“Thank you so much.”
He huffed a laugh. “It was just a diaper, Catherine. You’ve probably changed a few hundred by now.”
“I have. Only me.”
His gaze went almost tender with understanding. “You’re welcome.”
“Give me the girl, Elliot.”
As soon as I took her from him, she started rooting on my chest. I moved to go sit down to feed her when Elliot caught my shoulder.
“Why is there a man in my living room?” he asked in a controlled, flat tone.
“He’s here for his interview, of course.” When he didn’t let go of me, I glanced down at his hand then back up to him. “I need to feed Joey. You’re going to have to release me.”
“You’re interviewing a man to be Josephine’s nanny?”
“That’s Sam. He seems really nice. Better than Mary, that’s for sure.” I shrugged, trying to knock him off. “Joey’s going to eat my soul if she doesn’t get milk soon.”
His brow pinched. He slowly let his hand slip down my arm until it fell away. “I’ll get your nursing cover.”
While he raced back upstairs to find the cover I loathed and rarely used, I sat down across from Sam, Joey squealing in my arms.
“Do you mind if I nurse her? She’s this close to staging a mutiny due to starvation.”
Sam chuckled and shook his head. “It’s completely fine with me. I’ve nannied for several nursing mothers.”
I put a pillow under my elbow and pulled up my shirt. Fortunately, I was wearing a nursing tank underneath, saving me from flashing my soft, white stomach at Sam. Not that he was looking. He had averted his gaze to the papers he’d brought with him.
What a nice guy.
Before he’d shown up, I hadn’t been too sure about hiring a man as a nanny, but Sam was giving me good vibes. I hoped he didn’t ruin it.
Chapter Nineteen
Elliot
She hadn’t waited for me to get her cover.
Catherine had her breast out, in full view of the large, strange man making himself at home on my fucking furniture. I hoped he enjoyed it. It was the last time he’d be experiencing it.
I sat down next to Catherine, handing her the cover. She shook her head and tossed it aside.
“Thank you for getting it, but I really hate wearing it, and Sam’s fine with me nursing during the interview,” she said quietly.
“I’ll bet he’s comfortable,” I muttered. Who wouldn’t be comfortable with a pretty woman’s breast on display? Sure, nursing was beautiful and natural, but it was still a breast, and this one was attached to Catherine. I’d seen far more of her in the weeks she’d lived with me than I’d ever expected to, and I couldn’t stop myself from looking.
I doubted Sam was any more capable.
“What was that?” she whispered.
“Nothing.”
She patted my knee. “Don’t make it weird.”
I jerked my chin at the overgrown frat boy across from us. “Let’s get this over with.”
Joey kicked my arm like she was sending me a message. Grow up, asshole. I took her foot in my hand and rubbed her downy soft skin, conveying back, It isn’t my fault your mom drives me to distraction.
Catherine and Sam conducted the interview with little input from me. As far as I was concerned, he was out of the running. He could say he’d been trained by Supernanny herself and was the inventor of the Montessori method and still wouldn’t have been qualified.
That he was eyeing Catherine like he was interested in more than just a job didn’t help. As for her part, I couldn’t tell if this guy was her type or his nanny charm was working on her, but they kept making each other laugh while I failed to see what was so goddamn funny.
At least Jo wasn’t laughing. When she finished eating, Catherine held her in the crook of her arm, facing Sam, and Jo’s little brow puckered. She was a smiley girl. For her to frown at good-guy-Sam was surely a sign.
“How do you feel about sleep training?” I asked.
Yes, I’d interrupted, but them chatting about some beach in Costa Rica they’d both been to wasn’t getting us anywhere. It was time to shut Sam down.
“It’s up to the parents, but if asked my opinion, I’d say I’m a strong proponent of it,” Sam answered. “My grandma used to say letting babies cry helped strengthen their lungs. I know it’s not medically proven, but I think some of the old-fashioned methods work wonders.”
Catherine’s spine went ramrod straight as he spoke, just as I’d expected. I had to hold back a smirk. Sam had just walked into a pile of shit and didn’t even know it.
After that, the interview wrapped up fairly quickly. I let Sam out of my house, and by his expression, he’d realized he wouldn’t be getting a call back.
Josephine was happily kicking around on her play mat when I returned, Catherine pacing the carpet around her.
“Strengthen their lungs?” She threw her arms out and groaned. “He seemed so perfect, then he started spouting baby advice from the fifties. If I had let him keep talking, he probably would have said car seats weren’t necessary since his grandma survived without one.”
“There’s still the option of letting Josephine sleep in my drawer.”
She pinned me with a hard glare. “How did you know he was going to answer like that?”
I lifted a shoulder. “Instinct. It’s my job to study people and discern who they are through their mannerisms and the subtext of what they’re saying. He didn’t strike me as a person who stayed up to date on the latest infant studies.”
She groaned again then walked straight into me, her head colliding with my chest. “If the next nanny is terrible, I won’t be able to come back. Daniel is going to have to stay on longer.”
Catherine was standing a breath away from me, her forehead on my collarbone, and I wasn’t sure what to do. This wasn’t like last week when instinct had driven me to hold her as she fell apart. She was keeping it together now, though frustration rose from her like heat waves off a summer sidewalk.
“Do you want me to hug you?”
“Yes, please.” She curled her arms around my middle. Mine circled around her shoulders, pulling her close. She molded against me, pressing her cheek over my thudding heart. Catherine was as soft as she looked and fit well in my arms.
My lines were firm. I never crossed them with employees, no matter who they were, and for most of Catherine’s tenure, I’d kept them fortified. But they’d crumbled months ago, probably when I’d felt Josephine moving inside her, and we kept moving farther and farther away from the rubble left behind.
This was uncharted territory, but there was no pulling back. Not for me. Not anymore. Whether I went forward or stayed where I was had yet to be seen. Once Catherine was back in the office next week, hopefully it would become clear.
“What’s the next nanny’s name?” I asked.
“Fredericka, but her résumé says she goes by Freddie.”