Page 40 of The Nanny Game Plan
“Butjusttoday,” Ava cautions, pulling back to shoot me a serious look. “I’m not going to nap every day. Only when I’m super tired from playing hard and having lots of fun with Clover and Bella.”
I nod. “Sounds good. We’ll take it one day at a time.”
One day at a time.
It’s good advice.
But deep down, I have a feeling taking things one day at a time with Clover isn’t going to make it easier to stop thinking about kissing her.
Not for many, many days to come…
Eleven
CLOVER
Not all heroes wear capes…
Some wear stained, white sweatshirts— Why did I wear white on my first full day caring for two young children? Why?! I really should have seen that cranberry juice disaster at lunch coming—and jeans with mud soaked into the knees.
Cold mud.
Wet mud.
Ew, yuck,whyis it so wet? All the snow melted days ago.
And why is it so cold under these bushes? It’s a balmy forty-seven in the yard, but freezing down here. I can barely feel my legs. Yet, sadly, I have retained enough sensation in my chilled nerve endings to be keenly aware that my knees are wet and slimy, and getting wetter and slimier by the minute.
But Bella managed to kick her favorite ball so deep into the hedge at the back of the yard that a hands-and-knees retrieval is the only option.
Like I said. Heroes. Capes.
“Hero, I’m a hero,” I mutter to keep my spirits up as I army crawl deeper into the heart of shrubby darkness.
“Are you okay, Clover?” Ava calls out from what sounds like a mile away.
I don’t know what kind of plant this is, but the leaves are dense as hell. And weirdly shiny. And the tiny red berries feel…menacing. I know I should be grateful that I’m not pushing deep into a holly bush, getting stabbed by tiny leaf daggers at every turn, but I can’t fight the creeping fear that I’m taking my life into my hands with this shrub.
“Fine! I’m fine, are you guys okay?” I call back.
“Yes!” Bella screams in reply, making me flinch then laugh.
“You don’t have to shout,” Ava says.
“Yeah, I do,” Bella shouts, indignantly. “Those bushes are magic, and they eat up all the sound. That’s why I’m scared of that place in there.”
“She’s right,” I call back, still grinning despite the soppy grossness of my knees and the ache building around my steel plate. “The soundismuffled back here. But I can still hear you if you speak in a normal voice, Bella, okay?”
“Okay!” Bella screeches, once more at top volume, making me laugh again.
Ava huffs. “She said youdon’thave to shout, silly goose.”
“I know, but I like shouting!” Bella replies, before bursting into a fit of giggles.
“You’re such a goofy head,” Ava says, giggling along with her.
Well, at leastthey’rehaving a good time. I was afraid they would get cold once we stopped kicking the ball around, but apparently, watching their nanny crawl around in the bushes is exciting enough to ward off the chill.
I, however, am starting to shiver. I had to leave my coat with Ava—it was too puffy to make it through the foliage—and it’s at least five degrees colder down here. But the shrub just keeps going and going with no sign of Bella’s ball.
