Thankfully, she grew out of that stage as she got older. And we found activities to keep us busy when she was with me so she wouldn’t have time to miss her mom. I filled our weekends with trips to the zoo, plays, amusement parks, and weekend trips to Aspen to ski. Anything I could find that kids like to do, we did it. I wanted Everly to leave weekends with me feeling like she had the time of her life.
Now she wants to do nothing with the nanny all summer, and I can’t help but draw a parallel.
A light knock on my door has me straightening in my desk chair. Everly doesn’t knock, so I can only assume it’s the nanny. I smooth down my new tie for the day and attempt to look busy as I call out, “Come in.”
Cassandra walks into my bedroom, dressed in a long tie-dyed T-shirt and a pair of black leggings. She glances briefly at my bed and then forces her eyes on me.
“Can I have a word with you, Mr. Fletcher?” she asks, her hands playing with the hem of her shirt as she approaches my desk.
“Yes, of course. Where’s Everly?”
“She’s reading upstairs,” she replies quickly, tucking her damp hair behind her ears.
The smell of coconut invades the room, and I wonder if she’s just gotten out of the shower. Not that I should be thinking of my nanny in the fucking shower.
“I was wondering if maybe we could tell Everly I quit?” Cassandra quips, her tone sharp and contained.
My heart rate increases as I repeat her words in my head before I can mutter them out loud. “Quit?”
“Yeah…” she responds, her eyes staring down at the floor. “I’d rather she think I quit than blame herself for getting me fired. She keeps apologizing about the accident today, and I know it’s breaking her little heart that she hurt me. If she thinks you let me go because of the pool incident, she’ll never forgive herself.”
I sit back in my chair, processing everything Cassandra has just said to me. She’s known my kid for one freaking day, and she’s willing to take the fall for her? I’m rarely speechless, but this situation makes forming a coherent sentence difficult.
I clear my throat. “Do you want to quit?”
“Not at all.” Cassandra’s round eyes lift to meet mine. The sunlight pouring in the windows behind me makes her eyes look greener than ever. “But I know that what happened today was terrifying for you and Everly. We were lucky you were here. I mean, I don’t think I was going to drown. I was getting up to the top of the water before you jumped in. But I fully admit that it wasn’t safe. Yes, it’s true I’m not a great swimmer. I mean, I think I can save my own life, but if something like this happened to Everly, I’d be terrified of what that could look like. And with how much time you want us to spend in the pool this summer, I realize this makes me unqualified for the job I accepted. Therefore, I take full responsibility and will tender my resignation, Mr. Fletcher.”
My head jerks back. Tender her resignation? That’s pretty official language for someone whose past employer involved making footlong subs. I inhale a deep breath and stand, propping myself on the edge of the desk. “Let’s take a breath here, Cassandra,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest.
She nods and tucks her hands behind her back, her chest jutting out toward me. I flinch as I recall the feel of her extremely full breasts in my hands. How is it possible to be completely fucking terrified and half hard at the same time? That’s really something I should talk to a therapist about someday. But not Josh’s wife, Lynsey. Patient confidentiality or not, I don’t need her to think I’m lusting after my kid’s nanny.
“The truth is, Everly is an excellent swimmer,” I continue, refocusing on the task at hand. “An incident like this never should have happened. Everly feels awful because she knows what she did was wrong. She usually has better impulse control than that, but I think she’s really excited about hanging out with you this summer, and she got carried away.”
“Hey, I’ve been there,” Cassandra huffs with a laugh, her hand pushing into her dark hair as she gazes out the sliders behind me. “I remember pushing my sister off the dock at the lake once. She whacked her ankle on the boat hoist and screamed bloody murder for hours. Even had to get stitches.”
I fight back a smile at that very random overshare. “Ouch.”
“Yeah…the whole lake heard her battle cry. It was Awkward City. I immediately regretted my life choice that day.”
I cringe knowingly, thankful for the turn in the conversation as the tension relaxes. “Kind of like your new boss regretting accidentally grabbing your chest as he attempted to save your life?” My shoulders lift with embarrassment.