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If she thought that would stop me from canning her ass, she was wrong. “What did you do?”
Kendall stood up and I flinched. I hadn’t known she was hanging out with the nanny. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but I was glad she wasn’t still holed up in her room. She stared at me with apprehension all over her face, the same face that used to peer up at me like I was a superhero.
“What’s up, Joe?”
I narrowed my eyes at her and shook my head. “Not now, Kendall.”
Ada stepped in front of Kendall, like she was protecting her from me. “Whatisup, Joe?”
I seethed. “Someone snuck into my room, an off-limits space of the house, and trashed my closet. I can’t imagine who would’ve done something like that. Can you?”
“What do you mean?” Ada tilted her head just slightly and the very corners of her mouth tipped down slightly. She was good. I was better.
“Explain to me why you went into my room.”
She frowned deeper and shook her head. Her wild curls bounced around as she did and the way the light caught them made her hair look alive. “I don’t even know which room is yours. Why would I go into your room anyway? I have everything I need in mine.”
She didn’t have everything she needed in hers. I cringed at myself as that invasive thought crashed through my brain like a semi-truck.
“Oh, just show me what happened. I’m sure it can’t be as bad as you’re making it out to be.” Ada strolled out of the library and only looked back at me once she was standing outside in the hallway. “Well? Are you coming?”
I clenched my jaw and ate up the floor with wide strides that easily left her hurrying to catch up with me. I took the stairs two at a time and then had to wait at the top of the stairs for her to catch up. Everything she did just annoyed me more and more. She seemed to be climbing the stairs slowly on purpose. “Anytime today, Ms. Walton.”
Her slow grin made the constant heartburn I’d been feeling flare. “Don’t you ever just slow down, Joe?”
Even the way she said my name felt like a purposeful jab. I scowled at her. “Most of our employees call me-”
Ada covered her mouth and let out a soft giggle before she pointed at my feet and turned a giant smile on me. “You’re barefoot. That’s so cute.”
I instantly wanted to curl my toes in on themselves to hide them from her cartoon-sized eyes. “What the hell are you talking about?”
She climbed the last few steps and stood right in front of me, her eyes still on my feet. “It’s just cute. Do you go into your office like that? I just imagined a bigshot business guy like you would wear loafers or something. Instead, you’ve got your little toes out. Do you get pedicures?”
I felt my face heat up at her intense inspection and stalked down the hallway towards my room. “No, I don’t get pedicures.”
She practically jogged to catch up with me. “Well, you’ve been blessed with great feet. My ex’s feet? I never slept without full pajama bottoms on because I didn’t want them touching my bare skin in the middle of the night. Total swamp feet.”
I didn’t like thinking of her near a bed, much less in one with some asshole ex. “Great story, Ms. Walton, but maybe you should pay less attention to your employers feet and more to the fact that you’re in serious trouble right now.”
She waved me off and rolled her eyes. “Joe, I didn’t trash your closet. Why would I do that?”
I turned into my room and jabbed my arm out at my closet. “Look at it. Who else would’ve done that?”
She sighed and pressed Milo into my chest. “Hold him while I look. If it’s trashed in there, I don’t want to risk tripping over something and dropping him.”
Glaring down at her, I wrapped my arms around Milo and swallowed a lump of unease as he curled into my chest. It’d been so long since I’d held a kid that I couldn’t remember exactly what to do, or what not to do. “Just hurry up.”
Ada reached up and patted my shoulder. “You’re doing a great job. You almost look natural right now.”
I rolled my lips into my mouth and bit down on them to keep from shouting at her. She was nuts. Worse than that, she was nuts and in my home.
She turned away from me and my eyes dropped to her ass just as she looked over her shoulder. Instead of throwing some sarcastic or weird remark at me for staring at her ass, she spun back around but not before I caught the way her ears and the back of her neck turned bright red.
She only gave me a moment of silence before she stuck her head out of the closet and laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“This closet is perfect. It’s not trashed! Joe, are you playing a prank?” She stared at me with a wide smile on her face. “That’s hilarious. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
