Safe Bet (The Rules #4)(4)

It never has been.

“Drew!” Fable calls, waving him over. “Come meet Sydney.”

He starts to head over there and when he sends me a look over his shoulder, I reluctantly follow him. I really don’t need to be involved in this scenario, but I just can’t tell him that, can I? It would be rude. And I’m never rude to Drew and Fable.

Ever.

“Sydney, this is my husband, Drew. Drew, this is Sydney Walker. She’s going to be our new nanny,” Fable says, sounding pleased. She looks over at her husband with a little wince. “I hope you don’t mind that I went ahead and hired her.”

“Of course I don’t mind. I trust your judgment.” Drew turns to greet Sydney. “Good to meet you,” he says as he gives Sydney a firm handshake. She’s staring up at him, her lips slightly parted, her eyes wide. Full on awestruck, which is typical. He’s a superstar. That’s how most people look at Drew when they first meet him.

“Hi,” she squeaks, her cheeks going pink as she releases Drew’s hand. Her gaze slips to mine, and then flitters away. But that one quick glance was like a sucker punch to my gut.

The nanny is beautiful.

I take a deep breath, shoving my hands in my jeans’ pockets so I won’t do something stupid—like try to grab her. She has pretty blue eyes and a full mouth that’s made for kissing. Her curves are even lusher than I first realized. She has full hips and a tiny waist and shapely legs. But I can’t worry about pretty nannies right now. I have to concentrate on work.

It still blows my mind that I might play for the NFL. That football is my job. I’m a lucky son-of-a-bitch.

“Sydney, this is Wade Knox. He’s an old family friend,” Fable says, knocking me from my thoughts. I blink and look down to find Sydney smiling up at me, interest clearly showing in her gaze. Hmm. “Wade, this is Sydney.”

“Hey Sydney.” I shake her hand, electricity pulsing between us the moment our palms touch. She jerks her hand away from mine as if I burned her. Guess she felt it too.

Interesting.

“Nice to meet you,” she murmurs as she takes a step back. Like she needs the distance.

Even more interesting.

We make small talk for a few minutes before Fable takes Sydney back to the house, and the moment the door shuts behind them, Drew’s talking.

“The nanny’s cute,” he observes, his voice way too nonchalant.

“Uh huh.”

“She looked at you like she thought you were cute, too.”

I roll my eyes. He never says stuff like this, so what’s his deal? “Cute? What are you doing? Trying to play matchmaker?” I send him a pointed look. “Give me a break. I don’t need the distraction.”

He shrugs. “Nothing like the love of a good woman to keep a man on the straight and narrow especially doing what we do.”

I am nowhere close to doing what he does, but I’m honored he’s lumped us together. That’s what I’ve always appreciated about Drew. He has never thought he was better than anyone else, and the guy always had reason to. He’s rich, he’s good looking, he’s a talented quarterback, his wife is gorgeous, his kids are cute. He is living the fucking perfect life.

If I could have one-tenth of the life that he’s had, I’d be happy.

And that’s the truth.





Two weeks into my job as the live-in nanny and sort of assistant to Fable and I’m freaking exhausted. Of course, I’ve never worked a job like this in my life ever (I’ve never worked a job ever, period), so that I’m still employed by the Callahans, especially after the last few days, is some sort of miracle.

Their children, while sweet and adorable and fun, are also a complete handful, just as Fable warned. Every single day, Autumn runs me ragged. She’s just so fast, zipping around the house, the yard, the park, the store, wherever we’re at. And she’s always getting into things. Jacob is kind of needy—but he’s a toddler, so I’m assuming all toddlers are needy. Plus, he really loves his mom. Like, he will full-on cry and demand to be with her the moment he spots her. When she’s not around, he’s content. But he catches sight of her and that’s it. He forgets all about me and cries for her.

He is definitely a mama’s boy.

But Fable steps in a lot and spends time with her children, just as I expected she would. She’s a good mom—gentle and patient and always willing to be with them as much as she can. Nothing like I remember my mom being when I was little. She wasn’t around much at all, and when she did spend time with my brother Gabe and me, it always felt like she treated us as if we were a burden, versus her actually wanting to be with us.

Even when I was a little kid, I could sense that.

I stopped acting star struck every time Drew came around pretty quickly. At first, I couldn’t help it. I’ve seen him on TV countless times, on the cover of Sports Illustrated—heck, both of them were on the cover of People magazine the year the Niners won the Super Bowl. It was hard at first to wrap my head around the fact that they’re real people who put their pants on one leg at a time, just like you and me. But they’re very real—and so nice.

Plus, Drew is just ridiculously good looking. The two of them together are such a striking couple. All I want to do is gawk whenever I see them. Their love for each other is so obvious. They kind of remind me of my brother and his girlfriend. Gabe and Lucy are totally in love and have no problem letting the world know it either. Thankfully I adore Lucy. Otherwise, the two of them would gross me out.