Chapter 17

"I heard you scream and I thought something might've happened. Are you alright?" Lionel asked, voice low as he held me against his chest.

My heart fluttered against my ribs, my pulse racing. I couldn't think of anything to say as a response, not when he was so close and warm against me. I opened and closed my mouth, and then I tried to push myself up off of him.

"Please, be careful." Lionel tightened his hold on me. "Let me help you so you don't fall getting up."

For a moment, he didn't move. He just held me close against his chest.

I couldn't help but breathe in his smell, something warm, spicy, and intoxicating. I wondered if Lionel noticed the tension too.

The lights flickered back on, and Lionel slowly moved to help me get back to my own two feet. I felt strangely cold as his body moved away from mine.

"Thank you." I said quietly, looking down. "For trying to help me."

I felt his hands on my back, brushing against my bare skin. I let out an embarrassingly squeaky noise as he startled me. I sucked in a breath, trying to form words.

Lionel just let out a low chuckle as he pulled the zipper on the dress upwards. "It suits you well. Red is really your color."

His hand lingered for a moment on my back, even after the zipper was all the way up. Then he stepped back, his hand falling back to his side.

I shook my head, feeling my face heat up. I wondered if he was thinking of the lingerie he saw fall out of my bag a while back.

I cleared my throat, smiling bitterly. "I don't know. I think I might be too fat for this dress. Otherwise the zipper wouldn't have gotten stuck." I tried to make my voice lighthearted, as if I was joking.

Lionel frowned, his warm eyes shining with concern. "I think you... I think your figure is perfect." He seemed almost at a loss for words, but what he said felt genuine.

I almost believed him.

"Why are you saying something like that?" I asked, shaking my head in disbelief. "That's not the sort of thing you say to- to just a nanny.

"I'm sorry." Lionel said softly. "I won't say anything like that again."

I looked at him in surprise, searching his face to try and figure out if he was going to tease me again.

"You are not just a nanny. You're Patti's mother."

I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. I didn’t know if I could believe him, but I wanted to more than almost anything.

"Are you ready?" Lionel asked, gesturing towards the door.

I nodded, and then together we stepped out of the small changing room. We walked back out to where the girls were sitting waiting for us.

"What do you think, girls?" Lionel asked, moving to stand behind the couch where they were sitting.

"You look so pretty, mommy!" Patti exclaimed, excitedly.

"You look really nice." Vera nodded in agreement. "That's a really good dress for you."

I smiled warmly at the girls. "Thank you." I said, turning to look at myself in a mirror the stylist team had set up.

I turned to one side and then the other, examining my appearance in the mirror. I could see a glimpse of my old self there. And I liked the way I looked.

"There was an issue with the dress." I heard Lionel say to the lead stylist in a low voice.

"Oh? What was wrong with it?" She asked with a furrowed brow.

"The zipper became stuck on the fabric very easily." Lionel responded, crossing his arms over his chest. "Will that be an issue if we buy that dress?"

"Oh, no, no." The stylist said, shaking her head earnestly. "This is a sample dress and has been tried on a few times before. It's likely that the wear and tear made the zipper stick more easily than usual."

The stylist smiled brightly. "If you purchase this dress, I will personally see to it that everything is of the highest quality." She promised.

Lionel looked back to me with a small smile on his face. "Then, we'll take it."

I looked away from Lionel, back to my reflection in the mirror. My face was flushed and pink. I smiled to myself.

But there were still other things to do. After we changed back into our normal clothes, the girls went to play in Patti's room, and I went to the kitchen to bake their cake.

Lionel had offered to buy a cake from some bakery downtown, but I wanted to do it myself. I liked baking and I had made every one of Patti's birthday cakes so far. And especially since this might be the last birthday I spent with her, I wanted to bake the cake.

I checked on the girls while it was baking and went back to the kitchen to take it out of the oven. While it was cooling off, I started to make the frosting. Lionel walked in as I was adding food coloring to it.

"What are you doing?" He asked curiously.

"Making the frosting pink." I said, stirring the food coloring in and watching the white frosting slowly become pink.

"Ah. Alright." He said with a nod. "And why is that frosting to the side?"

"I'm going to use that to write on the cake." I responded simply. "I'm going to make it dark blue or purple. Not sure yet."

"Are you just going to watch me?" I asked with a quirked brow as I went to get a knife to frost the cake.

"I was going to help, but it doesn't really seem like you need it." He answered with a shrug.

"If you want, you can put some food coloring into that." I nodded to the frosting I was going to use to write. "Pick purple or blue and just put it in and mix till it looks dark enough."

"Alright." Lionel nodded. He unbuttoned the sleeves of his white button-up shirt, rolling them up past his elbows.

I pointedly did not stare at his tan, muscular arms while he stirred. I focused instead on the cake in front of me, covering it with the pink frosting I made.

For a few minutes, we just worked in an oddly comfortable silence. Then Lionel spoke. "Does this look good?" Lionel asked, showing me the bowl of frosting.

"Perfect." I nodded, smiling at the dark blue frosting. "Thank you."

He nodded, clearing his throat. He paused, frowning at me.

"What?" I asked, wondering if I was going to lose his favor again.

Lionel stepped forward, taking my chin in his hand. My heart stopped.

"You've got some frosting on your cheek." He murmured softly, rubbing his thumb against my cheek to wipe the frosting away.

"Oh. Thank you." I said.

He held my face for a moment longer than necessary and I couldn't help but notice the intimacy and odd domesticity of the moment.

Then he stepped away and the moment was over. I felt like I could breathe again, but I was a little disappointed. There was a spark of electricity lingering on my cheek where he'd wiped the frosting off.

"I have a meeting I have to prepare for." Lionel said softly.

"Alright. Have a good meeting." I averted my gaze from him back to the cake in front of me.

I heard the door open and shut as Lionel left the room. Almost immediately after Lionel left, the door opened again and the sound of heels clicking on the tile floor made me look up.

Cora walked into the room with a haughty sneer as she watched me. "You're always doing such... unimportant, menial work." She said with an exaggerated sigh.

I wondered briefly if Cora knew that Lionel and I were currently on good terms. I thought about telling her that I liked to bake, especially when I was baking for Patti.

Instead I just smiled faintly at her and shrugged.

The next day when I arrived to the party in the beautiful dress that Lionel bought for me, I saw Cora watching me as I walked over to Lionel. I saw the jealousy in her eyes as Lionel pulled me into his arms.