Page 36 of The Nanny and the Nerd
Penny shook her head. “That’s it? That’s what you’ve got for me, Libs? You’re like our transcendental compass. You’ve got to have some advice?”
Libby nodded. “I can tell you one thing.”
“Okay, I’m listening,” Penny said as she prepared to be showered with enlightenment.
Libby pressed her hands in the prayer position. “If some guy wanted to give me a Lamborghini, I’d take it.”
This. Was. Crazy!
Penny rubbed her temples. Between her need to pay her bills, her dream to become an acclaimed writer, and her strange attraction to Rowen Gale, she felt about as stable as a tilt-a-whirl carnival ride.
“At least you know a billion people are tracking your movements. Nothing that awful can happen to you,” Charlotte added, biting back a grin.
Penny released an incredulous bark of a laugh. Her life had become stranger than fiction.
“We’re here for you, Penn. And now that you have a modern phone, you can text like a normal person. We’re a phone call or a FaceTime away whenever you need us,” Libby offered.
Penny nodded when a voice—that voice—called her name.
Penelope.
No one had ever made her full name sound so deliciously dirty.
Her pulse kicked into overdrive as she glanced over her shoulder at her boss—the hot nerd—who’d employ her for at least the next sixty days.
“What do you have to lose?” Charlotte asked, gifting her with a warm grin.
That was the question.
Penny turned and met Rowen’s gaze, then bit her lip as that little voice inside her whispered she might have more to lose than she thought. She’d seen something in his eyes today—a volcano of emotion ripe to explode, hidden beneath the surface of his robotic veneer.
Was working for this man worth the risk? She released a slow, steady breath.
There was only one way to find out.
Eight
Rowen
Rowen trainedhis gaze on the headlights as they cut through the darkened city streets like two beacons. Going for a drive usually cleared his head. Weaving through the sleeping city and feeling the cool breeze on his cheeks quieted the noise inside his head.
But not tonight.
This entire day, from the party for the receptionist to the moment he’d laid eyes on Penelope and inhaled her heavenly scent, had driven him into sensory overload. And now, she was with him. Seated mere inches away, she stared at the beams of light as if she, too, were trying to figure out how she’d ended up here.
At least he wasn’t alone.
He tightened his grip on the steering wheel. When things felt as if they were about to spiral out of control, he focused on the observable, the quantifiable. Numbers, algorithms, those were his refuge. He slowed the car to a stop at a red light and glanced over at a restaurant with patrons—twenty-eight by his count—packed into an outdoor seating area, clinking glasses as a man played guitar in the corner. With Penelope at his side, the rhythmic strum of the instrument mingled with the air that grew electric whenever she was near.
He hadn’t been out on a Friday night in ages. From the moment he’d become Phoebe’s guardian, his life had been turned upside down. Case in point, the alluring nanny, seated next to him. He looked over and found her holding on to what his older brother Andrew used to call the car’soh-shitbar. Even before he’d met the Gales, he’d thought the handle secured above the door was an odd automotive feature. But when he’d ridden home with the Gales after they’d taken him in as a foster kid, years ago, it was Andrew who’d leaned over and whispered that when his mother drove, the oh-shit bar came in handy. His brother wasn’t wrong. His adoptive mother was a notoriously terrible driver. But that wasn’t why he’d remembered his brother’s words. That comment was the first time he’d allowed himself to believe someone would keep him around long enough for him to uncover the little quirks and underpinnings of a family—a normal family.
The red light changed to green, and he continued on.Oh-shithandles aside, there was another reason why he’d chosen this car. And he didn’t really have a choice in the matter.
Out of his collection of cars, the Range Rover was a logical option when it came to moving Penelope’s things out of that shithole of a house and into his place, which, by the way, he hadn’t expected to do. Taking care of his social obligations was Jerome’s area of expertise. He’d figured the man would hire movers to transport Penny’s belongings. But when his assistant texted him about the impromptu meeting with Madelyn, everything he’d assumed would happen got thrown out the window. Not to mention when he’d arrived at the Nanny Match office and saw that she’d also summoned the other men, he should have known this crazy day was about to get even crazier.
The truth is, when he told the guys that they had a pit stop to make after they’d secured Penelope’s things, he might not have been thinking clearly. Showing up at the location of her girls’ night out crossed the line. But he had been clear with her. He’d indicated her services would be required immediately.
Okay, he hadn’t said that exactly.
