Page 13 of Worst Nanny Ever (Babes of Brewing #2)

Sophie, who reacts in more normal ways to sad stories, looks like she’s about to burst into tears. “Oh, Ollie,” she says, “I know exactly what that feels like, but it’ll never happen again. I promise.”

He grunts, shaking his little head. “I wish it would. Travis always knows exactly where I am. I can’t get away with anything.”

“That’s okay. I’ll teach you how to get away with stuff.” I extend my fist for a bump, and as he gives it to me, Briar gives me a disapproving look.

I’m tempted to point out that some rules are stupid and shouldn’t be followed, and that building Ollie’s confidence is more important than making him into a rule-following sheep, but I’m not sure she’d agree.

Dottie pats Ollie’s hand, and I’m not at all surprised when she says, “Dear boy. I have a few things I must give you. In fact, come with me. We need to figure out which of the stones call to you.”

He glances at me before meeting her gaze again. “Stones don’t talk, Miss Dottie.”

“Oooh, but they do.” She presses her hand over her chest. “They talk to us here .”

This time he gives me a look that requires no body language expertise to interpret. Is this woman crazy?

“She doesn’t mean it literally,” I explain, “but if you’d like to go look at some cool rocks, it’s okay with me. Your dad knows Dottie’s good people.”

Ollie shrugs. “Okay. I do like rocks.”

“And I’ll tell you all about them,” Dottie promises, beaming.

“Promise? ”

“Oh, yes.” She looks like someone just baked her a triple-decker birthday cake.

The two of them take off toward the back room of the shop.

I glance over my shoulder at Travis’s table. He is, of course, staring at me, so I give him a thumbs-up and a huge grin.

I expect him to stomp over to demand an explanation, but he settles for giving me a severe look.

“So they’ll be gone for at least six hours,” I say, turning back toward my friends.

“You guys, I have something really life-changing to tell you, but you have to promise to keep it to yourselves. Like, it’s very important not to tell anyone.

Even Dottie. I love her, but I get the sense that she’s not very good at keeping secrets. ”

“What is it?” Sophie asks, her eyes widening. “Are you and Travis together?”

Shock ripples through me. “No, absolutely not. Why would you say that? Why would you even think that?”

“She thought so too,” Sophie whispers furtively, gesturing to Briar, who shrugs, still playing with a lock of her long golden princess hair.

“Seriously, guys?”

“You’re suddenly taking care of his son,” Briar says. “And you’ve been checking him out for months.”

Sophie nods slightly in agreement.

“Oh my God, I have not,” I insist. “I check out every thirst trap equally. Except for Rob, obviously, because you’ve got that locked down.”

“We’ve been to a lot of band performances with you,” Sophie says hesitantly, “and you’re always looking at Karen and her friends or Travis.”

“Who the hell is Karen?” I ask.

“Travis’s ex-girlfriend. The one who’s always at their shows with her friends. I thought you knew. ”

“How would I know?”

My stomach twists a little at this new information. So it’s Karen who’s always checking him out, watching him sweat. Karen in the low-cut outfits.

Of course her name’s Karen. She probably lives out the stereotype unironically, complaining about her brunch orders and other people daring to take up space around her.

Obviously I don’t like or dislike people based on who they’ve dated—my present company is proof of that—but I don’t have a lot of checkmarks in Karen’s pros column. She annoyed me before I knew her name. It’s the way she looks at Travis, like she thinks he belongs in her back pocket.

“I didn’t know,” I double down, “and I don’t care.

I was only watching those women because they act like groupies, and I will absolutely defend your claim if I need to.

Up until a few days ago, I hadn’t even spoken to Travis for over a month.

He’s way too uptight for me, and besides, he’s Rob’s best friend.

I only agreed to help with Ollie because I care about Ollie.

I know how hard it was for Connor after my mom left. ”

“He was a little baby,” Sophie says in her usual empathetic way. “It was probably harder for you and Liam.” For a second, it’s enough to transport me back to that time. To the gut-wrenching feeling of being left alone with barely a backward glance.

“Maybe at first,” I say. “But Liam and I are built from stronger stuff. Connor’s a big softie.”

“You were going to tell us something,” Briar prompts.

“You kind of took the wind out of my sails,” I pout, but I have to laugh at my own turn of phrase.

“Wind. Sails. That’s on point.” I glance around again, making sure no one’s paying attention to us.

Even Travis seems otherwise engaged, so I lean forward and say, “I just found out that Travis’s dad was the star of the Ships Ahoy series. ”

“Oh,” Briar says, nodding. “Cool. I sort of remember those movies.”

Sophie seems a little more interested, but it’s obvious neither of them consider this news to be earth-shattering.

“Come on, guys.” I wave my hands over my head. “This is huge. Travis’s dad was the guy who always said, ‘Maritime law is mine,’ in that epic voice. Can you believe it?”

They exchange a look.

“Are you doing okay, Hannah?” Sophie asks. “We’ve been a little worried about you. Liam mentioned he hasn’t talked to you much since you left Big Catch.”

I rub my arms. “He knows why. I’m mad at him, but we’ll be fine with each other eventually. We always are.”

They exchange another of those silent but knowing looks that are way more fun when you’re included in them.

“Liam said you really loved your job, Hannah,” Sophie continues. “Everyone else at Big Catch seems to love you too. They honestly seem desperate to have you back.”

“I’m not going to pretend hearing that doesn’t feel good.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to go back?” she asks. “This isn’t…” Worry fills her eyes. “You didn’t leave because of Jonah, did you?”

I met Jonah, who used to work as a beer distributor, at a networking event Big Catch threw for beer professionals.

His job in the beer industry is how he met all of us—Sophie used to work in the tap room at Buchanan Brewery, Briar works at Silver Star, and GingerBeerBabe, aka Nora Leigh, is the head brewer-slash-part-owner of The Ginger Station.

Nora helped us reveal Jonah’s true nature to the whole town in a public reckoning a few months ago, but she hasn’t exactly seemed eager to buddy up with us.

Still, I don’t know the meaning of the words “give” and “up” when they’re grouped together, so yes, I emailed her a week or two ago and made the mistake of telling my friends about it.

No doubt they’re worried about that too.

In all honesty, they have more reason to worry about Norah rejecting me than freaking Jonah. He had nothing to do with me quitting my job, and I never give him half a thought anymore, now that we’d served up some well-deserved revenge. He is irrelevant.

“No, it wasn’t because of Jonah,” I say. “And yes, I loved my job for a while, but I couldn’t work with Liam anymore. We were codependent for too long. I don’t need some expensive therapist to tell me that.”

“Are you being purposefully vague?” Sophie asks, raising her eyebrows.

“Yes, but now I’m going to be very specific.” I glance between both of them before my gaze settles on Briar. “Do not, under any circumstances, date my brother. You have to promise me.”

She looks taken aback by the out-of-left-field question, but she recovers quickly. “That’s an easy promise to make. I’ve decided to never date again, and I doubt I’ll ever hang out with him by myself.”

“Good, that’s settled then.” I glance at Sophie. “Same goes for you if it ever falls apart with Rob.”

She looks scandalized by the thought. “It’s never going to fall apart.”

I sigh. “I believe you. It’s just…” Hell, it was past time to tell them. “I had other friends before we met.”

“How dare you,” Sophie says, giving me a slight smile. Encouraging me in a way she knows will work.

“I know, right?” I pause, gathering myself. My heart starts thumping faster. “One of those friends worked with me at Big Catch. She and Liam started seeing each other, and it fell apart catastrophically. I had to fire her.”

“Goodness,” Sophie says, taking my hand. “I had no idea.”

“I don’t like talking about it,” I say. “It sucked. Really sucked. And all of our mutual friends took her side. They thought I’d chosen my brother over her, which I guess I did, but honestly, I didn’t have a choice. She tainted a whole kettle of Big Catch beer by throwing his boxing gear into it.”

Briar cringes. “Oof.”

Sophie shakes her head. “Sounds like something you’d do.”

“It probably is,” I say with a half-smile. “I told you we used to be friends.”

“When did this happen?” Briar asks.

“A couple of months before I met you. I lost everyone in my circle except for the other people at work. They all witnessed how unhinged she acted.” I hesitate. “He didn’t cheat on her. It wasn’t like that. I don’t want you guys thinking my brother’s some kind of asshole.”

“You tell us frequently that he’s an asshole,” Briar says, amusement ringing through her voice.

“Sure, but not like that . Not a Jonah-level asshole. He’s just …emotionally unavailable. I warned her, and she didn’t listen, and…” I shrug. “Anyway, please don’t date him. Ever. Don’t even be nice to him.”

Briar laughs. “Yes, I’ll ridicule him and throw rotten fruit at his face.”

“Good. Start with bananas. He hates bananas.”

“I’m glad you told us,” Sophie says, her eyes finding and holding mine. “You should know you can tell us anything.”

I feel my throat tighten with emotion. “I’m okay, though. I swear. Maybe I’ll go back there someday, or get a different full-time job, but I’m not ready. I need some time to?—”

“Heal,” Sophie interjects, her eyes full of a sweet understanding .

“I was gonna say take some time off and chill, but sure, we’ll go with your answer.”

“I’m not sure being a nanny is such a chill job,” Briar says. “You’ll have to be the bad guy sometimes. Like, you’ll have to make sure Ollie does his homework.”

“Nah, that’s his dad’s job. Besides, he’s reading a science textbook for kicks. He’s some kind of genius. What I’m going to teach him is how to have fun. Hell, maybe Travis will even learn a thing or two in the process.”

Briar gives Sophie another of those looks.

“What? What revealing thing did I say this time?” I ask, rolling my eyes.

“You sure there’s nothing between you and Travis?” Sophie asks.

“Give it up, you guys. I’d never consider messing around with Travis. Besides the fact that I’m Ollie’s temporary nanny, He’s Rob’s best friend. No way would I risk our friendship for a guy.”

“I don’t care if you sleep with Travis,” Sophie says with a shrug. “I wouldn’t even mind if you threw his drumsticks into a kettle of beer, as long as it’s not at Buchanan Brewery.”

“I bet you wouldn’t, you unicorn of a woman, but I said what I said.”

I grin at her, but my heart is thumping a little faster as I think about the way Margaret looked at me when I fired her. I’m glad when my thoughts do their usual chaotic jump, landing on another pissed-off woman who decided to get revenge. One whose feelings were much less justified.

I clear my throat. “Actually, I could use your advice on something.” I quickly explain the Rachel problem. “I told Travis I’d take care of it, but to be totally honest, I don’t have a plan yet. ”

“Easy,” Briar says, surprising me with her quick response. “We’ll have someone write her a cease and desist letter.”

“Oooh,” Sophie interjects excitedly. “I know a lawyer. She’s really nice.”

“Exactly what we’re looking for,” I tease.

“But also a tough customer. I bet she’d do it as a favor, so Travis wouldn’t have to pay anyone.”

“Probably not an issue for him, but I’m sure he’d appreciate it.” I grin at them. “We make a great hive mind.”

The conversation moves on to the band, and Dottie finally returns with Ollie, who’s lugging a seriously enormous cardboard box. He sets it down on the table, his eyes gleaming with excitement. “Miss Dottie said I get to keep all of them.”

She cradles the back of his head with her hand. “Yes, my dear,” she says. “I’ll tell you more about them the next time Hannah brings you by, and I’d love to introduce you to a few of my special friends. But first let me give you a box of sweets.”

Yeah, Travis is definitely going to murder me. I catch him watching me again, this time with a small smile on his face. His hair is swept to the side enough that I can see a hint of his birthmark.

I feel something—a zip of awareness, of appreciation —that I shut down by mouthing at him, Maritime law is mine .

He surprises me by grinning. I’ll be damned if I don’t grin back.