Make a Wish (Spark House #3)(35)
“Are you sure about that? What kind of history do you two have? Why exactly did he move away again?” His eyes narrow, expression full of suspicion.
Chad has never been like this before. He’s always so laid back and chill. I cross my arms, my posture just as defensive as his, but now for very different reasons. “I don’t appreciate what you’re insinuating.” I swallow down the guilt, not because I’ve done something wrong now, in the present, but because I did back then. And now I’m afraid that the same thing might be happening again. Have I let myself get too close to Gavin and Peyton for a second time?
“Why not? Because there’s validity in it? He was what? In his late twenties when he had that kid? And you were nineteen fucking years old taking care of his baby for him. Were you taking care of anything else?”
I grind my teeth, angry, frustrated, and feeling very attacked. “His wife had just died. It wasn’t like that.” Except I almost made it like that. And that’s not something I want to admit to Chad, not when I’ve only ever admitted it to one person, and that was Gran.
“What was it like, then, Harley? Tell me.” He’s just as riled up as me. It’s disconcerting because the only time I’ve ever seen him this heated before is when he’s lost one of his fantasy leagues.
“It was complicated,” I say, but it doesn’t come out with anything but uncertainty.
He pokes at his cheek with his tongue. “Were you a live-in nanny?”
“Why would that matter?” I hate that I’m just starting to see the way this puzzle pieces together, and Chad has figured it out before me in a matter of minutes. I scratch my wrist, then clasp my hands together. I better not be breaking out in freaking hives.
His expression turns remote. “So that’s a yes.”
“It was more than seven years ago.”
“You slept across the hall from him in your fucking Disney tanks and shorts?” He nods knowingly. “Yeah. I’m sure it was super complicated.”
I raise a hand. “You need to stop before you say something so regrettable, you can’t recover from it. I have never had an affair with one of my charge’s parents. And nothing inappropriate ever happened with Gavin.” But it almost did.
“Then why do you look so damn guilty, Harley?” Chad brushes past me and heads for the door. I don’t stop him.
Because even though I didn’t do anything wrong now, if Gavin hadn’t stopped me then, it would have been a very different story.
Ten
BECAUSE YOU’RE JEALOUS, DUDE
GAVIN
“Want to tell me why you’ve got a bug up your ass?” Ian leans against the doorjamb, coffee raised to his mouth. The mug reads: BEFORE COFFEE, EVERY DAY FEELS LIKE MONDAY.
I toss my pencil on my drafting table and lace my hands behind my head. “I don’t have anything up my butt.”
“Your tone implies something different.” Ian pushes away from the doorjamb and takes a seat in one of the rolling chairs. He crosses one leg over the other, obviously planning to stick around for more than a minute. Ian and I have been friends since college. We were each other’s best man in our weddings; his wife, Lynn, was in our wedding party; and my wife, Marcie, was in hers. It rocked us all when we lost Marcie.
Even when I moved away, he and I have stayed close. And he’s been an integral part of my family’s landscaping company, and part of the reason I needed to return to Colorado Springs. The family business has grown with his forward-thinking and smart financial mind. It’s great to be back in the same city again, working together.
“The in-laws are talking about coming for a visit sometime in the next few weeks.”
“Ahh.” He takes a sip of his coffee. “And you have concerns?”
Since I’ve moved back to Colorado Springs, I haven’t had much of an opportunity to visit Marcie’s parents. Peyton and I made the trip up to see them a couple of weekends ago, but we only stayed for one night. Karen griped about the fact that she wasn’t getting enough time with her granddaughter. It didn’t help that all Peyton could talk about was Harley and the fun things they did together.
And that was only made worse when Karen realized that Harley was Peyton’s former nanny. Back before we moved to Boulder, she’d been displeased that I had a twenty-year-old basically raising my daughter. It didn’t seem to matter that Harley turned out to be one of the most maternal women I’d ever met—and continues to be that way. Her age was a problem for Karen.
The friction it caused wasn’t something I wanted to contend with while I was still grieving the loss of Marcie, trying to single-parent a toddler, and balance a career. So I conceded and moved to Boulder to help get the new branch of Greenscapes off the ground and give my in-laws a chance to get to know their granddaughter.
“I don’t think Karen’s very happy that Peyton and Harley have reconnected,” I tell him.
Ian’s brow furrows. “You mean your old nanny?”
“Yeah, my former nanny.” Harley isn’t old by any stretch of the imagination.
“Okay, so first of all, it’s not just Peyton who’s spending time with Harley, you are too.”
“It’s been helpful for Peyton to have someone who provides stability in her life with all of this change.” I feel like I’m on repeat, I say this so often, but no one seems to believe me.