I knew it. I knew he would get away with it. I was so pissed I could hardly see straight. I drove into my driveway too fast, hitting the bump and nearly smashing my face into the steering wheel. I slapped my open palm against the steering wheel several times.

“Bullshit!” I screamed inside my car.

I was mad as hell as I grabbed my purse and stomped up the walkway to my front door.

My phone was ringing in my purse, but I didn’t want to answer it. I was too pissed to talk. I ignored it, heading to my fridge to inspect the contents. Beer or juice. I went for a beer. It wasn’t three and I was already cracking a beer. It wasn’t like I had to worry about getting up for work tomorrow.

My phone started ringing again.

“Dammit!”

I fished the phone out of my purse. It was Colton. I hit the beat it button. I was not in the mood for that drama at the moment. One life crisis at a time. I kicked off my shoes and flopped down on the couch, settling in for a nice long pout.

The knock on my front door told me my pout was over.

“What!” I growled, not giving a shit who it was.

I heard the door open a little. “Jenna?”

It was Colton. The man needed to brush up on his cues. When you were sent to voicemail, it meant the person didn’t want to talk.

“What?” I snapped, feeling a little guilty for taking my anger out on him.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I turned to look and saw he was alone.

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not.”

He came inside, moving to stand in front of my couch. He gave a pointed look to the bottle of beer in my hand and then looked at me.

“Not now.”

“What happened?” he asked, sitting on the coffee table in front of me.

“I’m jobless.”

He blinked. “You’re jobless?”

I smiled. “Yep. I got fired.”

“For the thing the other day?” he asked in a voice that would be scary to anyone who didn’t know him.

I took a long drink from the beer. “Oh no, not that,” I said, heavy on the sarcasm. “I was fired because apparently I was an hour late for the shift I’ve been working for the last three years.”

He was looking at me, a strange expression on his face. “You weren’t late?”

“No! I wasn’t late! I’ve never been late!”

He held up his hands. “Okay, okay. Look, I’ll be back in a second. I need to check on Abby. Sit tight.”

I smirked. “I’m not going anywhere.”

He left me to drink my beer in peace. Unfortunately, he returned a couple of minutes later with Abby in tow. I couldn’t properly pout and bitch with her watching my every move.

“Abby is going to play in the backyard, if that’s okay with you?” he asked.

“Fine.”

I heard him walking through my house and didn’t care enough to worry about whether or not there were dishes in the sink. The back door opened and I cringed. My backyard was nothing like his yard. It wasn’t in shambles, but it was much smaller and had a lot less grass.

A few minutes later, Colton was back.

“Okay, start at the beginning and tell me everything.”

I leaned forward, putting the beer on the coffee table.

“Aaron’s dad owns the place. I’m sure the manager told him what happened the other day. One of the other waitresses was talking about the harassment and suggested we should all band together and report it to the owner. If he doesn’t do anything to stop it, she wanted to take it to a lawyer. I never agreed to do anything of the sort. So, I think my manager, ex-manager I guess, and Aaron’s daddy decided to get rid of me before I could cause problems.”

He was nodding his head. “I’m sorry. Can I help?”

“No. It won’t do any good. I don’t want to get you involved. It was a shitty job anyway.”

“I’m really sorry. Those guys need to be taught a lesson.”

I shrugged a shoulder. “What’d you need?”

“What?”

“You called and now you’re here.”

“Oh, I saw your car in the driveway. I wanted to talk to you about the uh, daycare situation.”

“What happened?”

He shook his head and I instantly went on alert. “It isn’t going to work out.”

“Oh no! Is Abby okay?”

He smiled. “She’s fine. She’s got a tender side to her and it was a little bruised. She didn’t appreciate me leaving her. She cried the entire time she was there.”

“I’m so sorry, poor baby girl.”

“Which is why I’m here. I don’t want to dump on you, obviously you have a lot on your plate, but I wanted to see if you’d be up for watching her.”

I smiled. “Of course. It isn’t like I’m doing anything else.”

“That gives me an idea. I was going to be paying the daycare. Instead, I can pay you.”

I shook my head. “No way. I’m not going to take your money.”

“You wouldn’t be taking my money. It’s a job. I don’t trust anybody with my daughter. She seems to like you and you two get along really well. I can’t take her back to a daycare environment. She’s just not ready.”

I sighed. “I’ll watch her, Colton.”

He shook his head. “I’ll pay you to watch her.”

“You’re putting me in a really weird position here.”

His response was a sexy smile. “I don’t mean to. This is strictly a business arrangement. I want you to be my child’s daycare provider and with that, comes a paycheck.”

“Fine, just until you find a better arrangement.”

He grinned. “Thank you. Can you start today? Like right now?”

I looked at the beer on the table. He picked it up, looked at it and shrugged. Less than half was gone.

“I’m fine. I’m not drunk.”

“I know you’re not. I’ve been around you enough to know how many you can handle before you’re drunk.”

“Thanks for the talk by the way. It helped.”

“You’re welcome. Now, I’ve got an appointment at the gym. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. She’s got snacks and toys in her pack. Here’s a key to the door of my house in case you need to get something for her.”

He stood and walked around the couch, heading for the back door. I trailed behind, watching him talk softly to her before giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. When he came back in, there was another moment of awkwardness.

We hadn’t talked since I tried to sneak out of the house yesterday. He moved to the side, walking past me. He stopped at the door.

“Thank you, Jenna.”

I waved goodbye before picking up the beer and pouring it down the sink. I took a deep breath and walked into the backyard.

“Hi, Abby. Heard you had a rough day at daycare,” I said, sitting on one of the patio chairs.

She looked at me and nodded. “I didn’t like it.”

“I’m sorry. Were you scared or did you miss your daddy?”

She shrugged her little shoulder. “I don’t know.”

I could see the topic was upsetting her and quickly dismissed it. “Okay, well, do you want to play out here a little longer?”

“Yes,” she mumbled.

I went inside, digging through my bare cupboards, trying to find something to feed her. I usually ate at the diner or grabbed something to bring home. We did get a pretty good discount, which kept my grocery bill very low.

I heard my cell phone ringing. It was Rose.

“Hello,” I muttered.

“What in the hell!” Rose’s voice came through the phone.

“You heard?”

“Ya, I heard. I just got to work and saw you weren’t here. This is bullshit, Jenna. We can’t let them get away with this.”

“They already did. This is how they do things,” I muttered.

“I’m sorry. It isn’t fair,” she mumbled.

“Well, I guess it’s one way to get me back to school.”

“Are you going to take your mom up on the offer? I would hate to see you go, but I know it’s the right thing for you to do.”

I sighed. “I don’t know yet. I’m still thinking about it. I’ll have to think on it later. I’m watching Abby right now.”

“Again?” she asked, surprise in her voice.

“Yes, again. Actually, since I’m not working, I’m going to be watching her while he works. He says he’s going to pay me.”

“That’s weird. I’ve got all kinds of crazy stuff running through my head with that little tidbit of information. You’re the naughty nanny.”

I burst into laughter. “I am not.”

“Are you not sleeping with the little girl’s daddy? And now you are his employee as well? Oh ya, I’m seeing a fantasy come to life.”

“You are so bad. You have to stop watching late night television.”

She burst into laughter. “You don’t know what you’re missing out on. Seriously, don’t knock it ‘til you try it!”

“I better get going. Abby is in the backyard.”

“Alright. This isn’t over. I’m going to be smashing some heads together and if those jerks think they are going to come in here and pull that shit with me, I’m going to make them very sorry. I think I may accidentally trip and fall while carrying a pot of hot coffee to our favorite friends.”

“Thank you for your support. Really. I appreciate you a lot. Don’t go getting yourself in trouble though.”

“You’re welcome. I’ll talk to you soon.”

We hung up and I started to feel better. Losing my job may not have been the worst thing to happen. It could be the very thing I needed to get my ass into gear. I’d just been treading water for too long. I needed to make a move forward.

“Are you hungry?” I asked Abby.

She shook her head. “Not yet.”

“Okay, well, I’m going to see what I can put together so I’ll be ready when you are.”

It ended up being cold sandwiches and a bag of chips. Not the healthiest thing in the world, but it could be worse.

“How about we take a walk. I’ll show you the little park at the end of the street.”

Her eyes lit up. Together, we walked hand in hand to the small park that had all but been forgotten when the much bigger park was put in a couple of blocks away. The only toy left in the park was a rusty old swing set. It was still solid though. I put her on it and pushed her back and forth. She was squealing with delight, her little skirt flying in the wind.

We stayed at the park for over an hour, playing tag and exploring the area.

“We should probably head back. Your daddy will be home soon.”

She grabbed my hand, skipping as we walked back to the house. It felt good to have made her so happy. She seemed to be in much better spirits than she had been when she first showed up today. I couldn’t wait for Colton to see the change in her. I knew it was probably something he had done for her a hundred times, but this was my first time getting to be the one to bring happiness into a child’s life.

I had been so worried about dating a man with a kid. They scared me. I’d never really thought about having my own kids. That seemed way down the road. I had never really been around children besides at the restaurant, and felt completely out of my element. Or at least I thought I did. But being around Abby was easy.

Maybe Colton and I could have a relationship after all. Except, I wasn’t sure that was what he wanted.