Once they’d both kissed Pip good night, they walked out of the room together, and Victor turned briefly in the doorway, looking back at Pip, who was quietly singing her llama—and herself—to sleep.
“She’ll be out in two minutes,” Belle whispered. “All that horseplay in the pool this afternoon wore her out.”
After Belle and Pip returned from Mrs. Evans’s house, Victor had offered to take over with Pip for the afternoon so that Belle could have a break. Since arriving, he noticed Belle rarely took time for herself, and he worried that perhaps it was because he hadn’t thought to tell her she could.
Of course, he’d expected her to retire to her room, or maybe even leave the house, go shopping or meet up with a girlfriend. If she’d done either of those things, he wouldn’t be struggling quite so hard being in her presence right now.
Unfortunately, Belle’s idea of taking a break was to put on her swimsuit and sunbathe in one of the loungers by the pool.
He’d stolen a few hundred too many peeks of her in her bikini while she dozed on her back, her eyes closed behind her sunglasses.
Every night since Belle and Pip moved in, this was the spot where they said good night. But tonight, for some reason, Victor wasn’t ready to let her go just yet.
“Want to have a drink on the patio with me?”
The second he issued the invitation, he felt the overwhelming desire to kick his own ass—because what the fuck was he thinking?
He’d just determined to stop thinking of Belle as anything more than the nanny, and now, he was asking her to have a drink. For a split second, he harbored the hope that she’d turn him down, declare herself too tired.
That prospect vanished the second her face lit up with a bright smile. “Sure. I’d love that.”
He sighed softly as the two of them made their way to the kitchen. She poured herself a glass of Chardonnay, while he popped the top on a bottle of IPA. Once they’d secured their drinks, they made their way to the patio.
Victor loved his backyard, enjoyed the privacy and the quietness. He passed more than a few nights a week sitting out here just like this, staring up at the stars, listening to the crickets, and watching the fireflies flickering around the yard.
Belle’s shoulders visibly relaxed when she claimed the Adirondack next to his. She took a sip of her wine and sighed.
“It’s so nice out here,” she said softly, her tone matching the peacefulness of the evening.
The night air was cooler than he expected, considering it was June. Summer was inching forward, but it hadn’t quite settled in yet.
For a few minutes, they didn’t need to talk, both of them simply taking the time to relax.
Victor leaned back, stretching his legs out in front of him.
“Long day,” she said.
He smirked. “Pip has enough energy for twenty people. Takes a lot of work to keep up.”
She nodded. “So true.”
Silence fell again, but it was comfortable, not awkward. Ordinarily, Victor relished it, so he surprised himself when he broke it to start a conversation.
“You ready for Pip to start school in the fall?”
Vivian had told Victor that Belle would remain on as Pip’s nanny, even after his niece went off to kindergarten, because she still needed the help. While Vivian—a workaholic from the word go—had scaled back her hours big-time following Pip’s birth, she still put in some long days, her hours fluctuating according to her work schedule. Most school days, Pip would be home nearly three hours before Vivian got off at the hospital.
If Phil was still alive, he would have been the one taking Pip to and from school, taking care of her in the summers. That had been the plan when they’d discussed starting their family. Vivian loved Pip more than anything on earth, but there was no wayin hell she could have been a stay-at-home mother. Her brain simply wasn’t wired that way. When Vivian first discovered she was pregnant, Phil had suggested that he take a year off from teaching to stay home with Pip when she was a baby, and Victor didn’t doubt that if things hadn’t taken such a horrible turn, that was exactly what he would have done.
“I guess I’m ready,” Belle replied after a moment. “It’s going to feel strange not spending all day with her, and I know I’ll miss her when she’s at school, but we’ll still have the afternoons and evenings and the weekends and summer. Besides, with her gone, I’ll have more time to do…” She paused, then casually lifted one shoulder. “Things.”
He frowned, because that was a very vague word. “What things?”
She tilted her head back, looking up at the sky rather than at him. For a moment, he wanted to bark at her, demand she look at him, because hehatednot being able to see her eyes or her face when she released what sounded like a sad sigh. “I don’t know exactly,” she admitted. “I’ve never really had a lot of free time on my hands, so I guess I haven’t had a chance to figure out what sort of things I’d enjoy.”
He recalled her mentioning she’d worked fourteen hours a day prior to becoming Pip’s nanny. That admission on her part reminded him of exactly how little he knew about Belle Watson.
“Why do you work so much?” he asked, aware his tone was too gruff for normal conversation. Not that she seemed bothered by it. After five years of acquaintance, Belle—like his teammates—had grown accustomed to his shitty tone.
