Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (151 page)

“My
name’s
Nicole,” Nicole said, reaching out her hand.
 
Kallie shook it with a

grin.

“Kallie
Young.”

“How
long have you been working as a nanny?”

The
girl
began folding the yellow beach blanket and Nicole bent down (with some effort)
and grabbed two corners and helped her.

“About
six
months.
 
I always wanted to move to
New York, and this opportunity came up and I couldn’t resist.”

“I
know how that goes,” Nicole laughed.
 
“Believe me.”

They
folded
the blanket and then Nicole helped her put away the rest of the materials and
throw away the garbage.

“I
better get going,” Kallie said.
 
“It was really nice meeting you,
though.
 
I

swear--it’s
like I’m
invisible out here.
 
You’re the
first person I’ve met who’s really tried to have a conversation with me.”

“Tell
you
the truth, I haven’t made many friends here myself,” Nicole said. “Maybe we can
meet up for coffee or something.
 
And then at least we’ll have one person to talk to.”

“That
would
be really great,” Kallie said. “You can take my number if you want.”
“Definitely.”
 
Kallie smiled.
 
“That would be great.” “We can exchange
numbers, actually.”

Nicole
ran—well
it was more of a quick shuffle—back to her chair and grabbed her cell
phone.
 
They input each other’s
contact info into their phones, talking about how they should definitely try to
meet up for coffee and bales.

Then
Kallie got the family’s things together
all at once, and hauling it all like a

Sherpa,
went up the stairs and disappeared from
sight.

Red
came
back with two ice cream cones.
 
“I
thought you might want one, even though you said you didn’t.”

She
laughed.
 
“You know me too well.”

He
handed
the cone off to her.
 
“I saw you
talking with some girl.
 
What was
that all about?”

Nicole
licked her ice cream.
 
It was delicious.
 
As usual, Red knew exactly what she
needed, sometimes before she even knew it herself.
 
“She was this really nice nanny who was
being given a hard time by the woman she worked for.
 
I went over and chatted with her for a
minute.”

“So
you
made a friend?” he asked.

“Actually, I think I did.”

***

Kallie
Young was sitting in the back of the Range
Rover with the two children as

Brad
and
Trina Danvers sat in the front seat, quietly stewing as they often seemed to
do. It was odd how they would talk to one another in public and even pretend to
be cuddly and affectionate, only to suddenly become quiet and distant in
private.

Was
it
all an act to impress others with how great their marriage was? Kallie
wondered.

And
then
she wondered, not for the first time, if she hadn’t made a huge mistake in
coming to New York City to work for this couple.

Back
in
Ohio she could have worked as a waitress, or continued going to
school—she only had a semester and a half left—and then she would
have completed her nursing degree at Ohio State.
 
But Kallie wasn’t certain she wanted to
be a nurse anymore, and she’d been feeling like she needed a change.

When
one
of her brother’s friends offered to refer her to this nanny placement agency in
New York City, it seemed like an opportunity that she couldn’t pass up.
 
She was young, didn’t have any children
or any major responsibilities yet.

Being
a
New York nanny sounded romantic to her.
 
Spending time with wealthy people, traveling, eating good food, getting
culture, and taking care of children—all of which she enjoyed.

So
Kallie
had taken the plunge and come to New York for the interview, and somehow,
despite her lack of experience, she’d gotten the gig.

And
then she’d been placed with the Danvers
family.

It
was like a movie—only rather than
some charming, funny film starring Kate

Hudson
and Owen Wilson, it was a horror movie and
Kallie was the last one to realize it.

She
was
working for the meanest couple on earth, and they treated her like she was only
a step above a convicted felon.

Finally,
mercifully,
the car ride home from the beach ended, and they arrived back at the Hamptons
house, which looked an awful lot like the beach house featured in the

movie
Something’s Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson
and Diane Keaton.
 
Outside it was
large and weathered and rustic, inside it was completely modern, with every
convenience.

Unfortunately
for Kallie, the similarities to the film
ended there, because Brad and Trina Danvers were most certainly not Jack
Nicholson and Diane Keaton.
 
They
were not witty, brimming with good humor and witty reposts.

They
were
nasty, uptight, and the house felt gloomy to Kallie, despite its amazing décor
and beautiful setting.

“Kallie,
please
bring Ben and Melanie in and give them a bath,” Trina said. Brad got out of the
car without a word to anyone and headed inside.

So
Kallie
did as told.
 
She brought the
children inside and gave them a bath, and she tried her best to make it fun for
them even if she was miserable inside.
 
The truth was, Ben and Melanie were lovely children, if a little bratty
and spoiled at times.
 
Kallie had a
feeling that as the years passed, the loveliness would recede and the ugliness
of their privilege would come to the forefront.

But
for
now, she enjoyed Ben and Melanie and did her best to connect with them and make
them feel loved and cared for, even if Kallie herself felt like running away
from the Danvers home and never coming back.

After
bath
time was over, she got them dressed again and played with them for a couple of
hours until dinner.

Kallie
hadn’t
realized it, but she was not just a nanny, but a personal chef as well. Trina
told her every day what meal to make, and then provided recipes which Kallie
was to follow to the letter.
 
If the
ingredients weren’t all in the house, Kallie would go to the market and get
them.

Luckily,
she
was a decent enough cook.
 
Coming
from a very large, traditional family and having five brothers, she and her
mother had made most of the meals.
 
Now Kallie had to do it all on her own for the first time, but at least
there were less mouths to feed.

Tonight’s
dinner
was chicken breast, seasoned with only the particular ingredients that Trina
had allowed Kallie to use—and any deviations would be noticed and
commented upon.

“We
have
the charity ball on the eighteenth,” Trina told Brad as Kallie brought food to
the table for everyone.

“What’s
a
charity?” Melanie asked.
 
She was
only four years old, but very bright for her age.

Trina
and Brad ignored her question.

“I
thought
we were cancelling,” Brad replied, staring at the food in front of him with
more interest than he’d shown in anything all day.

“Why
would
we cancel?” Trina replied, her voice betraying her annoyance. “What’s a
charity?”

“Quiet,
Melanie—mommy and daddy are
talking,” Trina said.

“This
looks
good,” Brad said.
 
He speared a
chicken breast and moved it to his own plate.

“Is
it a bit dry, though?” Trina
wondered.
 
“Did you use the chicken
stock the way

I
told you to?”

“I
did,”
Kallie said.
 
“Maybe I needed more.”

“Probably.
 
It’s looking rather dry.”

Brad
was
already digging in as Kallie served the rest of the family.
 
The sides were roasted potatoes, green
beans.

Discussion
moved
on from the charity ball to gossip about some of the friends in their Hamptons clique.
 
Brad and Trina discussed who was rumored
to be having an affair or what couple was said to be ready to divorce—who
was broke and who was richer than all the rest.

Somehow,
the conversation always came down to
money.

Kallie
tuned
them out, instead choosing to make little jokes and wink at the children,
keeping their attention on the meal and also keeping them relatively
quiet.
 
If they got bored and
started to act out, she would likely take the blame.

After
dinner,
the parents retreated to their separate spaces in the house.
 
Brad would go have an imported beer and
watch sports in the den, while Trina would get on the phone with one of her
friends and have a glass of red wine.

Meanwhile,
Kallie
played for another couple of hours with Melanie and Ben.
 
At bedtime, she made sure they washed
their faces and brushed their teeth, went to the bathroom.
 
And then she put them both to bed.

In
the beginning, she’d assumed that Trina
and Brad would want to say goodnight and tuck their children in, but Trina had
made it sparkling clear that she had no interest in doing so.

Tonight
was no different.

“Good
night,
sweet boy,” Kallie said softly to Ben as he cuddled in his bed with the
moonlight streaming in and shining on his smooth, round face.

“Night
Kallieeeee,”
he cooed back.
 
He could be so
sweet, she thought, especially when he was tired out from a long day.

Then
she
went to Melanie’s bed.
 
“Good night,
sweet girl.” “I had fun,” Melanie rasped in her little girl voice.

“Me
too,”
Kallie said.
 
“You’re so much fun to
play with!” “Will you always play with me?”

“Of
course.”

The
little girl smiled from ear to ear.
 
“And you’ll never leave.”

Kallie
winced a little. “You go to sleep now,
little one.”
 
She gave her a peck on
the forehead and then left the room, breathing a deep sigh of relief to finally
have a little time to herself.

The
end of the day was the one time where she
could truly relax, although she was usually too exhausted from her grueling
schedule and the anxiety of working for Trina and Ben to ever really enjoy it.

But
tonight
was different.
 
Kallie went to her
bedroom and closed the door, changed into her nightgown, and climbed into bed
with the book she’d begun reading a few days ago.

The
novel
was Blue Horizon, by Hunter Reardon.
 
There was a picture of him on the back
flap and every time she opened the book she stared at him.

He
was
too good looking to be true, she thought.
 
Probably they’d photo-shopped it to death, or maybe even hired a model
to stand in for the writer.
 
He was dark
haired, and although his hair was shaggy, it suited him.
 
He had a lean, angular face and piercing
eyes.
 
Hunter (or the model
pretending to play him) wasn’t exactly smiling in the

photograph.
Instead he seemed to be brooding, as if the
photographer had snapped the picture when he’d least expected it.

Enough
of
that, Kallie thought, curling up under the covers and turning to the most
recent page, about midway through the book.
 
Blue Horizon was a thriller, and she
remembered that the film had come out a couple of years ago and been insanely
popular—it had starred Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried.

Kallie
had
never seen the film, though, and she’d only picked up the book because it had
been in one of those bargain bins at the bookstore, and she’d liked the title
and thought she needed something to do to relax at the end of the day.

Only
now
she was completely and totally hooked.
 
It was as if she knew these characters in real life and her heart was
pounding every time she read a new scene and wondered how things would turn out
for the hero and heroine.
 
One of
the cool things about Blue Horizon was that it had two strong lead
characters—and an awesome romance on top of a pulse pounding thriller
storyline.

Smiling
as
she read, Kallie lost herself in the book totally, forgetting where she was or
how homesick she’d been lately—forgetting everything but the story.

Suddenly
she
was startled by a sharp knock on her bedroom door.
 
Kallie sat up guiltily, as if she’d been
doing something wrong.
 
“Yes?”

“Hey,
it’s Brad.
 
Can I come in?”

“Oh—uh…sure.”
She put the book to the side and sat with the covers over her
waist, feeling oddly exposed.

Brad
entered
with a sheepish grin.
 
He was
holding his imported beer and she could tell from his eyes that he was
“buzzing.”
 
When she’d first met
him, Kallie had