JC came downstairs the next morning and was met with a gleeful Emma-Claire, who was talking a mile a minute while eating her oatmeal. His head pounded and he blamed the three glasses of wine he’d had at the bar the night before. He threw a smile at Emma-Claire and Annie, who was sitting across from her, drinking coffee and hanging on to every word the little girl said.
“...do you think they will have swings at my new school?” Emma-Claire was asking, when JC came into the kitchen.
“Oh I bet they will,” Annie replied, looking up at JC and returning his smile. “Good morning.” She greeted him and JC nodded to her.
“Good morning,” he said, going over to the coffee maker. “Hi Emma-Claire.”
Emma-Claire’s smile faded and she mumbled, “Hi, Daddy,”
“What’s wrong?” JC asked, pouring the coffee into a mug.
“You said you’d tuck me in last night. You promised Mimi you would,” Emma-Claire’s voice was barely audible as she suddenly began to play with her spoon in the oatmeal. Annie said nothing, just waited to see how JC would respond.
“Um, yeah, well, Daddy got busy at his office,” JC cleared his throat and walked over to the table. “I’m sorry about that.” Emma-Claire didn’t look up at him, only continued to play with her oatmeal. “I can..um, I can try to come and tuck you in tonight,” he offered, though it sounded like more of a question than a statement.
“Ok,” Emma-Claire finally picked up a spoonful of oatmeal and ate it, still not looking at him.
“Um, Annie, so I’ll hopefully be back by seven,” he said, feeling more uncomfortable than ever.
“You can sit,” Annie said to him, trying her best not to be sarcastic. “There’s room and everything.”
JC nodded and cleared his throat again, something he did when he was uncomfortable, which lately, had been a lot. Emma-Claire moved over so that he could sit next to her. “So, you start school today. Are you excited?” He could at least pretend to be interested in understanding the child.
“Yes,” Emma-Claire looked up at him. “Annie is taking me and then when she picks me up she said she would make me a tuna fish sandwich.”
“Oh. You like tuna fish?” JC asked, sipping his coffee.
“It’s my favorite. I told you when we went shopping with Mimi. Remember?” Emma-Claire’s blue eyes looked into JC’s and he rubbed the back of his neck and nodded his head. If he was completely honest, he hadn’t remembered much from that day, except surviving through it and getting back home.
“Yeah. Uh huh,” he looked at the time on the microwave. “Well, I better get going. You guys have a great time.”
“Bye, Daddy,” Emma-Claire moved to hug him and in doing so spilled the mug of coffee all over his jeans.
“Shit!” JC snapped and unknowingly glared at her. “That was hot! Dammit, now I have to change and I’ll be late!” He stood quickly and began to shake out his jeans, getting more drops of coffee on the floor. Emma-Claire’s lower lip trembled and she looked from her father to Annie.
“It’s okay, Emma-Claire,” Annie tried to soothe her.
“I’m gonna be late,” JC griped and left the kitchen, stomping up the stairs.
Emma-Claire promptly burst into tears, her hands over her mouth, observing the damage that she blamed herself for.
“Emma-Claire, look at me,” Annie stood and went over to the little girl, who sat shaking in her seat. “Shh, listen. You didn’t do it on purpose. I’m gonna clean it up. It’ll be okay. I promise.” Emma-Claire reached for Annie and sobbed into her shoulder. Annie looked at the stairs and glared at them as though they were JC. She was in absolute shock at the way he had just behaved. As though spilling coffee was the worst offense someone could commit. As though Emma-Claire didn’t already feel that JC, her own father, hated her. It would be hard to convince her otherwise now. “C’mon. I’ll clean it up when I get back. Let’s go to school. Okay?”
Emma-Claire held onto Annie as she stood up and wrapped her legs around Annie’s waist. Annie collected her purse from the island along with Emma-Claire’s backpack and snack. She looked back at the staircase as she left through the front door, wondering if she should let JC know they were leaving, but thought better of it and just shut the door firmly as she left the house. Emma-Claire sniffled until they reached the preschool and then saw the playground gleaming pretty and new. It had two sets of swings, a large slide, and plenty of climbing apparatuses.
“Looks fun, huh?” Annie said to her through the rearview mirror and Emma-Claire grinned through her tearstained face. “Ok, girl. Let’s go meet your teacher.” Annie parked the car and helped Emma-Claire out of the car. They made their way to the front of the school, which was part of the local Lutheran church. They walked down a long hallway that circled around until they found the 4K classroom. Emma-Claire squeezed Annie’s hand as they approached the room and Annie knew she was getting nervous. She knelt down to Emma-Claire’s level and smiled at her, moving a piece of brown hair away from her eyes. “I know new places aren’t a lot of fun at first. You are going to be fine. I’ll be here as soon as you get out and when we get home we’ll have a tuna fish sandwich together.”
“Will you meet my teacher with me?” Emma-Claire put her hand on Annie’s shoulder.
“Of course!” Annie stood and took her hand, walking into the classroom.
“Are you Emma-Claire Minnello?” a young woman with blonde hair approached them. She was wearing dressy jeans and a bright colored top. Her smile was friendly and Emma-Claire seemed to relax as soon as the woman approached them.
“Hi,” Annie said. “I’m Annie Leighton. I’m Emma-Claire’s nanny.”
“I’m Rachel Morton. But Emma-Claire, you can call me Miss Morton, okay?” Miss Morton smiled down at the child. “Why don’t you go over to the coloring station? That’s where a few of the other girls are.” Emma-Claire looked up at Annie and Annie winked at her, giving her the okay.
“I’ll be here at twelve. I promise,” Annie went to hug her and Emma-Claire clung tightly until she knew she had to let go. Annie turned to Miss Morton. “I’ll be dropping her off and picking her up most days. Her dad is in the music industry and stays busy.”
“They let me in on who her dad is. Mum’s the word until it’s out publicly,” Miss Morton assured Annie. “And I’m so sorry to hear about what happened to her mother. She sure has been through a lot. I hope she’s happy here. I’ll do my best to make her feel at home.”
“Thanks so much,” Annie smiled. “She’s a pretty great kid. I’m still getting to know her, but we’ve bonded fast.” Annie wanted to add, “Because her father is an asshole and wants nothing to do with her.”
“Good to know,” Miss Morton looked over at Emma-Claire who was already conversing with another girl in the class. “You can come and pick her up in the classroom at twelve.”
“Perfect,” Annie turned to leave, and then heard Emma-Claire call for her. She turned and the little girl was standing in front of her, opening her arms for one last hug.
“Bye, Annie,” Emma-Claire wrapped her arms around Annie’s neck.
“Bye, Emma-Claire,” Annie squeezed her before letting go, then left the classroom.
The drive home provided Annie time to think about the events of that morning and the night before. It wasn’t her business to say anything to JC, she knew that from other friends of hers who were also nannies and had had similar experiences. She was the one being paid and it wasn’t her job to tell people how to parent their child. But the fact that JC had blown up at Emma-Claire and had broken his promise to her within a span of 24 hours made Annie livid. She was relieved to see that JC had already left when she came home. If she saw him right now, it would be hard for her to keep her mouth shut.
The mess from that morning was still ever present and Annie immediately began to clean it up, then went ahead and prepared the tuna fish to stick in the refrigerator so it would ready to go when Emma-Claire got home. She went into the living room and saw the piles of laundry still on the couch from the night before. She went upstairs and delivered one of the piles in front of JC’s bedroom door since she had been told his bedroom was off limits. The other two piles belonged to Emma-Claire and Annie began to put them away, then made the bed. She took the picture that Emma-Claire slept with and placed it on the nightstand, propping it against the lamp so that it was visible. She stared at it for a minute. Yes, Emma-Claire definitely looked like her mother, but it was obvious to anyone who knew the situation, that she was JC’s daughter. She left the picture, went downstairs and then to her apartment.
Her cell phone rang as soon as she’d plopped down on the couch. Annie pulled it from her jeans pocket and smiled when she saw it was Patsy McGriffin.
“Hi, Patsy!” she was excited to hear from her old boss. Especially since her present boss had barely conversed with her.
“Annie, how are you? How is everything at the new job?”
“It’s…interesting,” Annie rested her head against the couch cushion. “Definitely a different relationship than I had with you guys.”
“Well, it’s only your first week, right?”
“Something like that, yeah,”
“Give it a while. How is the little girl?”
“She’s adorable. She really clicked with me right away,”
“Oh that’s wonderful. I was hoping she wouldn’t be too difficult,”
“No, she’s not the difficult one,”
“Uh oh,”
Annie knew Patsy was a safe person and spilled to her everything that had happened in the last 24 hours. Her frustration with not being kept in touch with yesterday, the lack of parental responsibility from JC, and the outburst that morning. When she had finished, she felt as though a weight had been lifted.
“Oh, Annie. That poor little girl,”
“Should I say something, Patsy?”
“Well, if he’s late again tonight and you don’t hear from him, then yes, you have every right because he’d already told you he’d be back at a certain time. As for what happened today, I’m afraid you can’t really say much. Sounds like he’s learning what patience and parenting is all at one time,”
“She thinks he hates her,”
“Well, you can’t blame the poor little thing. I’d think the same thing if someone treated me the way he’s treated her. At least she has you. You are going to be the only stable person in that girl’s life, Annie. I hope you know that,”
Annie sighed. “Yeah, I know,”
“You know, it might be fun for Emma-Claire to come have a play date with Ruby and Henry one weekend. You could bring her over here and stay for dinner. I know Ruby would eat her up and Henry would just enjoy not being the youngest,”
“That sounds great, Patsy,” Annie suddenly felt much better after she’d talked to her old boss. “I’ll definitely be in touch.”
“Good,” Annie could hear her smiling on the other end. “Annie, I’m so glad you are where you are. I know you wanted to go to graduate school, but I just think that this little girl needs you in her life right now.”
“Agreed,” Annie stretched out on the couch and yawned.
“Well, I’ll let you go rest up before you go and pick her up. Call me anytime. And please say something to that jackass if he’s late again!”
“No problem there!” Annie laughed. “Bye Patsy.” She hung up and looked at the time. She had a good hour and a half to rest before she needed to get up and collect Emma-Claire.
“We’ve already got a few dates and places for the girls to sing,” Jimmy was telling JC later that afternoon. “Seventeen wants them for an interview in New York next month.” He looked at JC cautiously.
“What? I think that’s great,” JC answered, looking at Jimmy.
“Well, yeah, I know, but are you gonna be able to go?” Jimmy asked. “You know, because of the kid?”
JC rolled his eyes. “Yeah, it’ll be fine. Annie can just watch her and I’ll give her an extra weekend off or something,”
Jimmy eyed his friend and shook his head. “You could bring them along you know,”
“Hell no,” JC shook his head vehemently. “I’m not bringing an entourage across the country.”
“An entourage. Really,” Jimmy snorted. “Your kid and the nanny? You call that an entourage?”
“Whatever. I’m not starting all that. Besides, nobody knows about her yet and I like it like that,” JC turned away to listen to one of the tracks they’d just laid down.
“Um, you know that’s not going to last,” Jimmy turned the volume down on the board, ignoring JC’s protest. “I’m pretty sure word’s gonna get out. You can’t keep her locked up in that house forever like Rapunzel.”
“I know that. She’s at preschool as we speak,” JC moved Jimmy’s hand away from the control panel, but Jimmy disregarded it. “Dude, seriously, lemme fuckin listen to the track!”
“C, you’re acting like this doesn’t exist. It exists. You have a kid and you at least need to acknowledge that!” Jimmy snapped at him and JC frowned.
“Do you know why I was late today? Cause my fucking kid spilled coffee on me! So trust me, I acknowledge her!” JC’s temper flared and he stood to his feet. “I wish everyone would get off my damn back about it. She shows up on my doorstep a week ago and I’m automatically supposed to develop feelings towards her. But I can’t. I can’t.”
“Okay, okay C, calm down,” Jimmy held his hands up in surrender. “Go take a walk or something. You don’t need to be here right now.”
“Yeah, fine, whatever,” JC fumed and exited the studio. The air outside was smoggy and typical of L.A. but he didn’t care. He breathed it in anyway as though it were the sweetest thing he’d ever smelled. He paced up and down the pavement and thought about what had happened that morning with Emma-Claire. She hadn’t meant to spill the coffee and he knew it, but it had disrupted yet something else in his life. He leaned against the wall of the outside of the building and tried to breathe slowly in and out. He pulled out his phone and noted the time. It was after one. He could at least call and see how her first day of preschool went. That would show people he was trying.
“Okay, Emma-Claire, one more game and then it’s naptime,” Annie reached for the Candyland game pieces and put them back at START. Emma-Claire had been on a high since Annie had picked her up. Already she’d made several new friends, painted a picture, and was excited for Thursday when she would go back. Annie had given her lunch and, figuring that she probably wouldn’t be tired enough yet, had decided a few games of Candyland were in order. They sat in the middle of the living room floor and Emma-Claire had beaten Annie both times they’d played.
“Yeah, okay,” Emma-Claire nodded and drew her first card, then frowned. “I wanted the lollipop.”
“You’ll get it,” Annie stifled a chuckle. The cards with the pictures of the candy on them were Emma-Claire’s favorite. Annie went to draw her card when she heard the phone ringing in the kitchen. “Hang on. Be right back.” Annie briskly walked into the kitchen and picked up the cordless phone that was positioned by the toaster oven. “Hello?”
“Hey, um, Annie, it’s JC,”
Annie nearly dropped the phone. “Oh. Hi,”
“Hi. I was just calling to see how Emma-Claire’s first day was. You know, at preschool,”
Obviously, Annie thought, but reserved the sarcasm for another time. “Well, would you like to ask her yourself? We’re playing Candyland but I’m sure she’d love to tell you about it,”
“Oh, um, yeah, sure,”
Annie couldn’t help but smile. Progress. She would give him that. “Okay. Hang on,” she walked back into the living room. “Hey Emma-Claire. Your daddy’s on the phone. He wants to ask you about preschool,”
Emma-Claire looked warily at Annie and then back at the game. “I want to play Candyland,”
JC heard his daughter’s response and cringed.
“You can still play. Talk to your dad first, though. He’s calling from work,”
“I don’t want to,” Emma-Claire looked down at the game.
“It’s okay, Annie,” she heard him say.
“I’m sorry, I think she’s just getting tired,” it was a lie. Emma-Claire was still wide -awake. She was punishing her father for the way he’d been acting and Annie knew it and she also knew that JC wasn’t that dumb and had probably figured the same.
“No, it’s fine,” JC said. “I’ll see you guys tonight.”
“Still thinking you’ll be here around seven?”
“Yeah. If it’s later I’ll call,”
Annie bit her tongue. She didn’t know him well enough yet to say something cheeky. “Okay. Better get back to Candyland,”
“Yeah. See you, Annie,”
JC hung up and closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead with his fingers. This was all going to hell faster than he’d thought it would. Now, his daughter didn’t even want to speak to him. He couldn’t blame her. He’d been an ass and he knew it. He let out another breath then headed back into the studio, his mind focused on his work. He’d worry about what to do with Emma-Claire later.
