Elizabeth and Eleanor shot their hands in the air and let out giggle-squeals that were infectious. I couldn’t hold back my smile as we all gathered at the front of the car. Chelsea stood between the girls, took each of their hands, and started forward.
I trailed behind them, catching a glimpse of Chelsea’s outfit. Black jean cutoff shorts, a long, baggy white tank top tucked in at the front, and bright-yellow sneakers. Our stroll around the zoo reminded me of the day we toured downtown Providence. We’d looked like a couple that day, and we’d kissed like one too.
Shoving all thoughts of Chelsea and what could have been to the back of my mind, I put my energy into helping her with the girls—buying the twins ice cream and hot dogs and helping Eleanor on the pony ride while Chelsea tended to Elizabeth. We laughed at the ostriches trying to mate while the girls laughed at the “giant birds fighting” without a clue as to what was truly going on. I loved watching Chelsea’s face turn that deep shade of pink that made it impossible for her to hide her emotions. We stopped to watch the chimpanzee show and kept moving until it started to get late. We fed the girls dinner, and within seconds of crawling into their double stroller, they were fast asleep, leaving Chelsea and me alone on our stroll through the weaving path around the gardens.
We were silent at first, awkwardly so. It was obvious she was planning to keep up the silent treatment, and I hadn’t been any better. Of course, with the girls awake, entertaining them had been our number-one priority. Distractions had been easy.
The Japanese garden path ended, and I nodded to an area where we’d watched the elephants play in the water earlier. The animals were much calmer now with the sky beginning to lose its color and the crowds thinning out. I led her to a park bench that overlooked a large pond with a man-made waterfall where an elephant slowly walked by.
She placed the stroller between us as we sat, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was a strategic move on her part.
“You’re good with the girls.” It was a simple start, an icebreaker of sorts, but it got her to look at me.
“Thanks. I guess I’ve been nannying for a long time now. Plus, the twins make it easy.”
I nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly with that sentiment. “They are happy girls, indeed.” More awkward silence passed between us before I finally gave in and turned to her, ready to have it out. “I’m sorry I left your place like that the other night. I should have explained.”
Chelsea let out a breathy laugh, her eyes pointed forward while she shook her head. “It’s fine, Liam. We’d been drinking. We got carried away. It was nothing.”
“It wasn’t nothing. It was quite the opposite, I’m afraid. It wasn’t a mistake either. I never should have agreed with you there.”
She looked at me, her eyes searching mine, then she smiled, her face softening. “Well, whatever it was, it can’t happen again. I think you know that.”
Did I? Because I was selfishly making a list of excuses as to why it absolutely should happen again despite all the reasons why I knew it was wrong. “If it’s about my reasons for being here—it’s complicated.”
She laughed again and leaned back on the bench. “I’m sure it is, Liam. Don’t worry. I had no business asking you for your reasons—or anything about your past.”
“I like you, Chelsea. I like you a lot. My reasons for being here aren’t of the honorable variety. I had planned to keep my secrets. It was why I came here to begin with, but things have changed. I met you, and I think you should know the truth, whether you still like me or not.”
She didn’t say a word as she stared back at me, her chest rising and falling in slow and deep breaths. “I already know the truth, Liam. You don’t need to tell me anything.”
And just like that, my worst nightmares were confirmed.
“I saw you on television,” she said. “And then I saw what the media said. I know what you did. I get why you’re here. I know enough, and I think it’s best that we don’t get involved any more than we already have.”
18
Chelsea
Brendan was already in the pool by the time I got the twins in their swimsuits and floaties. We stopped by the kitchen so I could pack up some snacks and waters, then we made our way out to meet their brother. As soon as we neared the gate, I heard a pair of male voices laughing, and my gut churned with a flurry of emotions. Liam was swimming with Brendan, and as much as I was excited to see him, I dreaded it at the same time.
Forcing a deep breath and plastering a smile on my face, I rounded the hedge with the twins trailing behind me and opened the pool gate to let them through. “I brought snacks if anyone is hungry.”
My shift had started a little after ten today, when Simon was called into work. Bridget was already at the hospital, so the kids were in my care until seven o’clock that evening. We usually loved spending our days at the pool then retiring to their playroom to hang out and watch movies before it was time for me to make them dinner. Bridget would usually come home during their bath time and take over. But today didn’t feel like a normal day, not with Liam’s eyes on me from the moment I walked through the pool entrance gate.
Brendan, on the other hand, practically jumped out of the pool at the mention of food. The kid could eat anything and everything. It was like he was constantly going through a growth spurt. He opened a block of string cheese and snarfed it before doing a cannonball back in the pool, splashing the twins and me.
I laughed and looked down at my swimsuit cover—a long gray shirt knotted on one side above my knees. Now it was drenched. I pointed to Brendan when he poked his head out of the water. “I’m not above payback, mister. Watch yourself.”
He stuck out his tongue then tapped Liam and asked him to race. After a second of hesitation as he took his eyes off me, he nodded and swam to the start line Brendan had set up.
While the guys swam, I walked the twins to the steps and followed them into the pool, instructing them to stay in the shallow end so I could keep an eye on them. They were already decent swimmers, but I made them wear their arm floaties anyway, the fear of anything bad happening on my watch too dreadful to bear.
We were like that for a while, with the boys pairing off, having swimming contests that Brendan miraculously won every now and then, the girls strengthening their skills in the shallow end, and me sitting at the edge of the pool.
“Why aren’t you coming in, Chelsea?”
Brendan’s question was so innocent, but I couldn’t give him an honest answer—that I hadn’t expected Liam to be in the pool, and what I was wearing beneath my cover-up was unsightly at best.
“Yeah, Chelsea,” Liam added. “Why aren’t you coming in?”
Liam’s gentle tease was all it took for my neck and cheeks to heat, but there was no getting out of this, especially not when the twins joined in on the peer pressure. So, with an inward growl, I raised my ass off the pool edge, lifted my cover-up, and tossed it aside, revealing a very unflattering one-piece bathing suit.
The kids had seen me wear this same thing a hundred times, but Liam—I couldn’t even look at him. I didn’t want to see his reaction to the baggy black-and-pink floral material or the attached skirt that wrapped around my waist and reached midthigh. If our last two encounters hadn’t already turned Liam completely off of me, then this would do it right here.