Page 46 of The Billionaire’s Nanny

Devika had the file out of her bag before they were through the door, and she held it out at the level of Carrington's elbow, which was what she had done at every acquisition Cole Developments had made in two years.

"I don't need it," Carrington said.

"You'll want to read the second page."

"Not tonight."

Devika put it back in the bag and didn't say anything else about it. She kept looking at her all the way to the table.

The long table was at the back, under a window that looked out over the harbor. Somebody had rolled brown paper the length of it and set a jar of crayons in the middle. Pilar dumped the jar out and had the crayons in color order before Grace had her chair pulled in. Then she pushed the greens across without asking, and Grace took them.

The food came on trays. Crab in the shell, corn, a bowl of melted butter with the skin already forming on it, bread in a napkin. Ines dropped a whole crab on Carrington's plate and told her not to be delicate about it.

"So, you want my crew all year," Ines said.

"No, just eleven months."

"Nobody stops at eleven months. They take the eleven, then they come back for the year after that, and by then I've turned down two seasons of work I could have had."

"Then give me the eleven and we'll talk in the spring."

"You'll come back?"

"I will."

"Good," Ines said. "The last person I met with told me she was doing me a favor."

Ines laughed and cracked a claw open with her hands. Sofia, who scheduled the crews, had the drawings out on the paper by then. She was marking the tie-up points with a crayon because there was nothing else on the table to write with. Agatha leaned over, read them upside down, and asked how long the tide window was, which was the only thing on that page worth asking about. It was the easiest hour of work Carrington had done in six weeks.

Carrington pulled her rings off and dropped them beside the water glass before she started on the crab, and within four minutes, she had melted butter up to her second knuckle.

Lucy was working through the shells for the two girls, breaking the legs at the joint and laying the meat on their plates as she got it free. Pilar told Grace that her grandmother had a boat with a hole in it. Grace said that Kayla's hamster ate a whole Hershey bar and lived. Pilar said that wasn't true, and Grace said it was, and after that the two of them were fine.

"You're not from the harbor," Ines said to Lucy.

"No. The Heights."

"Bus?"

"Yes, two transfers."

"There used to be a direct one." Ines pointed a fork at her. "They cut it in ‘96."

"My landlady's still angry about it," Lucy said.

"She should be."

Sofia said something to her mother in Portuguese and Ines waved it off without turning her head. Then Lucy asked Pilar whether the boat with the hole in it was fixed yet. Pilar said no, and Sofia said yes, and Pilar said not properly. Grace laughed at that, out loud, with her mouth full, and Lucy reached over and rubbed her back until she swallowed.

Carrington sat with butter on her fingers and a crab shell in pieces in front of her and listened to all of it.

"How old is yours?" Ines asked her.

"Seven."

"Mine's nine, and she thinks she runs the place." Ines wiped her hands on a napkin and dropped it on the pile. "Bring her down some morning. She can watch the crane come out."

"She'd like that," Carrington said.