Page 54 of The Billionaire's One-Night Stand Nanny
She nodded and I rose, bending over Maddie’s sleeping form, scooping her up in my arms. She was heavy, heavier than I remembered, but still slept like a kid and barely stirred as I made the trek up the stairs from the living room, all the way to the third floor. My thighs protested by the third floor landing–I’d been busy with Flora and neglecting my strength training routine. I nudged open the door of her bedroom with my socked toe. Her desk lamp was on, illuminating her sewing machine and a mostly finished skirt that she and Flora had been working on, the little gold flowers glinting on the dark purple satin. I’d heard all about the trip to the garment district that had led to its purchase, Maddie telling me breathlessly of her journey with Flora on the subway, the thrill of the cluttered aisles of the store they’d visited in search of the perfect fabric. I carefully settled Maddie down on her bed, tugging her blankets up over her day clothes, thankful they weren’t quite as elaborate as they sometimes were. She stirred as I bent to kiss her forehead.
“Daddy?” she mumbled.
“Shh, ladybug. I’m here. Go back to sleep.”
“Mmm.” She turned, blinking open her eyes for a moment even as she turned to her side to nestle into her pillow. “I don’t want Flora to leave.”
“She’s not, don’t worry. She’s staying in the guest room tonight.”
“I mean after next week,” Maddie said. “I want her to stay.”
“Oh,bug,” I said. My chest felt tight.Was that what her not-so-subtle commentary over dinner had been about?I adjusted the blankets around her, then left my hand there, rubbing slow circles on her shoulder blade. “I know.”
She didn’t know justhow muchI understood.
And I couldn’t tell her. Maddie’s heart was my responsibility. No matter how much I, too, wanted Flora to stay, it was Maddie I had to protect, even if it meant I suffered alone.
So I sat on the edge of her bed, watching her eyelids droop closed and her back begin to rise and fall evenly, before I told her, “I want her to stay, too.”
With one last kiss on her smooth brow, I slipped out of her room, closing the door behind me with a soft click. I paused for a moment, resting my forehead on her door, hand on the doorknob, and let out a sigh.
“She’s asleep?” Flora asked from down the hall.
I lifted my head from the door and my hand from the knob, standing up and facing her. She stood at the top of the stairs with her tote bag looped over one shoulder and a glass of wine in each hand. She looked soft and pretty and–
I want you to stay.
“Yes,” I said.
“She’s a sweet girl,” she said. I could fill in the rest:I’ll miss her.
“She is. She’s been my whole life for ten years.”
“I can tell. She loves you, too.” The corner of her lip curved up.
“I’m sorry for… for dinner.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Flora lied.
I smiled, arching a brow. “Yes, you do. She wasn’t particularly subtle.”
Flora looked right at me, her chin moving up a fraction, her cheeks pink. “Neither were you.”
My heart thumped, a heavy weight in my chest.
“No,” I said. “I suppose I wasn’t.”
Neither of us moved, standing ten feet apart in the hallway.
“Is one of those for me?” I asked, inclining my head at the wine glasses, and Flora nodded slowly.
“Yes. Is that room mine?”
I looked behind myself, toward the door at the end of the hallway.
“That’s the guest room,” I told her. The room she belonged in was downstairs:myroom. She was just staying here tonight.
“Well,” she said, and finally moved toward me, holding out one of her two wine glasses. I took it. “I said I would sleep in the guest room tonight, and I will. But…” Her eyes flicked from my eyes to a place somewhere over my shoulder. “Do you want to come in?”
