Her Dad’s Best Friend

"Sounds great," I say. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

Camilla lives just around the corner from the pub. She's really not far away, but she's still in school alongside taking care of their kid during the day. Lincoln wanted to hire two nannies to help her, but Camilla has insisted on taking care of most of the childcare on her own.

Chapter 6

Visiting Camilla

Elia

When I walk up to her door, it's already open. There's a very tiny face peeking out from behind the door.

"Hi, Jacky," I say, kneeling down. He just looks at me with his gorgeous dark eyes and scampers away.

"Camilla," I call.

"Coming!" she says. When she steps into the hallway, she is putting an earring in her left ear. "I swear, I live in yoga pants and never put on makeup."

"You look gorgeous," I say. "And I don't believe you."

"You're good for my ego, you big liar," Camilla says, kissing my cheek. "Come on in and ignore the little tornado." Despite her words, she's intently looking at Jacky, not me. He's investigating a very large teddy bear that's bigger than him. He kicks the bear's stomach.

"No hitting!" she calls out. Jacky shoves a thumb in his mouth and belly flops on the bear's legs. Then he pulls his thumb out of his mouth and starts crawling around the room. I like watching the way that his tiny legs move as he crawls as fast as he can.

"He's not as confident as he'd like to be when walking. He's really more interested in crawling, since it's more reliable. He always looks very surprised when he falls on his butt." I can hear the exasperation in her voice, but I can also hear the pride and clear love that she has for her baby son. I choke back my own jealousy, because I should be happy for her. But I just wish that I had a fraction of what she did. "So what are you doing this summer?" Camilla asks, pouring us both a champagne flute of sparkling apple cider. "The pizza should be here in about 30 minutes."

"Cool," I say. "I'm working."

"Yeah? Where?"

"I'm a nanny for Jeff, the guy next door."

"Your dad's business partner? The really hot one?"

I can feel my cheeks heat. "Maybe."

"Spill," Camilla says, draining her glass. "Oh Lord, what I wouldn't give for a solid piece of gossip. Most of my day is spent making sure the baby doesn't accidentally kill himself and the night is spent studying. Tell me about it."

"Um," I say, twirling the end of a braid around my finger. "So it's complicated."

"Cop out," she says. "Tell me more."

"He's had an incredibly hard time keeping a nanny for his kid. Danny has colic and cries a lot."

"I have a recipe for that. I was terrified of colic and have a recipe that the midwife gave me, but Jacky has been as healthy as a horse. He's more likely to laugh than cry, so I haven't tried it out. Do you want it?' "Sure," I say. "I don't know if it'll help, but it won't hurt to try."

"Keep an eye on Jacky while I dig through my pregnancy materials," she says. "It might take a while."

I wait until she's gone and sink to the floor. I'm wearing a dress, which is not what you'd consider ideal for crawling around on the floor, but I made it work with Danny.

"Hey, Jacky." I crawl over to him. "What do you have there?"

It is some kind of clear cube with something springy inside. He's shoving a corner of it into his mouth.

"Is that tasty?" I ask, wondering if Camilla disinfects all of Jacky's toys or if the cleaning agents are worse than a little bit of dirt which will bolster their immune systems.

Tags:

Source: