Chapter 8

Tyler

I messed up. No doubt about it, I’d done exactly what I had to previous nannies. Well not exactly. None of my previous nannies had touched me like Summer had. But I shouldn’t have grabbed her hand like that, and I certainly shouldn’t have scolded her like a child.

She was reacting to whatever it was going on between us, and I knew I should have just pulled her aside and said we were going to keep things professional. I could have taken ownership of the way I’d reacted to her when she fell into me. Or at least I could have been a little kinder to her about the whole thing.

I felt absolutely horrible when she didn’t return to dinner and then later wouldn’t come out of her room to talk to me. Sleeping with the nanny was just too cliché of a thing for me even to imagine. But I put all the sexual attraction onto Summer as if I didn’t have a part in it when I really did.

The truth was I wanted to grab her, take her to my bedroom and throw her down on my bed the second I felt her hand on my thigh. I’d overreacted because my own temptation was so great that I couldn’t control it or thought I might not be able to control it.

“Nice to see you here,” Rob said as I walked into his office.

“I know, it’s nice to be here.”

“How is the new nanny?”

“She’s good,” I said without elaborating on the issues I was having.

“Good? Wow, that’s a step up from the last one. You were already telling me all of the things she was doing wrong by now.”

“I’m trying to be a little nicer. It’s a lot harder than I thought.”

“Well, let’s get going on this work. I’m excited to pound out some of these decisions so we can get the printers working on some of our supplies for the big bid.”

“Do we seriously have any chance? I mean, be honest with me, Rob. We are the underdog here, aren’t we?”

“Yep, we are, but we are going to work our asses off and make sure things come together.”

That was exactly what we did for the first hour of the morning. We went over our list of decisions that had to be made and just started hammering away at them. It was the start to what I hoped would be a day of enormous progress up until I saw the kids’ school calling me.

“This is Tyler.”

“Hello, Mister English. We were just checking to see if Faith and Thomas had a doctor’s appointment or were sick today since they haven’t arrived at school yet.”

My heart sunk so fast I started to get light headed.

“What do you mean? The nanny left early with them.”

“Oh, well the kids have not arrived. Maybe she got lost? That happens on the first day of drop off sometimes.”

“I’ll get in touch with her, and the kids will be there shortly.”

“What’s going on?” Rob asked as he saw the obvious concern on my face.

“Apparently, the new nanny got lost on the way to school, and the kids haven’t arrived yet. I swear to God, I showed her twice how to get there. What the hell, is she really this incompetent?”

“Okay, so this is how you piss them off and make them quit. Nice to get to see it up close and personal,” Rob said as he looked up at me from his desk. “You only have a few weeks until our trip. I would highly advise you not to talk to her like this if you actually want to keep her around.”

“She couldn’t even get the kids to school.”

“I don’t care. You need her to stay, and this attitude won’t work. You have to suck it up and be nice to this girl.”

I knew he was right. I’d been thinking the same thing after my little blow out with Summer the night before. I had to reel in my attitude and try a little better. I couldn’t afford to lose Summer with only a couple weeks left.

“I know. We need this deal. It could skyrocket us into another stratosphere.”

“Okay then, focus. Go find the kids. Help the girl out, and don’t be an ass about it. I know you’re capable of being a cool guy. I’ve seen you work really well under pressure. I’m just not sure why you have such a hard time with it when it comes to the kids.”

“I don’t know. Claire was so perfect with everything, and I feel like I suck at it all. I at least want the nanny to be good at taking care of them.”

I started to dial Summer’s number and hoped she answered. Although, if she was driving, I knew she wouldn’t answer her phone. After three tries and all of them going to voicemail, I knew I was going to have to head over to the school and see if I could find them. She was probably just on the wrong street or something like that.

“Go ahead, I’ll see you later,” Rob said as I started to leave his office. “Be nice to her.”

“I will, I will.”

On the way over to the school, I used my Bluetooth to try and call Summer again. She still wasn’t answering. There was a growing pit in my stomach as we approached nearly ten o’clock and the kids still hadn’t arrived at the school.

What could have just been Summer getting lost was now actually worrying me more and more. What if they had been in a car accident? What if something horrible had happened to them, and I just didn’t know it yet? I couldn’t imagine anything happening to my kids. It had taken me years to even think about moving on after losing Claire. I wouldn’t be able to go on if I lost my kids.

I drove to the school and then progressively started driving around further and further away. If they had gotten lost, I certainly would find them. Then, as I came up and over a hill, I saw the three of them walking.

Summer was holding both of the kids’ hands as they walked up the hill toward the school. They were only about a half of a mile away, but the car wasn’t anywhere in sight.

“Need a ride?” I said with a smile as I pulled up next to them.

“Oh, my gosh, my feet are falling off,” Faith said as she climbed in with Thomas.

Summer didn’t say anything and just got into the front seat. I noticed she had on tennis shoes and wasn’t wearing her makeup. I hadn’t realized that when she was at home. She smiled at me and then looked out the window as we drove to the school.

“I’ve got to run inside and sign them in because we are late; it will be just a second,” I said as I took the kids inside. “Did you guys get lost?” I asked them.

“Yeah, but then the car ran out of gas. We would have made it if we hadn’t run out of gas. I think Summer knew where we were going, finally,” Faith said as she gave me a hug and went to her room.

I signed the kids in and didn’t make eye contact with any of the women in the office. This whole mess was my fault. I’d given Summer the car from the garage without even checking to see if there was gas in it. I felt absolutely terrible.

“I’m so sorry,” Summer said as she broke down in full blown tears the second I climbed into the car. “I didn’t check the gas, and I didn’t have that credit card you left me. I’m really sorry. I understand if you want to fire me.”

“Summer, it’s okay,” I said calmly.

I wanted to reach out and comfort her but figured that would send the wrong signal after the way I yelled at her the night before. She was shaking, though, and I couldn’t stop myself as I gently touched her upper arm to try and calm her.

“I’m horrible at this job. I’m sorry. You should just find someone else. I can’t do any of it right. I thought I was going to be able to. I thought if I tried really hard, I wouldn’t ruin this, but I did,” she went on as the tears continued.

Emotions weren’t my favorite thing, and emotional women were probably one of my least favorite things in the world. I didn’t know what to say or how to calm them down. I always felt like I was doing the wrong thing and never like I was being of any use at all.

“It takes a little bit to learn it all. You aren’t horrible, though, the kids love you. And this was my fault. I should have checked the gas gage before I gave you the car. I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?”

“Yes, and I’m sorry about last night as well. I overreacted, and I shouldn’t have talked to you like that.”

“I shouldn’t have touched you,” she said as her face flushed a little. “I misread what was going on between the two of us. Or whatever, I’m sorry.”

“It’s not true,” I admitted as I closed my eyes and took ownership of what had happened. “You didn’t misread it. I just overreacted when you put your hand on my leg. There’s an attraction here. I feel it, and I know you felt it, and I was an ass about it,” I said honestly.

It was the first time in a very long time that I could remember actually admitting to being wrong. My late wife had even told me I would never admit it, and it drove her crazy that even when I knew I was wrong, I couldn’t just admit it. But here I was, learning from my past and making an honest effort to change, even if just a little bit.

“Okay,” Summer said without saying anything else as we drove back to my work.

“I need to go into the office for a little bit, and then we can get some gas for the car. Would that be alright? You can have my office to yourself, as I’ll be in some meetings.”

“Okay, I’ll probably just take a nap, I’m exhausted.”

Summer looked exhausted, and when we arrived to my work and walked upstairs, she could barely keep her eyes open. I gave Rob a quick wave and then ushered Summer into my office so she could rest.

“There’s a blanket in that cabinet. Come get me if you’d really like to leave; otherwise, I’ll probably just let you sleep.”

“Thanks, I think it’s the adrenaline or something. I’m so tired.”

“There are snacks in the mini-fridge and a bathroom right there in the corner. I’ll check on you in a bit.”

“Okay,” Summer said as I closed the door to my office.

Just as the door closed, I turned around, and Rob was standing right there. He looked into my office through the window and was nearly falling over himself as he tried to get a glimpse of Summer.

“Alright big boy, let’s go to your office,” I said as I pulled him away.

“That’s Summer,” he said.

“What? How did you know her name? Did I tell you her name?”

“No, that’s the amazing girl I met at the club who blew me off because of my yellow tooth. Holy friggin hell, she’s your nanny? You dog. You dirty dog!” Rob was patting me on the back and was pretty damn excited that I had Summer as my nanny.

“You met Summer?”

“Yeah, remember, I told you. But she dogged me,” Rob said as we walked back to his office.

“Yeah, I could see that.” I laughed at the thought of Rob trying to hit on Summer. He definitely didn’t seem like the kind of guy she would go for.

“So she’s just living with you. Just like that you’ve got this amazingly hot woman living in the same house as you? Shit, I need to hire a nanny,” Rob continued.

“Are we going to get some work done?”

Rob could hardly pay attention at all for at least fifteen minutes as he kept asking me questions about Summer. I felt a little bad that she had turned him down and was now my nanny, but there was no use in him thinking she ever would have run off with him. He clearly wasn’t thinking straight when he ran after her.

When we were finally able to get back to work, it was a productive afternoon. We finalized our paperwork and got everything to the printer. It was only six weeks until our big pitch, and everything had to be absolutely perfect. Landing a big hotel chain wasn’t as easy as it used to be. There were going to be hundreds of teams vying for this company, and ours had to stand out.

By three o’clock, I realized we had worked right past lunch, and I was going to have to go get the kids from school. Summer was easy to wake up but still looked really tired when I went into my office.

“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m just a little dizzy. Is it time to go?”

“Yep,” I said as she started to stand up and then nearly fainted. “Did you eat anything today?”

“What? she asked looking up at me a little confused. No, I don’t think so.”

“Dang Summer, you can’t just go two days without eating. Look at you, you’ve got zero reserves, and your body needs the energy. I’m getting you a sandwich before we go pick the kids up.”

After hurrying to our break room to grab a sandwich, I returned, and Summer was looking a little bit better. She had overworked herself and then refused to eat because I had pissed her off. It would have been funny if she didn’t look so darn sick.

“Thank you,” she said as she ate the sandwich quietly without looking over at me.

At this point, she was so hungry it didn’t even matter that she had been angry with me. Hopefully, we could put all of that behind us and get on some sort of schedule. It was only the first week, and I still had high hopes for everything to come together for us all.

“We need to get going so we can go get the kids. We will just have to miss soccer today and get the other car up and running. How are you feeling? Can you walk alright?” I asked as I pulled her up and into my arms.

Despite everything that had gone on, I couldn’t help loving the touch of her against me. I lingered in the embrace longer than I should have, and Summer smiled knowingly up at me.

“This is going to be an issue,” she said with a playful grin.

“I’m really sorry I yelled at you. I think I was just feeling bad because … because of this,” I mumbled as I looked down at her lips.

The urge to kiss her was growing so strong that I let go of her without warning and Summer fell right onto the couch. We both broke out laughing at the whole moment. I couldn’t be trusted around her, or if I was going to be around her, I just couldn’t touch her. The second my skin felt hers, there was nothing else I could think of but her.

“I’m going to take that apology and remember it.” She laughed as she stood up with me. “Because I don’t think we are going to be able to stay apart from one another.”

Summer pulled herself up with a newfound confidence as she stood next to me and gave me a playful smile. She had her vindication that was for sure.