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“I don’t have much time.” Collin’s voice was full of impatience as he looked up from his desk at me.
I bit back a resurgence of anger and hurried into the room. The massive office was all wood and masculinity that made me think of dirty professors and billionaires. Behind the massive wooden desk was Collin Carrington, sleeves rolled up, face pinched in grumpiness. He would’ve made a brilliant cover model for a book about an asshole rich guy.
I sat down in the chair across from him and tried not to notice the way he watched me. His eyes followed me so intensely that I wanted to run out of the room and back out to my car. In all the time I’d watched him come and go at the diner, I’d never seen him look directly at anyone other than his brothers and I wasn’t sure I liked it.
“He’s sleeping.” His dark blue eyes flicked down to Milo and then back up to me. “What’d you do to him?”
My mouth went slack and I blinked at him a few times before shaking my head. “Nothing. He was tired. Kids nap.”
He brought his hand up to jaw and rubbed his neatly trimmed beard. His lips stayed in a flat line as he watched me and silence stretched between us. He seemed comfortable in the silence but I wanted to scream. Finally, he blew out a puff of air and shook his head. “I need you to fill out the new employee paperwork.”
I nodded and stretched forward to take the stack of papers he held out to me. The first thing I noticed was that the first page had the name of the nanny service listed. Mom’s plan would work, maybe. I stood up, preparing to leave to fill out the paperwork but Collin frowned at me.
“Sit.”
I couldn’t help the smile that lifted my lips. It was a strange response to being talked to like a dog but I was stressed and my face did weird things under duress. “Okay.”
A frown turned the corners of his mouth down but he didn’t say anything. He just watched me in more of his silence.
I bit my lip and cradled Milo to my chest with the hand that wasn’t gripping the paperwork. “...Should I just fill it out here?”
He nodded and leaned forward to rest his elbows on the desk. “What did you say your name was?”
“Ada.” I tried to scan the paper to see if there was another name listed. I felt a wild sense of panic that I was about to lose the guest suite upstairs.
“Ada. What’s your last name, Ada?” Collin’s eyes never moved from mine. He steepled his hands together under his chin and I had another flash of the dirty professor trope I’d read about way too often. Clearly.
I swallowed audibly. “Walton.”
“Fill out the paperwork, Ada Walton.”
My cheeks heated and I quickly looked down at the papers to give myself an out from the eye contact we were having. Unsure of how else to balance Milo and the paperwork, I stood up and awkwardly scooted the chair closer to his desk. When it was right up against the front of his desk, I sat back down and leaned over so I could fill out the forms without shuffling Milo too much. It put me a lot closer to Collin but I did my best to ignore that little fact.
It would’ve been easier to ignore him if the expensive scent of leather, clove, and pure man didn’t tease my nose. I glanced over at him and quickly back down at the forms when I saw he was still watching me. I wasn’t attracted to him, it wasn’t that. It was just…his presence was a lot. Camden didn’t have a giant presence that edged its way into mine. None of the men I’d ever been with did. Collin’s presence practically crawled into the chair next to me and tugged me onto its lap. It was way too much for my brain to handle when I was also lying about who I was and trying to work out if he knew I was lying as I went.
I automatically filled out Camden’s address and then frowned. That wasn’t my address any longer. I tapped the end of the pen on the line and looked up. “Will pay be auto deposited? I left this address this morning and won’t be going back. Will anything be mailed there?”
“Your salary will be deposited into the account you list on the paperwork. Nothing gets mailed but we’ll need an address before you leave, in case we need to forward anything.” Collin ran his hand over his nearly buzzed dark brown hair. “Why did you show up earlier than we’d planned?”
I wasn’t a liar. I’d once sent myself to my room as a kid for lying to my parents. It was kind of gross how good I typically played it. If I wanted that guest suite, I had to be better at being bad, though. I weaved the truth into what I said to make it more believable. “For the sake of staying professional, I’ll just say that a relationship I was in ended poorly.”
He twisted his mouth to the side and his thick eyebrows furrowed. “That’s fine. Just fill out the forms.”
I hurried through them as fast as I could. Holding Milo made it difficult, but I managed. When I finished the last line on the last page, I sighed and pushed the paperwork back at Collin. “There.”
Nodding, he neatened the stack and then leaned back in his giant leather chair. “Joe is going to come by to meet you. You’ll meet the rest of the kids in the morning. They’re out with friends today. I don’t know when you’ll meet Milo’s dad. He’s in his studio so it could be a few days.”
I wanted to ask questions. I had a million of them, but instead I just nodded. I doubted they were used to employees who questioned them. Smiling was easy because it seemed like things were going to be okay. I had the name of the nanny service so I could take care of the real nanny showing up. I would have my salary deposited directly into my account. Things were okay. I hoped.
When heavy steps sounded behind me and I turned around to find the oldest and crankiest Carrington brother glaring at me, I wasn’t so sure.
6
***Ada***
“You’readayearly.Does your agency typically have such a hard time sticking to their plans?” Joe Carrington was a jerk. Worse, he was a hot jerk.
I didn’t like him looking down at me so I stood up and swallowed when I saw that he was still looking down at me. Shifting Milo in my arms, I cleared my throat. “No. It just happened. It won’t happen again.”
