Page 33 of Game On

My nephew was attached to the woman, and he had been sulking since she left in a huff the other day. I still wasn’t sure how to fix that. I hurt her feelings, but I’d rather hurt her now than later.

“No, but it’s her sister, and I’m hoping she can be your new nanny.”

“I’m not baby!” he pouted.

“I know, little man, but you need someone to take care of you when I have work, okay?” I bent down to his level to look him in the eye. He seemed to think it over, the gears of his tiny brain working it out. “Let’s meet Mari, okay?”

He nodded, but he wasn’t paying attention to me. He was more interested in playing with the new toy I got him. Did I bribe Liam to meet his new nanny? Yes. No judgments here. You do what you have to do when you’re a parent.

All of Mari’s references had gotten back to me and had great things to say about her. Except for the one family who joked she was terrible, but only because they wanted her back for the summer when their kids were out of school. The mother I spoke to told me she was kidding and said Mari was like Mary Poppins. That made me feel way better about hiring her. But first, I needed Liam to like her.

My phone buzzed with an alert from the front desk, and I let them know Mari was okay to send up. I’d never get used to living in a place that had a doorman, but I was grateful to Mac for letting me sublet the place. Once I felt more secure in my standing with the team, I’d look for something more permanent.

I went to the door when I heard the knock. I opened it and found a petite woman with her dirty blonde hair in a messy bun and a grin on her face. You could see the family resemblance between Mari and Lily.

“Hi!” she said to me.

“Hey, come on in,” I told her and opened the door wider. She walked inside and kicked off her shoes and her jacket. I took her jacket and hung it up in the hall closet.

I didn’t even need to introduce her. She got right down on the floor with Liam and started playing with him.

“Hi, Liam. I’m Mari. Can we be friends?” she asked.

Liam looked at me for guidance, and I nodded my approval at him.

He handed her a toy truck. “Let’s play!”

She smiled. “Okay, little man. What are we playing?”

I watched, amazed, as he took a shine to her instantly. Maybe it was the blonde hair. My sister dyed her red locks blonde for as long as I could remember, and Liam took to blonde women well. As I watched them, though, I knew it wasn’t just that. Mari seemed to be great with him. When he got cranky, she managed his emotions swiftly. Yeah, I was hiring her for sure. She was perfect.

“Okay, little man. What say I come over and play with you when your uncle has work?” Mari asked.

“Otay!” Liam agreed as he ran his truck across the carpet.

She smiled at him. “Okay, gimme a minute. I want to talk to your uncle.”

She sat on the couch next to me, but her eyes were still on Liam, not leaving him out of her sight for a second. “So how did I do?”

“Awesome. You’re hired!”

“Great, because I could use the work. I have to ask you something because Lil won’t.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“I help her out a lot, so would it be okay with you if there are some days I have both of them? Lil will never ask you that because she doesn’t pay me to help with Rosie.”

I didn’t realize when Lily offered her sister, it affected her too. The family who didn’t want to let Mari go had four kids and said she was more than capable of handling one rambunctious toddler.

“If she’s good with that, I’m fine with it. I need overnights when I travel for work and during the day when I have practice and other stuff going on. I have a binder of all the info and my schedule,” I told her and gestured to the binder on the coffee table.

“Okay, perfect. And you have a game on Wednesday, so when do you travel for that?”

I eyed her carefully. I was under the assumption Lily wasn’t into sports, so it surprised me her sister already knew my schedule.

She waved me away with her hand. “I checked the schedule out to be prepared.”

“We fly out Tuesday. I’ll be back Thursday.”