Hip Check (New York Blades) (7 page)

9

“Yo, Saari: you
haven’t said dick about the new nanny. What gives?”

Esa was sitting at a table at the Wild Hart pub with the usual Rat Pack of teammates: the Mitchell twins, Rory, David, and Ulfie. Tully Webster had passed on the invite, saying he needed to get home because one of his kids had a bad head cold, and his wife needed him to help out. He stared pointedly at Esa as he said it. Esa stared back until Tully broke eye contact. What the fuck? Esa had thought. As if he wouldn’t do anything if Nell were sick?

Esa downed some Guinness. “What do you want to know?”

“Is she hot?”

Jason shook his head. “I knew that was the first question you’d ask, man. You’re so predictable.”

Esa thought a moment. “I wouldn’t say she’s hot. She’s cute.”

“Cute can be hot,” Ulf persisted. “What’s her name?”

Esa was irritated. He wanted to hang out, not talk about Nell’s nanny. “Her name’s Michelle, and I haven’t really noticed if she’s ‘cute hot.’ I’ve just been trying to let her do her thing. Stay out of her way.”

“I had a dog named Michelle once,” Ulf volunteered.

Eric stared at him in disbelief. “You make me feel like poking my own eyes out sometimes, you know that?” He reached for a piece of quesadilla in the center of the table. “Why are you trying to stay out of her way, Saari? Attracted to the help?”

“Not my type,” Esa stated flatly, which was true. He liked his women tall, blond, and malleable. None of those words applied to Michelle Beck, particularly “malleable.” But it didn’t matter. She wasn’t there as his girlfriend. All he knew was that the feeling of helplessness and chaos that had been dragging him down before he hired her was gone, and that Nell seemed happy. So the attributes Michelle did have—protective, loyal, affectionate, just to name a few—were definitely what Nell needed.

“I put it the wrong way,” he amended. “I’m trying to let her establish a rapport with Nell.”

Jason snorted. “You mean you’ve handed the kid over to her so you don’t have to worry about her anymore.”

Esa was surprised to find himself getting defensive.
“No
.
”

“So the nanny is cute,” said Ulf, determined to stick to that part of the conversation. “Does she have a boyfriend?”

Esa shrugged. “No idea. I don’t ask about her personal life.”

“She can’t have much of a personal life if she’s a live-in nanny,” Eric reasoned. “How much time a week does she get off?”

“Uh . . .”

Eric smacked his palm down on the table as his mouth fell open. “You’re not even sure, are you? Did you even read the fucking contract?”

“What’s to read?” Esa replied cavalierly.

“Dude,” said Jason, “don’t you think you should talk to her about how erratic your hours can be, with road trips and stuff? What if there’s a conflict between that and what’s in the contract, asshole? Then what are you going to do?”

“She knows what I do for a living.”

“But you were interviewing her, dickwad, not the other way around,” said Eric. “Don’t you think you need to have an actual
conversation
about it?”

“Yeah. I guess.” He vaguely remembered Michelle saying she needed to talk to him about a few things, but she always seemed to catch him when he was walking out the door. He couldn’t remember what those “few things” were. Maybe she hadn’t gone that far into detail?

“Speaking of talking to each other about things,” Rory murmured to Esa.

“What’s that?”

“What the hell was that on Wednesday, you dropping Nell off at our flat in the morning because the nanny was off and you wanted to go to Barneys? What would you have done if Erin and I weren’t home? Why couldn’t you have brought Nell with you?”

“I didn’t want her to get bored,” Esa confessed.

“There’s something to be said for that,” said Eric in his defense. “I mean, who doesn’t remember being dragged around on errands with their parents? It IS boring.”

“That’s no excuse,” Rory countered. “We all have to do things we don’t want to do. So what if she got bored? A little boredom never killed anyone.” He glared at Esa. “Don’t hide behind the boredom excuse: you didn’t want her with you. For those few hours, you wanted to be free as a bird.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Esa muttered.

“No, you go fuck yourself,” Rory countered. “You better sort
all
of it out, Esa, or you’re going to find yourself nannyless, not to mention friendless, pretty fast.”

Esa tried maintaining his scowl, but couldn’t. Rory was right. He and Michelle needed to be on the same page when it came to Nell. He had to sit down with her. The idea didn’t exactly thrill him, but he knew it had to be done.

“I’ll speak with her tomorrow night.” He had a dinner date, but he was sure he could switch it so he got home early enough to say good night to Nell, and talk to Michelle. It wouldn’t take long.

* * *

“These guys are
unbelievable,” Michelle marveled as she settled down on her bed with a bowl of chocolate chip ice cream to watch
American Pickers
. The stuff they bought and sold always made her wonder if her dad had any hidden treasures around the apartment.

Nell was safely tucked in bed. She’d balked when Michelle set the new “eight thirty bedtime rule.” That was the time she used to send seven-and-a-half-year-old Malina Karle to bed, and within minutes, the girl was asleep. The same turned out to be the case with Nell. She and Nell enjoyed a bit of reading before sleep. They were starting
Harriet the Spy
, which Michelle had adored as a kid. It helped relax Nell, which was good, because she was beginning to get nervous about school.

Michelle had just downed her first spoonful of ice cream when there was a knock at her door. She froze. She knew it couldn’t be Nell; Nell usually knocked on the bedroom door between their two bathrooms. Which meant it was Esa.

“Yes?”

“May I speak with you, Michelle?”

“Of course,” she replied, as mild ripples of resentment waved up and down her body. “I’ll meet you in the kitchen in a minute.”

Shit, she thought, putting her ice cream down on the night table. Leave it to Esa Saari to want to talk when it was on her watch
.
Though technically she was responsible for Nell round-the-clock five days a week, her past experience had been that once her charges’ parents were in for the night, they more or less took over. But Esa wasn’t always home for the evening, at least not early enough to help tuck Nell into bed, and that pissed Michelle off. It seemed irresponsible, almost neglectful.

Granted, there had been times she’d been awake and she’d heard him come in and check on Nell, but it would have been nice if he was there sometimes when she was awake. He’d told Michelle he’d be home early enough to do so tonight. And he wasn’t. Thank God she hadn’t said anything about it to Nell and gotten her hopes up.

She slithered out of her sweatpants into a pair of jeans, giving her hair a cursory brush. Her terrycloth slippers were a bit ratty, but oh well. There wasn’t much she could do about that.

She joined him in the kitchen, where he had just pulled a bowl of blueberries out of the refrigerator. He took a few spoonfuls, then put it back.

“Those are good.”

“They are,” Michelle agreed.

“Has Mrs. Guttierez been accommodating with all the foods you’ve been asking her to buy?”

“Very much. I think she’s relieved, actually. She wasn’t too happy, either, that—” Michelle halted.

“I was feeding Nell badly?” Esa supplied.

“You were feeding her the way a bachelor uncle would,” said Michelle politely. “Which is to say, badly,” she couldn’t resist adding.

“But no permanent damage done?”

Not on that front
, Michelle thought. “Not as far as I can see.”

“Good, good.”

She thought of Marcus’s upgraded description of Esa from “totally smokin’” to “stunningly gorgeous.” She’d concede he was “totally smokin’” but “stunningly gorgeous” sounded too much like a description of Angelina Jolie.

“Can I get you a glass of wine?”

Michelle gave him an odd look. “Water’s fine.”

“Yes, of course.” Esa looked sheepish. “I’m an idiot. I meant water, but I was just out to dinner and had some good wine . . . I forgot for a moment the, uh, situation.”

Michelle didn’t know whether to be flattered, or annoyed. He forgot for a moment the situation . . . did that mean he was simply seeing her as a woman, not a nanny? Why would she care, anyway? Marcus’s voice hijacked her brain:
Because he’s smokin’ hot, dumbass! And being noticed by someone who’s smokin’ hot is major!

“It’s all right,” Michelle assured him.

“Do you mind if I have some wine?”

“No, of course not.”

Michelle sat down at the kitchen table, quietly watching as he poured himself a glass of pinot noir and some water for her. She found herself wondering where he’d been out to dinner, and with who. Probably one of those busty blondes Marcus said was always on his arm on the gossip pages. Wasn’t like she was going to ask him. That was one of her most important rules: private lives stayed private.

“Here you go.” He sat down across from her, handing her her glass. “Are you enjoying working in this kitchen?”

“Yes, very much.”

“And Nell—is she enjoying what the two of you eat?”

“You should ask her. Better yet, you should join us sometime.”

Esa looked away guiltily. “Mmm. I know.” But when he turned his gaze back on Michelle, he sounded annoyed. “I told you I wanted to tuck her in tonight. But she was already in bed when I came home.”

“Her bedtime is eight thirty, Esa. Not ten thirty. I explained that to you.”

“Couldn’t you have made an exception?”

“Maybe, if it were the weekend. But it’s not. I want her to stick to this schedule on school nights.”

“Of course,” Esa mumbled.

“You wanted to talk to me?”

“About my schedule.”

“Yes?”

“In case you haven’t figured it out by now, I’m not someone with a normal schedule. Not only is it not nine to five, but it changes every week in terms of what nights I play. In a few weeks the team will start taking road trips.”

“I know that,” Michelle replied easily.

Esa looked puzzled. “Did we talk about this already?”

“Well, I’ve mentioned it to you a few times, but I guess you forgot,” Michelle murmured. “I told you: I need your
actual
schedule.”

“I’m so sorry,” Esa said, rolling his wineglass between his hands as he avoided her eye.

“You’re lucky you’ve hired someone who knows the deal when it comes to hockey schedules. My brother and father are fans.”

Esa looked up with a pleased smile. “Blades fans?”

“Islander fans.”

“Your brother didn’t mention that when I met him.”

“Too starstruck.”

Esa clucked his tongue. “Islanders fans . . . that’s too bad.”

“For the Blades, I hear.”

“I don’t know who your sources are, but take it from me, they’re dead wrong,” Esa insisted with a playful smile.

“We’ll see.”

Michelle took a sip of water, buying herself time to return to professional mode. Banter, teasing each other a bit . . . it felt weirdly off course, somehow. They didn’t know each other long enough for that. She’d reached a point of comfort and ease with Mr. and Mrs. Karle, but that was after living with them for two years. And there was two of them, as well as a live-in housekeeper and cook. It wasn’t just her and a bachelor.

“About your schedule?” she prodded.

Esa blinked. “Right.” He reached into his blazer pocket and pulled out his iPhone. “We just got it finalized. I’ll e-mail you a copy. Actually, you can look at it now, if you like.”

A minute later he was leaning over her, one hand on her shoulder, showing her his schedule on the tiny screen. Michelle followed his slim index finger as it ran down the weeks. “See? I need you to be flexible.”

She took a deep breath. “Esa, I told you, I understand that.” Her eyes scoured the schedule. “This is perfect. It’ll help me pick my days off. I do insist one of those days is Friday or Saturday, remember?”

“Of course,” he said after a split second. Michelle could tell from his ruminative expression he was thinking about how he was going to juggle dates with various women if he couldn’t go out both Friday
and
Saturday.