Unsuitable

They stared at each other. This was getting close to being an argument and while they’d never been friends as such, they’d never gone toe to toe before.

Sue shook her head. “You’re missing the point.”

“Am I?” Not likely.

“This is your own child we’re talking about. And you’re trusting a man who dances like a Chippendale stripper to look after her.”

It was Audrey’s turn to look shocked. “Why don’t you go the extra mile while you’re at it? You think I hired him to have something on the side.”

“I didn’t say that, Aud.”

“He’s in my home, not my bed. He has a contract. I pay him a salary. He’s my employee. And I’m—” She shook her head. How had they gotten to this? What she did in her private life was no one’s business. If she wanted to screw the nanny in every room of the house and twice on Sunday in the bathroom, that was between her and Reece. Except it would be a worse idea than threatening your company COO.

Sue frowned. “Say it.”

“I’m upset you’d even think that about me. That I’d whore myself out to the nanny.”

“I don’t think that, Audrey. I was out of line with the Chippendale crack. But I thought you’d laugh. I didn’t think you’d take it this way.”

Audrey leaned on her desk and closed her eyes. It was only Monday lunchtime, and already she’d turned a difference of opinion with Sue into an argument, put herself in Chris’ sights, compromised Reece’s integrity, and betrayed her own insecurities about hiring him.

It was going to be a long week.

9: Magnetic

Audrey looked trashed, but in a no fresh air, dry-eyed, too much bad coffee and too long sitting way. Reece thought she needed a stretch, a dozen lung busting breaths, a good feed, a drink, a massage and a dozen hours of quality sleep. As it was she’d have to bath Mia, get her to bed, endure through story time and feed herself before she could relax.

It wasn’t Reece’s job to cook for Audrey at night, but he’d made a meat sauce for Mia’s spaghetti dinner, though he knew from Cameron’s briefing notes she’d only eat the noodles and play with the rest, but he thought Audrey might make use of what Mia didn’t for her own dinner. He’d also shifted a bottle of white wine from her wine rack to the fridge, and there was an extra baguette from lunch, along with a mini apple pie he’d bought at the fresh food markets near Mia’s kindy gym. He’d worried he might’ve overstepped the mark with the pie, but looking at Audrey’s pale face, the droop of her shoulders, he was glad he’d chosen to close out the first week by making it easier for her.

“Hi,” he said, as Audrey entered the kitchen, dumping her laptop bag on the table and swooping to kiss Mia. He looked away, while they talked. He was so lame. Five days on the job without Cameron and still unsure how to relate to Audrey. He felt too big and too lumbering around her. She was so fine and so well organised; she made him feel even younger than he was by comparison.

“Red jelly is better,” Mia said. She’d eaten more jelly than spaghetti, but some of the meat sauce made it into her mouth, as well as onto the front of her top and the table.

“It’s my favourite too,” Audrey said. She straightened up and smiled at him. “We made it through our first week together.” She rolled her head, putting her hand to the back of her neck and closing her eyes momentarily. It sounded as though she hadn’t been sure.

“Tough week?” He coughed. “I mean, not me. You had a tough week, I mean, did you? My week was good.” Good for learning to gibber. Shit. Way to prove competence, genius.

Audrey kindly let the incoherence pass through to the keeper. “Feels like the week had more than five days.”

“I won’t dispute that if you want to pay me for more than five.” Reece scratched his cheek. He wanted to put his big clumsy hand over his enormous stupid mouth, because oh, yeah baby, let’s shift it up from gibbering to grasping.

She smiled. “Nice try. Run through the week for me. What worked, what didn’t? What do we need to change for next week? How was Mia today?”

“I was good, Mum. I was special good at kindy gym. I did tundling. It was dizzy Lizzy.”

He wiped the table in front of Mia, a slop of jelly. “Tumbling.”

“Tundling.”

Who was he to correct her tonight? “Close enough.”

Audrey’s eyes wer

e busy, watching Mia, watching him. “So kindy gym was a success.”

Other than their brief handover in the morning when Audrey was rushing out the door and in the evenings when he was, this was the only time they’d spent together. There’d been a daily phone call to check in, brisk and business-like, but their actual contact had been pretty limited. No wonder she wanted a week’s end roundup.

“How was playgroup?”