Once my blood flow has finally returned to all appropriate appendages, I head back to the kitchen, where I find Riley plating up the meal she made for us. I take a seat across from her and dish up my serving. I close my eyes and take a deep breath once again, as I can feel the blood flow attempting to return to my dick. “Mmmm,” she moans as her fork slips from her lips. I’ve never been so goddamn jealous of a fucking fork, but I am at this moment. “So, freaking good,” she exclaims once she’s swallowed the bite of food.
“That good, huh?” I ask, hoping that the gruffness of my voice isn’t as evident to her as it is to my ears.
“Seriously, the best!” she exclaims as she readies another bite. I pick up my fork and knife and cut a bite to try for myself. As soon as the food hits my tongue, I’m done for. She wasn’t joking when she said it was terrific.
“Damn, this is incredible. What else can you cook that is this amazing?” I ask, only half-joking. If she’s this good of a cook, I’m going to be in trouble.
“I love to cook and experiment, and I can follow a recipe like it's my job.”
We finish up our meal, mostly in silence. I try not to stare at Riley like a creeper. “I’ll clean up since you cooked,” I state as Riley gets up and takes her dirty dishes to the sink.
“You’re sure?” she questions. “I don’t mind loading my things into the dishwasher.”
“I’ve got it, I insist.”
“Okay, thanks,” she says, setting the dishes down. “If you think you’ll be good alone with Evie for the next hour or so, I think I’ll run out to my place and pack a bag.”
“We should be fine around here,” I assure her.
“Sounds good. Text, or call me if anything changes. It shouldn’t be too long. I can always go back another time and grab more things.”
Six
Riley
I quickly grab my wallet, keys, and phone from the diaper bag and head for my car. The last twenty or so hours are catching up to me. I can’t believe all that has transpired since Derek called me last night, and if someone had told me yesterday morning that I’d have a full-time nanny job as of today, I’d never have believed them.
I drive to the condo I’ve been living in since moving here a few weeks ago. I was so thankful when my brother and sister-in-law let me move here to be closer to them. I’m even more grateful they had this condo and have been allowing me to stay here until I could get back on my feet.
As soon as I walk in, I head for the bedroom and pull out my suitcase that hasn’t been empty for all that long. Between moving here and then turning around and going out to Arizona with Jillian and the girls for part of the pre-season, I haven’t had much time to get settled. I waited until a few days before we returned to start sending out applications to places, hoping to have some interviews lined up. Now that won’t be necessary, or I can only hope it works out for me to be Evie’s full-time nanny. I’ve only been around here for less than a day, and I’m already in love with her. She’s such a great baby, which will make my life easy most days. Who wouldn’t want to get paid to hang out with one of the cutest babies?
Once my suitcase is filled with all my clothes, I head for the bathroom and pack all the essentials from there. Since I’ll probably still stay at Justin’s house on my nights off, it makes the most sense to take as much of my stuff as I can. I can always pack an overnight bag to bring with me if I come back here for a random night. The more I think of it, he might want me gone on nights that I’m off. I know he’s got the reputation of being a player, and I don’t want to have to hear those interactions, nor do I want to encounter his conquests. Talk about an awkward situation. I shudder at the thought.
With my clothes and bathroom things all packed, I look around the bedroom then the living room to verify I don’t forget anything important. I pack up my laptop and iPad, making sure I’ve got all the appropriate charging cords for all my devices. With everything ready to go, I load up my hands and can make it out in one trip. I place my bags into the trunk of my car and head back to JJ’s.
Just as I pull out onto the main road, my phone starts ringing so I hit the accept button, allowing the call to come over the car’s Bluetooth.
“Hey, honey, how’s it going?” My mom’s voice fills the car. “Are you getting settled in okay?”
“Hi, Mom. Everything is going great. I got a full-time nanny job effective immediately.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful, Ry. How old of a child or children?”
“One little girl. She’s three months old and the cutest little thing ever,” I gush to my mom.
“You’ll have to send me a picture!” Mom says, and I can hear the excitement in her voice. “How’d you find the family?”
“That’s an interesting story,” I start to tell her, and go on to fill her in on the last day.
“Wow. That’s crazy. Is JJ holding up with all of it?”
“He seems to be doing okay. I think that he’s still in shock about it.”
“I can only imagine,” Mom muses. “So, you said that you’re going to be living there full-time?”
“Yep, or at least for now. We’re going to do a one-month trial run and see how things go. With his crazy schedule, he’ll need someone that can be around all the time during the season. We’re going to sit down tonight, hopefully, and if not, then tomorrow and write out a calendar with all of his games and road trips and then figure out my time off around that. But with needing to be on call, especially when he’s out of town so often, I think it will be easiest to be living there.”
“And Derek is okay with that arrangement?” she questions.
“I haven’t told him about it. JJ and I just came up with it tonight, but he did tell JJ that he should take me up on my offer to help out. Plus, I’m a big girl, Mom. Derek doesn’t get to have a say in where I work. He can try and play the overprotective big brother card all he wants, but it won’t make me change my mind about the job or helping JJ.”
“I’m sure he’ll be fine with it then,” Mom assures me.
I pull into the parking lot of Starbucks, stopping in the drive-through. “Hold on, Mom, I need to order,” I tell her once it’s my turn. I order quickly and then return to our conversation.
“I can let you go, I just wanted to check-in and see how things were going,” she says while I’m waiting to approach the pick-up window.
“Okay, maybe I can FaceTime with you tomorrow so you can meet Evie. She’s just the cutest!” I gush once again.
“Yes! Please do. I’d love to see her.”
“Okay, talk then,” I tell her before we disconnect our call.
I get my order and head back to JJ’s house. I grab one of my bags and quietly enter the house. I can hear Evelyn crying and JJ’s voice as he attempts to calm her down. I set my things down and go searching for them. I find him in the bathroom and can’t stop from bursting out a laugh.
“What happened?” I ask between fits of laughter.
“She had a poop explosion,” he says, looking more than a little overwhelmed with the situation. He’s leaning over the tub, a screaming Evie in some water. He’s got his shirt stripped off and on the floor next to him. It’s soaking wet, so I can only assume that bathing her isn’t going all that well.