Page 160 of The Nanny and the Beefcake
“And then your phone rang, and it was Tony,” she continued.
Her dad stared at the pile of fallen rocks. “Sweetie, I…”
“Please don’t call me sweetie,” she interrupted. “I know why you’re here. And I’ll make another wager with you. I bet you’ll be leaving empty-handed. It’s such a shame you’ll have nothing to share with Tony.”
Venom dripped from her tongue.
How dare he lie to her face. Then again, why would she expect anything different? The good man, the man he’d once been when her mother was alive, had withered away. Each bet and every broken promise had transformed the man into a ghost of the father who used to give her piggy-back rides and take her to the petting zoo. She was ready to let him have it, to tell him to lose her phone number when Sebastian’s cry quelled the rage churning in her belly.
“Mibby,” he called, his sleepy voice cracking her hardened facade.
“Is that the kid? What’s his name? Sebastian?” her father rattled off, excitement glinting in his eyes like he’d finally happened upon a morsel of information to feed his friend, a faux feather in his cap of lies.
Did the man not understand she saw through him? All Sebastian was to him was something to gloat about. She could see the whirlwind of questions whipping around inside her father’s mind.
Was the boy getting in the way of the Lion’s training?
Was that distraction enough to tip the scales and secure a win for Silas Scott?
She balled her hands into tight fists.
His piqued interest in Sebastian was the last straw.
“Don’t say his name,” she bit out, adrenaline firing through her veins.
“Mibby,” the boy called again.
“He needs you. Go on. I’ll be up after I see your father to his car,” Raz said, his tone even as he pointed to where her father had parked his sedan, hidden behind a cluster of blue spruce.
She held his gaze—his remarkably steady gaze.
“It’s all right, plum.”
Without another glance at her father, she entered the Victorian, hurried up the stairs, and found Sebastian, twisted in his covers. The boy pushed up onto his elbow, blinking as the light from the hallway entered his darkened room.
“I’m here, honey. What is it?” she asked, kneeling as she untangled his leg from the bedsheet.
“I’m not in my pajamas,” the boy slurred, half asleep.
“It’s okay for tonight. Lie down and close your eyes.”
Sebastian sank into his pillow. “Can we do the happy thoughts meditation?”
She nodded. She could use some happy thoughts right about now, too. “Here we go,” she began, working to keep the shake out of her voice. “Take a deep breath, and picture a time when you were truly happy. Hold that feeling inside your chest, close to your heart.”
“I’m riding my bike with you and Dad and Plum and Beefcake,” he answered, the corners of his mouth turning up at the thought.
“Are you now?” she whispered as a torrent of emotions threatened to break through.
“Yeah, and I feel the happiness in my heart,” Sebastian mumbled, pressing his hand to his chest.
She smoothed his hair, then rested her hand on top of his. Within seconds, the boy drifted back to sleep. His chest rose and fell as his features relaxed, and she exhaled the heavy breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
What happened next?
What would she say to Raz?
And what about her dad? The man had broken her heart time and time again, but he was still her father. She watched Sebastian sleep, taking solace in the peacefulness when her dad’s voice cut through the quiet.
