Two Men and a Baby - Isla Olsen Page 0,10

Connor and I take a two-seat table not too far from the buffet.

“So, how did you sleep?” he asks.

“Well I didn’t wake up to a giant bearded man watching me, so…”

“Oh, don’t pretend you didn’t absolutely love that.”

It was a supremely sexy sight to wake up to, I can admit that. I’m not about to say it out loud, though—his ego’s big enough as it is. Instead I just give an amused shake of my head and concentrate on cutting into my pancakes.

“Just so you know, I’ve decided I’m going to woo you.”

I glance up in surprise, finding Connor watching me with a bright smile before he shoves a forkful of pancakes in his mouth.

“You’re going to ‘woo’ me?” I echo, my brows creeping up.

He nods. “Yup.”

“Do people still say ‘woo’?”

He shrugs. “It sounded less creepy than ‘relentlessly harrass you until you agree to go on a date with me’.”

Despite my best intentions, I let out a sputter of laughter at that, just barely managing not to spit out a mouthful of juice. “Don’t you live in Denver?”

He shrugs. “I can woo you from afar. And don’t tell anyone this but I have a job interview tomorrow—if things go well I’ll be moving here in a couple of weeks.”

Jesus. Connor living in the same city as me? I have no idea whether that would be a good thing or a bad thing.

It would definitely make resisting him a lot harder, that’s for sure.

5

Josh

“Hey, Josh.”

I spin around from where I’m sorting through the toys the kids were playing with today to find one of my superiors, a woman named Helen, waiting to talk to me.

“What’s up?”

“I need a favor.”

I see she’s clutching her tablet in one arm, so I can only assume this is some kind of admin thing.

“Sure, what is it?”

“We need more coverage in Infants Two over the next couple weeks. I was honestly expecting more kids to be cutting their days but it seems a ton of parents are going to be working through the holidays. We should be fine in this room, but we’ll be down two carers—”

“No, of course,” I say with a nod, not waiting her to finish the rest of what she was going to say. It seemed pretty obvious to me, anyway, as we have pretty strict rules at the early childhood education center—a fancy name for daycare—where I work. in the infant rooms, which are babies from newborn to six months in Infants One and six to twelve months in Infants Two, we need to have a ratio of one carer for every two babies, so with two of my colleagues taking leave over the holiday period it’s not really all that surprising I’d need to be shuffled around from where I usually work in Toddlers One—twelve to eighteen months. We’re located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side and most of our kids have parents with pretty high powered jobs, so it’s also not all that surprising to hear many of them will be working through the holidays. What is surprising—and a little disconcerting—is that this has come as something of a shock to Helen. The exact same thing happened last year, and the year before that, and the year before that…

Oh well, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest what age babies I’m working with. I do this job because I love kids, and I especially love seeing young kids grow and develop.

Helen lets out a relieved sigh, offering me a soft smile. “Great, thank you.”

I finish sorting the toys and tidying the rest of the room. I don’t know how it happens exactly, but it seems not a day goes by where I don’t discover at least one toy or book or other piece of baby paraphernalia that’s somehow made its way into my room from one of the other rooms in the center. I should probably set up hidden cameras to find out how it’s happening. It’s highly possible I’m living through a real life version of Toy Story.

As I’m leaving the center for the day, I dig my phone out of my pocket with the intention of calling Ben for an update on his situation; it’s been a couple days since his bizarre flight from the wedding and I’m pretty sure he will have changed his mind about moving by now, but I want to check in to see how he’s doing.

I don’t follow through with that plan, though, because I’m distracted as soon as I see the text