“You’ll do it?” Savannah’s brows lift. “Really?”
“No overnights, and I have Sundays off unless it’s urgent.”
“I think he’ll be able to work with that,” Savannah beams. “I’ll call you, okay?”
She doesn’t give me a chance to reply before the door is closing and I hear her car start.
Once I know she’s gone, I deflate, a mess of nerves as the anxiety of what I’ve just done hits me. There’s so much that could go wrong, I just have to pray that everything I ran from doesn’t catch up to me.
Chapter Five
My palms are slick where I rub my hands together and step onto the porch ahead of Dean’s front door.
“I’m fine,” I whisper under my breath as I wipe my hands on my jeans and lift to knock, “Savannah is here, too.”
The door opens before I can even bend my wrist.
“You always talk to yourself?” Dean stands there, one brow cocked, and thick, black rimmed glasses cover his fathomless dark eyes. My heart stops dead inside my chest before it starts beating so wildly, I can feel it pumping in my neck.
“Only when I’m needing to hype myself up to deal with you,” The words spill from me in a rush, and then my cheeks flame.
One side of his mouth ticks up.
“Is that Sloane?” Savannah’s voice sounds from behind him, but he’s so broad, I can’t see her beyond him.
“The very one,” He yells back, pinning me where I stand.
I’m locked in his stare, and it’s then that I notice just how tired he looks. There are dark shadows under his eyes from lack of sleep, and his skin appears paler, the scruff around his mouth ungroomed. Every other time I’ve seen him, he’s always been soput together — his suit pressed, his hair styled, beard groomed, and I never knew he wore glasses.
But then I don’t know him, do I? Apart from a few awkward and stilted meetings, we have barely said two words to each other.
“Well, are you going to let her in?” Savannah laughs, ducking under his arm.
His eyes drag down me slowly before he takes a step back and turns to the side, gesturing with an arm to beckon me inside. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I curl my fingers into my clammy palm and step past him, holding my breath until I’m clear. Savannah immediately links her arm with mine and walks me through to a kitchen that looks like a smaller version of a farmhouse kitchen, all rustic cabinets and antique metal work, a modest four-seater dining table set in front of what I assume is a backdoor and a breakfast bar with tall stools placed beneath it.
It’s not what I was expecting. I know Dean has money, a lot of it. There’s a twenty-five plate Porsche in the driveway, he wears tailored suits and designer watches, and he just exudes the kind of wealth I’ve only ever seen from the parents of the children I used to work with. I was too nervous outside to really take in the townhouse's exterior.
“Coffee?” Dean offers courteously, though his face remains flat, now void of any emotion or lightness he had at the front door.
“Sure,” I attempt a smile, but I know by the way he looks at me that it falls short. This was a terrible idea.
Savannah fidgets in the doorway while Dean busies himself with the coffee.
“So, where’s Lily?” I ask to fill the silence.
“Sleeping,” Dean replies gruffly.
“And her napping is steady?” These are all the things I need to know, things I’m comfortable with.
“No.”
“How so?” Forgetting the nerves and the tension thickening the air, my focus turns to the baby I’m about to take care of.
“Some days,” He sighs, “She won’t eat, won’t settle. Had doc check her over, and she’s healthy, physically, there’s nothing wrong, but the way she cries sometimes…”
I nod, urging him to continue. “She sleeps for about four hours at a time throughout the night, waking for feeds, but then some nights she won’t sleep at all.”
No wonder he’s exhausted.
