“I have nothing to wear,” Annie sighed into the phone. It was Saturday afternoon and JC had taken over earlier than expected. He’d woken up at ten and had been awfully cheerful towards Annie and Emma-Claire and after lunch, he’d told Annie to go ahead and take the rest of the day off. Annie reminded him once more that tomorrow he was on all day and JC just nodded and grinned. Annie ignored it and had gone back to the pool house to get ready for the evening. Now, she was talking to Megan and pulling clothes out of her closet and throwing them on the bed. “How do I have so many clothes and nothing to wear?”

“Where’s he taking you?” Megan asked.

“Nobu.”

“Ooh fancy shmancy.”

“He says he heard they have good sushi.”

“So I hear. What do I know, though? I’m just a poor nanny,” Megan teased.

“Shut up. Seriously, what do I wear tonight?”

“Being that my cousin has seen you in next to nothing, I’m pretty sure it won’t matter,” Megan couldn’t help but take a jab at her.

“I’m going to hang up on you,” Annie warned her friend.

“Fine. What about that strapless red dress you got at Express a few months ago?”

Annie thought for a moment and reached into the back of her closet, pulling out a cherry red strapless dress that she’d forgotten about. It hit her just above the knee and she could put a black blazer with it and her black pumps.

“Perfect. Thanks,” Annie began to put the other clothes back into her closet.

“You’re welcome. Call me if he spends the night!”

“Bye, Megan,” Annie hung up and put the phone down on the bed. It was almost five and she had three hours to get ready. She decided to soak in the tub for a bit and do a bit of pampering. After all, she hadn’t been on a date in quite some time and she deserved it. She poured bath salts into the water and put on an Ingrid Michaelson station on Pandora. She sunk into the warm water and thought about the other night with Doug on the couch. Annie smirked and wondered if he’d end up in her bed after all.

For the last four hours, JC had done nothing but spend time with his daughter. At first, he hadn’t known what to do with her. He’d really only had one or two days alone with her and that had been before the trip to New York and before he’d come to the realization of how much he was behaving like his biological father. At first, Emma-Claire was distant with him. She only agreed to playing a game after JC got her laughing by telling her a few “knock-knock” jokes and then he’d won her over. They began by taking a short walk together around the block, playing four games of Candyland in a row, and Emma-Claire showing him her favorite show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She’d fallen asleep for an hour – in JC’s lap nonetheless – and when she’d woken up, she immediately wanted to play Memory. JC had to admit – it wasn’t as hard or as scary as he’d thought it would be and more and more he was beginning to enjoy this time with his daughter.

“Okay, your turn, Daddy!” Emma-Claire pointed to the Memory cards on the kitchen table. JC yawned and smiled at her as he flipped over a card. It was the butterfly that Emma-Claire had been trying to match. Her eyes got big and she gasped and put her hands over her mouth. “I know where it is! I know where it is!” she squealed. JC put his finger on top of a card and flipped it revealing the other butterfly.

“So that’s two matches for Daddy and five for you,” he told Emma-Claire. “You’re good at this game.”

“Annie plays it with me all the time. And I play it at school, too,” Emma-Claire went to turn over a new card but stopped and looked at JC. “Daddy, do you like Annie?”

JC felt his face turn red. He’d thought of her the whole plane ride back and he was ashamed to admit that he’d woken up this morning hard as a rock after having somewhat of an explicit dream about her. He’d managed to push it from his mind and tried to tell himself it was nothing. He’d had plenty of dreams before about women in his life. He was still too embarrassed to ever tell his best friend Autumn about the one he’d had of her getting him off a few months ago.

He cleared his throat. “What do you mean, Emma?”

“You always are mean to her,” Emma-Claire said bluntly. “You always get upset with her.”

That was true. He’d not been as professional as he’d liked to be with Annie in front of his daughter. “We’re just getting to know each other,” was his quick response. “I like her. She’s a nice person and she takes good care of you.”

“Do you like me?” Emma-Claire rested her chin in her little hand and looked right at her father.

“Of course I like you, Emma!” JC stood and walked over to the other side of the table. He pulled her up from her seat and settled her in his lap. “Look, I know I probably haven’t been the best dad to you. But you were a big surprise and I’m still trying to get used to having a little girl.”

“How come you left me here and I couldn’t go to New York?” Emma-Claire looked up at him, those blue eyes penetrating into his.

“You would have been bored,” JC assured her. “I was in meetings all day long.”

Emma-Claire said nothing, only leaned into JC and rested her head against his chest. She was quiet and JC found himself stroking her long, brown hair with his fingers. It had come suddenly, but naturally. Ever since Annie had told him he was becoming a stranger to his daughter, he’d thought of nothing but wanting to be better. Better at everything. He cringed when he thought of that article that was out in print, but remembered what Annie had said on the phone – he could become that father he’d been in the interview. He wanted to become that father in that interview.

“Daddy?”

“Huh?”

“I miss Mommy.”

It was the first time she’d ever said it. Of course she’d mentioned her mother every so often, especially when JC or Annie would try something new with her. But she’d never come out and told either of them –that he knew of anyway- that she missed her mother. It was only appropriate that she’d confessed it to him, her father.

“I know you do,” JC kissed the top of her forehead and squeezed her closer. It was easy. He liked this moment he was having with her. It wasn’t as terrifying or as uncomfortable as he’d felt it might be and he was ashamed at himself for not letting it happen sooner. And it was then that he realized that had Shayna never gotten sick, he might have never known he had a daughter. “I know you do, Emma. But I promise I am going to take good care of you from now on,” JC looked down at her.

“You and Annie, right?” Emma-Claire grinned.

JC looked out at the pool house and then back at his child. “Right.”

Annie double-checked herself in the full -length mirror in the bathroom before she left the pool house. She’d told Doug to pick her up at the main house because she’d also promised Emma-Claire she’d tell her goodnight before she went out with him. The dress worked perfectly well and Annie couldn’t help but notice how it accentuated her breasts and made them look bigger than they were. She adjusted the blazer and touched up her lipstick before walking out of the pool house and over to the sliding glass door that led into the kitchen. JC was standing at the refrigerator with the door open and blocked her way from going into the living room.

“Um, sorry, JC, I need to get by,” she tapped his arm.

JC had been looking for the chocolate sauce for Emma-Claire’s ice cream and poked his head back, nearly gawking at the sight of Annie before him. She was wearing a red dress that exposed the top part of her cleavage, showed off her long legs, and to top it off, her normally curly locks were straightened and fell around her face. She looked like a different woman than the woman who was in jeans and a t-shirt ninety percent of the time he was with her. He did his best not to stare, only moved out of the way and said something about Emma-Claire sitting on the couch waiting for her. He watched her leave and noticed that the dress also did something for her butt and he couldn’t help but stare after her.

“You look like a princess!” he heard Emma-Claire gasp when she saw Annie.

“Thanks, Emma-Claire!” Annie replied and JC soon followed her trail to the living room. She was sitting on the couch next to the little girl and trying to pull her dress down as far as it would go to cover her exposed thigh. JC’s eyes had already landed there and his mind wandered into a million different places at once. Doug was a lucky man. A very lucky man.

“So, um, where are you headed?” he finally spoke, doing his best not to gaze at her cleavage and trying to look straight at her facial features.

“Nobu. That fancy sushi place. He says it’s really good,” Annie replied. “Then I think we might go to a wine bar.”

“Nobu is great,” JC nodded. “I hope you have fun.”

“Thanks,” Annie smiled warmly at him and JC smiled back, careful not to stare at her too long. “I’ll come back through the pool entrance. No need to leave the door unlocked.”

“Sure. Yeah. That’s fine,” JC nodded and wondered if Doug would also be using the pool entrance with her. Or what else he’d be doing with her. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it, he kept telling himself. He needed to be set up with someone. He needed a relationship. Or just sex. Either one. Anything to get his mind off of the woman that he’d hired to be his daughter’s nanny.

“Are you okay?” Annie ventured to ask. “You’ve been acting a little off all day.”

“Huh? Have I? It’s jet lag,” JC answered quickly. So, she’d noticed he’d been different. It was probably because he’d never been so cordial to her as he’d been that day. But she’d made him think about his actions and it had made him want to be different. “Hey, Emma, do you want your ice cream?” He needed to go back into the kitchen. Lusting after Annie right now was not helping matters, especially since she was wearing a dress that made her stand out even more to him. At that moment the doorbell rang.

“That’s for me,” Annie stood to her feet. “Be good for your daddy. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” She bent down to kiss Emma-Claire’s cheek.

“I will,” Emma-Claire nodded. “Daddy, did you find the chocolate sauce?”

JC had been watching the interaction between Annie and Emma-Claire and barely heard the question. “Huh? What?”

Annie looked at him as though he were crazy. “JC, did you drink too much at dinner?” she teased him, walking to the front door. “The chocolate sauce is in the pantry, by the way. It’s not opened yet so I didn’t put it in the refrigerator.”

“Pantry. Yep. Thanks,” JC smiled at her and watched her open the door. Doug stood on the other side dressed in jeans and a white button down shirt. He smiled at her and leaned over to peck her cheek. JC watched as Annie returned the kiss, turned to wave at Emma-Claire and shut the door behind her.

Nobu was loud and swanky and everything Annie had imagined an upscale L.A. restaurant to be. She’d been to Koi, which was much like Nobu in her opinion, and although the food was delicious, Annie had decided it was much too overpriced. She and Doug sat at the bar while they waited for their table and watched the A-listers trickle in with their dates. Neil Patrick Harris and his husband walked past them holding hands, George Clooney and a blonde that Annie assumed would become his next dating victim ordered martinis and were then whisked away to a private room, and Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield were next waiting with a few friends. Annie never got star struck anymore. She’d been in LA long enough to know that it didn’t matter. People were people. And now she was living at the home of a celebrity and he’d certainly shown his ass enough for Annie to know that people didn’t change just because they were famous. Though she had to give him credit. He’d certainly been different since he’d come back from New York the night before. She wondered what could have possibly changed.

“Deep in thought?” Doug tapped her knee with his finger and Annie turned to face him and smiled.

“No, just people watching,” Annie sipped her wine. She didn’t feel like going into it with Doug discussing work. “So, when are you coming back?” She got straight to the point. No sense in wondering if this was a relationship worth working at if he was going to be all the way in Texas and not ever come out to California.

Doug reached over to peck her lips, his forehead resting against hers. “I’ll come back every weekend if I can,” his kiss deepened. “You’re amazing, Annie.”

“You hardly know me. In fact, you probably know more about what’s underneath this dress than anything else,” she winked at him and rested the palm of her hand on his cheek.

“Is that so bad?” he was teasing her, and draped his fingers on her thigh. “From what I know, I think you’re pretty great. Megan’s told me a lot about you to begin with. I trust my cousin.”

Annie pressed her lips to his and then they were interrupted by the hostess, telling them that their table was ready. Doug helped Annie off of the stool she’d been sitting on and they followed their waitress to a table in the middle of the restaurant.

“So, if I come back next weekend, could you go on another date?” Doug asked her after they’d finished ordering.

Annie nodded. “I have Saturdays off. And I’m sure you could come over and hang out with me and Emma-Claire during the day if you wanted to.”

“Megan might get tired of me staying over as much as I might start doing,” Doug raised an eyebrow.

Annie bit her lip and looked at him, her eyes twinkling flirtatiously. “Who says you’re gonna be at Megan’s all the time?”

They’d barely made it back to JC’s driveway before Doug had whisked Annie’s blazer away from her shoulders. He wrapped both arms around her and nipped at her shoulder while Annie tried to quietly open the gate to the pool. The main house was dark except for a light on in JC’s room and she knew that the outside echoed and didn’t want to wake Emma-Claire. He followed her to the pool house and Annie quickly unlocked it before they nearly tripped walking inside together. Their kisses were frenzied and passionate and Annie was walking backwards upstairs to the loft while Doug was practically crawling on top of her before they reached the bed.

“You’re on the pill?” Doug gasped between kisses. He unzipped the back of her dress and Annie shimmied out of it, kicking it to the floor.

“Yeah,” she pulled him on top of her, tugging at the buttons on his shirt. “And you’ve got something?”

“Two of them,” Doug chuckled. Annie knew even though she was on the pill that condoms weren’t really all that necessary, but she wanted to be safe and not sorry and certainly not pregnant.

She leaned back on her elbows and propped up her legs, throwing her head back seductively while Doug kissed his way down her body. She didn’t care that she had to be up early tomorrow. All she wanted was this and she wanted it now.

JC had heard the car pull into the driveway. He’d heard the gate click when Annie had unlocked it to get to the pool house. He’d gone over to the window that overlooked the pool and had seen them groping each other as she fought to open the door to get inside. Jealousy coursed through him once more and he wanted to throw something at Doug. Doug, that lucky, lucky son of a bitch. He was tired of fighting with himself about this any longer. He knew it was a stupid crush of convenience. Annie was there, she knew how to take care of his kid, and she was cute. No, she was beautiful. He’d have to be careful now and he knew it. And obviously, from the looks of it, she was taken and he’d have to sequester his feelings – or whatever this was – and not say a word. He laid down on the bed and picked up his phone, texting Lauren a dirty message. He could at least get off and get his mind off of the girl who had taken up space in his thoughts lately.

The problem with texting Lauren was that when she responded back to him about what she was doing to herself, JC wasn’t picturing her. He was picturing Annie. It unnerved him because he’d texted her to get his mind off of Annie and it wasn’t working. All he could visualize was Annie in that sexy red dress and her hair falling onto his chest and her lips…..JC threw a pillow across the room. It was going to be a long day working with her tomorrow.