Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 300(@200wpm)___ 240(@250wpm)___ 200(@300wpm)
She looks even better than she did at the bar, adorable in a pair of bright pink jeans and a rainbow-striped sweater under her blue peacoat. The clothes conceal most of her curves, but I know they’re under there, and the combo of cute on the outside and red-hot underneath is a kink I didn’t realize I possessed until she showed up on my doorstep.
“Is that my new nanny, Daddy?” Sarah Beth asks, running her fingers back and forth across the stubble on my chin, the way she does when she’s feeling a little nervous.
“No, that’s Tatum, a friend of mine,” I say. “But she’s super nice. You’re going to love her.”
“She has red hair like me,” she says, sounding pleased.
“She does. And as we know, redheads are the best,” I say as Tatum climbs the stairs to meet us on the porch, her purse and a larger duffel bag slung over her shoulder.
Whatever her surprise, it’s clear she brought a lot of it.
“We really are,” she says, stopping in front of us with a nervous smile of her own. “Hey there, cutie, I’m guessing you must be Sarah Beth.”
Sarah Beth ducks her head, shy, but smiling as she whispers, “Yes.”
My slow-on-the-uptake, pre-coffee brain is still trying to figure out how Tatum knows my daughter’s name—did I mention it Saturday night and forget about it in all the excitement—when she says, “Cool. I love your name. My name is Tatum, and I brought a bunch of my favorite games for us to play today. And a craft project with tons of glitter glue because glitter is my favorite color.”
Sarah Beth giggles while I try to pick my jaw up off the floor. “Glitter isn’t a color,” she says.
“Oh yeah?” Tatum shoots back, still grinning. “I think it can be if we want it to be. We’re going to make our own rules around here. And the first rule is that you should always eat breakfast with a crown.” She reaches into her bag and pulls out a child-sized crown with big, pink jewels set in the plastic. She holds it up, asking, “I’m assuming you enjoy being the Princess of Pancakes?”
Sarah Beth laughs again, louder this time, proving her shyness is wearing off much faster than usual. “I’ve never been the Princess of Pancakes.”
Tatum’s eyes go wide. “You haven’t? Well, we must remedy that immediately, my lady.” She places the crown on Sarah’s head then plucks a larger crown from the bag and settles it onto her own curls. “Now, we’re crowned and ready to handle princess business over breakfast. First, we’ll have to pick a place to have lunch after your roller-skating class. I’m new in town, so I’m trusting you to take point on that. Then, we’ll hear grievances from any cranky stuffed animals who need our advice, teach your teddy bears their letters, and see if we can find any fairies at the park. It’ll be warm enough to hunt fairies this afternoon, assuming we bundle up and wear our mittens.”
Sarah Beth beams with excitement while my stomach continues to sink. “I love fairies!” She squirms in my arms, wanting to be set down. As soon as her tennis shoes hit the porch, she grabs Tatum’s hand and pulls her toward the door, saying, “Bye, Daddy. We’re busy today.”
Tatum chuckles and even I can’t help but wheeze out a laugh.
Even though this is fucking horrible.
If Sarah Beth hadn’t taken a liking to Tatum, maybe we could have headed this off at the pass, but my daughter is clearly smitten. It’s love at first sight, and I’ve been through too many failed babysitter experiments to put what seems like a perfect match at risk.
But that means another potentially perfect match is going to have to go by the wayside, which feels like it’s killing me a little…
As we step inside, I tell Sarah Beth, “I’ll head to work soon, but I need to talk to Tatum first, okay? About some grown-up stuff. Why don’t you go grab your favorite stuffies from upstairs and bring them down? I’m sure Tatum will want to meet them first thing.”
“I’ll get my wand, too!” Sarah Beth dashes for the stairs, calling out over her shoulder, “I’m going to be a magical princess of pancakes with special powers!”
“Perfect!” Tatum enthuses, before turning back to me with wide eyes and not a hint of her child-charming grin. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea! None! Not until you stepped out on the porch.”
“Me, either,” I hiss back. “Your phone number was different than the one I had for the interview.”
“So was yours,” she says. “I changed mine to a Minnesota number before I left on the drive here. New life and all.”
“And I was chatting with you from my work cell before,” I say.
“Well, that explains that, but I know Drew is short for Andrew. I should have thought of that,” she says, “but it just didn’t connect in my head. Maybe it was the dirty martini or the fact that I assumed you were a fisherman, at first, but it just…did not compute.”