Page 24 of Always Be Mine

“I screwed up.” Ross took a step toward her, but she crossed her arms over her chest. “But all that’s over now.”

“So prove it. Call her. I need to hear it from?—”

“What?” His face twisted into an unrecognizable mask of anger, and that’s when she knew with one hundred percent certainty. “We’re notcallingher. My word should be good enough. I just told?—”

“Itshouldbe good enough.” Sadness and realization seeped through her. “But it’s not. Not anymore.” Lucy reached past him to open her front door. “Goodbye, Ross. I won’t be the other woman.”

He stared at her, his mouth open. “Lucy. You’re being irrational. Think about it. You need me.”

“I don’t.”

“I need you, Lucy.”

“Go home, Ross.” She swallowed hard. “To your wife.”

In what may have been the wisest decision Ross had ever made when it came to her, he walked out of her apartment without another word. A few days later, she was packed up and on the road.

“Never again.” Lucy exhaled slowly. “Right, Garfield?”

He offered a loud purr in support.

Lucy hit the button with her thumb to unfollow and block Ross’s profile, and the picture disappeared from her screen.

ChapterSix

Craig scannedthe list in front of him one more time. He’d spent most of the night before putting it together, but he was fairly certain he’d forgotten something anyway.

He’d never left anyone who wasn’t family in charge of Meredith before. Ever. And even then, Craig rarely used his siblings as a babysitter. To be fair, there was very little reason he would ever need anyone to watch his daughter for him, considering he had no life outside of her and the shop.

“It’s going to be fine.” He spoke aloud to the quiet kitchen and took a deep swallow of his coffee. He’d gotten up almost two hours earlier than he usually did because he wanted to be prepared when Lucy arrived. He had no idea what to expect from a nanny or how to evenonboardone.

For the tenth time that morning, he considered calling the whole thing off. Maybe he should have given himself more time to prepare. The list wasn’t comprehensive enough. He’d definitely missed something. Starting Lucy so early in the morning was probably a bad idea. He?—

A knock on the back door stopped the runaway train of thought. He looked up to see Lucy, looking very cute despite the early hour with her hair in a ponytail on the top of her head and a bright smile on her face, through the window. She raised her hand in a little wave and Craig gestured for her to come in.

“Good morning.” He couldn’t help but smile when she was around. Craig stood and moved toward the cupboard to get her a mug. “Coffee?”

“I actually don’t drink coffee.”

He froze, his hand on a mug, and turned slowly to face her. “How do you not drink coffee and still manage to function? Are you sure you’re not an alien?”

She laughed and the sound filled the small kitchen. “Hardly. But I do like tea, if you have some.”

Craig didn’t have to look. “I don’t. This is definitely a coffee house. Sorry.” He made a mental note to pick up some tea for her the next time he was at the store.

She shrugged and her gaze landed on the list he’d left on the table. “Is this for me?”

Craig topped up his mug and joined her at the table. “It’s just a few things I thought about last night. To be honest, I don’t really have any experience with any of this.”

“Well, that works out because I don’t either.”

He knew she was only trying to make a joke, but it stopped him. He really didn’t need any more doubt in his mind about what he was doing.

But then again, her references had checked out. Even if none of them had anything to do with childcare.

Trust your gut.

His mother’s advice. It had been too long since he’d listened to his intuition. The last time was when he’d made the decision to be a single dad, and that had turned out to be the very best decision of his entire life.

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