Chapter 12

Tyler

“Have a great day at school you guys,” I said as Summer and the kids were walking out the front door as I just woke up.

Summer had avoided me all weekend long and even this morning had woken the kids up extra early to get them ready and go for a walk by the river before school. The distance between us was killing me. I liked Summer. I liked her more than a nanny, but I wasn’t exactly sure how that was supposed to work out because she was also the best nanny the kids had ever had.

She wasn’t perfect in the household stuff, but she stuck to the kids’ schedules, and Faith and Thomas were ten times happier than I’d seen them in months. Hell, they were probably the happiest I’d seen them since their mother passed away, and that was all due to Summer and her way of caring for them.

Even though I cared for her and loved being with her, I couldn’t ruin that for the kids. If Summer wanted things to stop between the two of us while she was the nanny, then I would hold back and let that happen. My kids were far more important to me than a sexual relationship that was building between Summer and me.

As I drove to work, my mind raced with all the ideas about what I should say or do with Summer. I knew Rob was going to freak out when I told him about how the weekend had gone. All week he kept telling me to play it cool and just let things settle. But then I went and made love to Summer again, and now everything was a disaster.

“Rob,” I said as I stood in the doorway to his office right when I arrived.

“We have two weeks until the pitch, so do not tell me anything that will freak me out. I swear to God,” he groaned as he was going through some of our advertising posters that arrived. “They screwed them up. Nothing is right. Look at this!”

Rob held up one of the posters, and the writing on the front was so small you couldn’t see it from five feet away. Obviously, they wouldn’t work well to put up in airports like we had planned to pitch to the client.

“We have two weeks, just send them back and make the company fix it. There’s enough time,” I said calmly.

“And how about this?” He pulled out a large poster that instead of having our graphic on it, there was a picture of a half naked woman with the words we had designed for our poster.

I couldn’t help laughing. It was so ridiculous that it really looked like some sort of joke that the printing shop was playing on us. How could they actually think we would write ‘Come stay in us,’ with a picture of a half naked woman on a six-foot long poster? It was really funny, but not funny all at the same time.

“Send it back. Let’s go through everything, and we will send the items back and figure out what happened. There’s plenty of time. You’ve got to calm down,” I said as I realized now was definitely not going to be the right time to tell him what was going on with Summer.

It took most of the morning for us to go through all our marketing material and get things packaged back up to send to the printer. When we were done with packaging everything, I let Rob relax while I called the printer to figure everything out. Luckily, they had our order still and emailed me proofs to confirm. They apologized profusely and promised our updated order would be in the office within three days.

“Everything is taken care of,” I said to Rob as I sat down across from his desk. “They sent over the final proofs and assured me we would have everything by the end of this week to look at. They are even giving us a full credit back for the order. So basically, we just got them free of charge.”

“Well, that’s good at least,” he grumped as he was frantically going through files on his computer. “So what was it that you had to tell me earlier? It looked like you had some bad news.”

“Um, it’s fine. We can talk about it later. I’ve got everything under control.”

“Shit, what did you do?”

“I said everything is under control. There’s nothing to worry about. We are going to the big pitch session in two weeks, and I can keep a lid on this until then.”

Rob’s head fell into his hands, and he laid it down on his desk as he groaned. I really didn’t want to stress him out any more than he already was, and at this point, there wasn’t much to say about it. I’d slept with Summer again, and things were a little awkward – that was all.

“It doesn’t change our trip. Don’t worry about it.”

“I’m worried, Tyler. Do you see all this gray hair? I’m worried. I’d like to finally take a vacation. I want to meet my own sexy nanny and have hot sex all night long. I want to get my damn yellow tooth fixed. But I’m too busy with our company. I’m worried, so just tell me what’s going on,” he said in exasperation.

“I slept with Summer. Thomas came into the room, and I basically pushed her head under the covers and made her hide. She left and went back to her room, and I haven’t spoken to her in two days.”

“You’re going to kill me. You know this, right Tyler?”

“Come on, she still got up and took the kids to school today. I think things are going to be fine. They were fine last week. We were getting along even though we didn’t talk all week.”

“And yet you still managed to end up with her in your bed again?” Rob shrugged his shoulders as if it was some sort of mystery.

“She made dinner last night. One thing led to another and bam we were in bed.”

“I wish just for a day, I could have your life. No, not all of it, not the horrible history stuff. But this stuff. I want this,” he growled at me. “Let’s just get as much done today as we can before your life blows up in both of our faces.”

We actually got tons of work done that day, and I was confident we were prepared for our big pitch. As soon as our correct advertising posters came in, that was all we really had left. We both knew what to say during our pitch. We practiced having a little light hearted humor in there as well. This was going to be awesome, and I was sure we would nail it.

When I arrived back home at the end of the day, Summer was in the living room, but the kids were nowhere to be found.

“The kids are next door with Kenny and Abby,” Summer said right away. “I think we need to talk.”

Those dreaded words were never a good sign, both in a relationship and with a nanny, and I hated hearing them. I sat down and hoped this wasn’t going to turn out to be what I thought it was. I really didn’t want Summer to feel bad about what happened. I was fine with going back to the way things were if that was what she wanted.

“I’m going to give my notice; I don’t think I can keep working for you. I know you have a big trip coming up, though, and I’ll stay on to ensure the kids aren’t disturbed over that time. But when you get back, I’m going to stop working for you.”

Summer was calm and so matter-of-fact about it that I didn’t like her tone at all. At least she was going to stay on until after my trip, but she was looking at me as if I’d done something wrong, and I was pretty sure there had been two of us in that bed, both times.

“Okay,” I said as I got up and walked away.

“That’s it. Just okay?”

“I mean if you really don’t care about any of this, and you want to leave, I guess you should leave. It’s just really confusing because I had feelings for you and …well that doesn’t matter.”

“I’m the nanny, Tyler. I had to hide under the blankets when Thomas came in because you were ashamed of me.”

“Not true! You hid under the blankets, and that was fine. Obviously, no kid needs to see his parent making love. But that was a normal thing. You’re making a big deal out of nothing.”

“I sleep in your spare room, and you pay me,” she said as she stood up and stormed into the kitchen with me. “You slept with me, and you pay me. Do you even understand how that feels for me as a woman?”

“What? No! It’s not like that. Yeah, I pay you because you’re the nanny. Not because you slept with me. God, Summer, don’t twist this around like some crazy woman.”

The word left my mouth, and I instantly regretted it. My father had once told me never to call a woman crazy, or I’d truly regret it. There was just something about that word that really pissed women off, and I knew it, yet I still said it to Summer.

“Crazy? Oh, I’m crazy now?” Summer stood there staring at me for a moment as I rolled my eyes.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Fine, you know what. I’ll take my crazy ass out of your life. How is that?”

She stormed up the stairs, and I followed her. She pulled one of her big suitcases out of the closet and started throwing her things into it. This had escalated quickly, and I was panicking as I watched her.

“Summer, I need you. You are great with the kids. Please don’t do this?” I said calmly.

“What? You want a crazy woman taking care of your kids? That doesn’t seem safe. Don’t worry, I’m leaving, and I’ll send Patrick over to get my things tomorrow.”

“Summer seriously, don’t go.”

“I was quitting because I liked you. I didn’t want to be your employee, but I wanted to date you. And you ruined it all. You calling me crazy because of what? Because you’re mad that I’m not going to take care of the kids anymore?”

I took a deep breath as I tried to figure out what to do. I didn’t understand she was leaving because she actually wanted a relationship. I thought she was leaving because she felt like a prostitute over getting paid to be a nanny. I honestly wouldn’t want her to feel that way, but things were so out of control at the moment I couldn’t imagine anything I would say could make things any better.

“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean you were crazy. Just that the way you were acting …” I trailed off. That didn’t sound any better than actually calling her crazy.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure there are a dozen other girls you can hire who would love to take care of the kids. Good luck,” she said as she grabbed her heavy suitcase and made her way to the stairs.

“Let me carry that for you,” I said as I took the suitcase. “You’ll hurt yourself going down those stairs.”

Reluctantly, she let me carry the suitcase down the stairs. I held onto it in hopes that we could talk, and she would calm down a little. Her face was red with anger as she stood in front of me, and I felt the emotion in her eyes. She was hurt. I’d done that to her, and it was a horrible feeling. I had successfully made it years without seeing that level of pain in a woman’s eyes, and it sucked to know I’d made her feel that way.

“I can take it now,” she said as she pulled her suitcase away from me.

“Summer, you don’t have to go. We can work this out.”

“Goodbye, Tyler. I’ll stop over to the neighbors and give the kids a proper goodbye as well.”

The kids. My stomach spun around, and I felt like I was going to vomit. They were going to miss Summer so much. They loved her. They really cared about her a lot, and my stupid behavior had just screwed that up for us all.

“I’ll drive you. Where do you need to go?” I offered in the last ditch effort to get more time to talk to her and convince her to change her mind.

“Don’t worry about it; I’m not your problem anymore,” she said sternly as she pulled her suitcase out the front door.

I stood and watched as she left it near the garage and then went over to the neighbor’s house to say goodbye to the kids. This was bad. This was downright horrible. She had offered to stay until after my trip, and somehow, I had just ruined that. I’d taken what was the best nanny the kids had ever had and made her so angry that she was storming off without even getting to say a proper goodbye or prepare the kids for what was coming.

It didn’t take long after Summer left in her Uber before the kids were back at the house crying. Surprisingly, it was hitting Thomas really hard. He was more of a distant kid normally, and his tears hit me really hard.

“Why did she have to leave,” he sobbed as I held onto him. “She was the nicest person ever. She played dinosaurs with me and would let me be the T. Rex.”

“She still really cares about you guys. But she had to go.”

“Dad, what did you do?” Faith said as she crossed her arms and looked angrily at me from the other side of the couch.

Her tears had dried up, and she was suddenly really angry at me. I wasn’t exactly sure how she knew this was all because of something I did. But she clearly thought it was.

“What do you mean?”

“You are always mean to the nannies. You did something; I know it.” She had a stern look on her face as she accused me, and I couldn’t lie to her.

“We had an argument, and I said something mean.”

“Well, go apologize and fix this. You were mean, and you always tell us to apologize when we are mean.”

She said it as if things were that simple in adult life. I knew they were not. Of course, I would apologize to Summer, but the damage was done, and I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to convince her that I truly didn’t mean to put her down like that.

It wasn’t just about my trip anymore. I could always call on the in-laws or some other family if I really had to. But I didn’t want to. They would never let me forget that I actually needed their help, but I could do it. The thing that was bothering me the most was how bad I’d made Summer feel. How she seemed to question what was happening between us as some sort of thing I did often with nannies. It wasn’t. The emotions that were going on between Summer and me over the last month weren’t something I’d felt in a very long time.

“I’ll try and apologize,” I said as Faith continued to stare at me.

“Not try, Dad. You will do it. You find out where she is, and you tell her you were stupid, and you are sorry.”

“Okay, Okay,” I said as I started to laugh at how serious Faith was being.

By this time, Thomas had stopped crying, and he moved over and sat next to his sister. He realized she was mad at me, so he also crossed his arms and angrily looked at me. These two meant business.

“It’s not funny, Dad. If you hurt someone’s feelings, it’s just as bad as hurting them with your fist. We learned that at school.”

“I wasn’t laughing about that. You are right,” I said as I leaned in to give them a hug.

At first, they both tried to pull away, but I wouldn’t let them. I squeezed them tight and didn’t let them go for a good minute. My kids were growing up to be pretty darn amazing children. Claire would have been so proud of them. She would have been much less proud of how I’d handled things with Summer, though.

Even though we couldn’t have planned for life without each other, Claire and I did have one memorable conversation about what we would do if one of us passed away early in life. I remember telling her I’d pine away loving her forever and never even look at another woman. She slapped me playfully and told me not to say such a thing. She lovingly looked at me and said she wanted me to find the happiness, and I wanted the same for her.

Claire would have liked Summer; I was sure of it. The lighthearted way Summer cared for the kids and worked so hard to make them happy would have made Claire really happy too. I knew I had to find Summer and apologize. Even if that meant she didn’t come back as a nanny, maybe it would be possible to mend our friendship so we could actually go on a date or get to know each other. Although I really did want her to stay with the kids for the two weeks so that I could go to my business trip. The in-laws were dreadful, and the whole reason I didn’t use them to watch the kids was that they constantly picked on them and tried to make the kids into porcelain dolls instead of letting them actually have fun.

My two-week trip would be torture for the kids if they had to stay with family. I knew I had to convince Summer to come back, even if it was just for the two weeks.