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Chapter1
Cara
Deep breath, Cara. You got this.
As I stepped out of my car, it really felt like the first day of the rest of my life. I was about to do a walk through of a building that might be the perfect place for my daycare center.My daycare center. The words made me giddy. Not even the January chill could ruin my mood.
I had been working in childcare as long as I could remember. Babysitting, aftercare, daycare, nannying. And now, at twenty-four, I was ready to step out on my own. Some might say I was a little too young, but I was ready and hungry to take this huge step. I had a business plan, courtesy of my kid sister Katie who was a top-notch business student at Fordham, a meaningful amount of savings, and grit.
Still, my heart beat fast as I walked up to the two-story building on a quiet corner in Brooklyn.Buildingwas a generous way to describe it: most of the windows were boarded up and some of the bricks looked less than sturdy. I saw the potential, though; nothing some TLC couldn’t fix.
Katie’s voice rang out in my head,Don’t forget to take pictures!Duly noted. I pulled out my phone and started snapping pictures of the building. I needed to get a clear shot of the whole thing, so I backed up onto the street just a bit to get the full shot.
This is going to be perfect.
Just then, a car turned onto the street and parked just behind mine. At first, I thought it might be my realtor, but the car was way too nice to be his. Like, really,reallynice. Asmall fortunekind of nice.
A man wearing a well-tailored, camel-colored coat stepped out of the car. His blonde hair was well-styled — think Ryan Gosling — and his face was freshly shaved.
Who’s that? He’s gorgeous.
I didn’t have long to admire his good looks before a little girl hopped out of the back seat. She was his doppelgänger, clearly his daughter, and she had a spirited smile on her face.
I couldn’t help but smile at her. Kids always brought that out in me. I briefly wondered what they were doing here. Surely a man driving a car like that didn’t have business on a nearly empty street in the not-so-nice part of Brooklyn. And there was certainly no reason to drag his young daughter all the way out here, too. Hmm…
I shook off the distraction and went back to framing the shot. Just before I could take it, though, my phone rang. My boss.Goddammit.
“Hello?”
“Cara? It’s Jenny.” Jenny was the mother of the twin boys I was nannying. They were definitely rambunctious but loved me to bits. Jenny, on the other hand, was a pain in my ass. “I need you to come pick up the boysnow. They’re driving me crazy.”
I frowned. “I’m sorry, Jenny, but I told you I’m not available until the afternoon today.”
Jenny laughed dryly. “You can’t be serious.”
“I told you about this five weeks ago. It’s on the calendar.”
“But this is an emergency!”
She always thought her mere annoyance with her children was “an emergency.” You would think she hadn’t chosen to have them and that they’d been a burden forced upon her. “I’m sorry, Jenny. But I can’t.”
Jenny let out an angry growl. “You know what, Cara? I think we’re done here.”
“What?”
“This isn’t working out. You’re never available when I need you. What’s the point of a nanny who’s so distracted by other things?”
I held my tongue, but I could have listed for her all the times I had gone out of my way to do my job. The nights she and her husband came home hours later than they said they would. The weekends I stayed with the boys. The times I had run all over town to find the type of bagels she wanted. “I’ve been more than clear about my schedule, Jenny. I don’t think it’s fair that you —”
“No. We’ll find someone else. Goodbye, Cara.”
Then she hung up.
I stood there, staring at my phone, wide-eyed, and my mouth hanging open in disbelief. I’d been with that family for nearly a whole year. I had banked on staying with them at least another year to get all the capital I needed for the daycare. And that was the bare minimum. What the hell was I going to do now?
As if the day could get any worse, another car came flying around the corner, barreling toward me at an ungodly speed for a residential street. However, in my shock, I didn’t notice until it was nearly too late.
“Watch out!”
