Free Hip Check (New York Blades) by Deirdre Martin

disbelief. “You make me feel like poking my own eyes out sometimes, you know that?” He reached for a piece of quesadilla in the center of the table. “Why are you trying to stay out of her way, Saari? Attracted to the help?”
    “Not my type,” Esa stated flatly, which was true. He liked his women tall, blond, and malleable. None of those words applied to Michelle Beck, particularly “malleable.” But it didn’t matter. She wasn’t there as his girlfriend. All he knew was that the feeling of helplessness and chaos that had been dragging him down before he hired her was gone, and that Nell seemed happy. So the attributes Michelle did have—protective, loyal, affectionate, just to name a few—were definitely what Nell needed.
    “I put it the wrong way,” he amended. “I’m trying to let her establish a rapport with Nell.”
    Jason snorted. “You mean you’ve handed the kid over to her so you don’t have to worry about her anymore.”
    Esa was surprised to find himself getting defensive.
“No
.
”
    “So the nanny is cute,” said Ulf, determined to stick to that part of the conversation. “Does she have a boyfriend?”
    Esa shrugged. “No idea. I don’t ask about her personal life.”
    “She can’t have much of a personal life if she’s a live-in nanny,” Eric reasoned. “How much time a week does she get off?”
    “Uh . . .”
    Eric smacked his palm down on the table as his mouth fell open. “You’re not even sure, are you? Did you even read the fucking contract?”
    “What’s to read?” Esa replied cavalierly.
    “Dude,” said Jason, “don’t you think you should talk to her about how erratic your hours can be, with road trips and stuff? What if there’s a conflict between that and what’s in the contract, asshole? Then what are you going to do?”
    “She knows what I do for a living.”
    “But you were interviewing her, dickwad, not the other way around,” said Eric. “Don’t you think you need to have an actual
conversation
about it?”
    “Yeah. I guess.” He vaguely remembered Michelle saying she needed to talk to him about a few things, but she always seemed to catch him when he was walking out the door. He couldn’t remember what those “few things” were. Maybe she hadn’t gone that far into detail?
    “Speaking of talking to each other about things,” Rory murmured to Esa.
    “What’s that?”
    “What the hell was that on Wednesday, you dropping Nell off at our flat in the morning because the nanny was off and you wanted to go to Barneys? What would you have done if Erin and I weren’t home? Why couldn’t you have brought Nell with you?”
    “I didn’t want her to get bored,” Esa confessed.
    “There’s something to be said for that,” said Eric in his defense. “I mean, who doesn’t remember being dragged around on errands with their parents? It IS boring.”
    “That’s no excuse,” Rory countered. “We all have to do things we don’t want to do. So what if she got bored? A little boredom never killed anyone.” He glared at Esa. “Don’t hide behind the boredom excuse: you didn’t want her with you. For those few hours, you wanted to be free as a bird.”
    “Go fuck yourself,” Esa muttered.
    “No, you go fuck yourself,” Rory countered. “You better sort
all
of it out, Esa, or you’re going to find yourself nannyless, not to mention friendless, pretty fast.”
    Esa tried maintaining his scowl, but couldn’t. Rory was right. He and Michelle needed to be on the same page when it came to Nell. He had to sit down with her. The idea didn’t exactly thrill him, but he knew it had to be done.
    “I’ll speak with her tomorrow night.” He had a dinner date, but he was sure he could switch it so he got home early enough to say good night to Nell, and talk to Michelle. It wouldn’t take long.
    * * *
    “These guys are
unbelievable,” Michelle marveled as she settled down on her bed with a bowl of chocolate chip ice cream to watch
American