Playing the Player(24)

Max nodded and lowered his head, unwilling to meet Slade’s eyes.

Slade whistled, a long, slow whistle of amazement, then turned his gaze on me. “Should I call an ambulance? Are you going into shock?” Barely contained amusement danced in his eyes.

I wanted to hit him. To yell at him. But I didn’t have the energy.

Clearly I sucked at this whole nanny thing, since the kids hated me enough to destroy my binder. Why couldn’t I make them happy? I wanted them to have a fun summer but it wasn’t working. Fresh tears spilled from my eyes, and I turned away from Slade, embarrassed. I desperately wished he hadn’t come back to witness my collapse.

“Hey.” His voice was soothing now, not mocking. “I think everybody needs to take a deep breath.”

“We didn’t mean to make Trina cry,” Gillian wailed. She buried her face in my chest and a fresh crying jag overtook her. I pulled her in close and whispered in her ear. “Shh. It’s okay, Gilly.”

Where had that come from? I never called her Gilly.

Max squirmed off my lap and started gathering pieces of paper. “Maybe we can tape it back together.” Spike grabbed a shredded page from Max’s hand and ran out of the office, his tail wagging victoriously.

“Spike! Come back here.” Gillian launched herself up, running after her dog. Max joined the chase.

A long, shuddering sigh escaped my body. I pulled my knees up to my chin and glanced at Slade. “So you win,” I said. “You’re right. My ideas suck.”

I thought of the moms, so confident I could handle their kids, and somehow teach Slade something, too. Like what? How to alienate children? How to reduce everyone to tears? How to drive away my partner?

Slade leaned over, his arm brushing against my back as he reached behind me to unplug the shredder from the wall. Silence enveloped us as the blades shuddered to a stop. Thundering footsteps and shrieking voices floated down the stairs as the kids chased Spike from bedroom to bedroom.

Slade sighed next to me, and I averted my gaze from his lean, muscular body. His shoulder bumped mine, and I looked up. He gave me a crooked smile. “I know what you need. Ice cream.”

I reached up to wipe my tear-dampened face. I could only imagine what a hot mess I was. “Ice cream,” I said dully. “What does that have to do with this disaster?”

“Nothing. That’s the point.” He jumped up and put out his hand. “Come on.”

My hand reached for his, and I let him tug me to my feet, desperately trying to ignore the tingles set off by his touch.



We sat under a canopy of shade trees with dripping ice cream cones in our hands.

“This is the best ice cream I ever had.” Gilly batted her eyelashes at Slade.

I agreed with her, but I didn’t bat my eyelashes at our savior, who sat with his back against a tree, watching us all with a satisfied smile. Besides, she was doing enough flirting for the both of us.

Somehow Slade had managed to catch Spike and put him in his dog crate, wrangle the kids and make them clean up the binder mess in the office, and allow me some precious alone time to compose myself.

Max held out his dripping cone to me. “I like putting gummy bears in my ice cream. Wanna bite, Trina?”

I smiled and shook my head. “That’s all yours, kiddo. I’ll stick with peppermint.”

“So the kids and I had a little chat while we cleaned up the office.” Slade licked his ice cream, and I felt my whole body flush as I watched his tongue move over the triple scoop perched precariously on his cone.

I stared at my chipped toenails to avoid looking at him. Maybe Desi and I could give each other pedicures tonight. Maybe she could help me make sense of this crazy day. This crazy week.

“Trina?” Slade’s voice brought me back to the moment.

“Your chat,” I said, still staring at my toes. “Did you guys decide to fire me?” The irony was not lost on me.

“What? No. Of course not.”

This time I met his eyes. He didn’t look like he was lying. In fact, he looked startled.

“Really? You don’t think it’d be best if I bowed out and you took over?” I glanced at the kids, who’d wandered a few feet away to pet a friendly Golden Retriever.

“Believe it or not, no, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He paused. “But if you’d asked me this morning I’d have answered differently.”

My face swiveled toward him in time to catch his fleeting grin.

“So, what changed your mind?” I took a too big bite of ice cream, and my eyes watered from the instant brain freeze. At least it distracted me from how warm the rest of my body felt under his intense stare.

“You changed my mind.” He took another lick of his cone, and my gaze shot to my toes again.

“How so?”

“Well…when I stormed out of the house I was totally going to quit. But then I realized it was crappy to bail on you in the middle of a mutiny. And when I found everyone falling apart like it was somebody’s funeral….” His voice trailed away.

“What?” I prompted, daring to look at him again.

He shrugged, keeping his eyes on the kids. “I guess I felt sorry for you. And the kids. I mean, I know you care about them. And they like you, too. They just…want to have more fun, you know? That’s what we talked about when we cleaned up the binder mess.” He took a breath. “So I’ve been thinking…maybe that’s where I come in.” He turned toward me, his expression uncertain.