“Mommy! I don’t feel so good!”
Riley groaned as her small daughter stared up at her from bed, her round brown eyes staring as if expecting her mother to, somehow, miraculously make her feel better.
“Do you think you can still go to preschool?” Riley asked, hoping to keep the pleading edge out of her voice. If she stayed home with Lily one more time, she was going to get fired from her job with the Lewinsky’s. They were a snobby family who offered her short hours and never allowed her to bring Lily with her. The amount she was paying for preschool was outrageous and almost made it not worth the job anyway.
“Nooo!” Lily exclaimed, her small features contorting in irritation. “I wanna stay with yoooou!”
Riley sighed and placed her hand over Lily’s forehead. She definitely had a fever, and a pretty high one at that.
“All right,” Riley said, kissing her daughter’s forehead. “Let’s get you some medicine.”
Riley walked to the kitchen and slumped down on the chair, clutching the phone. Sucking in a deep breath, she dialed the number to the Lewinsky household.
“Riley, dear, how are you?”
The false kindness in Mrs. L’s voice made Riley’s stomach drop, but she managed to smile despite herself.
“I’m all right. Lily, though…”
“Oh, dear…”
The conversation grew tense enough that Riley nearly broke down in tears. She had no other clients in the area. She was a human but had come to the wolf shifter’s city of Stonybrooke because she had been offered an incredible opportunity to work with Tomas Greer. He was shifter royalty, and had three children. Riley was in high demand as a nanny; she had been doing it since before Lily was born. Now, though, her daughter was young and had a tendency to need her. Particularly, at the worst possible times.
“Yeah, so…I need the day off today…”
Mrs. L. sighed and began speaking in the tone Riley had been dreading.
“You know, that girl of yours has a tendency to be sickly… That is precisely the reason we don’t allow other children near our sweet Devon.”
“It’s the preschool,” Riley stammered. But her voice fell on deaf ears as Mrs. L. continued speaking.
“I know your daughter has to be your priority, but as you know, our dear boy has to be our priority. I am just going to need to have a nanny who is more reliable than this…”
“Mrs. L., please. If Lily didn’t have to go to preschool and could stay with me, then this would really be a non-issue. Devon loves her!”
“Oh yes, he’s a darling boy with a sweet heart, but it would be no good for his immune system if he were to be exposed to…”
Riley’s heart began to surge with anger; she could practically see Mrs. L’s nose wrinkled in disgust. It was lucky they weren’t in person or Riley didn’t know what she would do.
“Don’t worry, dear, something is bound to work out for you. You’re great at what you do. I’m afraid we just cannot tolerate any more of these little ‘emergencies’. I’m sure you understand.”
“Yes,” Riley said, her voice drawn. “Of course.”
“Great. Well, I’ve got to run. I have to find something for little Devon to do today now that we have come to a new arrangement. Farewell for now, dear.”
“Bye…”
The phone clicked and Riley put her head in her hands. It had been hard enough to make ends meet without losing the Lewinskis as clients. What was she going to do now?
“Mommy!”
“Coming, honey.”
Riley stood, feeling as if she were being crushed by the weight of the world. But she would be okay. She always found a way. She would do it for Lily.
Riley grabbed the small bottle of medicine and headed into her daughter’s bedroom, resigning herself to spending the day cuddling and reading to the most important person to ever be in her life.
***
“Hello? Is this Riley Maxwell?”
Riley pursed her lips at the sound of the surprisingly silky, masculine voice that reached her ears through the receiver of the phone.
“It is. What can I do for you?”
“So I was talking to a buddy of mine and he gave me your number…did you seriously work for the Greers?”
His voice became more pleasant the longer he spoke, and Riley was almost too caught up in enjoying it to realize he had asked her a question.”
“Oh, yes. For six years.”
“That’s what I thought. He raved about you!”
“Well…”
“No, he really did. So, why are your rates so low right now?”
Riley hesitated. It was hard to say how a potential client might react to the news that she had a child. A child she would want to bring into someone else’s home, every day, and care for just as she cared for the client’s children.
“Honestly, I’m having kind of a hard time…economically.”
“All right. So maybe we can arrange a meeting or something, and you can tell me, in person, what’s going on.”
Riley smiled to herself. He seemed incredibly kind, but there was also something assertive about the way he spoke. It was exciting in a way.
“All right. Where would you like to meet?”
“My place. You can meet the kid. We can feel each other out.”
Heat rose to Riley’s cheeks, and she was suddenly glad they were on the phone and not face to face. Wolf shifters had a tendency to sniff out even the most subtle of emotions, and what she was feeling at the moment was far from appropriate. It was silly, really. She didn’t even know what he looked like yet.
“Sounds good,” she managed to say finally. Just how good, though, she preferred not to say.
“Great.”
After chatting a few more minutes and getting his address, Riley hesitated before hanging up the phone.
“I didn’t even get your name,” she said quietly.
The man chuckled, a pleasant, masculine sound.
“My name is Walker. Walker Abrams.”
“Walker Abrams. All right. Well, then, I’ll see you soon.”
“That you will.”
After he hung up the phone, Riley felt a sudden surge of loneliness rock her to her core. Why was it that she wanted nothing more than to pick the phone back up and continue their conversation? He was such an easy-going guy. But truth be told, she didn’t know anything about him or his situation. He was probably married. And who knew what kind of parent he was? She had learned, long ago, that the surest way to judge someone’s character was to see how they treated their children.
There was only one way to tell whether her impression of Walker was right or not, and now that she had a date to meet him, she couldn’t help but feel the butterflies in her stomach. She hadn’t felt anything like this before; not even with Lily’s father.
But she didn’t want to think about him right now. It was a long, sad tale and she didn’t have the time for it. Lily was sleeping and it was almost time for her doctor’s appointment. It was going to be a fight to get her ready to leave. All she wanted to do was to sleep.
Riley sighed and rolled her sleeves up. Better to get it done now and get her daughter the care she needed. Whether it was a fight or not, she had to do what she had to do, and someday, Lily would understand.