Or so she thought. All day, Rafe had been completely polite and perfectly sweet with the girls, which was all that mattered right now. With Sloan? He’d been cordial with a side of frosty. Not mean, but he was making it very clear what kind of a professional he was and how important it was to him to bond with the girls. Which was exactly what Sloan wanted and the exact reason she did the smart thing and packed up her drooling lust for Rafe in a neat little box and tucked it way in the back of her brain attic. She’d planned to leave it there to collect dust until she forgot all about it. And then Rafe had to go kick down the door and spill the contents of that box-o-lust down the stairs.
So, Rafe was attracted to her. Cool. No big deal. She thought she’d handled it well. Brought the focus back to the job at hand. People were attracted to other people all the time. People were attracted to other people they worked with all the time. So, they were attracted toeach other, even Rafe didn’t know it. It was no big deal. If Rafe decided to take the job, she would just keep the nasty, filthy thoughts that had been running through her head when she watched his wet, tattooed body glistening in the afternoon sun to herself. No big deal.
The rest of the afternoon went as well as Sloan hoped it would. She hung back as they ate lunch and let Rafe talk some more with the girls while he showed them how to use crayons with watercolors. They told him that they were starting kindergarten in a week and they were excited because they’d already met their teacher Mrs. Brown and she was very nice. They wanted their “aunt” Xeni to be their teacher, Addison explained, but her classroom was across the hall, so they’d still be able to see her. Rafe knew Mrs. Brown too, and agreed that they would enjoy being in her class.
Avery finally came all the way out of her shell and peppered Rafe with questions about his tattoos. The girls were enthralled by his explanation of how the ink goes under the skin and Sloan was very pleased when he went on to explain that they had to wait until they were done growing to get tattoos of their own.
When bedtime rolled around, Avery and Addison made it very clear that Sloan needed to step all the way aside and let Rafe handle things.
“If he’s going to be our nanny, he needs to know how to do it,” Avery said in the same exasperated tone she used when Sloan tried to tell her something she was already knew. Sloan put up her hands in surrender and stepped aside. Addison took pity on her mom feelings and let her pick out tonight’s pajamas, but after the girls were changed and in bed, Sloan slipped outside to listen at the door. Rafe really did have everything under control and Avery was on him correcting any tiny misstep. Sloan was sure they’d heard her snort of laughter when she told Rafe that he needed a manicure.
“I’ve been working on my dad’s motorcycle,” she heard him say. “These are working man’s hands.”
“Working men should file their nails.” Avery said. Sloan was raising some cold-blooded young ladies and she couldn’t be prouder.
“If you stay, you’ll have to do our hair sometimes and you’ll definitely have to file your nails or they’ll snag on our curls,” Addison said.
“Got it. Get a nail file. I’m on it. I think it’s time to say goodnight.”
“Tell Mom you want to be our nanny,” Addison said in a stage whisper.
“I will. Do you want goodnight hugs or goodnight high fives?” he asked, scoring himself even more points.
“High fives!” both girls said.
There was a round of giggles before she heard Rafe say, “Goodnight, tiny people.” A few seconds later, Rafe squeezed his large frame through the smallest crack the doorway would allow.
“They’re a tough crowd, but I think I did okay,” he said.
“You did great.” They were so close, Sloan was forced to ignore the smell of sunscreen on him. “You want to head down to the kitchen? I’m just going to say goodnight to them and then we can talk.”
“I’ll be waiting.” Sloan decided it was best not to wonder if there was any innuendo in his tone. Instead, she offered him what had to have been the most awkward smile before she slid into her girls’ bedroom.
“So, what do you think?” she whispered as she sat on Avery’s bed. Addison jumped out of her bed and came over to join them, nudging Sloan’s arms out of the way so she could sit on her lap.
“I like him,” she said.
“I like him too. I like him better than Tess.”
“Oh, well I guess that means a lot,” Sloan said. “You loved Tess.”
“Not anymore. Tess is a dickhead.”
“Hey!” Sloan scolded. “We don’t use language like that.”
“You called her a dickhead yesterday.” Shit. Avery must have heard her talking to Xeni. She had to remember the NSA agent monitoring her phone had nothing on her kids.
“And I was wrong to say that. It’s okay to be sad or angry with Tess, but don’t call people names. I’ll try to be better about it.”
“Let’s stop talking about Tess,” Addison said with some resolve and a pained sigh. If Sloan ever saw that dickhead again...
“I like that idea. Let’s move on for good. No more Tess chat. So Rafe gets a thumbs up?”
“Yes, but we have a lot to teach him. He’s a boy and he’s White,” Avery said.
Sloan snorted. “He is both of those things. He’s nice too, yeah?”
“Yeah, he’s nice. And he’s more patient than Daddy,” Addison added.
