Live-In Position (5 page)

“Collin, how dare she?” Allison hissed. Biting the side of my mouth, I shut Victoria’s door.

After Victoria was asleep, I waited for Dr. Bishop to call for me or knock on my door, but it never came. No knock, no dismissal, nothing.

C
hapter
F
our

TWO WEEKS PASSED since my first run-in with Dr. Bishop’s sister. Victoria and I were shopping for Halloween costumes.

“What about a witch?” I pulled the costume off the rack and held it up.

“Nah.” Victoria shook her head. “There,” she shouted.

I jolted with surprise, causing five or six witch costumes to fall off the wall. I groaned and started hanging them all back up.

“Look, Sophia, it’s perfect!” Putting the last costume back, I looked up to see her holding a mermaid costume. In fact, it was a rather sexy mermaid costume.

“Where did you get that?” My eyes widened.

She pointed to the adult section.

“It’s not your size, sweetheart.” I took the costume and hung it back up. “You need to look in this area.” I motioned to the children’s costumes.

“Oh. My. Goodness!” Her excited little face was the first thing I saw. “It’s…” She took a breath to calm herself. “It’s the mermaid!” She ran for the brightly colored Disney costume.

Holding it against her body, she examined the costume. “It’s my size, right?”

I nodded and folded the costume over my arm.

“What about you?” Her head pivoted, scanning the costumes.

“What about me?”

“You have to dress up too, silly. Everyone else will be.”

“Everyone else?”

“Yeah, all the nannies dress up.” She hurried around the corner of the aisle and back to the adult section.
Please, lord, don’t let her go back to the slutty costumes.

“This is perfect!” She pulled a large yellow dress from the rack. It was bigger than her.

“That’s perfect, huh?” I took the dress from her, holding it against my body.

“Yes. You can be Belle. We both can be princesses.” She clasped her hands together in a silent plea.

“Can’t I at least get her regular dress? You know, the blue one with the apron?” I pointed to it.

She shook her head.

“No, no…you have to wear the princess one with the sparkles. We can pull your hair up just like Belle’s hair in the movie.” She clapped.

I looked at the tag and choked on the price.

“Victoria, this thing is extremely overpriced. I think I should find something less –”

“Don’t worry about it, Sophia. Daddy doesn’t care.” She shrugged and I saw a flash of sadness in her eyes. My heart clenched.

“Sweetheart, I’m not letting your daddy pay for my Halloween costume, and he does care about you.” I mentally punched myself for lying. If I were being honest, I didn’t truly believe he cared. Not the way a father should. Surely, not the way my father cared about me.

“Daddy’s card always bought Miranda’s outfit. He told her to.”

With a reluctant sigh, I folded the golden yellow costume over my arm and took Victoria’s hand. We headed to the line at the register.

When we returned to the house, I had to make a quick dinner before Victoria’s piano lesson. I was stirring the sauce while Victoria buttered pieces of Italian bread and placed them on a plate. We were singing the theme song to one of her educational cartoons when I was locked into those damn emerald eyes. I cleared my throat and Victoria fell silent.

“Good evening, Dr. Bishop.”

“Good evening.” He took long graceful strides to the refrigerator and opened the door. He leaned down for a moment squinting into the artificial lighting.

“Um…are you hungry, Dr. Bishop?” I grabbed two plates from the cupboard and hesitated, waiting on his answer.

His head snapped in my direction. “I can get something, thank you. It’s not your respons–”

“It’s really not a problem,” I interrupted. He looked irritated. “There’s plenty.” I grabbed a third plate.

I moved Victoria’s plate and mine over to the other side of the counter where the stools were. Dr. Bishop walked over and grabbed the remaining plate.

“Thank you,” he said in a flat tone.

“Sure.”

He hesitated with the plate of food in his hand. His eyes snapped to meet my gaze, and he quickly walked out of the room.

“Oh-kay...” I breathed out and lightly shook my head.

Halloween arrived. Our costumes were laid out on my bed. I curled and pulled my hair up according to the picture Victoria had given me for reference.

I pulled Victoria’s hair back and was combing out her costume’s wig into large waves when I heard the doorbell chime. Dressed in a pair of short cotton shorts and a white tank top, I skipped down the steps toward the door.

Opening the door, I was surprised to see a tall and very pregnant blonde woman. She eyed me curiously. Her eyes were a pretty violet-blue, and even with the large round stomach, I could see she had one hell of a body.

“You must be Sophia, the new nanny?”

I nodded with wide eyes.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Collin’s sister-in-law, Larissa.” She held out her hand and I took it, gripping lightly.

“Oh, I’m sorry, please come in.” I shook my head and felt like a fool for gawking at her for so long. She lightly laughed.

“My nanny, Amber, and my son Ryan haven’t arrived yet?”

“No, not yet.”

“Hmmm, I thought they would be here by now. I wanted to get some pictures.” She held up a camera. As she was speaking I took in the fact she was wearing a very lovely pink satin gown that curved over her belly fittingly.

I heard a throat clear and spun around. There stood a very handsome baby-faced man in a gray tuxedo. He pushed the half-closed door open and walked in.

“I-I’m sorry,” I spluttered.

“It’s not a problem.” He moved to Larissa. “They aren’t here?” He looked between her and me. I shook my head.

“Not yet, honey. Can we wait a few minutes?” She gave a pout face that could rival Victoria’s.

“Of course,” he kissed her head and then focused on me. “Is my brother home?”

“I’m not sure, sir. I haven’t seen him today.”

“Oh god, don’t call me sir.” He took three large heavy steps with his hand out. “I’m Collin’s brother, Max.” I took his hand, and he motioned over his shoulder. You’ve already met my better half.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet both of you.” I smiled. “Can I get you–?”

“It’s not your job serve them.” Dr. Bishop walked off the last step in a black tux fitting the charity event they were all attending tonight. The way it cut around his shoulders sent a weird tingle through my body. His eyes roamed over me.

“I was just being polite.” I forced civility into my voice.

“Well, I’ll take care of them, thank you. Perhaps you should go put on some clothes.”

I looked down at myself and swallowed the urge to tell him to go back to the depths of hell.
Yeah, a black tux all right, black like his soul.

“If you’ll excuse me.” I moved towards the steps.

“Collin, that was unnecessary. She’s clearly in the middle of getting ready for her costume,” Larissa whispered, but I still heard. Feeling smug, a smile threatened to reveal itself.

“It is not necessary to answer my door half-dressed either,” he said, loud enough for me to hear.

My hands reflexively clenched into tight fists. I should’ve gone with the nun costume. Images of pressing a silver cross to his forehead and expelling his demons flashed through my mind.

I pushed aside my anger and humiliation and focused on getting ready. After getting Victoria’s make-up finished, I helped her into her mermaid costume. We could hear the arrival of children.

“Can I go down now?” she beamed.

“Of course. I just have to put my dress on and then I’ll be down.” She bolted from the room as I slipped into the large shiny yellow ball gown. I took one last look in the floor length mirror and huffed. “Ugh, I look like Walt Disney puked sunshine and glitter all over me.”

Reaching the top of the steps, I looked down and saw a mass of people. I caught a glimpse of Miranda half way down the staircase and immediately my mood perked up.

Feeling eyes on me, I turned. Dr. Bishop was standing in the room across from the stairs with his brother and an unknown blond man, all of them with a drink in their hand. I quickly looked away and headed toward the crowd in the foyer.

“Rand!” I hugged her. “You look so cute!” Miranda was wearing a Jasmine costume with her mid-drift exposed and a gold band on the long black wig on her head. “And you...wow...Sophia, you look amazing.” She motioned for me to spin.

“I’ll say.” Lucas’s voice drew my attention. He stood next to Benji, who was dressed as Aladdin to match Miranda. Lucas was dressed as one of the Disney princes, but I couldn’t tell which one. He walked forward, took my glove-covered hand, and placed a kiss on my knuckles.

“Thanks.”

I heard a familiar giggle and found Victoria watching the exchange.

“Are you spying on me?” I poked her ribs with my pointer finger. She shook her head, laughing.

“Sophia.” I looked up and saw Ella.

“You’ve got your own tribe, huh?”

She nodded. Then Ella and both Wright children broke into that Native American Indian call you hear on old westerns.

“This is William.” Ella pointed to a tall guy with blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. “He works for the Bedford family.”

“It’s nice to meet you.” I took in his costume along with the two small twin boys standing with him. They all had on tight black ninja costumes with red headbands, swords, and nun chucks.

“You too. Ella has been talking a lot about you. It’s nice to put a face with the name,” he smiled warmly. “This is Michael and Gregory, Allison and Jonathan’s children.”

“I’m Amber.” A girl with light brown hair, golden eyes, and light freckles put her hand out. “I’m Dr. and Mrs. Bishop’s nanny.” She leaned in and whispered, “Larissa and Max.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Amber.” She was dressed in a cheerleader uniform and little Ryan was in a full football outfit. “I’m Sophia, obviously.”

“I know. Ella has been talking a lot about you.”

“You guys are making me sound like a stalker,” Ella protested. "Don’t make me sick my Indians on you," she threatened.

"Bring it," William laughed. "Show her boys." All three of them took a ninja pose and made a ‘hoowah’ sound as they chopped the air with their hands.

“Well, if everyone is here, let’s get going,” I announced. “Someone who knows what the heck we’re doing, please lead the way.”

“Wait, wait…” Larissa hurried the best she could into the foyer. “I want pictures.” Her smile was bright and perfect. Max moved up behind her quickly.

“Honey, please don’t move around so quickly.” He rubbed her belly.

“Nonsense,” she swatted his hand away and pulled the camera up to her eyes.

Amber and Ryan posed together, then all the kids posed together, and Amber took a picture of Ryan with his parents. Larissa kissed all the kids on top of their heads before telling them to have fun.