Rocketship

Chapter Four: warmer, warmer... cold

Marci's POV:

Upon arrival at the Sixx household the next morning, I feared I was in for a crazy day when Gunner answered the door and Storm tried to make a dash for the outside world like she was attempting a prison bust. Not to mention, she was wearing her pants on her head. Interesting fashion choice, I thought to myself as the tot tried to race past me.

"Whoa, where do you think you're going little miss?" I scooped her up before she could make it past the entryway.

She squealed with excitement in my arms. After spending a single day with Storm, I finally understood what parents meant by the "terrible twos" — she was a definitely a wild little thing, but she was also beyond adorable.

"Hi Marci!" Gunner greeted me with a sweet shining smile.

"Hey Gunner," I gave him a high five, and he grabbed my hand and invited me inside.

Just as I was about to ask Gunner where his dad was, I heard Nikki's booming voice from the hallway. "Storm! I'm going to count to three missy and you-" he immediately stopped dead in his tracks when he emerged from the hallway and saw me.

Our gazes locked on one another, and what in actuality was only a millisecond of surprised silence felt like much longer. I'd be lying if I said Nikki didn't make me nervous. He was a rockstar, a celebrity, an icon... and through some weird twist in fate, he was my boss now — I was definitely going to need a hot minute to digest that new development.

"Marci's here, Dad," Gunner said pointing at me.

"Um yeah, I can see that buddy. Hey Marci," Nikki curtly greeted me.

I still wasn't sure how Nikki felt about me — yesterday morning, he felt cold; when evening rolled around, he was a bit warmer... and that morning, I was picking up room temperature vibes from him at best — a thermometer would at least tell me what temperature I'd be dealing with, but with Nikki, I was learning that getting a good read on him was difficult.

"Hi... I caught Storm," I said awkwardly, lifting her like a little trophy. I couldn't think of anything else to say; my mind went blank in his presence.

Nikki ran his hand through his hair, then opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but didn't, faltering, seemingly distracted.

He honestly looked a little uncomfortable, which I could understand — he and his wife were in the middle of a divorce, and he probably wasn't thrilled with the fact that he needed some random 20-something to help him take care of his children. Sure he was a rock god, but he still dealt with the same crap us normal folks dealt with; he was human after all.

Logically, I knew Nikki probably didn't "hate me" (if he had, he wouldn't have invited me back yesterday). We just needed to get more comfortable with one another — I had never been a nanny, and he was a newly single dad — we were navigating this new road together, and a learning curve was to be expected.

After a few agonizing seconds of awkward silence, I finally spoke up. "I could make Storm and Gunner breakfast?" I offered, trying to help him out.

Nikki rolled his shoulders back as if he was shedding off some built up tension. "Um, yeah that would be great, actually." The gratitude in his voice made me breathe a bit easier. "I guess I'll wake Decker up," he offered as an afterthought.

Warmer...

"Okay," I chirped, then got to work in the kitchen.

Before heading back down the hall to fetch Decker, Nikki stalled for a second, stuck on whatever thought was swirling in his head at that moment. It was times like those when I wished I had a telepathic sixth sense.