So Much Trouble: Bad Boy Forbidden Love Romance Collection (So Wrong It's Right Book 4)

by Jamie Knight

  “Yeah, that’s because I’m six!” he exclaims happily.

  He’s been doing a lot better since I’ve been nannying for him. I think his issues were mainly caused by a lack of a good sleep routine or just routine in general, a lack of ability to run around or be creative in order to engage physically and mentally, and a desire for more attention. Now that I have him napping and have encouraged Daniel to put him on a good sleep schedule, and now that I engage him in activities, he has become a lot more like an angel than like the devil he used to be.

  He has gotten to see Daniel, more, too – if only because it seems Daniel likes to take more frequent breaks from work to come home and see me while I’m here.

  “Daddy!” Charlie cries out, as if he can read my thoughts and is speaking of the devil.

  He had been able to make out the sound of his father’s footsteps out front, before I’d realized Daniel was home. But now that Daniel walks in the front door, I realize how eager I’d been to see him, without really knowing it.

  My feet are jittery under the table, so I get up to go take his coat, at the same time that Charlie is bounding over to him saying, “Daddy, daddy, daddy!”

  “Thanks,” Daniel says, as he hands me his coat and takes Charlie up into his arms.

  It’s not something I normally do and I hadn’t even thought consciously to do it, but I think I was naturally getting up to go greet Daniel with a hug and then realized it wouldn’t be appropriate around Charlie. I know we’re trying not to confuse him with whether I’m the nanny or the girlfriend, or get him too attached to me as more than a nanny instead of a mother figure or something, but now I’m the one who’s getting confused, as it’s hard to want to do something that comes naturally, like a hug or kiss, but have to hold back and remember not to when Charlie is around.

  So, I guess taking his coat was the best way I could greet him that didn’t seem too weird for Charlie. Although I wish I could just wrap my arms around him and be swept off my feet by Daniel, I find myself feeling surprised that taking his coat is a decent substitute. It feels domestic, as if we actually live here together.

  I go hang it up in the hall closet while Charlie shows Daniel the crafts we’ve been making.

  “And I made more pointy thingies on my snowflake than Catharine did, because I’m older than her. I’m six and she’s five,” Charlie is saying.

  “Is that right?” Daniel asks him in response, and we both laugh.

  “You’re home early today,” I comment, because normally my shift lasts for at least another couple of hours.

  “Yes, I thought I’d surprise you both,” he says. I look at him expectantly and he adds, “I had my driver go pick up a Christmas tree and some pizza. I know you and Charlie have been getting ready for Christmas together and that I rarely have time. I hate to admit we didn’t do anything at all in terms of Christmas decorations last year, other than a miniature fake tree I put his presents near, because I forget about these things until the last minute. So, I appreciate your help in this regard and I thought I’d contribute by getting us a real Christmas tree we can all three decorate together.”

  “Yay!” Charlie says, dancing around and then jumping up and down. “Christmas tree is coming to our house!” he sings, to the tune of Santa Clause is Coming to Town.

  That kid is just so damn cute.

  Suddenly there’s a team of guys at the front door, carrying a large Christmas tree that looks like it was freshly cut. They have snow on their clothes in their hair.

  “Hello, sir,” one of them says to Daniel. “Where should we put this?”

  “In that corner,” Daniel says, pointing. “Thank you.”

  “Wow, when you said you sent your driver to get a Christmas tree, where exactly did you send him?” I ask.

  “To the woods a bit upstate from here,” he says, without even blinking. “And I hired these guys to ride along and help get the tree.”

  “Wow,” I say, laughing.

  I think about saying, you know, most families I know go choose their own tree or cut one down in the woods together, but this must be the Manhattan rich people way of doing Christmas, but I don’t want to offend him. It’s obvious he thinks he did something phenomenal and that the thought of getting the Christmas tree himself had never occurred to him and would never occur to him.

  Plus, Charlie’s happy, so that’s all that matters. I’m not a fan of the cold and snow unless I’m skiing so I would rather decorate a tree someone else had to go get, anyway.

  “Here you go, boss,” says another of the guys, who is carrying way more boxes of pizza than we could possibly eat tonight. “Smells good.”

  “Thanks!” Daniel says. “You want a piece?”

  “Really?” the boy asks, looking shocked.

  “Sure. Chow down; there’s plenty.”

  He opens one of the lids to the pizza box and the guys gather around the counter and take a slice each.

  “This is really good!” one of them says.

  “Sure is. You can’t beat Maggio’s New York Pizza,” Daniel responds happily. “Best in the city.”

  Soon, the guys are gone and the three of us are eating pizza and playing Christmas music and decorating the tree. Charlie is running back and forth between the box of ornaments that Daniel had also had someone pick up on the way, the tree, and then my legs and Daniel’s legs, as he took turns hugging each of us that way. I’ve never seen the kid this happy.

  Come to think of it, I think, as I watch Daniel putting the star on top of the tree with a big smile on his face, I’ve never seen Daniel this happy, either.

  “Daddy, will Catharine be with us on Christmas?” Charlie suddenly asks, gazing up at his dad.

  He had dropped the subject, but Daniel and I had already talked about it and decided what to tell him the next time he asks. This would help transition me from the role of nanny to “Dad’s girlfriend” in Charlie’s eyes.

  Although, Daniel and I didn’t specifically use the word “girlfriend” when we talked about it. I certainly feel like that’s what I am to Daniel, but neither of us have broached the subject of making the relationship status official.

  “Yes,” Daniel tells him. “Catharine will be coming over for Christmas dinner.”

  “Woo hoo!” Charlie says, hopping and skipping around while wearing a Santa hat.

  And I have to admit that my inner child feels just as excited as he looks.

  Chapter 11 - Daniel

  Time seems to have flown by even faster than it normally does, and now it’s already Christmas day. I’m not normally one to celebrate holidays – in fact, I usually get rather depressed around this season – but this year is completely different.

  It’s been so much fun to get ready for Christmas with Catharine and Charlie. I enjoy watching his child-like wonder come out and I can’t help but think that Catharine puts me in the best of Christmas spirits as well. She makes everything fun, whether it’s changing the words of Christmas carols or adding different fruits to hot cocoa as if they’re cocktails that Charlie can drink, too.

  I told her that was a strange way of doing things and she fake pouted and said, “Have you never heard of chocolate strawberries? It’s exactly the same thing!”

  “I like them, Daddy!” Charlie had protested, and I had pat his head and told him, “Well, that’s all that matters.”

  I was happy to see the changes that had come over him. He had always been a sweet, smart, funny boy, but he had had those horrible tantrums and was difficult to regulate. Now, it was as if he was a shining star example of the perfect child.

  Sure, he pouted and cried some, and he ran around the house knocking into things without looking where he was going, which drove me crazy, but overall, he has been an amazing kid lately. And I give all the credit to Catharine, who has made a much better nanny than I ever expected.

  Charlie and I open gifts under the tree on Christmas morning and I enjoy my time with him but I also can’t help wishing that Catharine was
here with us. I know he feels the same because he points to the one gift that’s still wrapped under the tree and says, “I can’t wait until we give that to Catharine!”

  “I can’t, either, bud,” I tell him.

  We watch some Christmas movies and I let him stay in his pajamas until about four, when I tell him we have to start getting ready for Catharine to come over for dinner. He’s very excited about this and actually changes quickly, whereas usually I have to argue with him about it or just put his clothes on him myself so as to skip the argument about which parts he can do on his own and which parts he thinks he needs my help with.

  The caterers arrive first and set up our Christmas dinner: delicious turkey and stuffing, ham and pineapple, cranberry sauce, rolls and butter, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy and, of course, apple pie.

  “Yum!” Charlie says. “Can we eat yet?”

  “No, we have to wait for Catharine to get here…” I start to say, but then she’s right there at the front door, arriving a tiny bit early and carrying two gifts.

  “Hello!” I say, resisting the urge to kiss her as I go over and take the gifts out of her hand. “Merry Christmas.”

  “Merry Christmas, guys!”

  “What did you get me?” Charlie asks, pointing at the gifts.

  “Charlie, that’s rude!” I tell him, but Catharine says, “It’s okay! Charlie, I’m going to put the gifts under the tree, and we’ll open them after dinner and before you go to bed, okay?”

  “Okay,” Charlie says, a bit anxiously.

  As we start to eat dinner, I can tell he’s wanting to open the gift, because he keeps looking over to the tree and bouncing his leg up and down. Catharine keeps him entertained with a Christmas story she knows, though, while we’re eating, and the food is really so good that soon Charlie has almost forgotten about the gift.

  Almost.

  As soon as we’re done eating, he asks, “Can I open the gift now?”

  “Don’t you want to have pie?” Catharine asks him.

  “Hmmm, after the gift!” Charlie says.

  “He’s a good little negotiator,” she remarks.

  We go over to the tree and she gives Charlie his gift, which is an activity mat that he can lay down and draw on.

  “Awesome!” he says. “Now we can practice drawing Transformers on this!”

  “And now you won’t feel the need to draw all over the house, right?” she asks, winking at me.

  Last week he had decided it would be a good idea to color all over the walls and floors, while Catharine had been making a snack for him in the kitchen. They’d talked about it and he’d promised to only draw on paper or other drawable surfaces – and now he’d have plenty of space to work with!

  “Now, for you,” I tell her, taking the small gift from under the tree, “Charlie and I got you something special.”

  Her eyes light up when she unpeels the wrapping off a small jewelry box. I bet she’s wondering if it’s a ring, and maybe it should have been, but we still haven’t even explained the status of our relationship to Charlie yet, so I think that would be taking things a little fast. Then again, we’ve been taking everything else very fast, so I’m starting to think we should at least make it boyfriend/girlfriend official.

  “It’s gorgeous!” she says, as she takes the necklace out of the box.

  It’s a gold chain with a custom decorated snow globe hanging from it. Inside, there’s a snow angel and when you shake it some, or when it just swings hanging from your neck as you walk, it causes snow flurries everywhere.

  “This is a really unique gift,” she tells me, and then looks at Charlie, too. “Thanks so much.”

  “It’s because you made a snow angel with me!” he says. Then he looks at Daniel and says, “Daddy, will you make a snow angel with Catharine and me, too?”

  I laugh and tell him, “maybe next time we go skiing.”

  “Can we go tomorrow?” he asks, expectantly.

  I look over at Catharine and shrug, as if to say “why not?” I don’t have to work tomorrow. Or, I always have to work some, but I can do it at home when Charlie’s asleep.

  “Why don’t we go up to…”

  “North Pine Lodge!” Catharine rushes in to suggest, even though I was going to suggest the resort she had worked at when we met.

  She looks anxious to switch the location, and I realize that she probably doesn’t want to see her old co-workers now that she left that job. Maybe they would think she ditched them or something.

  “That would work fine,” I say, shrugging.

  “Yay!” Charlie says. “This is the best Christmas ever!”

  “Wait,” Catharine says, then smiles at me. “Daddy hasn’t opened his gift from us yet.”

  “Oh yeah!” Charlie covers his mouth with his hand and giggles. “I almost forgot.”

  “Silly,” Catharine says, handing me the gift. “After all that time we spent on it.”

  “I know; I just want to go skiing and make snow angels!” he responds.

  I open the box to find a digital photo frame with a lot of pictures of Charlie in it. And there’s a wooden box with handprints on it.

  “That’s for your office,” Charlie says. “I wanted you to always have a picture of me!”

  “And the handprints are his,” Catharine says, as she points to the box. “You can keep that at home or work but it’s a nice little box to put your things in and we made it based on a YouTube video I watched about how to do moldings of handprints in wood.”

  “Wow, look who’s becoming crafty!” I exclaim.

  “I know, right? I never thought I was the domestic type, but the next thing you know, I’ll be making dinner for… for whoever needs to eat dinner.”

  She hurries to finish her sentence a different way than she started it. I like that she wants to make us dinner, even though she doesn’t have to. I can imagine coming home to my little family of her, Charlie and me every night for a home-cooked meal.

  Maybe there’d even be a little brother or sister for Charlie down the road; a cute little girl who looks like the female version of Charlie, or, more accurately, half me, half Catharine – now that would be cute.

  Stop thinking like this, I scold myself.

  Just because it’s Christmas doesn’t mean I have to get all emo. But this is really one of the best holidays I’ve ever had. I become more and more convinced that it’s time to ask Catharine to be my official girlfriend.

  And not just because of our hot sex or even because she just essentially said she’d cook for me. But because I always love to be around her and I can’t imagine my life without her in it.

  I’m pretty Charlie can’t imagine that, either, so even though we’ve been trying to protect him by taking it slow, I’m starting to think we should provide him with some security by cluing him in on the fact that Catharine and I are an official couple – just as soon as I ask her to be that with me.

  Chapter 12 - Catharine

  The day after Christmas is always a good time to ski. Most people are still at home with their families, vegging in front of the TV or suffering a bellyache or laziness from too much turkey the day before. Or people are traveling and still celebrating the holiday with different family members.

  North Pine is always more crowded than the resort I had worked at but it’s not too bad today. And it was worth it to me to come here instead, although I didn’t tell Daniel why. I never told him I was fired from my job, because it’s so fucking embarrassing, and also because I don’t want him to feel bad, since it involved the incident that happened when he was there, although it certainly wasn’t his fault.

  We drove separately, because I’m meeting up with some of my friends tonight – Sally, Gia, Amanda, Maya and others, to do our own Christmas present exchange – and I don’t want to cut Charlie’s and Daniel’s time on the mountain short because of it. But as soon as I got here I was so happy to see my two favorite guys.

  As we’re waiting in line for the ski l
ift that takes us all the way up the front of the mountain and to the black diamond slope on the back – Charlie being loudly happy about being able to go there this time instead of having to be slowed down by his friends who can’t ski – I see someone familiar manning the boarding area.

  “Catharine!” Matt says, waving at me.

  It’s my former co-worker, who had helped carry out and set up Charlie’s cake.

  “Matt!” I say, surprised. “You work here now?”

  Charlie is butting his way forward, and trying to get ahead of another kid in line, so luckily, Daniel is kind of wrestling him back and telling him to wait his turn, and doesn’t hear what Matt and I are talking about.

  “Yeah, I just couldn’t keep working over there after everything they did to you and Michelle, and all of that drama,” he says.

  “Yeah, that sucked,” I agree. “So, Michelle was fired, too?”

  He nods as if I should know this. “Well, yeah, I mean, now she…”

  Suddenly Daniel and Charlie are beside me and it’s our turn to get on the lift. Just in the nick of time, because I don’t want to be talking about this in front of them.

  “Nice to see you, Matt!” I say, as we board the chair.

  “You too,” he calls after me, and then he says something else but the wind is behind me when I turn around and so I can’t tell if he said he’ll let Michelle know I said hi, or if he said that I should tell Michelle hi.

  I would prefer that no one tell Michelle I say hi, and especially not me. She’s the whole reason I got fired! I figured they’d fired her too, unless maybe she had thrown me under the bus to cover for herself somehow, but to have it confirmed is a bit reassuring.

  At least I shouldn’t take it personally, I think.

  And I barely think about it at all anymore. What started out as a depressing, unexpected event – to be unceremoniously canned by the job I’d worked hard at for a few years now during the winter seasons – had turned into the best thing that had ever happened to me. Because it had forced me to work for Daniel and Charlie, and I don’t know what life would be like without them, now.