Page 40 of The Nanny and the Hothead
What the heck!
“Penny, my friend, Penny Fennimore?” she pressed.
Mitch nodded, liked she’d hit the idiot jackpot. “Rowen’s Penny, yes. I saw them last night.”
Last night?
When? Where? How? Charlotte pinched the bridge of her nose, sifting through the barrage of spiraling questions. “How does Penny know that I’m here?” she asked. And Holy moly! Ordering one’s thoughts post tequila bender wasn’t the easiest of feats!
“Penny has an extra key to your apartment. She and Rowen met me at your place, so I could pack a bag for you,” he answered, holding out his hands defensively as if he knew that the revelation would set her off—which, yeah, it sure as hell did.
“Where was I the whole time?” she shouted. And she should stop doing that ASAP. Her pounding brain couldn’t take much more abuse.
He released another weary sigh. “You passed out in the RV. And by the way, you talk in your sleep.”
Who did this man think he was?
“I do not,” she shot back indignantly.
“You do,” he corrected. “You were telling off someone—a Sutton Bryan.”
Stupid drunk sleep-talking!
This was absolutely insane! Okay, she’d cop to the talking in her sleep, but she needed more proof that Penny and Rowen knew where she was. She lifted her chin, challenging the hothead chef. “Call Rowen this very minute and put him on speakerphone,” she demanded.
“Really?” he asked. “Because we’re basically at our destination.”
“Yes, really!” she exclaimed. “And hello! As of right now, this whole situation still looks like an abduction to me.”
“All right,” he grumped, like the crotchety hothead he was. Sliding his phone from his pocket, he tapped the screen, then held it up.
“Hey, Mitch, what’s going on?” Rowen said, picking up the call. But before Mitch could say one word, she lunged forward and grabbed onto her captor’s wrist just below where he held the cellphone.
“Rowen, it’s Charlotte,” she blurted into the phone. “Mitch Elliott has kidnapped me and brought me to the middle of nowhere!”
“Hey, Charlotte,” the guy answered casually as if he’d completely glossed over the severity of her dire situation. “To clarify a point,” he continued. “If you’ve got cell service, you’re not in the middle of nowhere. In fact, I could tell you how many apps are currently tracking Mitch’s phone if you’re interested. I could probably hack in myself.”
Charlotte screeched an animalistic, frustrated sound of a woman who’d had enough. Penny’s billionaire tech nerd fiancé didn’t get it!
“Char, is that you screaming?” Penny asked, her voice joining the line.
Thank God!
“Penn!” she said, gasping as she tightened her hold on Mitch’s wrist. “What is going on, Penny? Mitch said you met him last night at my place and packed a bag for me.”
She watched the chef—inches apart, the guy was…Ugh! Stupidly handsome!
“Yes, that’s what happened,” Penny confirmed. “Mitch called Rowen last night and said you’d accepted the nanny position—which OMG, yay! But then he told us that you’d overdone it on margaritas and had totally passed out. He didn’t want to go through your things to get your keys, so he called to see if I could help. And, Char?”
“Yeah?”
“I tried to tell you about that bar, girl,” her friend chided. “They’ve got a rep for super-strong margaritas. One or two can mess a person up.”
Charlotte felt heat rush to her cheeks. She wasn’t a lush—far from it. But she’d be laying off the margaritas for the foreseeable future. With her friend seemingly confirming Mitch’s story, she studied the enigma of a man. While the guy’s story checked out, the man hadn’t said a thing about a nanny position—not one word the entire time they were together. Granted, she was crazy tipsy, but she would have remembered that. “What else did Mitch say last night?” she pressed, holding the man’s gaze, searching his eyes for some clue about why he’d omitted this critical information.
“Let’s see,” Penny mused. “He was surprised to learn that Madelyn had chosen you. And he mentioned that the two of you had to leave right away to pick up his son. Not much more than that. He was pretty quiet. And, hello, Mitch, it sounds like you and Char are off to a great start.”
“I’m not sure great is the correct way to describe it,” he answered.
