Page 12

11

Natalie

I t was 8 o’clock on Monday morning when Natalie pulled up to Sven Olsson’s big, beautiful house. It was intimidating to look at, and she was even more nervous about going in. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since she left that house on Friday.

When she’d gotten back to Sydney’s house on after the interview, she’d filled her in. The red flags were not lost on Sydney, but she hadn’t seen him with Winnie.

“Are you sure this is a good idea? This sounds like drama?” Sydney had asked.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think it’ll be too bad.”

Both Sydney and Natalie we were well acquainted with google searches. They searched for anything unsavory about him, but all they came up with was he was a bit of a playboy with killer fashion sense. She had to cross her legs a few times with all the slow-motion suit cam footage. Could she work for someone that hot? She was going to find out.

It wouldn’t be too bad , she thought. Quite the opposite, in fact. She had a good feeling about this. But even that did nothing to calm her nerves in this moment with the beautiful house looming over her and the equally beautiful man inside. He was her boss. Her boss she was not attracted to.

She walked up to the door and knocked. She braced for Sven’s handsome face but instead got the face of a middle-aged white woman.

“You must be Natalie,” said the woman with a smile.

“That’s me.”

“Come in. I’m Kathy Malone. I’m Sven’s housekeeper. I’m here three days a week. I do it all, cook and clean and shop. Basically, I take care of things since his schedule can be so crazy. Have you decided if you are staying here full time yet?”

“Oh, umm,” she said, still taking in the house. “I think I’ll just stay when he’s traveling.”

“Sounds good. Remind me later to share with you the house files. I keep things like shopping lists in there. You can add anything for yourself or Winnie for when you stay here.”

“Oh, thank you. That’s really helpful.”

She followed the woman into the kitchen. “I’ve been working for Sven for about two years. He’s a great boss. I hope you’ll be happy here.”

“Awesome, thank you.”

She thought she was prepared when she turned the corner into the kitchen, but she was not. She wasn’t sure what would have prepared her for a shirtless Sven with bedhead sitting across from the little girl. He opened his mouth as she mirrored him, and he fed her a bite of baby food.

“Natalie’s here,” said Kathy.

Sven turned, and if it was possible Natalie would have melted right there on the kitchen tile as he smiled at her. Just then, precious little Winnie decided to blow a raspberry with a mouth full of baby food. It splattered all over Sven’s face and bare chest. His face contorted as he turned to the smiling little girl banging on the high chair tray.

“Nice,” he said with a smile as he reached for a kitchen towel to wipe his face off. “Natalie, let me finish up here, and I’ll show you around.”

“Let me,” said the housekeeper. “You look like you might need a shower before you head in.”

“You’re not wrong,” he said, standing and handing her the little spoon and bowl of food.

He ran the towel over his shoulder. Natalie tried not to stare as he ran it over the most defined pec he’d ever seen. She tried not to let her gaze travel down his well-defined abs. When she bit her lip, she reminded herself he was her boss. Needing to stop ogling him, she slowly brought her eyes up to his only to find him grinning at her.

Dammit. This was not off to a very good start.

“Are you ready?” he asked with an air of cockiness she had not yet seen from him.

Fuck. This was not how she wanted to start this.

She followed him up the stairs.

“This is Winnie’s room,” he said, taking her into the nursery.

It was amazing. It was done beautifully in sunflowers and sunshine yellow.

“This is really nice. I thought you didn’t know about her until recently?” she asked before she had time to stop to think about whether her question was rude or not.

“Yeah... well, the second I found out, I went and got her nursery put together.”

There was something in his voice that hadn’t been there before, but she didn’t know what it was.

“It’s really beautiful.”

He just gazed at her with an almost wistful look in his eye and gave her a small nod. “Thank you.”

“Have you decided if you are going to stay here full time or just road trips?”

“Oh, umm, just road trips.”

“Okay, I’ll show you the guest room.”

They left the nursery, and she stopped for one last look at the morning sun cast a warm glow over the room. For being just put together, it was beautiful. It made her think even more about Winnie’s mother, who Sven had said nothing about except she was on the trip.

She walked into the room, which was nice—generic but nice. A Pack ’N Play sat in the corner. That seemed odd, but they quickly moved on.

“The closet just has some spare bedding. Please feel free to use it. Treat this as your own room, and I’ll do the same.”

“Oh, thank you.”

They continued the tour, but the rest was pretty basic, from the front office to the entire gym downstairs.

“Do you want to see the pool house just in case?”

“Oh, sure,” she said as she followed him outside.

As she passed the coat rack, she reached for her jacket.

“It’s just across the yard,” he said like she was crazy for grabbing it.

“It’s only like forty degrees outside.”

He just shrugged.

Hockey players , she thought as she shook her head.

Her Alabama body could never.

He slipped his feet into a pair of slides as he opened the patio door.

“You’re not wearing a shirt.”

“Nope, like you said, it’s a balmy forty degrees,” he said, wagging his eyebrows at her.

She smiled and shook her head as she pulled her coat around her.

He walked quickly over to the pool house, entered a code into the touchpad, and went inside.

When she entered, she was surprised. It was a sunny, well-decorated living room. They had walked into with a small kitchen and eating area on one side and a small bedroom on the other.

“Wow, this is really nice.”

She turned to him as he blew into his hands and rubbed them together. “Cold?” She cocked an eyebrow.

“Nope,” he answered back with a grin.

Somehow, her eyes glanced down at his nipple that looked ready to cut glass. Fuck. Why was she looking at her boss’s nipples? Thankfully, when she glanced back up, he was taking in the space.

“My sister lived with me the summer between her freshman and sophomore year of college. I thought she might be back, but she decided to stay with the team the next summer. But regardless, I have a pool house that doubles as an apartment.”

So, he had a little sister he was close to. Green flag all the way. There was still so much to figure out about him, but she had a feeling she was going to like getting to know him... maybe too much.

“So, this is here if you ever decide, but we’ll figure out the schedule with you just staying here on road trips. Let’s head back in.”

As they headed in, the housekeeper was just cleaning up Winnie.

“I’m gonna go in the shower and get ready to head in. Do you want to fill in Natalie on Winnie’s schedule?” he asked Ms. Malone.

“Of course! You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

“Ms. Malone will be here with you all morning. I’ll be home before she leaves, in case you need anything. Then we can go over the schedule when I get home.”

“That works for me,” Natalie said with a cheerful smile.

He quickly made his way out of the room and disappeared upstairs.

“So, we’re just finished with breakfast,” she said, pulling the sweet girl out of the high chair.

“Good morning, Winnie,” Natalie said, squeezing her little hand.

“She usually goes down for a morning nap around ten and an afternoon nap around two-thirty. She just does basic baby food and snacks and bottles for nap time and bedtime.”

“Got it.”

“I can make a note of it in the files I mentioned earlier if you want me to.”

“No, I think we can figure it out.”

“Sounds good. If you give me your contact info, I can share them with you. There is one with the code to the pool house and instructions on the alarm system and thermostat and speaker system and all that stuff. And, of course, the shopping list.”

“Sounds good,” Natalie said as she wrote down her phone number and email on a piece of paper to give to her.

She took Winnie to the floor and got out some toys. It would take some getting used to, but so far, Winnie seemed like a pretty chill baby, and this house was beautiful. Yeah, she could get used to this, and she was starting to rethink staying at the pool house.

But while she was thinking about staying here, the reason she shouldn’t made his way down the stairs. Surely, the shock of his hotness had to wear off. Sven rounded the corner, with his blond hair slicked back, a magic T-shirt on, and some athletic pants. He walked right over to her and dropped to his knees. Her heart nearly beat out of her chest. What was he doing? Then he bent down farther and placed a loud kiss on his baby girl’s squishy cheek.

Of course, he was just kissing his baby goodbye. No need to panic. What was the matter with her?

“Okay, I’m outta here. I’m running a little late. I’ll be home, but I just realized I didn’t ask if you were available for late nights... Ya know, with games and all.”

“Oh . . . yeah, of course.”

“Okay, I’ll see you after practice. Tomorrow is a game day, though.”

“Perfect, see you later.”