Page 91 of The Nanny and the Hothead
“Sorry, Libbs, that sounds awful. I’m glad to see you, but what brings you here today?” Charlotte asked.
“I forgot to mention that. I invited them,” Penny answered. “I thought we could take you out for coffee after we dropped off the kids.”
“Who are those ladies?” Oscar asked, coming to Charlotte’s side.
“Where are my manners?” she exclaimed. “These are my friends, Harper Presley and Libby Lamb. Girls, these are my guys, Mitch and Oscar.”
My guys.
He’d heard her say it as clear as day. And the part of him, that sappy part he’d locked away years ago, liked it more than he should.
“Your guys,” Harper echoed with a curious edge. The dark shades hid her eyes, but he could feel the intensity of the woman’s gaze fall on him.
Charlotte blushed. “I mean, this is Mitch Elliott, my boss, and Oscar, the awesome kid I get to nanny for,” she corrected, then tousled the boy’s hair as the key around her neck dangled from side to side.
“I like your key necklace, Charlotte,” Phoebe remarked, pointing to the glinting bit of gold. “Does it open a door or a magic box?”
Charlotte glanced at him. “I’m not sure what it opens.”
Oscar’s face lit up. “I bet it unlocks my dad’s heart.”
He could feel the weight of Oscar’s observation.
“Your dad has a lock on his heart, Oscar? Is it on the inside or the outside?” Phoebe asked, utterly fascinated as the child checked his body for metal objects.
“No, my dad has an old lock in the shape of a heart,” Oscar explained. “Remember, Dad?” the boy continued. “You had it in your pocket when you picked me up.”
“Did it work? Did the key open the heart?” Phoebe pressed.
Mitch shifted his stance as Rowen, Penny, Libby, and Harper watched the exchange wide-eyed.
“We haven’t tried the key in the lock,” Charlotte answered, nervously tucking the key beneath her blouse.
“That’s what I’d do. I’d try it in every lock I could find,” the little girl quipped, then turned to Oscar. “Do you want to play the foot tap game until we have to line up? You tap a word, and I’ll guess. Then I’ll tap a word, and you guess,” Phoebe offered, blessedly tiring of the key and lock talk. But he could sense Penny, Rowen, Harper, and even the frazzled Libby hadn’t moved on so quickly.
“Okay!” Oscar answered as the kids moved a few feet away from the adults, tapping their feet, whispering, and giggling.
“You have a heart-shaped lock, and Charlotte has the key?” Rowen asked with a curious twist to his lips.
Jesus! It did sound a bit bizarro fairy tale-ish.
“It was something Madelyn cooked up. It’s nothing,” he answered.
But it wasn’t nothing. And he knew it. They could try to open it at any time. They were together nonstop. But they hadn’t. And he couldn’t quite parse out why.
“What do you say, Char? Do you want to treat us to coffee with your fancy nanny credit card?” Harper asked. The woman slid down her shades and pegged him with her gaze. “Charlotte gets one of those, right? Nannyland perks?”
Mitch’s hammering pulse slowed as Harper blessedly changed the subject. He regained his bearings. “Yes, that’s how it works.”
“And a car? The food truck is cool and all, but parallel parking that beast in the city might get rough,” the sassy lady continued.
“Yes, there’s a nanny car—a Lamborghini Urus. Rowen suggested it.”
“You get a Lamborghini, too?” Harper snapped.
This woman was a piece of work!
Charlotte checked her watch. “I promise, we’ll get together another time. It’s so sweet of you to come by. But I can’t do coffee today. Mitch and I have a thing.”
