Curvy Nanny for the Nerd

15. Brady

Chapter 15

Brady

“ C an I buy you a drink, beautiful?” Once again I found Toni curled up on a lounger in the backyard, getting lost in a book.

She looked up at me, but her usually sparkling green eyes were dim, almost sad. “Just got one,” she said and nodded to the martini on the table beside her, promptly returning to her book.

Okay. I took a seat at the edge of her lounger and placed a hand on her leg because I couldn’t be that close to her without touching her. “What are you reading?”

“A book,” she says softly. “About a decade’s long search for a serial killer. Want to borrow it when I’m done?”

I frowned, unable to tell if she was joking or not. “Something’s wrong.” It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. Toni was usually a straight shooter, a woman who didn’t play games, but right now she wasn’t herself.

She closed the decorative case on her e-reader and turned her gaze to me, and yeah, there it was. Sadness. Toni was sad. “Nothing is wrong, just clear.”

“That sounds ominous.” My heart lurched and my stomach flipped because I had a feeling that I wouldn’t like whatever she had to say next.

“Not at all. I’ve been thinking, and we need to go back to our professional relationship. Only our professional relationship.”

How could she say those words when my hand was still on her thigh and moving up. “What did I do?”

“Nothing,” she insisted a little too harshly. “You’re my boss.”

“I’ve been your boss from the moment we met, Toni. Why is it a problem now?” It didn’t make any sense.

“It’s not a problem now , Brady. It’s been a problem, but you’re very good at distracting me away from the details of your life. I don’t know you. I know very little about you.”

“Not this again. You know me, Toni.”

She shook her head and set her e-reader aside. “But I don’t. There are things I know about you, facts that you might put on a dating app or an interview, but not you. And worse you don’t know me, not if you don’t trust me.”

“I trust you with my niece, how much more trust do you need?”

She laughed, but the sound was hollow, almost lifeless. “You don’t trust me . You haven’t told me about you, your life or your business because you think I’m some gold digger out for your cash, and if you think that, you haven’t been paying attention.”

Shit. “That’s not true.” Was it? I trusted Toni implicitly. “I don’t think that,” I tried but it fell flat.

“It’s something. If not, tell me something about you.”

“What?” My heart raced and I waited for her to make her demands. She would ask about my business or maybe my net worth. Possibly the worth of my house, maybe the number of houses I owned around the world. Toni was different, but not that different. “Well?”

Her green gaze studied me as if she could read my mind. She scoffed and I stiffened, worried she just might be able to read it. “Your last name, Brady. What is it?”

Shit. Her question had caught me totally off guard, which it shouldn’t have. She was right, I hadn’t given her enough credit, hadn’t truly listened.

She laughed bitterly, the smile that touched her face was disappointed. “Exactly. Let’s just keep things professional, Brady. Good night.” She grabbed her e-reader, finished off her drink and disappeared inside the house.

I was left totally fucking confused, a little hurt, and a whole lot pissed off, mostly at myself. Toni wasn’t wrong, I hadn’t given her the opportunity to prove she was different than the other women I’d come across in my life. I’d taken one look at her gender, and let’s be honest, her circumstances, and decided she was like all the rest.

It didn’t matter to me that the things she had revealed about her past said she was from a life of privilege, I’d still found her guilty of other women’s sins. “Shit!” I needed to fix things, but to what end? Did Toni actually care about me, or did she just need to feel better about fucking her boss?

That was a shitty thing to think.

I shook off that thought immediately, recognizing it was completely unfair. She hadn’t actually given off any signs that she cared at all about money, never mind my money. She hadn’t asked for any gifts or trips, not even an expensive dinner. Really she hadn’t asked for anything except details about me and my life.

I went to sleep that night resolved to do better by Toni. To give her the details she wanted, if that’s what it took to keep her.

Toni, however, had other ideas.

The next morning she’d come down later than usual, long after Layla and I had finished our breakfast, and drank down a cup of coffee. “Good morning,” she said to no one in particular but the words lacked her usual energy.

“Good morning, Toni!” Layla bounced in her seat.

That earned Layla a wide smile and small laugh. “Ready to get your science on today?”

Layla groaned. “No.”

“Well you can’t win everything,” Toni said with a grin.

I waited for her to turn her gaze to me, to acknowledge my presence beyond the small nod she’d offered up, but she gave me nothing. “What kind of science?”

“Natural science,” she offered in a bland voice. “We’re going to the Museum of Natural Science.”

“They have a great exhibit on King Tut,” I offered inanely.

She nodded. “Thanks for the tip, we’ll be sure to check it out.” Toni finished her coffee and rinsed the mug before she disappeared from the kitchen without a word.

Layla turned furious eyes onto me. “What did you do?”

I blinked, taken aback by the vehemence in her words. “I didn’t do anything. Why would you assume it’s me?”

“Because I’m a delight,” she said with all the hallmarks of a child repeating something she’d heard an adult say. “It must be you, Uncle Brady.”

“I didn’t do anything,” I lied smoothly. “Maybe there’s something going on in her personal life.” Like the man she was sleeping with was an asshole.

Layla glared at me, stood and left the table without a word. She didn’t even put her bowl in the sink.

Since both the females in my life were unhappy with me, I retired to my office and spent the day working. When dinnertime rolled around, I expected Toni or Layla to knock on my office door with a reminder but it didn’t come.

I ended the workday just after nine in the evening and went in search of dinner, finding the kitchen pitch black and the whole house eerily quiet. Dinner was warming in the oven but there was no note, no hint of the consideration I’d grown used to over the past few weeks.

It hurt more that Toni wasn’t blatantly rude, as if I wasn’t worth her wrath, which was all kinds of fucked up. She wasn’t mean or angry, just aloof and quiet. Mostly she was sad and that made me feel like the worst kind of bastard.

I ate my dinner in solitude and vowed to do better tomorrow.

I seemed to be doing that a lot lately.