“You don’t sound convincing,” Enola said, mouth flat.
I forced my mouth into a pained smile. “It’s so fun…” I repeated.
Truth was, I had hated school. It wasn’t the work I hated—after all, I loved to read.Wuthering Heightsand Heathcliff? Swoon! I didn’t even mind the statistics class because making pretty, color-coded spreadsheets was my jam. No, it was the mean girls and bullies who had made school hell.
“You can help me pick out the nanny applications I show to Beck,” I promised.
“Does he not want to be around us?” Enola asked anxiously.
“Your brother’s a busy man,” I hedged.
“Maybe since you’re Beck’s assistant, you can get us on his schedule?” Annie asked.
Stab me right in the gut, why don’t you.They looked so hopeful. Shoot, they had appeared, what, yesterday? And I had probably spent more time with them than Beck had. And that was not right.
“Which nannies are you looking at?” Maeve asked. I slid my tablet toward her and showed her the high-end nanny site.
“Definitely don’t hire a young and pretty aspiring model,” Holly said as we scrolled through the options. “Cressida will lose her shit.”
“None of these women seem all that great,” I said. “Look at her.” I pointed to a picture of an older woman with no makeup. Not that I was judging, because lord knew I had barely managed to swipe on some mascara in the elevator this morning, but this lady had all the charisma of Miss Trunchbull fromMatilda.
“Former military, describes herself as old school, children should be seen and not heard, yeah, this is totally Miss Trunchbull.”
Maeve snickered. “What about this one? She seems nice.”
“She speaks French,” I said, skimming the profile. “And she’s just coming off a divorce.”
“I’ll say!” Holly held out her phone. “She just got divorced from her last client’s husband.”
“Lordy. Don’t let her around Beck. She’ll eat him for lunch,” Maeve said.
“Miss?”
“You can call me Tess,” I said, smiling at Annie.
“Miss Tess,” Annie said. “We don’t really want a nanny, especially not any of those. We’ve been on our own since forever. Enola has taken care of all our sisters. We really just want to spend time with our brothers.”
I stood and went over to her and rubbed her back. “Of course you do.”
Annie picked at the dough on her hands. “When you have your next meeting with Beck, can you maybe ask him if we can just spend time with him instead?”
Seriously, why had I hated kids? Annie and Enola were my new ride or die.
“I’m going to talk to him right now,” I said, picking up my tablet.
When I walked into his office, Beck was sitting at his desk, one leg extended. Against the backdrop of the city, he looked like one of those brooding male models from a high-end fashion magazine. Except he wasn’t playing the part of a high-powered businessman—he was one.
“What?” he barked.
“I need to talk to you about the nanny.”
He held out a hand for the tablet.
I came around the desk. Beck swiveled his chair around, leaning forward slightly.
“Did you find a suitable candidate?”
“The girls don’t want a nanny,” I said stubbornly. “They would rather spend time with you.”
