Page 73 of The Billionaire's One-Night Stand Nanny
My lip quivered.
“No,” I managed.
“Are you okay?” she said, concerned. “Flora?”
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
“Are you sure? I can call the driver, we can take you to the urgent care–”
“Edie,” I said. “Edie, can I ask you something?”
“Of course,” she said, still gripping my hands tightly. “Anything, what?”
I pinched my wobbly lips together tightly, looking up at the fluorescent light on my ceiling instead of at the concern written across Edie’s face. “Did Ryan bring anyone to the engagement party?”
“Yeah.”
My heart ground to a bloody halt. “Oh.” I pulled my hands away, turned to the bottle of wine. My fingers protested as I twisted the corkscrew down into the cork, spiraling deeper just like the wrench in my heart, just like my thoughts.I had misunderstood, had read too much into his ex-wife’s strange looks, and why would she want to–
“Maddie,” she said, looking at me closely. “He brings her to all his events. James always teases him but I think it’s really sweet. For anyone else it would be awkward to bringing your daughter to her mom’s engagement party, but he and Tally are like that.” She shrugged. “But… Flora…”
She looked from me to my fingers and back again. Then slowly, her brows drawn together, she asked the question that I knew was coming. Had to be. Edie knew all my tells. She was mybest friend.“Flora… what aren’t you telling me?”
Tears spilled over.
“I’m in love with Ryan,” I whispered. “Was.Wasin love.”
Her brown eyes went wide and round.
“What?” she asked. “Ryan… Maddie’s Ryan?”
I nodded. HewasMaddie’s Ryan, wasn’t he?
“What?” she said again, and I rolled teary eyes, my throat burning.“When did this happen?”
“This summer,” I whined.
“What?” she asked, then, “Sorry, I just–” Her brows were scrunched together over worried eyes. “Were you…”
I nodded and she gasped. Froze for a beat. Turned to the wine she’d brought and silently poured two glasses.Largeones.
She held them both in her hands and faced me, clearly trying to keep her expression neutral and failing. “Since when?”
“Since the book launch,” I said, and her jaw dropped, her lips parting softly, any pretense of disinterest vanishing.
“Since the book launch?” she repeated, eyes wide. “The whole summer…”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t supposed to be anything. Itisn’tanything,” I corrected, but Edie’s eyes narrowed. My skin seemed to constrict as she looked at me. Edie knew me better than anyone.
“Flora,” she said again, as if she’d forgotten the rest of her extensive vocabulary. She was a professional writer and editor; didn’t she have any, I don’t know, synonyms?Fool, maybe? “I had no idea.”
“Of course not. It was a secret.” I scoffed. “How could it have been anything else? I was his daughter’snanny. And at first, it was… Oh, Edie, it wassogood.” I sighed. “But I should have learned from your example,” I said at last, reaching for my wine. I clinked it against hers, still sitting on the counter, and took a sip. “It’s a bad, bad idea to fall for someone like that. The worst part is that I knew better. Itoldyou myselfthat James would always choose his job over you,” I said. “And then I was wrong, but–”
“But Ryan…” she interrupted, then trailed off, biting her lip. I knew what she meant:Maddie’s Ryan,she’d called him. It wasn’t Ryan’s job that he’d always have to choose. “You wouldn’t want him if he did put you over her,” Edie said, her voice placating, but I shook my head, blinking back the stinging behind my eyes. I wouldn’t cry. I couldn’t, not over this.
“It’s not that, Edie,” I said, my throat tight.
Because he had chosen me. It hadn’t ever been a choice between Maddie and me, not for him. In his vision of the future, I knew it was the three of us.
