Hold Me Close - Talia Hibbert Page 0,203

surprised to see you here,” she said. “In the afternoon, I mean. It’s usually your nanny who comes after school, isn’t it?” She said nanny the way most people would say dog shit.

“Yep,” Nate grunted. They waited, as if he should say more, but he couldn’t. He was too busy dealing with the fact that he’d wanted to correct Kieran—not just her superior tone, but her words. He’d wanted to say, “Hannah’s not the nanny. She’s…”

What? She’s what? The nanny whose mouth you came in? I bet they’d love to hear that.

God, he wanted to punch himself in the face. Was that a thing? Could that be done? Well, he’d find out when he tried it later.

There was an awkward pause as the women around him shared an indecipherable, edgy sort of look. Then Caroline said, in what she probably thought was a delicate tone, “Having trouble?”

“With what?” he asked, his voice a little rougher than he’d intended.

Kieran tutted. “Her, of course. Don’t worry. We don’t gossip, do we girls?”

“No, no,” the women all agreed. Kind of like how his kids said “Noooo,” in tandem when he asked, “Did you guys pour that juice all over the carpet?”

“I did think,” Caroline was saying. “I mean, when I realised you’d hired Hannah Kabbah, I went home and I said to my Mitchell, I should pull Nate aside—”

Nate looked up sharply. “Why?”

“Oh, sweetie. Don’t you know? Gosh, I definitely should’ve said something.”

He gave Caroline a steady look. “I know everything I need to know about Hannah. What I’m asking is why the hell you’d think you could talk shit about her.”

There was a sharp little intake of breath all around them at the word shit. Oh fucking well. He really was not in the mood. Caroline set her shoulders and forged ahead—which was pretty brave, since Nate was well aware that his face looked like thunder right now.

Thunder. Lightning. Hannah’s mouth, wet with rain, and her slick hands all over him, and her—

“Clearly,” Caroline sniffed, “you don’t know as much as you think. If you did, you wouldn’t let her near your children.”

“I wouldn’t let you near my children,” he said calmly, “because when you drive yours to school every morning, you’re still drunk from the night before. Which we can all smell on you, by the way. And while we’re talking about who would and would not get near my kids…” He speared Kieran with a glare. “You can wipe that smug look off your face, because I saw your shitty fucking Facebook post about vaccines and autism. What the hell kind of doctor are you, anyway?”

Kieran stepped back, a hand fluttering to her chest. “I—”

“Shut up. That was a rhetorical question.” He turned to glare at every other member of the now deathly-silent circle. “Hannah Kabbah watches my kids because she’s smart, she’s honest, she’s compassionate, and she knows what the fuck she’s doing. That’s it. That’s what I need, that’s what she’s got. If you want to talk shit about her, I can’t stop you. But you better not do it where I can hear. You won’t like the result.”

For a moment, silence reigned in their little bubble despite the chatter of the playground around them. Then, after a sharp jerk of the head from Caroline, all of the women began drifting away with narrowed eyes and resentful mutterings.

If he’d known it was that easy to get rid of them, Nate would’ve sung Hannah’s praises weeks ago. She was all he ever thought about, anyway.

“I really think you’re making a mistake,” Caroline said. “But if you won’t be told…”

“I think you made a mistake when you named your kid Majorca,” he replied flatly. “But I keep that to myself. Because I know how to mind my business.”

She stared at him for a moment, her mouth working soundlessly. Then, finally, she spat, “Fuck you!” before striding off toward her friends.

Which left Nate alone to deal with the fact that he was angry. Really fucking angry, furious in a way he hadn’t been for ages. His head began to pound, and his jaw ached from grinding his teeth, and his knuckles cracked from clenching his fists.

He wasn’t worried, though. It would pass. It was natural for his temper to rear its ugly head when a bunch of snide, self-important fucks disrespected the woman he’d fallen in love with. He thought he’d stayed pretty cool, all things considered. He could’ve mentioned the fact that Caroline’s husband, Mitch, visited the house across the