Page 25 of The Nanny and the Nerd
“I should have slugged her?” the child asked.
“No, don’t do that! Ever!” Penelope exclaimed, clearly suppressing a grin. “But I have a trick that will help—a secret language trick.”
“Whoa!” Phoebe replied, wide-eyed.
Penelope rose to her feet. “Whenever one of my big sisters made me mad, and I wanted to call her a bad word, I’d tap the syllables of the bad word with my foot and think of the word in my head. Then I couldn’t get in trouble.” Penelope glanced at him with that sparkle in her eyes. “Watch closely, Phoebe. I’m going to use the same naughty word you used on Cassie Klein but in my secret language.”
The nanny stared at him, tapped her foot twice, then grinned.
And Sweet Christ! He’d never enjoyed being called a butthole more.
“You called Uncle Rowen a…” Phoebe tapped her foot two times. “Without saying the bad word!”
“You try it,” Penelope replied with a sly wink.
Phoebe looked at him, tapped her foot, then broke out into a bought of giggles. “I did it!”
Jesus Christ! That foot tap was one hell of a workaround, but it solved the issue.
He shook his head. “Let’s head home, ladies. We can show Penelope her room.”
He stilled. The words had tumbled out easily as if the three of them had always been together.
He looked away.
Keep going, Gale! Nobody caught that!
He took Phoebe’s hand and headed for the car, but Penelope didn’t move.
“Is there a problem?” he asked as she checked her watch.
“Actually, I don’t have time. I wasn’t expecting to start so soon, and I have another…engagement today. Could you drop me off at my car? It’s parked near your office.”
“Engagement?” he pressed. Did she have a boyfriend? And why did that idea piss him off so much?
“Yes, I’m meeting my friends tonight.”
“Charlotte?” he asked.
“And Harper and Libby. I’m not sure if I mentioned them on that call youoverheard.We’ve been close since kindergarten,” she answered.
The muscles in his neck loosened. Why the hell was he so relieved?
“You can start after that. I’ll arrange to have your things brought to my home,” he said, pulling out his phone and texting Jerome.
She cocked her head to the side. “You know where I live?”
Jerome replied instantly, and he fired back a text telling his assistant to proceed.
“It’s being handled. You provided that information to Madelyn Malone, didn’t you?”
“I did,” she answered, watching him closely.
He shrugged. “Then it’s settled.”
“Not yet,” Phoebe interjected. “I have a question for Penelope—a super important question.”
Penelope’s gaze bounced from him to his niece. “Okay, I’m all ears.”
