Extensive (A Single Dad Box Set)

by Claire Adams

  “But energetic?” I offered.

  “Very,” Layla said when she reached the top of the stairs. She leaned heavily on the railing. “It’s not her fault. I remember my own children at her age. But I’m not a woman in my twenties anymore. I have grandchildren of my own. Ones who I can give back to my children when I’ve had enough. I’m getting too old for this.”

  “I understand,” I said, putting on an impassive expression while inside I wanted to scream. It had been hard enough to get Layla on board after meeting Gina. I’d had to convince her that Gina was only excited because Layla was new in her life. It didn’t take long for Layla to get to know the real Gina as my little ball of never ending energy.

  “I can stay on until you find a replacement—” Layla said.

  “That’s not necessary,” I interrupted. Layla had held her tongue long enough about the subject. Whether out of politeness or the fact that she knew the end of the quarter was my busiest time. “I’ll have her over the weekend, and I’m sure we’ll have several applicants by Monday.”

  “I’m sure you will,” she said. “I’d like to say goodbye,” she said.

  “Of course,” I said, leading her down the hallway to my office. All the while, I couldn’t help but bite my lip about the whole situation. Come Monday, what the hell was I going to do with Gina?

  An hour later, Layla left with her final paycheck. She and Gina had colored for a little while, and Layla brought up the topic of her leaving. Layla was such a patient and kind woman, which was why I’d hired her in the first place. When she opened the door to leave, the sound of the music from the first floor flooded into my office.

  Today was supposed to be smooth sailing with the party. And now I had Gina and no nanny. I could care for Gina, I was her father after all, but with the company doing so well, I needed someone to keep Gina busy at least until she was old enough to go to school. I considered sending her to preschool early, but I wanted to hold off until she was at least four. I had the means to have a nanny, and I wanted to preserve her childhood as much as I could.

  “Daddy, sit,” Gina said and patted the child-sized chair next to her. I shoved away all thoughts of my nanny woes for now and focused on my daughter.

  I kissed the top of her head and sat in the chair, leaning forward, so I didn’t put my full weight on the legs. I didn’t know the effect of Layla leaving would have on Gina so that coupled with the possibility of breaking her chair might be the deciding factor in a total meltdown.

  “Here, take a purple crayon,” she said, handing over the crayon.

  I took a stray coloring page and started to fill in the picture with my purple scrawl. “Honey, I want to talk about Layla.”

  Gina sighed. “I know you like her. I don’t.”

  I stopped coloring. “You didn’t like her?”

  “She nice, but she’s too slow, Daddy,” Gina said.

  I pressed my lips together. Layla would have agreed with her at that moment. “So, you’re okay with her leaving?”

  “Yeah,” she said, concentrating on her coloring. “I want to come to work with you. I miss you. You’re too busy.”

  I frowned, feeling the familiar pang inside of my heart that I felt each morning when I left Gina at home. Hearing it from her made the feeling even worse. More than half the time, I saw Gina sleeping more than awake since I left early and arrived home late over the last several months. Sure, we’d hit record breaking sales, but at a very personal cost.

  I reached over and lifted Gina and placed her on my lap. She grabbed my thumb with one of her hands and held it while she filled in my coloring page.

  I wrapped one of my arms around her and pulled her close, inhaling her scent. She was the most incredible thing in my life. It wasn’t the first time I was in utter disbelief that I’d made such a beautiful thing. I needed to show her how special she was to me. I needed someone who she liked and who loved her back, just as I would if I had the time to watch her all day. This time I would have to find someone younger who could give Gina everything she needed and wanted at this age. I needed someone who could keep up with her too.

  Where was I going to find someone like that?

  Chapter Two

  Jess

  I ran up to the entrance of Baker’s Brothers Records, holding the hood of my jacket tight against my face. I shouldn’t have even bothered to straighten my hair that morning. Even with the slick yellow jacket, the rain somehow managed to turn my brown hair into a rat’s nest.

  The door opened, and I stepped back, letting some guy out first. He barely looked at me as he sprinted toward his car to avoid the thick raindrops from assaulting him. By the time I registered what had happened, the door had closed in my face.

  “Asshole,” I muttered under my breath and pulled open the door, stepping inside of the warm record shop.

  Whenever my best friend, Sierra, worked at Baker’s Brothers, she always cranked the heat since she claimed she was cold-blooded. But we both knew it was her lack of body fat. Usually, I sweltered, but today it was perfect.

  I slipped off my jacket and hung it on the coat rack next to the entryway. I shivered and tossed my wet strands over my shoulder. In the heat of the room, I was sure my locks would be dry by the time I left.

  “Oh, thank God you’re here,” Sierra said from the back of the room.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  Sierra rushed over to me and held my arms in place by my side. “I need you to tell me if this shirt does anything for my chest.”

  She posed in front of me, and I inspected her black tunic with spaghetti straps. The neckline plunged down to almost reaching her belly button, making it obvious she wasn’t wearing a bra. With her thin frame, Sierra was obsessed with making her chest look bigger. I didn’t know how many times I told her she couldn’t have it both ways. She preferred the thigh gap over chest size, but that didn’t stop her from trying.

  “It draws some attention,” I said.

  She grinned, placing her now bright red wavy locks over her shoulders to finish the look. She had a tendency to go with eccentric hair. “That’s what I was going for.” She headed to the front desk, and I followed her, draping myself over the counter.

  She started unpacking a box of records and organizing them on the surface. “One week of unemployment and you’re already sulking?”

  “I hate not working,” I moaned.

  “Give yourself some time to relax before getting back on the horse,” she said.

  “I don’t know how to relax,” I said.

  “I’ve noticed,” she said with a smile. She adjusted the gold chain that linked her double piercings.

  “It would have been great if Ricky didn’t age at all and could stay at home forever with me as his nanny. He was the perfect kid,” I said.

  “I’m sure it helped that his parents were rich as hell,” Sierra said.

  Her obsession with wealth and superficial things always boggled my mind since she was the one to shop in vintage discount stores. “I’m really going to miss that paycheck each week. But the family was lovely too. Not seeing them every day makes me a little down. With Ricky’s mom being older, she felt like a surrogate mom for me. And his dad always invited me on their little weekend getaways.”

  “Now you’re making me want to be a nanny for a wealthy family,” Sierra said.

  “You taking care of a child?” I asked sardonically.

  She made a face. “Nah, you’re right. I’ll stick to what I know.” She pulled out a few more records. “With a recommendation from his parents, I know you’ll be able to get something soon. If that’s what you want.”

  “It’s more about what I need right now. I have a little saved up, but I want to keep working.”

  “You know, you can always work here in the meantime,” Sierra said. “It would be so fun working together!”

  “I doubt Harold would go for it,” I said.

  “He’s a pushover. If I play my cards right, I might get a promotion o
ut of it.” She winked at me.

  Working at a record shop wasn’t of any interest to me, but I didn’t want to offend Sierra with her choice in career. Besides, I wasn’t in the habit of burning bridges. If a nanny job didn’t show up soon, I might need to take her up on that offer at least as a way to pay my bills.

  “Thanks,” I said. “I’ll think about it. I’m going to check out some nanny jobs in the area first.”

  “No problemo,” she said.

  “What are you up to this afternoon ?” I asked.

  “I’m working until two, and then I’m going home to take a nap. I’m exhausted from staying out at that show last night. Too bad you didn’t come.”

  “You know metal bands aren’t my thing,” I said.

  “They don’t have to be your thing to have a fun time. Besides, the musicians are super-hot.”

  “I’m sure they are under all that eyeliner,” I said. “I’ll probably head home and do some job research. Want to come by the apartment later? We can do takeout and rent a movie?”

  “Only if I get to pick the movie,” Sierra said.

  “Sure.” Sierra preferred the horror genre, but I was sure I could convince her of something less gory.

  “I’ll text you later,” Sierra said.

  “See ya,” I said and headed out of the shop. As much as Sierra didn’t care about interrupting her work day, I knew the Baker brothers did. And if there was an off-chance I’d work there, I didn’t want to ruin my chances from the start. Though I hoped another long-term opportunity came up for me soon. I didn’t like jumping from job to job, especially when there was a child involved.

  The rain had let up by the time I left Sierra to her work of organizing the latest shipment of records. I couldn’t believe the place was still in business with the invention of digital music. But from what Sierra told me about the clientele was that collectors were willing to pay a lot of money for the vintage records. And it helped that the Baker brothers inherited the building from their father who started the business.

  Thinking of their family brought forward a flash of memories of mine, which I quickly pushed away. There was no need to think of the reason I’d left Australia, especially now when things were about to get more complicated after my recent unemployment.

  I popped over to the local coffee shop around the corner and grabbed a coffee and an egg sandwich before heading home. I promised myself starting tomorrow that I would keep track of what I spent on unnecessary items. I could easily make food at home, but I enjoyed it more when someone made it for me.

  The moment I got into my car, it started to rain again. I flipped on the wipers and pulled out of my spot. It was only halfway through April, and I was sick of the rain. And coupled with the cooler temperatures, going outside was not my favorite thing to do. At least with Ricky, if we needed to stay inside, his house was massive enough for us never to be bored.

  Thinking of that blue-eyed little darling made tears spring to my eyes. Of course, I was happy that he was growing up and no longer needed someone to care for him as much, but not seeing his face each day was taking a toll on me.

  When I got home, I raced across the lot to my building through torrents of rain. By the time I reached the door, the rain soaked through my brown paper bag and my coffee sloshed over the side of the cup from me jostling it.

  I groaned and shoved my key into the front door, pushing through into the small lobby.

  I took the two flights of stairs since the elevator had been out for over a week now. I was grateful I only lived on the second floor versus any of the higher levels.

  Inside my studio apartment, I dropped the coffee and bag on the counter and kicked off my shoes while pulling off my jacket. Both of them left a puddle on my floor, but I was too hungry to bother with it at the moment.

  I lifted the sandwich from the bag, the paper falling apart in my hand. I grabbed my coffee and the wrapped sandwich and flopped onto the couch, lifting my damp feet onto the coffee table. I flipped on the television to veg out for a little while. I turned on a recorded medical drama and got lost in the stories of the hot doctors and their many sexy affairs.

  I allowed myself one episode before I got to work. I had the afternoon to get my resume out to as many nanny positions as I could. Even though it was Friday, I wanted potential families to have my information as soon as possible, even if they chose to wait until after the weekend to contact me. At least doing something productive toward another job would ease my mind more than sitting around twiddling my thumbs.

  I went over to the kitchen table and sat down, opening my laptop. I didn’t have room in the apartment for a separate office, but since I lived alone, I wasn’t fighting anyone for space. Since my job didn’t require a home office, the kitchen table was good enough for the rare times I went onto the computer.

  I pulled up a job website and typed “nanny” into the search bar along with my location details. The next page pulled up over a hundred results. I smiled. Finding a new job was going to be easy.

  I grabbed the pad of paper I kept on the table along with a pen to jot down the information on prospective families.

  The first position was looking for a nanny of four children, all of them under the age of five. I liked kids, but I was sure I wouldn’t be able to handle that, at least not without another pair of hands.

  I went to the next one and from there on was a string of jobs that weren’t what I was looking for. Sure, they were all nanny positions, but many of them didn’t offer the pay I wanted, or there were too many kids. A few had age requirements for women above forty. I was sure they wouldn’t appreciate a twenty-six-year-old woman applying.

  There were several I marked down, but by the end of the afternoon, I hadn’t applied to any of them. For some reason, I had a feeling I should hold off. Sierra’s words came into my mind about taking a break. As much as I wanted to get back to work, from my search, I knew there were plenty of jobs out there for a nanny. So what if I took a week off to get back to center again before jumping into another job? Most nanny positions were more than full time. I enjoyed working, but I did deserve a break.

  I was very protective of my money, but I had enough in my savings to live on for several months. I wouldn’t push it to the end of my limits, but I could manage to take a little time for myself.

  I sat back in my chair and closed the laptop. I stretched my arms over my head and checked the clock. I hadn’t realized I was on the computer for hours. I put away the notepad and laptop, storing it away.

  I looked around my apartment, wondering what to do with my new free time. Sierra would be coming over in a couple of hours.

  I eyed the television and knew that I had a date with sexy doctors for the rest of the day. I hoped I didn’t get too used to this lifestyle, but for now, it felt good to do something for myself.

  Chapter Three

  Noah

  While this weekend hadn’t started off on a good note with Layla quitting, I looked forward to the highlight of my week: spending the weekend with Gina. I tried as much as I could not to have Layla come over on the weekends, since that was my time, but recently she’d worked many of them. Gina would have my full undivided attention, something that hadn’t happened for a while. Layla had stuck around for the better part of the last year. Always having someone else to take Gina when I needed to make a phone call or go into work unexpectedly had been a great help. I asked Allison to divert any non-emergency phone calls to my voicemail. I’d return them on Monday. At least I had the on-call sales team to take care of the rest. I thought back to when I started the company, and I was the only person on call. I shuddered at the thought. Though at the time, I didn’t have Gina, so my life was a little more flexible.

  For Gina’s next nanny, I’d take my time finding the perfect person for her. One who would last and become a part of our family, instead of a temporary fixture in Gina’s life. She was at an age where she needed a female role model, and I wasn’t in a position to remarry anyon
e. I barely had time to spend with Gina. She would be the only girl in my life for a long time. And that was okay with me. I had no interest in dating at the moment.

  Though having someone to watch Gina on Monday morning would have been nice. I tried to shake off the thought, but the looming work week with no help weighed on my shoulders.

  I focused my energy on making breakfast for Gina. She was the type to eat the moment she woke up. I hadn’t cooked for her in a long time, probably long enough for her not to remember. I wasn’t ready for Top Chef, but I knew my way around a kitchen. I scrambled some eggs and made a stack of pancakes before I heard the slapping of bare feet on the marble floor behind me.

  “Daddy, you cooked?” Gina asked, rubbing her eyes and yawning.

  I glanced at the clock. It was seven on the dot. I could set a watch to this girl. “I did, honey.” I moved the pan with the eggs to the back burner and turned to scoop Gina into my arms.

  She yawned and then dropped her head on my shoulder. “I’m hungry.”

  I kissed her cheek and squeezed her against me until she started to squirm. I placed her in the booster seat at the kitchen table, strapped her in, and started plating the food.

  “What do you want to drink?” I asked.

  “Milk.”

  “Milk, what?” I prodded.

  “Milk, please,” she said with a smile.

  Just because there wasn’t a female figure in the house didn’t mean her manners would falter. I shook my head and smiled; when had I turned into my parents?

  I poured her milk into a leak-proof cup and placed it on the table next to her before handing her the plate of food.

  She wrinkled her nose at it.

  “What?” I asked. “You love eggs and pancakes.”

  “I want seeerup,” she said.

  I’d already put the syrup out on the table. I almost handed it to her, but then I thought better of it and drizzled the sugary liquid over her pancakes.

  “More! More!” she said, clapping her hands.