Curvy Nanny for the Nerd

25. Brady

Chapter 25

Brady

M onday morning had dawned bright and early because Toni hadn’t come home on Sunday night the way she usually did, spiking my worry that she wouldn’t come back at all. She’d arrived just as the alarm sounded to wake up Layla and get her ready for the day, which gave me hope that I could find a time to apologize and get us back on the right track.

But that hadn’t happened. Toni had done a damn good job of ignoring me all week. She orchestrated it so that she and I were never alone together. At mealtime it was just me and Layla, which was nice but I still missed having her close, and when she entered a room that I was in, she turned on her heels and left.

She didn’t even pretend she wasn’t doing it and I deserved it, and more. I haven’t spoken a word to her in a week because she would give me a barely audible good morning and rush off before I could say the words in reply. She spent evenings alone in her room and I didn’t even know if she snuck down later to have something to eat.

It was maddening. Dammit, it was frustrating as hell that she’d so effectively cut me off. I deserved it, that was without question, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.

It wasn’t just the look she’d leveled me with when she left my office that I couldn’t stop thinking about, it was the expression she wore when she told me I wasn’t the first man who only wanted her for sex. Did she really think that I saw her like that? Like she was some sort of curvy fetish to try out and cast aside? “Shit,” I growled and shook my head as those two scenes played over and over in my head.

Layla gasped. “You said a bad word.”

“I know,” I sighed and offered up a sheepish smile. “I meant it but I’m sorry you had to hear it.”

She shrugged. “Mom and Dad said bad words all the time but Mom said I couldn’t say them until I turned sixteen.” Her silver-blue eyes took on a faraway expression for a minute before she dropped it and replaced it with a frown. “Did I do something to make you mad, Uncle Brady?”

“Of course not, kiddo. You’re the best.” Toni’s words came back to me and my jaw clenched. She was right. Again. “Look Layla, even when do make me mad and act like a brat, you’re not going anywhere. Except maybe to your room. We’re a family and that means we’re stuck with each other even when you make me mad and even when I make you mad. Got it?”

“Yeah,” she smiled. “I got it, Uncle Brady.” She continued to smile as she returned to her dinner but her fingers twitched the way Marnie’s used to when she was gearing up to ask for a favor.

A favor. I hated that fucking word. “Talk to me, kiddo. What’s up?”

Layla nibbled her bottom lip and sighed. “I want to learn to play guitar. I’m already learning but it’s time for me to have a guitar of my own.”

I smiled at the way she said it, as if it was a direct quote from someone else. “You want guitar lessons too?”

Her eyes darted left and then right before she found her courage and sat taller, confident as she answered. “I do. I’ll be good and eat all my veggies and whatever else I need to do.”

“You don’t need to do anything extra, Layla. All I ask is that you give lessons a fair shot. If it gets too hard, don’t just quit, okay?”

“I won’t. I promise.”

“Then yes, we’ll get you a guitar of your very own.”

Her smile lit up spectacularly and in that moment she looked just like my sister. “Thank you, Uncle Brady! Thank you so much.” She darted from her chair and ran around the table, slamming into me with a hug and a dozen kisses all over my face. “I love you and not just because you’re getting me a guitar.”

I laughed and hugged her back. “I love you too, Layla, and not just because you said you love me first.”

She giggled and squeezed me a little tighter. “Toni said you loved me but you didn’t know how to show it yet.”

Toni. Was there anything the woman didn’t do well? “She was right.” Again.

After dinner, I settled Layla in bed with a story and cleaned the kitchen but none of it was enough to burn off the nervous energy that made sleep impossible. I couldn’t stop thinking about Toni, wondering what she was doing and thinking. I wondered what she was feeling. Had she thought about me at all?

Did she miss me?

I knocked on her door quietly, leaning close but there was no answer. I frowned and even though it was a gross breach of privacy, I pushed open the door to make sure she hadn’t just left.

She hadn’t.

She was curled up on the bed, still dressed, deep asleep.

Tomorrow. I would try again tomorrow and I wouldn’t take no for an answer.