Page 9 of Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl
Now it’s my turn to arch an eyebrow.
“Within reason,” he clarifies.
“No more sex.”
His jaw clenches. “Of course.”
“We will, under no circumstances, be alone together in this house.”
“That’s not a problem.”
“The job description says that I cook five days a week. I propose homemade meals three nights a week and takeout for the other two.”
“I have a binder full of local menus.”
He’s too goddamn agreeable. I’ve pushed him this far and he hasn’t blinked. Now I have no choice but to say yes. Why couldn’t I have just left?
I cross my arms over my chest and try one last time to push him over the edge. “I want a credit card in my name for all incidentals and gas for while I’m working.”
He eyes me thoughtfully for a moment. “I’ll have one rush delivered. You can start tomorrow.”
My jaw begins to drop, but I stop myself before I look like an absolute buffoon.
Sometimes the problem with negotiating is winning when you least expect it.
He walks me to the door, and I can feel his hand hovering above my lower back like he’s guiding me. Protecting me.
I’m fucked.
I get in my car and wait for him to close his front door before I turn around and make the cursory inventory I do every time I return to my car. My pillows are there. My blankets. My sleeping pallet—a twin bed mattress topper. It’s all there right alongside the toiletries I keep tucked under the passenger’s seat.
Tomorrow I’ll be chauffeuring around two little girls, which means I’ll have to reorganize the trunk, where I keep most of my belongings—including my wardrobe. I don’t want my personal things out in the open where the girls can see.
I’d hate for Daddy Bram to come home after my first day with Letty and Berry to learn that their new nanny is sort of—okay, definitely—living in her car.
Chapter Three
Bram
The next afternoon, I walk into my office and find Leo Saint James on my love seat, feet propped on a stack of books, tossing an apple up into the air and catching it with efficient flicks of his wrist.
I skirt around Leo’s long legs to get to my desk. “Busy day at the Saint James*office?” I ask mildly as I set down my leather satchel and start pulling out my things.
“I pay people to be busy for me,” says Leo, not bothering to sit up from his long-limbed slouch.
I sit down and crack open my laptop. “And you didn’t want to be un-busy in your own city?”
“I had to visit the Mount Astra factory, and the idea of driving back was too exhausting. I had to come here and rest.”
“It’s a half-hour drive back to your office,” I reply. “It probably took you twenty minutes just to park and walk here.”
Leo leans his head back against the edge of the love seat and closes his eyes. The apple dangles from his hand. “Exactly. Now I’m doubly exhausted. How is Dr. Loe today?”
“Good. Had my first Bio 1 lecture of the year.” Bio 1 is a massive course; even chopped into three lecture sections, each section has over four hundred students. Four hundred students with new backpacks and flushed cheeks from having rushed over from some wrong building or another. Half took unnecessarily detailed notes, while the other half looked like they’d already found a source of cheap beer on campus. All of them reminded me of unsteady kittens about to fall face-first into a bowl of milk.
“Ah. Science babies,” says Leo. “When do you get to teach the big kids?”
“This afternoon.”
