Melanie sighed in exhaustion, and I wondered if the firing of four nannies had more to do with an inability to handle the child rather than the mother, as I had assumed. “Damn swing,” she muttered. Then she turned her head and shouted toward the crowd watching the movie. “Scott! The swing!”
A blond man glanced over his shoulder from his camp chair and waved a casual hand. “I’ll get it in a minute, honey,” he called back but made no effort to get up.
“Mom!” Kaden whined again and danced around her in a circle.
The other moms must have been immune to it because they didn’t look bothered at all. Jana was still smiling, Sandra was gently stroking her belly, which was rounded into a telltale bump. Alisha had retreated further into the dark to shush Jeffrey.
As much as I wanted to walk away from the whole thing and go back to my quiet, empty apartment, I saw a golden opportunity.
“I can fix it,” I said. “Be right back.” I jogged over to the lawnand gazed up at the tree. The ropes had been tied to a thick branch a good fifteen feet off the ground. A walk in the park compared to some other things I’d climbed.
I grabbed the end of the rope on the ground and looped it around my waist to secure it and carry it with me. Then I got a running start at the tree and launched myself up into it. I climbed branches until I got to the big one and straddled the top of it. Then I resecured the loose rope into position with a tight knot and climbed back down. I landed on the ground to gaping faces.
“Whoa, how did you do that?” Kaden said, eyes wide and glowing.
His mother and the rest of my audience had the same question on their faces.
I casually brushed the stray bits of bark off my hands. “Lots of CrossFit. Should be good to go,” I said and patted the plank. I sat on the swing myself to make sure.
“Mom, she’ssocool,” Kaden said with a look up at Melanie, and then he came running over to me.
The look on Melanie’s face was at once impressed, thankful, and skeptical. I didn’t have time to worry I’d shown too much of myself because Kaden bounced around asking if he could have a turn on the swing. I surrendered it to him and gave him a good push before rejoining the moms.
Melanie gave me a beguiling smile. “I was already impressed from our interview but had no idea you’d be this impressive in person,” she said and stuck out her hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Lauren.”
I pleasantly laughed. “It’s so nice to finally meet you in person, Melanie. I can’t wait to start my position with your family.” Years of training was the only thing that kept me from flinching at the blatant lie. But I had to do it if I wanted to find out information on Wallace.
“We are thrilled to have you. Welcome to the neighborhood.”
As she smiled at me, I ran my customary assessment when meeting a target for the first time. Melanie Browning was as pretty in person as in Bray’s photo, though perhaps a bit more tired looking. She was the kind of woman you would notice in a crowded room. Her hair captured the light even in the dark, the blond waves pulling in every nearby source. Her smile was bright and her eyes sharp. She had the look of someone calculating something at all times. Sandra Whitley stood at her left side, Jana at her right, putting the queen bee description Bray used on full display.
“Thank you,” I said warmly, though I felt like a small fish in a tank of sharks.
“Sure,” Melanie said. “Why don’t you come over tomorrow morning and we can give things a test run before you fully start on Monday? That way you can meet Kaden and Karli one-on-one before we go to the park.”
With all my might, I forced the smile on my face to stay put. My new life was sucking me in at record speed. I could already feel the squirming kids tugging on my limbs and sapping my energy. The laughter and shrieking put my nerves on edge, and I wondered if I could abort the mission. If I could tell Bray to forget our deal and that I wanted out. Maybe I’d ask to go to prison instead. Despite it all, I found myself saying, “Sure! That would be great. What time?”
“On Saturdays, we usually head over to the park around nine, between breakfast and naptime, so how about you come over to the house at eight?”
I balked at nine beingbetweenbreakfast and naptime. On a Saturday, I wasn’t even out of bed by nine, and I had to be up and ready to take care of two kids by eight a.m.? There wasn’t enough caffeine in the world. “Sounds great,” I said through another forced smile.
“Lauren! I need another push!” Kaden hollered from the swing.
Melanie gave an adoring laugh and expectantly looked atme as if I were already in charge of caring for her child. In fact, everyone expectantly looked at me.
I put on my best Lauren Thomas face and cheerily skipped off to the lawn. I felt the moms watching as I greeted Kaden with all the enthusiasm I could muster. Hispushturned into demands for more, and then leaping from the swing to do midair acrobatics.
While we played, I saw a car drive slowly in front of the house as if it were looking for parking. I paid no mind to it until I saw it a second time, five minutes later.
Kaden eventually tired of swinging and ran back to the driveway for more popcorn. The moms had dispersed to their lawn chairs a while before, apparently trusting Lauren the super-nanny could manage on her own.
I returned to the end of the driveway where Alisha still lingered, with Jeffrey now back in his stroller. Alisha leaned on the handlebar and nibbled popcorn from a large plastic cup. “Damn, girl. Be careful climbing trees like that, or the kids are going to ask you to do it all the time.” She held out the cup with a smile.
“Noted,” I said and accepted a handful of popcorn. From the corner of my eye, I noticed the same car I had seen before slowly pass a third time, and this time, it turned the corner and parked.
“I think I’m going to call it a night. It’s been a long day with all the moving,” I told Alisha. “Will you be at the park tomorrow?”
“Not tomorrow. We’re heading up to the city to see the grandparents. But have fun, and good luck.”
