Page 36 of Stand By You
“What about you?” Nick said before she could ask him another question. “If you had not gotten a job as a nanny and weren’t able to secure a teaching job, what do you think you might have been doing instead?”
“Waiting tables in a restaurant,” she said. “Working as an administrative assistant in a school office. I don’t know.”
“You never had a fallback career goal in mind when you went to college?” Nick asked.
She shook her head as they followed the path down to the guest house. “I was so focused on being a schoolteacher and determined that I was going to get into the program I didn’t think about alternative career goals back then.”
“Yet, you didn’t get in,” Nick said.
“No. And luckily the day I got my letter, Mr. McGinty was on campus posting the position in the Education building looking for a nanny,” she said. “I was there as well to see my advisor about what I should do next, and I saw him post the notice on the board. I spoke to him and asked about the position. We had a face-to-face conversation about it, and he hired me on the spot. It was fate.”
“It sounds like it,” Nick agreed.
She took a step, her booted foot slipped on the paver, and she lost her balance. Nick caught her sending an electrical jolt soaring through her body. Their eyes locked, as they stared into each other for a few moments and her breath stuck in her throat.
“Are you okay?” he asked, righting her.
“I think so,” she said. “Thank you for preventing me from landing on my backside. I don’t know why I slipped. I’m glad I asked you to walk me down now.”
“So am I,” he said and reached for her hand.
Again, she felt the electrical jolt at his touch, and she wondered if he too felt it. There was something going on between them. She couldn’t deny it. She only wondered if Nick was aware of it too, especially after what he said moments ago.
Reaching her door, she punched in the code before opening it a small crack and turning back around to face him. “Thanks for seeing me to my room,” she said.
“It was my pleasure. It gave us a chance to finish our conversation,” Nick said. “We haven’t had a real conversation about ourselves since I came here. It’s always been about Travis or your hit and run.”
“True,” she said. “Like my favorite color is blue. What’s yours?”
“Green.”
She laughed. “Then why didn’t you go into the marines?”
“You are mistaken on colors. Marines’ colors are gold and scarlet,” he said. “Army is all about the color green, like the grass.”
“I stand corrected,” she said. “I have much to learn.”
He took a step towards her and brushed a strand of her hair out of her eyes. “I’ll be more than happy to show you the errors of your ways, Ms. Grant.”
And without warning, he lowered his head, brushing his lips gently against hers. Then he raised two fingers to his forehead and saluted her before he did an about face and strolled back toward the main house.
Oh yes, he’d felt something earlier just like she had. And the time before when she’d noticed, she was sure of it.
CHAPTER 11
Somewhere across South Dade County…
Travis wokein a large comfortable bed in an unfamiliar room. It looked like a young boy’s room from the appearance of his surroundings, but he knew it wasn’t his room. For one, he had a twin bed with a spiderman comforter. And for another, there was a bookcase sitting at the end of this bed with model cars, boats, and planes of different sizes on the top two shelves. On the third shelf were books, many books of different thickness and sizes. The bottom two shelves were empty. His room at home didn’t have this. Two plaid curtained windows let sunshine filter in telling him it was late in the day and not morning.
Travis sat up and looked around the room. There were three doors. One he suspected led to the hallway. The other looked like it was a closet door, and he hoped the third one was to a bathroom because he had to go really bad. He quietly slipped from under the sheet and hurried toward that door, opening it to find it was the bathroom. However, all he saw was a long counter with a sink on one wall with a mirror and another dooron the opposite wall. He didn’t hesitate, but rushed to that door, opening it to find the prize and a tub as well.
After he peed, he found a towel and a washcloth on the long counter and went back inside to take a shower. His tummy rumbled as he bathed, and he knew he hadn’t eaten since before he left for Zoo Miami. But was that still this morning? He didn’t think it was. He felt like he had been asleep for a very long time because his head felt fuzzy inside.
Pushing the curtain back, he got out of the tub, dried off, and wrapped the towel around his waist, not able to find his clothes he’d pulled off and left lying on the floor. He wanted to cry because he was in a strange place, and he didn’t understand how his clothes could suddenly vanish when he noticed the smell of food. His tummy rumbled again, and the aroma drew him back to the bedroom where he found a table and chair had been set up with a plate of food and a glass of milk for him to drink. Clean clothes were laid out on the bed for him to put on and he quickly dressed before he ate the meal.
When he finished, he yawned and went back to bed, crawling between the sheets and immediately fell back asleep.
Carlton watchedthe live feed of Travis on a burner phone from his private investigator’s office across town. He was pleased to see that things were progressing smoothly and that his hired staff was taking care of the boy as instructed. Having to keep the child drugged was not how he wanted to do it, but the Reyes were paying the bill, and he had to go along with their demands. If they wanted the child to be kept quiet and out of sight until it was safe, then that’s what they were paying him to do.
