The Way To A Man's Heart - Frankie Love Page 0,120
but we all eventually crashed.
Brittany stirs awake, her hand immediately on Annie’s forehead. “She’s so much cooler now,” she says, exhaling in relief.
“You sure?”
“Get the thermometer,” she says. “Let’s check.”
A few minutes later, the reading proves Brittany correct and I kiss Annie’s head. “Oh thank God.”
I want to kiss Brittany too, but she’s pulling away, walking down the stairs with Annie. “I’m gonna change her and get her a bottle,” she tells me.
I follow her to the kitchen and begin making a pot of coffee. It feels like we’ve known one another for years, but in reality it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours.
“Are you okay?” I ask, seeing the worry etched in her eyes as she begins feeding Annie.
“I’m fine,” she says tightly.
“You don’t sound fine.” I grab the cream from the fridge. “Coffee?”
She nods, walking to the couch in the living room and sitting down. When I follow her with steaming hot mugs a few minutes later, I try to read her vibe. Yesterday we had been on the same page in every way, but now there is a distance. Shouldn’t we both feel relief that we got through that awful night together? More bound together instead of feeling less connected?
“She was just teething after all,” Brittany says, rubbing her finger along Annie’s gums. “I couldn’t feel this tooth last night, but it popped through.”
I set the mugs down. “Well, that’s a relief,” I say, watching as Brittany offers Annie the bottle. “So why don’t you seem happy?”
Brittany bites her bottom lip. “I am. I’m glad she’s back to normal. But um… about last night?” Her eyes lift, meeting mine.
I clench my jaw. Last night when we kissed, it was like the goddamn stars aligned. When we had sex, I saw a life with Brittany, a future. All of it. She made me happy, hopeful. But now there is dread filling my stomach as I look at her. “What about it?”
“We can’t do that again.” She shakes her head. “I lost control of myself and forgot the reason I was here. Am here.”
“Can’t it be both?”
She furrows her brow. “And then what? We break up and I’m attached to Annie and… it won’t end well, Beckett. And this is my job. Unless you don’t want me to work for you anymore?”
“I’m not saying that… but for the first time in months I’m seeing my life beyond the bubble of Annie and me. I’m seeing you. And—”
She shakes her head. Adamant. “This is a bad idea,” she says. “I can’t do this.”
“Do what?” I ask, stunned at her quick change of heart.
“Be Annie’s nanny. One night proved that. I’m already too attached to her. And… when I look at you… I see you as more than my boss.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
She scoffs. “Yeah, Beckett, it is.”
“But I see you as more than the nanny. I see you as the person I want to be in a serious relation-chip with.”
Chapter Twelve
Brittany
Annie’s finished her bottle, and Beckett takes her from me, patting her back. “You’ve known me one day,” I say, but his words hit me in the gut. I can’t help but smile, despite myself. “And you’ve never even had my cookies yet.”
Beckett chuckles. “You’re wrong. I had plenty last night.”
I feel my cheeks turn red and I reach for the coffee. “Beckett… I’m trying to end things here.”
“Why?” he asks me.
“Because this is too easy. Walking into your house and twenty-four hours later having a move-in-ready life. Shouldn’t it be harder?”
“Wait, you’re faulting this because it’s too easy? Too perfect?”
I take a sip of the coffee, and the wheels work in my head as I try to think things through. What I really want.
But as I look at Beckett and Annie sitting beside me, all I want is them.
It doesn’t seem fair. “Why should we get easy when your sister and her husband… When they had it so hard? They’re gone, it doesn’t seem right to get their happily ever after.”
My words seem to stop Beckett in his tracks. He sets Annie down on the floor under her mobile and takes the coffee from my hands, setting it aside, looking at me intently. “Listen, Tara and Jack would want me to be happy, want Annie to be happy. Do you think they’d want us to suffer on their behalf? No way.”
“But Beckett, you just met me.”
“But I feel like I’ve known you my entire life.”
“What if I’m not what you think? Not as good as you imagine.”