The Wrong Kind of Love (Boys of Jackson Harbor 1)

“I looked at your résumé. You’re so overqualified it’s ridiculous.”

Veronica is overqualified. I’m just your regular, run-of-the-mill babysitter. I grab the basket and turn back to Ethan. He’s staring at me. “Maybe I’m running away.” I look away as soon as the words come out of my mouth, embarrassed to have confessed something so raw.

“From the mistake,” he says dryly.

“Yes, from the mistake. From a town that thinks it knows me when I don’t even know myself.” I look down at his clothes. I feel too vulnerable when I look in his eyes. What is it about this man that makes me say too much? Maybe I just want him to see me the way I thought he did that first night. But when I lift my gaze back to those sad eyes that seem to have lived a hundred lifetimes, it’s like he doesn’t see me at all. “Surely after all you’ve been through, you understand what it’s like to hurt so much you’d do anything to escape it.”

He grunts. “Life doesn’t work like that. You can’t escape without stomping on the people you’re so desperate to leave.”

I open my mouth to defend myself and then close it. He doesn’t see me, and nothing I say will make him. “I don’t know how to do this.”

He takes the basket from my hands and puts it back on his bed. “I never asked you to do my laundry.”

“That’s not what I mean. I don’t know how to pretend that nothing happened between us.”

For a second, I think he softens. His eyes dip to my mouth and down my body. His jaw relaxes and his hands release from fists at his sides. “You’re going to have to try. Nothing can happen between us. I told you that night would become something you’d regret. I told you that I don’t make promises.”

I flinch again. “I never asked for your promises.”

Ethan

The asshole strikes again.

I swallow, and my gaze returns to her lips. I can’t help it—I can’t stop thinking about those lips and can’t stop wishing to have them on me. When I woke her this morning to tell her I had to go, she looked so fucking sexy that I was ready to crawl into bed with her and make a whole new set of rules for how our arrangement was going to work.

Her hair was tousled from sleep and her face scrubbed clean, and she should have looked sweet and innocent, but her nipples were hard through her silky sleep shirt, and it was all I could do to keep my eyes off her body. I spent my day thinking about her, wondering if I overreacted to our situation and considering calling off the new nanny search in favor of having her close. After all, it’s only for three months, and Lilly already adores her.

Then I came home and found her looking in my wife’s closet like she was trying to take inventory. The suggestion that I should be sorting through Elena’s things just rubs me the wrong way. The last woman who tried to remove Elena’s things from my house went so far as to go behind my back and hire a service to come in and do it for me. Just like Nic and her offer to “help,” Kyrstie thought I should be grateful.

Fuck no. I don’t need to make room for anyone in my life but my daughter, and Lilly has everything she needs—including evidence that her father misses her mother every single day.

I drag my gaze off Nic—off her too-fucking-tempting mouth and away from the sweetness in her eyes—and turn to Elena’s closet to flip off the lights and close the door. “Where’s Lilly, anyway?” I demand, turning back to Nic. “Maybe you should be more concerned about her than about getting rid of Elena’s things.”

She cocks her head to the side and frowns at me. “Lilly who?”

“My daughter, the whole reason—” I snap my mouth shut when I realize she’s being sarcastic. “You’re hilarious.”

“She’s with your mom. They wanted to spend some time together before Kathleen leaves, and I thought it was a good idea.”

My chest feels heavy at the thought of my mom’s imminent departure. I know it’s just temporary and is exactly the kind of trip she deserves, but I also know how hard it’s going to be on Lilly.

“I already checked, and she doesn’t have any homework,” Nic says.

“Thank you.” I need to remember that Nic is a professional. Not only does she have experience, she has the perfect educational background for dealing with children. Just because I can’t keep my thoughts professional every time she’s around, it doesn’t mean she’s having the same problem. “I applied for a new nanny through an agency today. They’re going to get back with potential matches within the next five days, and then I’ll have to go through the interview process. So, I’ll need you to plan on staying at least a couple of weeks.”