Page 18 of The Wedding Planner's Manny
“Are these your pets?” I asked as I approached the desk, trying to make conversation. “I had a newt when I was your age. Did you know that in medieval Europe, newts were associated with evil spirits? I always thought that was unfair.”
Nathan stepped up next to me. “Don't pretend like you care about my pets. My dad is going to take them away if I'm not nice to you.”
That was the first I heard about that. Had Ethan really threatened to take his son's pets away? I was no expert in human interaction, but I was pretty sure methods like that weren't going to make the kid like me. “That sounds kind of drastic.”
Nathan gave me a shrug. “I think he's run out of ways to punish me.”
“Maybe you should give him fewer reasons to punish you,” I suggested. “At least your pets would be safe.” I looked at the terrariums again. That salamander was just the cutest thing ever. “What are their names?”
“The salamander is Donatello and the newt is Leonardo.”
“You're a fan of theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?”
“I guess,” Nathan said cautiously. It seemed he couldn't quite decide whether he wanted to continue this conversation or get me out of this room as quickly as possible. “Didn't you say Caleb was hungry? You should really make him some food.”
That was right. I'd almost forgotten about to Caleb. While I was talking to his brother, he just stood in the door watching us. “Nathan doesn't like cheese,” he said softly when I looked at him.
“Oh.” That meant no mac & cheese for Nathan then. “I guess I could make something else.”
“No, no. You don’t have to. I'll make myself a sandwich later,” Nathan said. He really didn't want to eat with us, did he? Oh well. For the time being there was nothing I could do about that. Besides, I had a hungry child to feed, so I turned and walked out of Nathan's room, forgetting all about why I had entered it in the first place.
Looking back, I really should have investigated more.
Caleb didn't love the mac & cheese I made him, but he cleared his plate anyway, so it couldn't have been too bad. After we were done eating, we decided to settle on the couch to watch a movie. Caleb pickedBig Hero Six. He told me it was his favorite—and he must've seen it a hundred times already.
In the beginning, he spoke all the lines with the characters on screen. But then, roughly twenty minutes into it, he curled into a ball on the couch beside me and fell asleep. I was kind of glad for it. Sleeping children were good children. Everybody knew that. Once Caleb was asleep, I carefully got up from the couch and went into the kitchen. As I suspected, the kitchen wasn't very well stocked, but I still found everything I needed to make one or two sandwiches. Bread, mayonnaise, some ham…
I threw everything together and arranged the sandwich in halves on a plate, which I then carried up to Nathan's room. This time when I knocked, I actually got a response.
“What do you want?”
It wasn't a nice response, but it was a response. I would take it. “You said something about wanting a sandwich earlier, so I made you one.”
“You didn't have to,” Nathan said, but he opened the door anyway.
“I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to.” If I had learned anything about people, it was that they were easier to get along with when you offered them food they liked. Most of my brothers could easily be appeased with cookies, for example.
Nathan eyed me suspiciously as he took the plate. The poor kid really didn't know what to make of me. I couldn't blame him for that, though. From what I'd heard, this household had seen a lot of nannies come and go over the past year. Of course the children were going to take a little time to warm up to me. I didn't mind though. In my mind, I had already decided that I was going to be the one manny who didn't quit on them. These children deserved something better than that. This whole family did. Ethan had been there for me as a child when I felt like I didn't have a place in the world. I liked the idea that I could pay him back even just a little bit.
Still, I needed to know more about what happened if I was going to do my job well.
Nathan wasn't the right person to ask, but I approached his dad when he came back home. Caleb was still out like a light, and Nathan was still in his room, so we had the kitchen to ourselves.
“How did your first day go?” Ethan asked as he poured himself a mug of coffee.
“Not too badly. I ate some mac & cheese with Caleb, but Nathan preferred to have a sandwich in his room. I like his pets. They're cute.” I licked my lips, wondering how to approach the topic I wanted to talk about while Ethan got out a second mug for me.
“Black, right?” he asked as he poured.
“Yeah.” Not hard to remember, but still, I appreciated that he did. Taking the seat opposite him, I picked up the mug he'd selected for me—a red one with a Christmas tree on it. Almost appropriate. It was November now, and Christmas not far away.
I wondered if by Christmas I'd be showing.
In the back of my mind, I knew that I needed to get my divorce papers signed before that happened.
Distance myself from my husband as well as I could to eliminate all chances of him staking a claim on the baby.
“Rhys?”
