Page 1
Chapter One
Ember
September
There was that word again, challenging. The women at the agency had used that word four times in a three-minute phone call. From experience, I’d learned that was never a good sign.
“He’s a bit…particular,” she said.
In nanny-agency language, that translated to a nightmare client who has burned through every qualified candidate in the area.
“I don’t know if this is the right fit for me then, Penelope.”
“But, Ember, the pay is excellent, and the little girl is an absolute sweetheart.”
I’d written the address down on the back of my grocery list while standing in the checkout line waiting my turn. My cart was full of all the new fall goodies and a cheap apple cider mix that I looked forward to every year. It was the first of September, and I was between jobs again. The money I’d earned from my last job was running out fast, and if I didn’t find something soon, I wouldn’t be able to pay for my mother’s upcoming medication. I wasn’t out of work because I was bad at what I did. Toddlers grew into kindergartners, and they grew into kids who didn’t need someone hovering over them anymore. This was the job, you showed up, helped to raise them, loved them hard, and then one day you say goodbye.
I wasn’t only a nanny. I was also a romance author, which filled my quiet nights with characters I loved while the children I looked after slept. However, it looked like it was going to be a while before my advance came from my publisher, so I didn’t have a choice but to look for another job. So, when the agency contacted me and told me that someone over on Ridgewood Drive, in the town of Maple Lane Falls needed someone to start immediately, I’d said yes before I knew anything else about them.
I stood on a porch, tugged my coat tighter around me as the wind blew, and stared at a front door that probably cost more than my car. The house was two stories of gray stone, had perfectly maintained hedges touched with the first signs of fall, but it was still a little early for fall décor to be on the porch.
I rang the doorbell, the chimes echoing somewhere deep inside.
I waited close to a minute and shifted my weight, my bracelets jangling. I’d worn my favorite sweater tonight. A burned orange with a sequined jack-o’-lantern on the front, complete with little dangling pumpkin charms sewn along the hem. My black cat leggings might have been a terrible choice for a job interview, but I figured if they were going to hire me, they should know what they were getting themselves into. I loved fall and Halloween, and pretty much every other major holiday, and I always started getting festive the first week of September.
The door swung open.
A little girl stood in the doorway, looking up at me with a curious expression. She looked to be about seven or eight, and she was small for her age. Her dark hair was pulled back into a lopsided ponytail, and she wore a t-shirt with a Velociraptor on it and pajama pants that were too long, pooling around her bare feet. She looked up at me with serious gray eyes, studying me like I was a specimen under a microscope.
“You’re the new nanny,” she said.
“I’m Ember,” I said, crouching down to her level. “You must be Sophie.”
“You’re number six,” she said, holding up five fingers and then frowning before adding her thumb. “Six. Since January, Mrs. Patterson lasted the longest. Forty-three days, I think.”
“Well, that is a good run,” I said, smiling.
“You think so? She cried in the bathroom a lot.” Sophie tilted her head, looking at me with curiosity. “Do you know anything about dinosaurs?”
I brought my finger to my lips and thought for a minute.
“I know that a T-Rex has tiny arms and a pretty poor attitude.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Do you know about computers?”
I shook my head. “I can barely work my phone.” I shrugged.
She didn’t quite smile. Instead, she stepped back from the door and waved me inside.
“I like your leggings and your sweater. Daddy hates Halloween,” she said, leading me through the foyer. “And nannies. He hates nannies too.”
“Well, lucky for me, I am very likable.”
“My second nanny said the same thing,” she said as she glanced at me over her shoulder and kept walking.
The house was exactly what I’d expected. Gorgeous but completely empty of personality. The walls were still white, the hardwood floors were dark, and the furniture looked like it had just come out of the store and hadn’t been used. The house was spotless, and everything had its place.
When we stepped into the living room, I stopped. There was a huge pumpkin display arranged on the hearth by the floor to ceiling windows. Dozens of pumpkins in every size lay there untouched.
