“Wait,” Sutton said with a shake of her head. “Then why is he letting you stay?”
Harlee giggled. “He likes her, that’s why.”
I jerked my gaze over to Harlee. “What?”
“Come on, Palmer. It’s so obvious you both like each other. And you did kiss him.”
Sutton gasped as I closed my eyes and internally cursed out Harlee.
“Hold on one damn second. You kissed him?” Sutton demanded.
“Kissed who?” Addie asked, sliding into the booth next to Harlee.
I shot Harlee a glare.
She gave me a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I thought they knew.”
Addie looked around the table, confused. “Who knew what? Wait, what are we talking about?”
Before I could say a word, Sutton started talking. “Okay, I don’t even know where to start.”
“The paper?” Addie asked with a sad face aimed at me. Please, that bitch was glad that this Ms. Seaside had moved on to another person and the heat was no longer on her. What was Ms. Seaside’s beef with my family, anyway?
“Oh God, no,” Sutton said. “I mean, that started it. Palmer kissed Mason.”
Addie’s mouth dropped open. “What!”
I slid down in the booth as nearly all the nearby tables turned and looked at us. “Do you mind?” I hissed. “The whole damn place can hear you!”
Addie looked around before she focused back on me. “When did this happen?”
I closed my eyes and tried hard to imagine myself somewhere else. Anywhere but where I currently was.
“At your wedding,” Harlee replied. I kicked her under the table, but it was Addie who let out a yelp.
“Sorry, I was aiming for Harlee.”
“Jesus,” Addie mumbled, rubbing her leg.
“Yeah, be careful,” Harlee said. “She’s carrying a ch–”
All eyes went from Harlee to Addie.
“Were you about to say a child?” I asked.
Harlee’s eyes darted over to Addie and you could see she was pleading for forgiveness through her eyes.
“Oh my God. Did you really say that?” Addie glared at Harlee.
“It was a slip! I tried to stop myself!” Harlee stated.
“Wait. What?” I asked. “You’re pregnant?”
“Shhh!” Addie said as she glanced over at Sutton—who was very quiet.
It was my turn for my jaw to hit the table. “Oh my God. You’re pregnant too?”
“Okay, that one I didn’t know about,” Harlee stated.
Mason
It wasn’t until I got home and saw the local paper that I realized why everyone who’d come into the office today had huge smiles on their faces. Even Lacy Hathaway—who had a fever of a 102 and had tested positive for both the flu and strep—couldn’t stop smiling at me.
“Dr. Zaddy?” I asked as I read the article for the fourth time. “What does that even mean?”
“It means you have swagger. And I think it means you’re like a DILF.”
I turned and looked at Kelsey, positive the expression on my face was one of shock and disbelief. She smiled and shrugged.
“What’s that, Daddy?” Charlie asked.
“Nothing, Charlie, nothing.”
Kelsey mouthed “sorry” to me before she set a plate of lasagna down in front of Charlie and another in front of me. After the art show, we had met up with her for lunch the next day, and since then she had somehow managed to slip into our lives. She was currently taking care of Charlie after school, and was apparently feeding the two of us in the process. I still had Lori Anne—the high school student whom I’d first hired when I came to Seaside—available to watch Charlie. She got out of class at noon, so it was easy for her to pick him up after school.
Kelsey had taken it upon herself to tell Lori Anne that she wasn’t needed anymore. I’d told Kelsey that it wasn’t her place to do that. She had apologized and said she would never overstep again.
Kelsey sat down and smiled at me as she held up a pitcher of lemonade. “I hope you don’t mind me making dinner. I love to cook and this gave me an excuse.”
I took a bite of the lasagna. “I appreciate it, but it really isn’t necessary.”
Charlie shoved some salad in his mouth and chewed before he said, “I like it!”
“Charlie helped make the salad today.”
Smiling, I looked at Kelsey. “You really have helped, although Lori Anne was still able to work until after the holidays.”
Kelsey brushed off my comment. “It’s been a lot of fun. Charlie hangs out in my classroom while I finish up for the day, then we come on home and get ready for dinner.”
Something in her eyes made me feel a bit wary. I wasn’t fond of the way she’d used the word home. The last thing I wanted to do was give her the impression that I was interested in anything more than having her help out with Charlie.
“Well, I never really dreamed it would be this hard to find a nanny.”
She winked. “You’ll find someone. I was going to ask, did you need help moving into the new house?”
I shook my head. “I hired movers and it should be easy. We’ve hardly unpacked since our move here.”
“Yeah, a lot of my toys are still packed up,” Charlie said. “I can’t wait to see ’em again!”
Kelsey and I both chuckled.
The doorbell rang, and I paused, my fork in midair. “I wonder who that could be?” I asked as I stood up. “Excuse me a moment.”
Kelsey grinned. “Of course.”
I made my way to the front door of the rental I was living in. The last person I expected to see standing there was Palmer.
“Palmer?”
She pushed me aside and hastily shut the door behind her. “I don’t think anyone saw me. I parked a few blocks down.”
I looked out the large bay window to see that it was snowing. “It’s snowing outside. Why would you walk?”
Pulling her hood down, she momentarily robbed me of breath at the sight of her. She was so beautiful with those big blue eyes of hers staring up at me. One could say they were sky blue, but there were times when they were so deep you couldn’t help but get lost in them. I gave my head a shake and refocused while she spoke.
“I didn’t want anyone to see me coming here.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
She stared at me for a moment before she said, “You haven’t seen the article yet, have you?”
I smirked. “The one about Dr. Zaddy?”
Palmer rolled her eyes. “Okay, you’ve seen it then. Mason, people think there’s something going on between us.”
“Palmer, I’m not worried about a little town gossip. By next week, Ms. Seaside will have moved on to someone else.”
She let out a bark of laughter. “You haven’t been here long enough to know the woman has it in for my family. She’s been talking about my sisters and my brother for months! She’s mentioned me a time or two as well, but nothing terribly bad. I don’t even know how she knows you asked me to be Charlie’s nanny, and that I said no. For all I know, she knows about—”