Page 14 of Wild Christmas
She can’t have known the fear her words sparked in me, and I’m not ready to voice them.
I apologized the next day and ever since I’ve kept myself guarded, maintaining a distance and keeping it professional.
It’s the day before Christmas Eve, and Maisie is at forest school today. Even with a nanny, I like to get her out with other kids a few times a week to socialize. Maybe she’ll learn the people skills I seem to lack.
The house is quiet without the girls, and I stay in my office transferring data off a client’s PC while I get in a few games ofTour of Duty.
My character darts behind an abandoned shed, but I don’t see the enemy on the other side. I fire, but it’s too late. Red splatters the screen, and my character grunts as the bullet wound to the chest ends him.
“Shit.”
I pull off my headphones and throw them down on the desk. I can’t concentrate on shooting bad guys knowing that Freya is wandering around the house on her own.
It’s her day off and I thought she’d head out of the house, but the imminent snowstorm has kept her inside. I hate to think of her sitting up in her room alone.
It never bothered me with the last nanny, but Freya isdifferent. Freya has soft curves and a smile that lights up the room.
I shake the thought out of my head. She’s too young for me, too innocent.
I check the download from the client’s files and head to the kitchen to get some lunch. I expect to run into her at any turn, but the house is quiet.
Once in the kitchen, I grab some bread and leftover chicken and a few other bits and pieces from the fridge to make a chicken sandwich.
There’s a lot of food, and I don’t know if Freya’s had lunch yet. It would be nice to sit and eat with her. To hear more about her life, her dreams, and find out what she’s going to do in a few weeks when Sydney, my sister, turns up.
I have my misgivings about my sister being a nanny. But I’m not going to turn her away when she needs a place to stay and a job. Besides, Maisie will be starting school in March, so it’s only a few months until all she has to do is collect them from school when I can’t.
The thought of my little girl heading off to school makes me heart squeeze. How did my baby girl get so big so fast? Needing to see something of my little girl, I head to her room.
It’s decorated in rainbow colors with animal decal on the walls. Her snuggly toys are arranged on the bed, and I imagine her talking to them this morning in the way she does before kissing them goodbye.
I pick up her favorite, Hoppity, a mangy rabbit with half its ear missing. It’s been through the wash severaltimes, but the damn things keep hanging on. Not that I’d never throw it away. She’s had Hoppity since she was a baby. They gave it to her in the hospital after the accident, and she’s clung to it ever since.
Hoppity smells like Maisie, like glue sticks and crayons from the crafting she loves doing. I breathe in the scent, missing my little girl even though I only saw her at breakfast a few hours ago.
I put Hoppity back on the bed nestled between a fluffy elephant and a bright blue teddy bear. Her pajamas are on the floor even though I’ve told her a hundred times to pick them up. I fold then neatly and put them on the end of the bed.
Her craft box is open on the floor and felts scatter the area. I pick those up and straighten a few other things in her room.
There’s an adjoining door to Dora’s room and I head in there, hoping my oldest has got the hang of tidying up after her.
I stop short when I see Freya sitting on the bed. She’s got a photo album open on her lap, and she closes it quickly when she sees me.
“Sorry. Dora had it out this morning, and I was just tidying it up.” Her eyes dart to the side, and she looks guilty.
“It’s okay.” I hold my hand out for the photo album. “The girls like to look through it often.”
She hands me the album, and I sit next to her on the bed. It’s a small single also crowded with stuffed animals,so that when I sit next to Freya our thighs bump up against each other.
An electric shock courses through my veins, and my dick twitches to life. Which is entirely inappropriate considering where we are, but I can’t control the effect this woman has on me.
I open the photo album and am greeted with the chubby face of baby Dora, which never ceases to make me smile.
“She was an adorable baby,” coos Freya.
“She was,” I agree. “I missed her birth. I was deployed, and she came early. By the time I came back, she was already two weeks old.”
Becky lies on the hospital bed, her eyes dark with exhaustion and a wan smile on her face as she holds Dora up for the camera.
