Never Bargain with the Boss (Never Say Never #5) Read Online Lauren Landish

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Billionaire, Contemporary, Funny Tags Authors: Series: Never Say Never Series by Lauren Landish
Advertisement

Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 137077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 685(@200wpm)___ 548(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
<<<<425260616263647282>146
Advertisement


I don’t bother getting dressed. This must be an emergency of some sort or else I wouldn’t be rescuing Grace in the middle of the night. So, in my nightgown and unlaced boots, with my jacket barely half-on, I rush for my car and nearly peel out of the driveway, still programming the address Cameron sent into the GPS.

Fifteen painfully long minutes later, in which I imagine everything from Grace feeling sick and not wanting to puke at a friend’s house to a localized alien attack, I pull up to Hannah’s. The house is large and fancy, not quite on par with Cameron’s, but still bigger than most. I virtually run for the door and quickly knock three times.

A tall, dark-haired man opens the door, looking suspicious at the late-night visitor. “Can I help you?”

“Grace,” I blurt out, trying to see around him. “I’m Riley, her nanny.”

That seems to be explanation enough, because he opens the door, gesturing for me to come in. “The girls are in here. Sorry, I was expecting Grace’s dad.” He clears his throat. “And Bella and Trinity’s moms. I’m R.J., Hannah’s dad.”

I nod, not caring about his middle of the night manners. I need to lay eyes on Grace.

R.J. leads me to the kitchen, where three girls are sitting with glum faces. A blonde woman is worriedly fussing over them. “Are you sure I can’t get you something? Water? A cookie?”

“Grace?” I say, and her head jerks up, her eyes finding me instantly.

“Riley? Where’s Dad?” She looks past me like she expects him to be standing there, but when she sees it’s just me, she licks her lips and bravely nods. “Can we go home?”

“Yeah, of course. Let’s go.” While Grace pulls on her hoodie, I grab her backpack from the floor, leaving the other two lined up, presuming they belong to the other girls. “Uh, thanks,” I say to the mom and dad, who are looking at each other like they did not expect this sleepover to go this way and aren’t sure what to do about it now.

That makes three of us.

In the car, while Grace buckles up, I text Cameron that she’s safe, with me, and we’re on our way back. He sends back a short ‘thanks’ and then Grace’s phone lights up. She holds it up and says, “Dad says he’s not feeling well, but he’s glad I used our signal, and that we can talk in the morning.”

That’s weird. He was fine at dinner. Well, not fine. But not like, sick or anything. “He’s okay,” I reassure Grace. “He was working most of the evening, so maybe he has a headache.” I don’t like to lie to her, but she’s obviously worried about Cameron when both he and I are considerably more worried about her. Well, at least I am. I don’t know what the fuck he’s doing. “Are you okay? Do you want to talk about what happened?”

“No,” she says, turning to look out the window.

“Grace, honey, no to which question?” I say, trying to keep calm. “One means I’m going back to Hannah’s and ripping someone’s head off. The other is perfectly acceptable.”

She looks back at me, and I can virtually see her replaying my questions and her answer. She smiles sadly. “Yes, I’m okay. No, I don’t want to talk about it.”

I sigh in relief. “Okay. That I can work with. I’m sorry you had to cut your sleepover short, but I’m glad that you did what you felt was right for you.”

She nods and resumes watching the street lights pass.

I want to ask her so many questions, all of them at once. But I don’t. That’s a sure-fire way to shut her down, and I can see that she’s anxiously processing whatever went down tonight. So I wait, and instead of an interrogation, I offer, “Starbucks is closed, but there’s a 24-hour McDonald’s on the way home. I guarantee their ice cream machine is broken, but we could get some fries?”

Food, especially of the fried variety, is always comforting. And sometimes loosens lips. Grace smiles sheepishly, and I take that as a yes, exiting the highway and ordering two large fries and two medium Cokes at the speaker.

I park in the lot, explaining, “Can’t eat and drive safely. You mind?”

She shakes her head, shoving fries in her mouth, and I do the same. It’s coming. She’s just working her way up to spilling her guts. We’re about halfway through our fries when she says, “Tonight sucked.”

“I’m sorry. I know you were looking forward to it, and it sucks when things don’t go the way you thought they would.” Even though I’m desperate to know what happened, I don’t ask, not wanting to scare her off.

She groans, “I thought we were gonna have fun. But all Hannah wanted to do was SnapChat with Liam. And that was fine until she asked him to rate us.”


Advertisement

<<<<425260616263647282>146

Advertisement