Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (163 page)

Kallie
laughed.
 
“I’m happy to help out.
 
After all, if you hadn’t come and picked
me up the other day, I’d probably still be wandering the mean streets of East
Hampton right now.”

“You’ve
more
than made up for it, Kallie.
 
I
really appreciate your kindness.”

Kallie looked down at her.
 
“Same here.
 
You’ve been kind of like a sister to me.”

The
admission
seemed to embarrass her.
 
“Sorry, I
get super cheesy and emotional sometimes.
 
I didn’t mean to go all dramatic on you.”

Nicole
laughed.
 
“I never had a sister either, so…maybe
it’s good fortune we met when we did.”

Shortly
after
Kallie left the room, Red came in carrying his laptop and some files.

“Hey there, beautiful,” he said, grinning.

“This
looks
official,” Nicole said, as he put the stuff down on the bed and leaned in to
kiss her.

“It
is.
 
Very official business.
 
I realized that I actually do need to
get some work done while we’re here, but I also want to be with my wife.
 
This is what’s called a good
old-fashioned compromise.”
 
He
pulled himself up to the headboard and sat with his back against it, the
computer propped up on his lap.

“That
looks like fun.”

He
glanced
at her.
 
“Do you need
anything?”
 
He peered over and saw
that she had a full glass of water.
 
“Hungry?”

“I
think Kallie’s going to fix dinner soon.”

He
whistled through his
teeth.
 
“She’s really running a
tight ship around here.
 
I have
to say, I’m kind of impressed.”

Nicole
nodded.
 
“It’s like she anticipates my every
need.
 
She’s so helpful and sweet
and—“

“And
maybe she should stay on for awhile,” Red
finished.

Nicole
looked
over at him.
 
“I thought you said
having her around was a bad idea.”

“I’ve
been wrong before,” he replied, pecking
away at his laptop.

It
was
funny how slow he typed for a man of his abilities and achievements. Nicole
found it rather adorable.

“You’ve
been wrong before?
 
You don’t say.”

“I
do.
 
I do say, actually.”
 
He smiled at her.
 
“What do you think about it?”

“About Kallie staying on to be my nurse maid?”

Red
laughed.
 
“About her staying on to help out around
here while you recover. She’s doing a good job so far and, frankly, we could
use the assistance.
 
Work’s picking
up and I don’t like the idea of not being able to give you the care you need.”

Nicole
sighed.
 
“I’m fine, Red.”

He
just
looked at her.
 
They both knew she
wasn’t fine.

“Well, what do you think?”

“It’s
a
good idea.
 
We can pay her and give
her a place to live and maybe it will allow her to continue on in New York,
instead of being forced to go back home.”

“Then
it’s settled,” he said.

“First,
we check and see if she even wants to stay
on.”

“Oh,
right.
 
I forgot.”
 
He began pecking away at his keyboard.

***

Kallie
hadn’t
been able to get Hunter Reardon out of her mind.
 
Even now, as she started prepping for
the Chicken Piccata she was making for dinner, she kept thinking back to last
night.

The
way
he’d looked at her, the way he’d touched her.
 
It was real, wasn’t it?
 
It wasn’t just her imagination.

She
seasoned
the chicken breasts liberally with salt and pepper and dredged them in
flour.
 
Then she paused to return to
her memory of the pool, the feeling of his hands on her thighs, the sounds of
the water splashing her skin.
 
The
feel of Hunter’s body heat mingling with her own heat—and hadn’t she
hoped that it could burn even hotter?

She’d
kept
her phone on her and checked it almost incessantly, in between helping to care
for Nicole.
 
Silently, she berated
herself for being more concerned with Hunter’s call than she had been for
Nicole’s health.

Shaking
her
head, Kallie washed her hands and started the burner under the large
skillet.
 
Added some butter and
olive oil, watched it begin to heat.

Once
it was sizzling, she took a fork and
stabbed the chicken breast and tossed it into the pan, where it began to
cook.
 
She repeated this process for
a second breast.
 
The smell was already
making her mouth water.

She
took out her cell and checked it
again.
 
Nothing.

Did
he
forget her number?
 
She should have
written it down or had him plug it into his phone.
 
Was it really so hard for a brilliant
author to remember a few silly digits?

Unless…unless
maybe he wasn’t going to call.

Kallie
refused
to think about that possibility.
 
She turned the chicken breasts over, noting their nicely browned outer
layers.
 
Perfect.
 
If only everything could be that
perfect, that easy.

“Hey,
Kallie.”

She
looked
up, startled, to see Nicole’s husband in the entrance to the kitchen, watching
her cook.

“Oh.
Hi.”
 
She smiled, wondering what he
wanted.
 
Red didn’t tend to speak to
her very much, so she knew it was probably something important.
 
Probably he was coming to tell her that
with Nicole feeling unwell, she’d have to leave.

“I
thought
maybe we could chat for a second.
 
Will it put a crimp in the meal if we chat while you make the food?”

“Not
at
all,” she said, bracing herself for the news.
 
It would almost be like getting fired a
second time.
 
Granted, she ran away
from her other job, but somehow it felt as though she’d been fired anyway.

“So,
obviously
things have been kind of hectic and all over the place for everyone lately,”
Red told her.
 
“You’ve been dealing
with changes, Nicole and I have been dealing
with changes.”

“Of
course,”
Kallie said.
 
“But what’s most
important is Nicole’s health.”
 
Part
of her just wanted him to get it over with already.
 
Now she’d definitely have to leave and
go back to Ohio, and there would be no hope for anything between her and Hunter
Reardon.

As
silly as it was, her heart sank mostly
because of that.

“Well,
Nicole
and I talked it over, and we’d like to offer you a more formal position here at
the house.”

She
just stood there for a long while,
shocked.
 
And then she smelled the
chicken and realized it was about to burn. So she took the breasts out of the
pan and laid them on a plate, where they continued to sizzle and crackle.

“What
kind of formal position?” she asked, as
the shock wore off.

“We’d
like
you to stay on and just help out like you’ve been doing.
 
You’ll be paid by the week and you’ll
get two days off per week as well.”

“Wow,”
she
said, completely stunned by the offer.
 
“That’s so kind of you.
 
I mean,
it would be great to be able to stay.
 
What would I be paid?”

“Does fifteen hundred a week sound about
right?”

“Absolutely.”
She couldn’t contain the surprise and happiness in her voice.
 
After all, she’d made only a thousand a week
working for the Danvers family, and she’d been taking care of two children and
doing all of the cooking, cleaning, laundry—plus the parents had been
assholes.

Red
smiled.
 
“Great.
 
So, welcome aboard, Kallie.”
 
He turned to leave and then stopped, turning
back to her.
 
“You understand that
this position is only going to last until Nicole has the baby.
 
Is that okay with you?”

Kallie
nodded.
 
“Absolutely!”
 
That seemed to be the only word that
could come out of her mouth right now.

Red
smiled perfunctorily and then turned on
his heel and left the kitchen.

Okay,
so
Nicole’s husband still wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy, but he liked her enough
to offer her the job—and she knew Nicole was happy with her being around.

Kallie
did
a little fist pump and then a dance move or two, before starting the next
couple of pieces of chicken on the skillet.

In
her
head, she calculated what she’d clear in two months of work—just about
twelve thousand dollars.
 
And her
room and board would be taken care of too, so that would be twelve thousand
bucks
free and clear
.

She
took her cell out and checked it for the
millionth time.
 
Nothing.

Despite
the
good fortune of getting an awesome job offer when she most needed it, a little
of the wind was taken out of her sails.

She
knew
Hunter would contact her at some point, she knew it.
 
She just hoped it would be soon.

***

Kallie
couldn’t believe it had been a week.

A
week
that had been, by turns amazing and horrible.
 
Working for Nicole was great.
 
First of all, she really did feel like a
sister, and a friend.
 
They talked
and laughed all the time, except when Nicole wasn’t feeling well—which
hadn’t been as much lately. She seemed to be improving with time and her blood
pressure was slowly getting better.

The
awful
parts came unexpectedly, like when Red went to Brad and Trina’s house to pick
up the rest of Kallie’s stuff, and he came home having had strong words with
both of the parents.
 
He refused to
even tell Kallie what they’d accused her of, but the look on Red’s face told
her that he was less than happy about having to deal with them.

Another
great
moment came earlier that day when Nicole had cut Kallie’s first check, and
given her a bonus out of nowhere.
 
“You earned this,” she’d said.

The
check amount was two thousand
dollars.
 
Two thousand dollars for
basically hanging around an amazing house, cooking great food, and spending
time with someone she’d have spent time with for free.
 
Not too shabby.

But
then
there was another bad thing—A call from her nanny agency stating that
they would no longer be attempting to place her with new families.
 
Clearly, that had been a result of Brad
or Trina making an irate phone call.
 
But Kallie hadn’t helped matters, since she’d never alerted her company
to the situation.
 
She’d been too
scared to deal with the recriminations and possible accusations that would likely
have flown her way.

And
now,
as she drove to the little ice cream parlor, Scoop du Jour, Kallie couldn’t
help but think about that other bad thing—the one that had been occupying
far too much space in her mind of late.

Hunter
Reardon.

He
hadn’t
called her, and by this point it had been too long for her to continue fooling
herself.
 
He hadn’t called and he
wouldn’t call, and the summer fantasy was officially over and done with.
 
She had grieved the loss of a man she’d
never really gotten to know, and the fantasy that she wasn’t able to actualize.

She’d
spent
a couple of sleepless nights wondering why he’d acted as if he’d liked her that
night, only to disappear without a trace afterward.
 
No, it wasn’t anything so inexplicable,
when she really considered it.
 
Hunter Reardon was probably just a jerk.