Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 117920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117920 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 590(@200wpm)___ 472(@250wpm)___ 393(@300wpm)
He glances at it over his shoulder but he doesn’t smile. It’s like he’s not the same person who opened it on Christmas Eve and laughed heartily, that beautiful rare grin of his cracking his face with joy.
I wish we could go back to that night.
He called me a goddess.
Maybe it was the alcohol talking, but he said it all the same and my ego will never let me forget it.
“Listen,” he says, his eyes moving back to mine. “I need to talk to you.”
Oh god. Okay, Aurora, calm down. He can’t break up with you. You’re not going out!
“Okay. What about?” I try to keep my voice light, a smile plastered on my face.
His eyes rake over my features, as if he’s searching for something. Some truth. Something inside me I haven’t found yet.
“How would you say you’ve enjoyed working for me?”
Oh my god.
“Working for you?”
“Yes,” he says, an edge to his voice. “Have you enjoyed your job as the nanny of this household?”
What’s going on? Why is he speaking to me so formally?
“Of course I have,” I say in disbelief. “Why on earth do you ask?”
He runs his tongue over his teeth in thought. “Where do you expect to be when your year is up?”
Oh no. Are we really talking about this already? My heart is starting to pick up the pace and the light in the room seems too harsh, dizzying.
“I … I don’t know. I hoped I would stay here.”
“You want an extension to your contract?” he asks this so matter-of-factly like he couldn’t care either way and, bloody hell, this actually hurts.
“If I could.”
“Don’t you think you might be better suited elsewhere? After all, that’s kind of your style. You stay for a year or two at the most, when the children are a certain age, and as they grow, you leave.”
I start coughing, my words literally catching in my throat. “What? No. No, I was with the last family for two years.”
“The children were younger.”
“So?” I walk toward him and lean against the desk to look him dead in the eye. “What’s going on? Are we extending my contract right now? It’s February.”
“Better to make plans in advance, isn’t it?” he says, and matches my gaze. That same energy is churning in those glacial blues and for the life of me I can’t understand what he’s thinking, what he’s doing. It sounds like … it sounds like he’s trying to soften a blow. Give me an easy way out.
My breath starts getting shorter, more shallow. I’m trying not to go into panic mode but it’s not working.
Fuck. He’s not trying to fire me, is he?
“What are you doing? You’re trying to get rid of me?” I shake my head, feeling anger and sorrow and horrible, horrible grief take hold of me. “That’s why you sent me away. You made other plans.”
He raises one brow at me, his mouth open, jaw tense. He sits back in his chair, continuing his quiet appraisal.
“Oh my god,” I cry out softly. “I am fired, aren’t I? You’re letting me go. You’ve found someone else.”
He cocks his head, squinting at me. “Does that bother you?”
My mouth drops open. “Bother me? What the hell is wrong with you?” He doesn’t say anything to that, just shuts his mouth into a thin line and swallows. “This is my job. I don’t … I can’t believe you’re doing this to me. That you’re firing me.”
The room begins to spin and I stand up straight, putting my head in my hands. This can’t be happening. Why is he doing this to me?
“Give me a reason why you want to stay,” he says softly.
I drop my hands and stare at him in open shock. “A reason? I’ll give you a million fucking reasons.”
He gets out of his chair and comes around his desk. “Tell me what they are.” He leans back against the desk, his intent gaze still searching.
I blink at him, my heart so loud in my ears that I can’t even think. I just let the words spill out in a frantic river. “Reasons? Reasons? The girls. Clara, Freja. I can’t leave them. I don’t want to leave them. They’re everything to me.”
“Is that all?”
“Is that all?” I repeat. “They’re your daughters and I’m their nanny. That should be more than enough. You know, I hated being away from them this last week. I missed them with all that I am. I didn’t even want to go, I just thought you were trying to get rid of me.” Tears tease my eyes and I shake my head, choked with disbelief. “Huh. I guess you were.”
His nostrils flare and his fingers tighten along the edges of the desk. “Is that it?”
What am I even hearing?
“I don’t understand.”
“You said reasons. You only named one.” He frowns, licking his lips. “What about me?”