Page 66 of The Nanny and the Hothead
She and Mitch must get along famously.
“Come on, Oscar,” she said, taking the boy’s hand as they exited the camper. Her plan was to head up to the house. But they hadn’t gotten two steps before Oscar knelt down.
“I gotta tie my shoes, Charlotte,” the boy said, which gave her a second to listen in on the trio’s conversation—not by choice, of course.
Oh, who was she kidding?
She knelt beside the boy and craned her neck. It wasn’t exactly eavesdropping. Her focus was on Oscar’s shoes. But from their location and the direction of the late afternoon breeze, the words simply floated right to her.
“Sorry to drop in on you like this, Mitch,” the petite woman began. “I tried to let you know we were coming, but you didn’t answer your phone or respond to my texts.”
Charlotte caught a glimpse of the man shoving his hands into his pockets.
“I turned it off,” he said in that peeved, sharp tone she heard over and over again coming from the kitchen of the Crystal Cricket.
The taller woman opened her slim case, whipped out a sheet of paper, then held it up. “That’s unacceptable!”
“Excuse me?” Mitch bit back. And holy head-to-head hotheads! Perhaps Mitch and the frowning briefcase lady weren’t bosom buddies.
“I need to be able to get in touch with you, Mitch. That’s part of the arrangement. It’s in your contract,” she answered, her words popping and puncturing the air.
This might get ugly! Did this lady not know who she was dealing with?
“You are mistaken,” Mitch shot back in a sharp whisper that sent a shiver down her spine.
What the heck? Now even his hothead moments turned her on? This had to stop!
“Here’s the arrangement. My job is to come up with a concept and write a book that will make your publishing house buckets of cash,” the man shot back.
“And what concept have you decided on, may I ask?” the woman pressed. “Can you share the rough outline with me? What’s the theme? Have you chosen any recipes?”
This was heating up fast!
Charlotte watched as Oscar tried and failed at his first shoe-tying attempt before beginning again. It gave her a second to process what she’d overheard. This was no joke! Despite Mitch going allhothead, it sure sounded as if he were in some serioushot waterwith his book deal.
She chanced a look at the group as Oscar crossed the loops and finished tying his shoes. Mitch blew out a tight breath and didn’t say a word. Nothing—which wasn’t like him. He really wasn’t lying when he’d confessed on the side of the road that he was in a world of shit with his career.
“We’re on a schedule, Mitch. We’ve got deadlines to meet,” the woman added.
“Yeah, and I can’t work with you barging in on me at my home. Remember who you’re dealing with,” he added with a decent helping of spite coating the words.
Heat rose to Charlotte’s cheeks—but not because she was upset with the hothead chef. Surprisingly, it was quite the opposite. Who were these people? They’d ambushed the guy the second he returned home with his son. While she was usually on the side of whoever was on the receiving end of Mitch’s wrath, she couldn’t help but be in his corner on this one.
The petite woman raised her hands defensively. “Let’s dial this conversation back a bit. Gwen was in town for her niece’s wedding and wanted to see how you were progressing with the direction of the book. I suggested we drop by before she had to head to the airport to catch her flight back to New York. Coming here was a last-minute decision that I suggested.”
Charlotte took note—this woman was the peacemaker.
“I’ve had a few things on my plate, Ines. You know that,” Mitch answered as Oscar reared back, then sneezed one of the loudestachoosshe’d ever heard. It caught her off guard. With a shriek, she pitched forward, losing her balance and landed flat on her ass. She hadn’t realized how precariously she’d been perched in a squatting position on her tiptoes, no less. She brushed her hair out of her face, then looked up to find Mitch glaring at her and the women staring in her direction as if she were some painfully odd curiosity.
Get up! Act like a normal, non-eavesdropping human.
Every muscle in her body stiffened, but she mustered a grin, hoping desperately she didn’t look like the biggest snoop on the planet.
“This must be what’s been on your plate,” the petite woman said with a sly grin.
Charlotte felt her cheeks heat as she came to her feet. “Everything okay with your shoes, Oscar?” she began, gesturing to the kid’s laces like a game show hostess. “The shoes you were tying, right here on the ground, because they were untied.”
Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Could this be any more embarrassing?
