I’m just about to ask her a question when we’re interrupted by Kate banging on the deck slider. She opens it up and her eyes sweep the room. “So this is where the millionaire Max’s magic happens.” She waggles her eyebrows lasciviously and runs her hand along the duvet that covers my king-sized bed. “I like the color. It’s very Christian Grey of you.”
“Would you stop with the Christian Grey jokes?”
“You’re the richest guy I know nonfictionally. Christian Grey is the richest guy I know fictionally. I love to draw parallels in my life. Now show me to your red room of pain.”
“There is no red room of pain in this house. And no magic happens in this house. This house is for my kid,” I groan with irritation, running a hand through my hair. I never bring women back here. Not even when Everly is at her mother’s. I prefer to keep my life as a single man in Boulder very separate from my life with Everly. Most of the women I sleep with don’t even know I have a kid.
Kate doesn’t look like she believes me. “What about that chick in Aspen I met? She’s never come to Boulder for a visit?”
“No…what I do in Aspen stays in Aspen.”
“So that’s where the red room is.” Kate laughs, and Norah looks decidedly uncomfortable.
“Let’s save the dirty stuff for your books, Kate.” I wrap my arm around her and gesture for the door. “This conversation requires alcohol.”
“I’m just trying to figure you out, Max,” Kate states, eyeing me speculatively. “Every millionaire has a kink.”
I exhale through my nose. “Boy, I really love seeing you, Kate.”
We head outside just as Sam and Maggie arrive. Sam owns Tire Depot in town and has done all the work on my dad’s construction vehicles for years, so I know him pretty well. His wife, Maggie, I don’t know as well because she’s not originally from Boulder. She’s Miles’s little sister, and apparently, it was a whole ordeal when the two of them hooked up. But obviously, everyone got over that little hiccup because they were married over the winter and seem to be doing well.
“So Max…Dean was saying that your ex-wife is out of the country for the summer,” Kate says, holding a bottle of beer in her hand while her baby is strapped to her chest in a little swaddle wrap. It’s a look only Kate could pull off. “What’s Everly up to while you’re at work all day?”
“I hired a nanny actually,” I reply and take a sip of my whiskey, doing my best not to let my thoughts fixate on Cassandra again.
After our little ropes course day yesterday, I gave her and Everly a wide berth today. The thoughts I had watching her lush figure strapped up in all those harnesses were highly inappropriate.
I need to get fucking laid.
Which will be next to impossible now that I have Everly around all summer. So I need to get my dirty thoughts about the nanny in check.
Beyond the indecent thoughts I had about Cassandra, I had some surprisingly wholesome thoughts too. I forgot how fun it is to share the joy of Everly’s experiences with another person. I haven’t had that happy family feeling since Everly was one and Jessica and I were still married. Every time Everly cracked a joke or giggled with glee, Cassandra and I would share a knowing look that said…this kid is the best.
It felt…nice.
Which is why I need to go back to the office next week and stop having happy family moments with Cassandra and Everly. Cassandra is an employee. Nothing more.
“Where did you find this nanny?” Kate inquires, adjusting her red ponytail. “I might need one once Tucker here is a bit older.”
“A nanny agency in town actually.”
“Oh cool, I didn’t know we even had one of those.”
I shrug. “The candidates were less than impressive. But the owner’s sister interviewed and Everly fell in love with her.”
“Huh,” Kate huffs. “Are they teenagers or like college students home for the summer?”
I shake my head. “The gal I hired is older actually.”
“Like a grandma old?” Kate asks curiously.
“Not a grandma, no.”
“She’s twenty-six,” Josh says, coughing into his fist.
I swerve accusing eyes at him.
He shrugs. “She’ll get it out of you eventually.”
“Twenty-six? That’s not much younger than us,” Kate snaps pointedly. “Well, except for Maggie…at least she’s older than the wittle baby of the group,” Kate says with a baby voice.