49 Shades of Nanny

Chapter 3

Hope spent the day cleaning and thinking. The house had never been so shiny fresh, at least not since she'd started working there. But, despite the dusting and polishing, folding and scrubbing, she'd come to no resolution to her dilemma. Of the thousand ideas she'd considered—ranging from quitting her job and confessing her feelings to, because she needed a place to live and food to eat, suffering in silence while Billy dated—none really appealed to her sense of right and wrong while satisfying her lusty urges and still managed to keep her employed.

She'd lucked into this job thanks to her broken down VW. It had conked out on her way south and Billy had answered the call for a tow truck at the same moment Mariah's former sent an "I quit" text message. Hope had given him a few references, he'd checked them then let her drive his wife's car to shuttle Mariah to piano lessons and the grocery store after school.

When he'd returned home, they'd talked for hours and he'd hired her. And it had been, thus far, the best job of her life. She loved Mariah. Respected Billy. Well, not enough to keep her from imagining the body he hid under clothes. And darn shame it was—the clothes not the imagining. But she adored the way he cared for Mariah. Cherished every slow smile. Admired his work ethic. Thought statues wouldn't be too over the top to commemorate the Lord's stellar work on this man.

A man she hadn't stopped thinking about. One who deserved better than some frizzy haired flower child who didn't own a stitch of lingerie, who had never waxed a single portion of her body, who...had never bothered to act as if she was even part woman.

Well, she could fix it. All of it.

Three hours, seventeen inches of hair, a pair of three-inch heels and her first push-up bra later, Mariah blew in the door with Billy behind her and Hope stood smiling. "How was your day?"

"I spent most of it at Lucia's pulling a track loader out of a cabin." But Mariah talked over top of him.

"So good. I was line leader." She raced past Hope to the snack drawer under the microwave. "And then me and Daddy stopped at the flower shop and Miss Tula gave me a sucker."

Hope concentrated on stirring the brownie batter in the bowl she was hugging as if it had at some point tried to escape. "That sounds like a pretty great day, Mariah."

"What happened to your Rapunzel hair?"

Billy didn't say a word—not that he liked her hair or her push-up bra—just continued to stare at her as if she had grown an over-sized witch wart on her nose. "Oh, I uh, I got it cut." She hadn't been able to look in a mirror since. For all she knew it could have been standing on end, poofed into something more fitting to be stuffed under a pointed hat, or fallen out. She'd lost seventeen inches and twenty years of her life to a pair of shears today. For a man. Who, at the moment, stared at her like he had never seen a woman before. "Is it okay?" Yeah. The seven year old's opinion mattered.

"It's pretty." Mariah nodded. "I thought about getting mine cut off since Jayden keeps pulling it. But Daddy told me boys only pull girl's hair if they like them. So, I told Jayden and he didn't bother me anymore today." She circled Hope, investigating her new hairdo from all angles. "I like it. It's smooth now."

"Thanks."

"Daddy, are you going to pull Hope's hair?" She looked up at her father who shook his head as if to clear it.

Then he grinned and Hope's heart stuttered to a stop. "I might."

"He bought you flowers too. For all you do for us." Mariah walked to her father, snatched the bouquet Hope hadn't noticed and handed it to Hope. "Better put these in water if you like them or they'll die."

Mariah followed Hope to the kitchen and stood behind her as she filled a vase then trimmed the stems and dropped the roses in one at a time, trying for artful arrangement but succeeding in a colorful blob of blooms and petals. "Okay. You should do your homework while I finish the brownies and dinner."

Mariah blew out a loud rush of breath then a frustrated scoff. "Daddy says I'm going to Mrs. Jacobi's tonight." She crossed her arms over her chest. "A full night with Jayden? I mean, who needs that?"

Some days Mariah was seven going on eight, other times she was seven going on fifteen. Today was the latter. The fact though didn't supply Hope with an answer to the question Mariah hadn't asked. Hope shook her head. "I don't know, honey, but won't Casey be there, too?" Casey, the older by one year sister of the dreaded Jayden.

"She has new friends now. Third graders." As she spoke, Mariah cocked her head to one side then switched it to the other and threw in an eye roll. And if a child could make third graders sound like a swear word, Mariah had succeeded.

"Are you not getting along with her?" How wrong would it be to send Mariah to Casey's house if they weren't playing nice together? Very wrong when the reason had nothing more to do with the child than her own selfish desire.

"I don't like her new friends. They treat me like a baby and I'm only one year younger."

"Oh." What could she say? "Are her new friends going to be there?"

Mariah shrugged and dipped a finger into the brownie batter. "I only found I was going to be there a few minutes ago. I don't know about them."

Hmm. Maybe Hope had better talk to Billy. "Want me to ask your dad if you can just stay home?"

Hope rescued the bowl before Mariah could shove her entire hand into the batter. "No. He told me tonight was really important to him."

Important? Tonight? No pressure there. "Well, if you have a bad time, you can call home and I'll come and get you, okay?"

Mariah nodded. "I better go pack my stuff. Daddy always forgets my tablet." She pushed away from the counter. At the doorway, she turned to look back. "Hope, if you and my dad get married, will you be my mom?"

"Uh, um." Hope had no prepared answer.

"I hope so. Every girl needs a mom." And with that, as though she hadn't a question loaded with unspoken variables Hope couldn't control, Mariah bounced to her room.

Marry Billy? Not a wholly bad thought. Not at all.