Page 37 of The Billionaire and the Nanny

Tia smiled slightly, but it didn’t reach her eyes, which still looked frightened.

“I’m fine, honey, thanks. I just want to sit here for a bit while you skate with your Daddy,” she said, not meeting my gaze.

“Should I call Aunt Fee? She can take you home,” I suggested, but Tia shook her head.

“No, I’m fine. Really, Leo. I just need a quiet moment,” she insisted.

I nodded and left her to her quiet moment, wondering why she had suddenly flipped out like that. Maybe she didn’t like being around me. Oh, God! I made her uncomfortable. My stomach twisted at the thought of Tia feeling threatened by my presence. Did she think I was hitting on her?

I was just trying to teach her to skate! But it was presumptuous of me to assume she even wanted me to teach her.

I should have stayed away this evening, but when Aunt Fee called me and said the ice rink was very crowded, I didn’t want to leave Tia to manage Maddie all by herself when she didn’t even know how to skate. I was just trying to help, that’s all. Maddie did figure eights around me as I wondered if I should just leave. No! I was here with my daughter. And I hadn’t made any advances on Tia after she asked me to stop the last time we kissed.

I led Maddie back to the bench and sat down.

“Maddie, honey stay right in front of us, please,” I called out before I turned to Tia.

She stared ahead blindly, and I couldn’t understand why she looked so afraid.

“Tia, please be honest with me. Is my presence making you uncomfortable?”

She let out a little sob and covered her face.

“Oh, God! Don’t cry! I’m so sorry. I’ll take Maddie and go to the other end of the rink. I’ll leave you alone,” I said helplessly.

She raised her head and my panic turned to fury when I realised that the little devil was laughing. Atme!

“What’s so fucking funny?” I asked furiously.

“You… me… this,” she replied, gesturing vaguely at the people around us. “The fact that you keep having to rescue me from difficult situations.”

I didn’t understand what she was saying, but I could see that she was worked up about something.

“Look, you rescued me from a difficult situation as well. Until you came along, I was struggling to find a nanny that Maddie tolerated. The agency was refusing to send us any more nannies after the previous ones complained about her behavior.”

“Why?” she asked, looking bewildered.

“Our little Maddie can be a real terror when she’s upset. She slipped a frog into the last nanny’s shoe, and tried to set her hair on fire.”

Tia gaped at me in shock because Maddie was so different with her.

“My point is that we all need help at some point in life, and it’s not such a big deal.”

Something unreadable flashed over her face and disappeared before I could recognize it, and Tia stood up with a bit of a struggle.

“You’re right, Leo. It isn’t such a big deal. Now, shall we try and catch up with Maddie before she disappears into the crowd?” she asked.

As I led her back onto the ice, I had a feeling I was missing something here. Something important. But Maddie took my other hand and the moment passed. I smiled at Aunt Fee who beamed back at me. For now, I was content with just being here with my family.

Tia seemed to have recovered from whatever had troubled her on the ice and was back to her usual cheerful self for the rest of the evening. I resisted the urge to follow up on it because it had nothing to do with me. She was an employee in my house, and pressing her to talk about something personal skated dangerously close to harassment, and I refused to do that.

The next day, I walked into my house and was welcomed by the strangest smell. It wafted towards me and I followed it to the source. Tia and Maddie were in the kitchen, giggling as they peered into the oven. They both wore aprons and big chef hats,and Maddie was liberally coated in flour and there was a dab of chocolate on the tip of her nose.

“Hi, Daddy! We’re baking brownies,” announced my baby girl. “Tia is the best baker in the world.”

Baking! That’s what I had smelled. For the first time in ages, my house smelled like a home.

“Do you want to taste my brownies?” asked Maddie, breaking off a hot crumb before Tia could stop her.

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