crossed her arms over her chest. “You need a nanny, and I need a job. Seemed fitting.”
“You don’t know the first thing about caring for a child.”
“I know more than you,” she threw back.
“Yeah, well… She’s my daughter.”
“She’s my niece.”
“Exactly. Daughter trumps niece. You have no standing here. She’s my child, this is my house, and I’m the one who has the overall say in who gets hired around here. Not you. You wasted your time coming here today. You can leave now.” I turned my head away from her, going back to my computer, but when she didn’t move, my eyes moved right back.
“Your personal assistant already told me that you’ve burned through more nannies than you have available. They’ve been talking, and nobody wants to put up with you. Unless you pick right now to decide to be a father to that little girl, you'd betterreconsider. If I walk out that door, you’re screwed. You’ll have to be a parent.”
Anger rushed through me. “And who says that I haven’t been a parent this whole time?”
She rolled her green eyes. “I know it’s been a few years since you’ve been around my family, but you do remember where my mom works, right?”
I couldn’t remember. It’s not like it ever mattered to me anyway.
When I didn’t answer, she replied with, “She works for the largest staffing agency in the state. She can see every single nanny you hire and fire. Did you even know that your nannies came from a staffing agency?”
I clenched my hand into a fist as it rested in my lap. If I were being honest, I’d say no. But I didn’t want to be honest. I didn’t want to talk to her. Period. All I knew or even cared about was that Sophia was taken care of. I worried about nothing else.
“You’ve been marching from person to person to take care of Sophia. You have to know that that isn’t good, right? A child needs stability, and never knowing who’s going to walk into her room today isn’t stable. If you don’t give a shit about her, you may as well let someone who does take care of her.”
“I do care about her,” I threw back.
“You sure do have a funny way of showing it.” Her hands moved to the arms of the chair, her black nails biting into the wood. “Where is she anyway? Is she here?” she asked, looking around.
“Of course she’s here. Where else would she be?”
Her brows arched, and she shrugged. “Who knows with you. I’m surprised you haven’t shipped her off to boarding school in Switzerland or wherever they do that. But, oh wait… They probably have to be potty trained first, right?”
“Get the fuck out of my office.”
She rolled her eyes. “Gladly.”
She stood and glared down at me. “I don’t know what my sister ever saw in you. You’re letting her down, you know that?”
