by Lilly Wilder
“Hey, Rene, just wanted to let you know that I’m at work already and there will be someone else…”
“I know,” she cut him short, “I’m already at your house.”
“Oh, crap…” Hyde puffed on the other end of the line. “I wanted to call you sooner, but I didn’t get around to it until now. Sorry about that. Actually, the plan doesn’t change, well not much anyway. Jesse is there to welcome you, but he’ll be off. Just kick him out of the house when you get bored of him. I should be flying back late in the afternoon, so I was wondering if you could stay a bit later. I’ll pay for it, of course. If you can’t, that’s fine, just tell Jesse when he needs to get back and he’ll look after Parker until I come home.”
“OK, just to ask if…” she started, but he interrupted her.
“Sorry, can’t talk. If you need anything, just talk to Jesse. See you in the evening.”
Before she could say anything else, Hyde hung up the phone, and she was left alone with this man she had never seen before.
“I’m guessing that was Hyde,” Jesse grinned.
“Yeah,” she nodded.
“Explaining what he should have already explained half an hour ago, huh?”
“Sort of.”
“Why don’t you come on in?” he suggested. “I think we got off on the wrong foot here and it’s not really our fault.”
He moved to the side, to let her in. He was smiling, with that mischievous smile, as his dark green eyes followed her every move. She walked into the house as if it was her first time there. She figured that Parker was still asleep, as he usually had been lately when she would come around 7 am, and he’d sleep until around 8. She wondered if this man would stay until Parker got up.
She looked at him again. He was really handsome. But, the worst part was that he knew how handsome he was and he played that card a little too zealously. Then, she scolded herself. She promised Alice she’d give people the benefit of the doubt, allowing them to change her mind about this initial, first impression, which Alice once thought was permanent. Now, she actually wanted him to convince her she was wrong. The thought of talking to him suddenly intrigued her.
He was obviously someone close to Hyde. A brother? A cousin? Best friend, maybe? She didn’t know. Hyde never mentioned him before, and neither did Parker. After all, why would they? She rarely chatted to Hyde about things which were unrelated to Parker or her job there. She felt like that would be crossing the line and treading into dangerous territory. Even when Hyde asked her something that bordered on casual chit chat, she immediately shut it down by replying abruptly and then switching the topic to something neutral. She wasn’t sure how she would do that with this man, whoever he was.
She followed him inside and then to the kitchen. She passed by the door to Parker’s room and realized that it was closely shut, which meant he was still asleep. The man walked into the kitchen, then gestured at her to sit down. She did as she was instructed, not taking her eyes off of him for a single second.
“Coffee?” he asked her, opening a cupboard just above him, and getting out two cups, before even hearing her response.
“Um, sure,” she replied.
“So, how are you liking it here?” he asked again, as he continued to make coffee.
Every once in a while, he’d turn around to look at her and that smile never left his face. There was the look of anticipation in his gleaming eyes, as if he had been waiting for this moment for such a long time and now that it was finally here, he was unable to stop smiling. It was weird. And, yet, she didn’t feel anxious or afraid - only curious.
“It’s nice,” she replied politely, trying not to show him that she was eager to talk to him as well.
“And Hyde?” he asked, placing the cup before her.
“What about him?” she wondered.
“Is he being nice?” he grinned at his own question.
“Yes, very.”
If he wanted to get a rise out of her, he failed to do so. She kept smiling a cold but still polite smile, one that locked her jaw in a clenching state. She caught herself wishing for Parker to wake up, so she could focus on him. Right now, the focus seemed to be on her and she didn’t like it. She felt like this guy was a dog, sniffing around her, trying to find out what her skeletons were. Rene had some, like everyone else. Also, like everyone else, she wanted to keep them safely locked inside the closet.
“He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve met,” she continued, trying to keep the conversation polite and superficial, her curiosity about this guy plummeting. “Parker is also a great kid, it’s so easy to work with both of them. I can barely call it work, honestly.”
“That good, huh?” he sneered, as if he found it a little difficult to believe.
“Are you Hyde’s brother?” she asked, trying to switch the topic of the conversation to him.
“Do we look alike?” he asked, frowning a little.
“Well,” she started, then paused a little, eyeing him, “no, not really.”
She shook her head upon reaching her conclusion. Apart from both of them being drop dead gorgeous, they really looked nothing alike. This guy looked like the gypsies brought him up, with his dark tresses and olive skin. Hyde looked like he belonged to some old royal family, and he was their long lost descendant, whom they knew nothing about until now.
“Then, there’s your answer,” he grinned again. “We’re best friends, actually.”
“Oh,” she replied, not really knowing what to say to that. It was just an empty statement.
“We kinda grew up together,” he started explaining. “Back in the old country.”
“Old country?” she repeated. “You mean, you’re not from around here?”
“No,” he smiled, shaking his head. “We were born far away from here, both of us. We spent our childhood there. Then, our families moved here, and I guess, we kinda stuck around.”
Rene listened to his story. She was surprised at the way he told it, without any details which might pinpoint his country of origin or his native language. He obviously didn’t want to reveal it. At the same time, Rene wondered why. If there was nothing to hide, why would anyone be so mysterious about it? Even though she was curious, she decided against probing. It was rude, especially seeing she just saw the guy for the first time. Maybe there would be a time and a place for prolonging this conversation and asking a few more questions.
“You have no accent,” she couldn’t resist mentioning this. “I mean, your English is flawless. I would never say you weren’t born here.”
“Let’s just say you pick up a language and the dialect very easily after living somewhere for a long time.”
“But, you’re what, 30 something?” she asked, unable to let it go. “You spent half of your life here, but your formative years belong to some other country, to some other language. It’s amazing that you managed to acquire the language so easily, without any trace of your former language.”
“I bet there’s a compliment hidden deep in there somewhere,” he laughed and she felt as if he wanted to avoid answering this.
“I’m a little older than that, actually,” he added and she inspected his clean shaven face, free of any blemishes and wrinkles.
“Well, whatever you’re using, I want in on that,” she said, suddenly realizing that she was starting to enjoy talking to him.
Without warning, he leaned in over the table and spoke to her in a low whisper.
“If you’re good, I might let you in on my secret…”
It sounded so mysterious, so erotic, so wrong, that she had no idea what to reply to that. She felt tongue-tied, as her heart started beating faster and faster, and a flash image of him pushing her against this table and devouring her appeared in her mind. A second later, all that remained was a faint blushing.
Frantically trying to think of something clever to say, she was relieved to see Parker standing in the doorway to the kitchen, rubbing his eyes.
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“Morning, bud!” the man cheerfully greeted him, inviting him over to the table. “I was just having a nice chat with your nanny. She’s very nice.”
Rene smiled at Parker, choosing to disregard what he just said, and just get over it, whatever hidden meaning it had.
“Hi, Uncle Jesse,” Parker smiled. “Is dad gone?”
“Yeah, bud,” Jesse nodded, welcoming Parker in his lap, “he had to go early for work. You hungry?”
“Mhm,” Parker mumbled.
Jesse looked at Rene, and she immediately jumped up.
“I’ll make you something,” she chirped. “What would you like?”
“Pancakes?” Parker asked, shyly.
“Pancakes are an awesome idea!” Jesse exclaimed. “I’d love some pancakes, too, nanny.”
“OK,” she muttered through clenched teeth, then started gathering the necessary ingredients from the pantry.
In about half an hour, all three of them were sitting at the table again, eating pancakes. Parker’s face was gleaming with joy, as he stuffed his face. Jesse wasn’t far behind either. Rene ate just one, and was drinking some orange juice, waiting for them to finish.
“These are really good,” Jesse said, pushing the plate away and patting himself on the belly.
“They’re just pancakes,” she dismissed his compliment.
She was actually wondering what he was still doing there. Was this whole thing just a set up for Hyde to check up on her to see if she was doing a good job? Wasn’t Parker’s joy at seeing her enough? Or was this guy just here because he had nowhere else to be?
“The best pancakes ever!” Parker cheerfully added and Rene was suddenly washed over with pride.
“Well, if you’re done, we could get down to work then,” she told him.
“Work?” Parker wondered, taking the last piece of the last pancake.
“I was thinking we could make a little garden, for our wriggly friends,” she suggested.
“A worm garden!?” Parker almost started coughing at the thought, and Rene had to jump and pat him strongly on the back. “I’m OK…” he finally said, clearing his throat a little.
“I didn’t know you’d get that excited,” Rene smiled, “otherwise, I’d wait for you to finish.”
“I want to do it now!” he jumped up from his seat.
“Well, first you have to get dressed, because we can’t go out if you’re still wearing your pajamas,” she pointed at his clothes.
“Why not?” he wondered.
“Yeah, why not?” Jesse repeated and Rene almost burst out laughing.
“Because, it’s not polite, that’s why,” she tried the only answer she could think of.
“Not polite?” Parker repeated. “Why would other people care about what I’m wearing?”
“You know, that’s actually a great question,” Jesse snickered, “why indeed?”
“You’re worse than he is,” she hissed at him, but it was obvious to all of them that she was having as much fun as they were.
“That still doesn’t answer our question,” Jesse insisted and Parker laughed.
“I stand corrected,” she suddenly decided not to fight them on this one any longer, “it’s your yard. You get to wear whatever you want. If your neighbors don’t like it, they can just go back inside.”
“See, bud, we won!” Jesse turned to Parker, gave him a high five, and they all laughed again.
“I like my pajamas,” Parker suddenly added, looking down at the blue space with planets and space ships which covered his pajamas, “but, I think I’d like to go and get dressed.”
“Whatever you choose, bud. Always remember, it’s your choice and no one else’s!”
But, Parker didn’t even wait to hear what uncle Jesse had to say. He rushed out of the kitchen, leaving Rene and Jesse alone.
“I can see why he likes you,” Jesse turned to Rene. “And he’s really picky about the company he keeps.”
“Well, he’s a sweet kid,” she smiled.
“I wasn’t talking about Parker,” Jesse corrected her, and she felt a sudden rush of blood in her cheeks, making her poppy red.
She knew it was visible. It always was, and many people would make jokes about it. Eventually, she just stopped paying attention to it. It sucked that her annoyance or embarrassment always showed up on her face, but it was something she couldn’t avoid, so there was no point getting even more upset about it.
“What do you mean?” she wondered, pretending like it was just some irrelevant question.
“Hyde,” Jesse explained. “I can see why he’d choose you over all the other applicants.”
Rene released a sigh of relief. She misunderstood the whole thing. Jesse was just talking about her being better than all the other girls who applied for the position. That made sense. This sense of relief allowed her to smile again, without that uncontrollable twitch in her fingers.
“Thank you,” she smiled, acknowledging it as a compliment.
“Well, I guess I’ll be out of your hair then,” he got up, picking up all the plates and clearing the entire table, before she could say anything. “I can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, sorry about that.”
His grin told her that what he was saying was really true. He could be annoying sometimes, but he could also be almost pleasant. She liked this pleasant guy better.
“It was nice meeting you,” she smiled back, accepting his peace offering.
“Same,” he grinned back. “What about tonight?”
“Tonight?” she asked, wondering if she forgot something.
“Can you stay or would you like me to take over?” he reminded her.
“Oh, that!” she laughed nervously. “I can stay, no problem.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it.”
“OK,” he shrugged his shoulders. “Just so you know, if you can’t reach Hyde or if you need someone closer, I’m just down the street. My number is on the fridge, so you can give me a call if you need anything.”
Rene immediately remembered how Hyde offered that same thing. They seemed nice, helpful guys - both of them. Feeling a bit naughty, she gave herself a fun scenario: if she would have to choose one of them to be her partner on a desert island, who would she choose? She had to admit that it was a tough choice. She would need to think about it long and hard, and then decide, because both of them were tempting choices. She could almost see herself sleeping in a little make shift tent that Hyde built, or enjoying a cold coconut drink that Jesse picked from a tree and burst open with a big rock.
“Thanks,” she returned to reality, in Hyde’s kitchen. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Or, if you just need someone to help you with Parker,” he winked at her.
“That would mean I’m not really good at my job, wouldn’t it?” she smiled back, sensing that he was just trying to work her up a little, to see if she would blush again.
He walked around the table and stood right next to her. His face was so close to her that she could almost taste the blueberries he just had, on his lips. Her heart started beating like a race horse, as if it was about to jump out of her chest cavity any second and gallop away with this gorgeous man she just met, leaving poor Rene Olsen an empty shell of a woman.
“I can keep a secret if you can,” he whispered right into her ears, and a thousand little goosebumps rushed up and down her body, then dispersed all over, leaving her with a strangely pleasant tingling sensation.
Sure that if he touched her, she would implode from the heat and force of his touch. Luckily, Parker rushed back into the kitchen, carrying a small gardening set of tools.
“I’m ready!” he shouted at them excitedly.
“That’s great, bud,” Jesse nodded, patting him on the shoulder.
“Are you coming, too?” Parker wondered.
“No, I have to get some work done, but I’m leaving you in the capable hands of yo
ur beautiful nanny,” he smiled.
Parker gave him a hug, as Rene looked on, feeling a little out of place. She had no idea why she wanted Jesse to stay.
“Thanks for the pancakes,” he smiled, passing her by. “Don’t worry, I’ll let myself out.”
A second later, Rene heard the front door close. This guy left such an impression on her and she was almost upset with herself. She felt like a giddy school girl who stumbled onto her crush by accident and became totally tongue-tied upon seeing him. It wasn’t enough that she felt this way about Hyde, now it had to be like this with his best friend as well.