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I shook my head and stepped out into the hallway, leaving his door open. “Hire someone else, Collin.”
I slammed my own office door shut behind me and locked it. I didn’t want to chance the insane nanny coming into my personal space. There was something about her that felt like it would spread. My brain flashed bright red warning lights over the image of her ass and I shook my head to clear it. Sinking into my desk chair, I ran my hands over my face, feeling my stubble scratch over my palms. Ada had to go.
8
***Ada***
Iwassotiredby the time I got ready to sleep, that I almost couldn’t appreciate the cloud that was my new bed. And itwasmy new bed. I’d called the nanny service, pretended to be Joseph Carrington’s assistant, and canceled the contract. I felt terrible for stealing someone’s job but I was desperate. Spending a day in the mansion had made me want to spend several more days in the mansion. It was like a drug. Or potato chips. I couldn’t stop at just one. Even as I tucked Milo into bed, I’d been thinking about taking him swimming the next day.
I couldn’t get over the world I’d walked into. It was all so magical that I barely felt guilty about the lie I was perpetuating. I wasn’t a nanny, but I’d taken care of Milo all day and we’d had a great time.
I’d read through the binder of rules and most of it was common sense. That made me feel a bit better. Then there was other things that I didn’t understand. There was a whole section about the kids’ mothers. Using the word ‘whole’ made it seem like it was a thick section, but that wasn’t true. It was a couple of paragraphs that specified I wasn’t to bring up their mothers. Due to conflicts, they didn’t want me to accidentally upset the children by talking about the woman who’d birthed them. I found it beyond odd but I was willing to adhere to that rule.
We hadn’t seen another Carrington for the rest of the day but I’d gotten an email copy of the nanny rules, to go along with the binder copy and I’d followed the schedule for feeding Milo and getting him to bed. I’d already set my alarm to make sure I woke up in time to be there for the little tike in the morning. Milo was going to be a much better morning partner than Camden ever was.
As I adjusted the pillows under my head, I waited for the sadness over Camden to hit but it didn’t. All I felt was a sense of relief that I wasn’t lying next to him, being forced to pretend like I didn’t hate the way he tucked his face into the back of my neck and drooled on me. I stretched my limbs out in every direction and didn’t reach a single edge of the bed. I was in heaven.
Thinking of Camden and his drool made my brain sprint in the other direction and suddenly an image of Joe Carrington popped into my head. Joe, standing outside of Collin’s office, his pale blue eyes boring into me. There was something about his eyes that felt familiar and I hated the way it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I’d never been around any of the Carrington men outside of the diner and it was obvious that we’d never held eye contact before because they didn’t recognize me as their waitress.
I rolled onto my side and squeezed one of the luxurious pillows to my chest. That was enough thinking about Joe or Collin or Camden. I was going to sleep peacefully for the first time in months and I wasn’t going to let anyone ruin it.
*
Mallory pushed me into the kissing booth with a wicked laugh and then smirked when she saw I wasn’t laughing along. Her high ponytail swung from side to side as she bounced in place. “Just do it, Ada! Eric asked me to go out with him tonight. If I work the kissing booth, he’s not going to want to kiss me. Plus, you need the practice!”
I grabbed the rough wooden edges of the booth and glared at her. “I can’t, Mallory! Just find someone else. I can’t kiss all those guys.”
She looked over her shoulder and waved at another one of her friends. When she glanced back at me, I could see she was already out with Eric in her mind. “Sorry, Ada. Everyone else has a boyfriend. It’s for charity. You have to.”
I didn’t even get a chance to argue before she turned and jogged away. My stomach clenched and I turned back to the booth. The money jar sitting on the counter was empty and the picture of Ellie Hanover grinned back at me. She needed an expensive surgery. There were guys lined up waiting to pay for a kiss. Some of them were old enough to be my dad.
I forced myself to settle on the stool inside the booth and lifted my eyes to the first guy in line. It was Frank Gore and his grin made my skin crawl. I hated Mallory in that moment. I wanted to grab her ponytail and drag her back to the booth so she could do the jobshe’dsigned up for. I wasn’t even supposed to be at the fair. If my parents found out I wasn’t at Jenny’s house, I was dead. Sneaking out was bad but sneaking out to a fair an hour away? D-E-A-D.
“Get those lips ready, Ada.” Frank pulled out a wad of bills. “How much for tongue?”
I cringed and was fighting tears when the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen walked up to the front of the line, cutting Frank off. He had eyes the shade of the sky and eyelashes that I would’ve killed for. His lips lifted in a slow smile and then he dropped several hundred-dollar bills into the jar.
“Walk with me?” He wasn’t just gorgeous. He was hot, hotter than any of the guys I was graduating with soon. His voice was velvety smooth and I was sure he’d never once stuttered or tripped in front of the girl he was flirting with.
Frank Gore and the guys behind him grumbled but I was out of that booth too fast to even pretend to care. The mystery guy met me at the side of the booth, the same place Mallory had just ditched me, and he offered me his hand. I’d held a boy’s hand before, but it was different with him. When I slipped my fingers through his, my heart sped up and I got wild butterflies in my lower stomach.
“I won’t make you stay with me if you don’t want but you looked like you didn’t want to be there.” He guided us away from the crowded parts of the fair and smiled down at me. “Are you okay? I saw your friend shove you in there.”
My mouth moved without my brain’s permission. “I owe you a kiss.”
He laughed. “You don’t. I just wanted to help out.”
I swallowed down the rejection because he was still holding my hand, and changed the subject. I wanted him to keep talking. “Thank you. I’m not even supposed to be here tonight.”
“How old are you?” His eyes moved over my face and lower, sending warmth coursing through my body.
“Almost eighteen.” My lips stretched in a wide smile. “Old enough.”
He laughed and the sound washed over me. “Oh? Old enough for what?”
I blushed. “Do you live here?”
“At the fair? No.” He grinned when I tugged at his hand. “On Lake Dun? Yeah. I do. You don’t.”
