Page 11 of Under One Roof

At her name, Marianne lifts her attention. “What are you volunteering me for?”

Clara drapes her arm around me protectively. “Helping our new friend.”

Marianne sets down her pen and crosses over to shake my hand. “Don’t let her steamroll you.”

“Oh no. I’m fine. It’s nice, actually. Great to meet y’all since I don’t really know anyone.”

“Good thing we know everyone,” Clara stage-whispers, earning a playful eye roll from her wife.

As Clara fills me in on where to buy coffee and that I need to try a cinnamon bun from Sweet Cheeks, Marianne continues her business, and I relax in their presence, enjoying the easy rapport with each other, not to mention how helpful they are. I find myself answering all the questions they ask, about where I’m from, how I got here, and what I do for a living.

“About that,” I say with a hopeful smile. “You aren’t hiring, are you?”

“No, sweetie, sorry.” Clara frowns then she sets her hand on her hip, tossing a look I can’t read to Marianne, who turns to the front windows in thought.

I follow the direction of her gaze to the shops across the street. “Are any of them hiring?”

“I don’t think so,” Marianne says before pivoting to me again. “But we happen to know someone in need of a nanny.”

“A nanny? Of children?”

“Yeah. Nanny of children.” She laughs and moves to stand next to her wife, both of them eyeing me curiously, as if mentally saying to each otherAre you thinking what I’m thinking?

I have no idea what they’re thinking, and I lean into them for a clue.

“It’s a bit of an emergency. The last one up and quit yesterday,” Clara tells me.

I wrinkle my nose. “Without notice?”

They both nod, and while I’ve never exactly had a nine-to-five, I know that’s not very professional. Just like it’s not professional to fire someone in the middle of a party with important people everywhere, embarrassing your employee.

“I’m sure the parents aren’t very happy about that,” I say, and Clara nods.

“Would you be interested in the position? It pays well, and we know he’s looking to fill it quickly.”

Am I interested in being a nanny? I like kids fine, but I don’t have experience working with them, unless you count some babysitting I did when I was younger. And Ryder.

Who is basically a child. I think about his temper tantrums and ridiculous demands. I controlled his schedule and booked all of his meetings and appointments, not to mention the odd housekeeping chores I did here and there, picking up after his messes and smoothing over the waves he made when he threw a fit. Hell, if I opened my purse right now, I’d find a couple packs of his favorite snacks, Dunkaroos—the chocolate ones with chocolate dip, which were very difficult to acquire—and orange Starbursts, because he truly is the devil. That’s along with Flintstone vitamins because the man couldn’t swallow pills—though he could snort them just fine—and a notebook that I kept handy because he liked to order me to write down random thoughts of his like they were brilliant nuggets of information or inspiration, even though he never referred to them again.

If I could handle Ryder St. James, I can certainly handle a kid or two.

I tell Marianne and Clara I’m interested and exchange cell phone numbers with them so they can forward me the information. An hour later, after I’ve sent off a bit of a padded résumé and letter of interest to Griffin at [email protected] and bought myself a cup of coffee, I’m surprised to receive a reply.

Griffin informs me that Clara and Marianne are vouching for me, and while my résumé is a bit atypical, he’s impressed with my first aid and CPR certifications. I’m glad he noticed because I took it seriously. After a scare at a party Ryder threw that involved broken glass and the pool, I immediately signed up for classes. While I thankfully never had to use those skills, I wanted to be prepared for anything after that.

Griffin tells me he is a single dad with two kids, and that this is a live-in position. He explains that he’s away for entire days at a time because of his work, and the nanny would be responsible for essentially keeping the kids watered and fed, which I can easily do.

Although I find his question at the end of the email funny.

What would you do if you were locked out of the house with the kids inside and you didn’t have access to a phone?

With my experience, I don’t think there’s a test I can’t pass with these left-field scenarios, so I give him an honest answer.

Well, I suppose it depends on the ages of your kids and their abilities. If they couldn’t unlock the door, I’d try to communicate how to open it, and if that didn’t work, I would pick the lock. I learned how to do it during my previous employment when my ward was left incapacitated in a house that he’d inadvertently locked himself in. Google and YouTube are amazing resources for learning new skills.

A few minutes later, his reply arrives in my inbox with an invitation to come to his house to meet. I happily agree.

Chapter5

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