Chapter 3

Willow.

What the fuck was I thinking?

Saturday wasn’t even over yet, but I was already regretting my decision to agree to be a nanny for my boss’s son. Andy was just too much for me to handle.

Why did I even offer in the first place? Because whenever I saw Sebastian, I couldn’t help but get all weak in the knees. He was sexy, and with the arrogant way he carried himself while at work, he knew he was right in more than just his looks. Whenever I was around him, I tended to find myself so damn quiet like a sinner in church, but I wasn’t in church I was in the office.

Where did I even get the confidence to claim I’ve babysat before? I wasn’t good with kids, not one little bit.

I heard something else crash, and I winced. I felt more weary than alarmed, though, because this wasn’t the first time I’d listened to the noise. I got up from my small dining table and walked back into the living room, where Andy was. The living room and small dining room were connected through an archway, so I could keep an eye on the little guy and still work. I had thought this would be easy. Boy, was I wrong!

“Andy?” I called out to him when I found him on the floor, sitting in a pile of my classic CD collection. Something, that no one had anymore, too old fashioned but I loved them all the same. I felt like I wanted to cry, but I tried to be gentle when speaking to him. “Andy, you shouldn’t be playing with those, okay? You could hurt them, or hurt yourself. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

I spoke slowly to be sure he was listening, because the boy barely acknowledged when I said something unless it was ‘let’s eat,’ and that had been a disaster in itself. He’d already broke some stuff in the kitchen, raided the cupboards and thrown stuff down, and dropped one lamp to the floor. I was lucky it was plastic, though its cover was broken, and I was also fortunate he didn’t hurt himself.

As I cleaned up his recent mess, he stood silently watching me and didn’t move or speak even when I turned to him. The only sounds I’d heard from him were the yells and screams he let out when he was up to his mischief, so it was probable that he didn’t want to talk to me.

“Listen, Andy,” I started, without any real hope. “I have to go and do some work now. If you need anything, a snack or to use the bathroom, come to me. Okay, Andy?”

He nodded, and I hesitated but eventually got up. I put him back on the couch with his picture book that I didn’t think he’d paid any attention to, at all. I went back to the dining table and sat down, picking up the document in front of me.

My boss might be out of the country for business, but I did have the separate work I needed to do. I had been trying to read up on a case, and I hadn't had much progress because of the little guy. I could have just stayed with him in the living room, but then he left the couch after a while and ran to the kitchen, then messed it up. There was a different archway leading into the kitchen from the dining room so that I could keep an eye on both at the same time at least.

This case was the one I should have been working on with Sebastian, and since he was busy, I would had to do it alone, by the time he got back so we could quickly delve into it and be done by the deadline, or face an unsatisfied client.

I am never doing this again, I silently vowed to myself, rubbing my hands over my face before I delved into the documents. I had a notebook and pen on the table beside the papers where I wrote quick notes. It took a while, but then I realized I’d managed to make a lot of progress.

I couldn’t hear Andy at all. There were no suspicious noises or apparent noises of damage to something in my apartment, but there was no way he would stop just like that.

What was he up to?

I was anxious, not to mention deeply troubled. I had work to do, and I finally got into the groove of it after more than half the day, but I couldn’t even relax and work. Dread was heavy in my chest, and after a quick debate with myself, I decided to go the cautious route. I got up and went to look for the boy.

“Andy?” I called, looking all over the living room to make sure he wasn’t just hiding there. He wasn’t. “Where are you?”

I paused at the kitchen, even though I should have noticed if he’d gone there through the living room entrance. Sure enough, he wasn’t there, either. I continued to look around the apartment, a sick feeling growing with every step I took. Eventually, I found him in my bedroom.

Where he had raided my closet. A bunch of stuff had been tossed aside, but that wasn’t even the worst of it.

In his hand, he held a thick, slightly long dark object. Somehow, the kid found my dildo, and when I walked in, he’d been just about to put the blunt end of it to his mouth for a lick.

“Andy!” I practically screeched, startling the both of us.

Andy looked at me, his eyes wide, dildo held tight in his hand.

“Why did you go there?” I said, frantic, hurrying forward to take it from him. “That isn’t a toy! I mean…it’s not for children!”

The little guy was a wily one, though. The moment I got close, he scrambled to his feet and ran around me before I could catch him, then ran around my apartment as he screamed.

“Andy!” I shouted, right behind him. “Come back here, right now!”

He didn’t listen to me, of course, but he was small, and I was faster, so I caught up with him quickly.

“There you are!” I exclaimed in delight once I caught him by the shoulder.

He tried to struggle out of my hold, but I was not going to be gentle over this. What would I have done if he’d put it in his mouth? I mean, I cleaned it after before and after I used it, but I would be too ashamed of myself to even face my boss.

Then, there was the sound of the front door unlocking, and my eyes widened as I looked up, just in time to catch my mom walking inside the door. With me holding a child, both our hands around the dildo as I tried to pull it away from him.

Mom took in the situation and frowned at me.

“Willow, what the hell is going on?”