Page 43 of Mountain Men’s Nanny

“I know you aren’t staying here forever, but I’d want to see where this goes. You know?” Tobias asked.

There was a hopeful sparkle in his eyes, willing me to say yes. To commit to being with only him until we figure things out. I had grown to care about him; he was one of the good guys. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to say yes. Instead, I stared at him, blinking. I couldn’t find the words to say between my confusion and what I knew he wanted to hear.

“I… I don’t know,” I stuttered. “Can’t we just let things be?”

Tobias’s hands became limp around my waist; he inched away from me slightly.

“I don’t really know what I want right now. I’m just doing what makes me happy in the moment,” I squirmed.

21

Emotional Collateral

~

Brie

“Just grow up, Gunner!” Tobias was already at his wits’ end with him, and it wasn’t even 8 AM.

I walked into the living area to find Tobias wiping down the kitchen island while Gideon made breakfast, and Gunner was all the way in the living room tidying up.

“Good morning,” I greeted brightly.

I was greeted by grunts and a small smile from Gideon. There was tension. It was like a thick cloud of smoke choking everyone who walked into it, including me.

I stood at the threshold, not knowing what to do with myself. I wrung my hands, watching as the men worked in silence until Gideon handed me a cup of coffee.

“Where’s Lexi?” I asked, trying to break the ice. It had worked many times before. Lexi brought everyone together with no complications or weird feelings, but for the first time, it didn’t work.

“She’s upstairs,” Gunner said. Short, simple, no jokes.

I walked upstairs, happy to be away from all the weird energy downstairs. I knew I had caused it; it had to be from my conversation with Tobias the night before, but I couldn’t change it. I couldn’t tell him what he wanted to hear. It would have been a lie, and in the long run, it would have made things worse. Still, I felt guilty. Hurting Tobias, even just a little, wasn’t part of the plan.

I knocked on Lexi’s door and heard her run to open it, waving me in quickly.

“Daddy’s in a really bad mood today,” Lexi announced, throwing herself back on her bed.

“Yeah, I noticed,” I said dryly.

“First, he was mad that no one had put on the coffee, then he was angry that the cabin was messy, and just now he was shouting at Gunner because Gunner said we should get a maid to balance out the ‘female population’ in the cabin,” Lexi explained with a deep sigh. “Gunner says he just meant maybe it would be better if there were more girls in the cabin, and I think that would be fun. Don’t you?”

The comment was typical Gunner. He said stuff like that all the time, and it never bothered Tobias seriously. This time was different. He wasn’t just mad at me; he was mad at Gideon and Gunner, too.

“I think another girl in the house would be fun too,” I said, hugging Lexi. “So, are you hiding out in your room?”

Lexi looked around the room. The shoes piled in the corner, clothes peeking out from the half-opened drawers, and a coloring book peeking from underneath the dressing table.

“I’m pretending to be tidying up my room so Daddy doesn’t have to tell me to do it,” a mischievous grin pulled at the corners of Lexi’s lips.

I raised an eyebrow, both surprised and admiring her crafty tactics. “Or you could just tidy up your room,” I suggested.

“Not before I eat. I’m starving, I might faint,” Lexi argued. “It’s only going to get messy again, anyway.”

She had spent too much time with Gunner; his sense of humor had rubbed off on her in ways that might send her father over the edge today.

“Well, if you want to eat, then you’ll have to go downstairs.”

I held my hand out to pull Lexi back off her bed and started helping her straighten up her room by folding the clothes in her drawers and repacking them while she lined up her shoes and picked up the stray toys that had found their way under her bedroom furniture.