“She did great,” I reply, heading toward the kitchen for a glass of water, parched from the walking I did today. “We walked around The Village, and visited Dilynne and Laney, actually.”
He stops dead in his tracks on his way to follow me into the kitchen. When I turn around to look at him, his eyes are focused on my ass.
Looks like Dilynne was right about his visual appreciation of my body.
You shouldn’t care, Elodie, remember? He’s your boss.
“You went and saw my sister?”
“Yeah. I mean, you kind of told me to and I wanted to smooth things over from yesterday. Laney happened to be there at that time too, so I got to meet her. She seems amazing and really sweet.”
“Yeah, she’s a lot happier now that she’s not busy hating Fletcher’s guts.”
“Fletcher Adams,” I say, followed by a whistle. “What a lucky girl.”
Henley’s jaw ticks. “You have a thing for Fletcher?”
I fill up my glass at the fridge, gauging his reaction before I speak. I shouldn’t be enjoying the way his body looks even more tense than when I found him earlier, or how adorable he looks shirtless while holding his daughter, but I am.
“Just appreciating an objectively good-looking man, Henley. Nothing to get worked up about.”
“I’m not getting worked up. I just…” His voice is tight. “I don’t need my nanny swooning over my friends.”
I pause mid-pour and turn to face him. “Excuse me?”
He shrugs. “Fletcher is engaged, and I don’t need any more drama in my life.”
Like a match has been lit, anger races through me. “You actually think I’m here to…what? Hook up with your friends instead of doing the job you hired me for? I actually met Fletcher’s fiancée today. She was lovely and we made plans to hang out soon.”
His face instantly relaxes and then regret takes over the lines around his eyes. “Elodie…”
I hold my hand up to stop him. “I know we don’t know each other very well, a detail that is becoming glaringly obvious as each day passes, but I’m not a homewrecker, and definitely didn’t come here to find a man, okay? So I’d appreciate being given the benefit of the doubt.”
“Fuck, Elodie,” he mutters, moving closer to me, but I shake my head.
“Your daughter and I had an amazing day, by the way. She napped, we walked around, and I took her to the park and pushed her on the swing in my lap, which she loved. I took pictures and wanted to show you, but right now? I think I just need to be alone.”
“Elodie,” he starts once more, but I walk around him and down the hall to my room, closing myself inside, hands shaking.
How dare he accuse me of being here under the wrong intentions.
How dare he question who I am.
Even though we don’t know each other well, I need him to trust me, given that I’m caring for his daughter.
But maybe Dilynne is right. Maybe Henley has a lot of shit to work through and the best thing for me to do is keep the distance between us, especially because I won’t be here for long.
We don’t need to be friends for me to do my job.
And honestly, it would make everything I’m feeling easier to deal with if we weren’t.
***
The sleepy haze I’m in dissipates as the sound of Remy’s cries cut through the fog. When my eyes pop open, the sound is much more distinct. For one split second, I debate staying in here and letting Henley handle it, but when I hear his pleas for her to go to sleep and stop crying, I launch from my bed and tiptoe down the hall to find him pacing in the living room, trying to soothe her.
“Please baby girl,” he whispers. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“Well, pleading with her isn’t going to make her stop anytime soon.”
