Live In Position (5 page)

"Yep, you look marvelous!" She giggled. I convinced her to let me put on a turtleneck and a t-shirt under the pink sweater, for warmth, and took one last look into the mirror before we left.

Claire, her riding instructor, looked me over with large, curious eyes while the other nannies, children, and parents laughed.

"Um, interesting outfit you've got there Sophia." Ella appeared next to me.

"She did it," I yelled loud enough Victoria could hear me and I saw her smile and giggle as Claire helped her onto her horse. "I told her if she aced her math test I would let her dress me up." I did a spin. "You like?"

Ella laughed.

"It's fabulous." We stood talking during the lesson, but the time flies when I actually have an adult to talk to. At seven exactly we drove back to the house.

Walking in the front door we were singing and dancing to a song we just heard in the car. I came to a halt when I turned from shutting the front door and was met by a very thin brown haired woman. She was taking in my appearance critically.

"Aunt Allison," Victoria ran and wrapped her arms around the women's waist. She patted her head and then smiled down at her.

"How is my favorite niece?" Her voice was controlled and arrogant.

Her appearance however, was flawless. She had straight brown hair that was all one length and just reached her shoulders. Her creamy complexion was complimented by perfectly trimmed eyebrows and make-up.

"Great. I just went riding and I got an A on my math test." Victoria beamed proudly at her aunt. Her aunt looked back at me.

"I'm guessing you are the new nanny?"

I nodded.

"Yes, Ma'am." She was observing me again.

"This is Sophia, Aunt Allison. I got to dress her up today because I got an A on my test." Victoria giggled. "Doesn't she look silly?"

Allison nodded with a forced smile.

"Al…" Dr. Bishop's voice cut off when he took in my appearance. For almost a split second I thought a smile would crack his frozen scowl, but instead he seemed to shake his head and turn back to Allison. "Allison, I have these." He handed her a folder and she opened it.

"These aren't them." She sighed. "Maybe Max has them." She huffed and turned her attention back to me. "Does she always go out in public like that?"

Dr. Bishop cleared his throat. "Um…"

"No. It was for Victoria." I said as politely as I could. "Excuse me." I walked passed them and headed up stairs.

"Sophia," I turned around to Victoria's voice. "Can you help me with my homework? It's math again."

"Sure, come on." I motioned for her to follow me. She grabbed her bag and ran up the stairs after me.

I could feel their eyes on me the entire way up the steps and as I was shutting Victoria's door I overheard her shrill voice.

"Collin, how dare her?" she hissed. I smiled and shut the door.

After Victoria was asleep, I waited for Dr. Bishop to call for me or knock on my door; however, it never came. In fact, it would be two weeks before I lay eyes on him again.

Chapter Four

Two weeks had passed since my first run in with Dr. Bishop's sister and things were back to their normally scheduled programming. Today Victoria and I were shopping for Halloween costumes.

"What about a witch?" I pulled the costume off the rack and held it up.

"Nah." Her little head seemed to pivot rapidly on her shoulders as she looked around for the right costume. "THERE," She shouted and I jolted with surprise, causing the whole wrack of witch costumes to fall off the wall. I groaned and started putting them all back up. "Look Sophia, it's perfect!" I hung the last costume up and turned to see her holding up a mermaid costume. In fact it was the sexy mermaid costume.

"Uh…where did you get that?" I raised an eyebrow. She pointed to the adult section. "It's a great costume, but it isn't your size sweetheart." I took the costume and hung it back up. "You need to look in this area." I motioned to the four aisles near us overfilled with children's Halloween costumes. She huffed and started down the next aisle.

"Oh. My. Goodness!" I heard her yell and walked faster to her. Her excited little face was the first thing I saw. "It's," she took a breath to calm herself. "It's Ariel!" She pointed and jumped up and down. I laughed and took the costume from the wrack.

It was indeed Ariel and it was everything from the mermaid tail dress to the red wig.

"It's my size right?"

I nodded, but my eyes widened at the price.

"Victoria, this is really expensive…" I turned and saw the puppy dog eyes and the pout lip. "Ugh, fine. Ariel it is." So, she was going to wear a Halloween costume that cost more than the entire outfit I was currently wearing.

"What about you?"

I looked at her puzzled.

"What about me?"

"You have to dress up too silly. Everyone else will be."

"Everyone else?"

"Yeah, all the nannies dress up." She hurried around the corner of the aisle and back to the adult section. I silently prayed she didn't go back to the sexy mermaid.

"This is perfect!" She pulled a large yellow dress from the wrack. It was bigger than her. Even holding the hanger above her head it pooled at her feet.

"That's perfect huh?" I laughed and took the dress from her, holding it against my body.

"Yes. You can be Belle. We both can be princesses." She bounced up and down excitedly.

"Can't I at least get her regular dress?" I looked away from the dress and to the wrack. "You know that blue one with the apron?" I pointed to it. She shook her head.

"No no…you have to wear the princess one with the sparkles. We can pull your hair up just like Belle's hair in the movie." She clapped.

I looked at the price tag and choked.

"Victoria, this thing is extremely overpriced. I think I should find something less…"

"Don't worry about it Sophia. Daddy doesn't care." She shrugged and I saw a flash of sadness in her eyes. My heart clenched in my chest.

"Sweetheart, I'm not letting your daddy pay for my Halloween costume, and he does care about you, ya know?" I smiled at her, but mentally punched myself for lying. Because, if I were being honest with her, I didn't actually believe he truly cares. Not the way I think a father should. The way my father cared about me when I was little and, in fact, he still cared about me.

"Daddy's card always bought Miranda's outfit. He told her to." I smiled down at her and then took her hand as we headed to the line at the register. While we waited I pulled out my cell and called Rand.

"Hey Sophia, what's up?"

"Hey you, we are costume shopping." I laughed.

"Really? Ahh…what did she pick this year?"

"Ariel, of course."

Miranda laughed. "And what about you?"

"Well, little miss here wants us to both be princesses, and she has chosen Belle."

"Hey that suits you. You know…Beauty and the Antichrist…"

"Isn't it supposed to be Beast? Maybe I should get a nun costume, complete with silver cross and rosary."

It took a couple of minutes for Miranda's laughter to finally die down.

"Hey, I forgot to tell you. Ella, Will, and Amber will arrive around five o'clock on Halloween. We always went trick or treating as a group. You may want to call Ella just to coordinate and confirm."

"Okay, sounds good. They can show me where the heck they walk around." We took a couple more steps toward the register; next in line. "Hey, we are up next to pay, so how about you meet us at the house too and bring the new little girl you watch."

"That sounds like a plan. I'll call her mom. Hey, I'll dress like a princess too, just to match you guys. See you this weekend." We said our goodbyes and hung up just as Victoria and I were up to pay for our costumes.

When we got to the house I had to make a quick dinner before Victoria's piano lesson. Both of us were singing 'School House Rock' songs; educational cartoons I had introduced her to from my DVD collection. Take that antichrist.

I was stirring the sauce while Victoria buttered pieces of Italian bread on a plate. We had just gotten to, 'A man and a woman had a little baby. Yes, they did. They had three in the family. That's a magic number,' when I turned around and met those damn cold as emerald eyes. I cleared my throat. Victoria fell silent.

"Good evening Dr. Bishop."

"Good evening." He took long graceful strides to the refrigerator and opened the door. He stood there for a moment squinting into the artificial lighting.

"Um…are you hungry Dr. Bishop?" I grabbed two plates from the cupboard and hesitated, waiting on his answer.

His head snapped in my direction. "I can get something, thank you. It's not your respons–"

"It's really not a problem." I interrupted him and he looked irritated by it. "There's plenty." I grabbed a third plate.

I scooped up three plates of spaghetti noodles and had Victoria help me spoon the sauce over the noodles. Without even looking, I could feel his eyes on our movements. I sat the plates on the counter and Victoria placed bread on each plate, along with a fork.

"Can I get the cheese?" She pulled at the bottom of my t-shirt as I washed off some of the spoons I had used.

"Of course, just be careful and don't leave the door open too long." I stated over my shoulder. As I dried off my hands, I watched her get the cheese out and bring it over. I put my hand up and she gave me a high five. "Thanks for your help."

I grabbed Victoria's plate and mine, moving them over to the other side of the counter where the stools were. Dr. Bishop walked over and grabbed the plate.

"Thank you," he said in a flat tone.

"Sure." I turned from my plate and saw him hesitating with the plate in his hand. His eyes snapped to meet my gaze and he quickly walked out of the room. "Oh-kay..." I breathed out and lightly shook my head.

Halloween arrived after a typical week, except for the addition of a school party. Victoria and I were listening to one of her Disney CD's while we got dressed. Our dresses were laid out on my bed and I was currently pulling back Victoria's hair. I had already curled and pulled my hair up according to the picture Victoria had given me to use. Which, by the way, was no easy feat when you had long poker straight hair that didn't want to be curled, so there were a great deal of bobby pins holding my dark brown tresses up.

I had just combed out the wig hair into the large Ariel like waves when I heard the first doorbell chime I would expect this evening. Dressed in a pair of short cotton shorts and a white tank top, I skipped down the steps toward the door.

Pulling back the door, I was surprised to see a tall and very pregnant blonde. She eyed me curiously. Her eyes were such a pretty blue and even with the large round stomach I could see she had one hell of a body. Her lips split into a smile.

"You must be Sophia, the new nanny?" I nodded with wide eyes. "It's a pleasure to meet you." She held out her hand and I took it, gripping lightly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, please come in." I shook my head and felt like a fool for gawking at her for so long. She lightly laughed and stepped.

"Amber and Ryan haven't arrived yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Hmmm, I thought they would be here by now. I wanted to get some pictures." she held up a camera. As she was speaking I took in the fact she was wearing a very lovely pink satin gown that curved over her belly fittingly.

I heard a throat clear and spun around. There stood a very handsome baby faced man in a gray tuxedo. He pushed the half closed door open and walked in.

"I-I'm sorry." I spit out.

"It's not a problem." He smiled and moved on to the gorgeous blond. "They aren't here?" He looked between her and me. I shook my head.

"Not yet honey. Can we wait a few minutes?" She gave a pout face that could almost rival Victoria's.

"Of course," he kissed her head and then turned to me. "Is my brother home?"

"I'm not sure, sir. I have not seen him today."

"Oh god, don't call me sir." He took three large heavy steps with his hand out. "I'm Collin's brother Max." I took his hand and he motioned over his shoulder. "This is my wife Larissa."

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you." I smiled. "Can I get you – ?"

"It's not your job serve them." I turned quickly and saw Dr. Bishop walking off the last step, also dressed in tuxedo. A black tux, and the way it cut around his shoulder sent a weird tingle through my body, taking up residence in the pit of my stomach. His eyes roamed over me.

"I was just trying to be polite." I smiled at Larissa and Max before turning to the doctor.

"Well, I'll take care of them, thank you. Perhaps you should go put on some clothes." I looked down at myself and then had to swallow down the urge to tell him to go back to the depths of hell he had obviously crawled out from tonight. Yeah, a black tux alright, black like his soul. I had to bite the inside of my mouth so I wouldn't laugh at my internal musings.

"If you'll excuse me," Turning toward the steps I overheard Larissa.

"Collin, that was unnecessary. She is clearly in the middle of getting ready for her costume." Her tone was a low whisper, but I smirked as I walked passed. That smirk lasted until his reply.

"It is not necessary to answer my door
half-dressed either." His typically cold tone was matched with a loudness meant for me to hear.

My hands reflexively clenched into tight fists as I headed back to my room. I should've gone with the nun costume. Images of pressing a silver cross to his forehead and expelling his demons flashed through my mind.

Channeling my inner Mother Theresa, I pushed aside my anger and humiliation. After getting Victoria's make-up finished, I helped her into her mermaid costume. We could hear the arrival of children as I finished her up.

"Can I go down now?" She beamed.

"Of course, I just have to slip the dress on and then I'll be down." She bolted from the room as I slipped into the large shiny yellow princess dress. One last look in the floor length mirror and I huffed. "Jesus, I look like Walt Disney puked sunshine and glitter all over me." I giggled and headed out of my room.

Reaching the top of the steps I looked down and saw the mass of people. I caught a glimpse of Miranda half way down the staircase and smiled widely. When I stepped off the bottom step I could feel eyes on me and reflexively looked in the direction. Dr. Bishop was standing in the room across from the stairs with his brother. Both of them with a drink in their hand, but there was another man with blond hair as well. I turned from Dr. Bishop's gaze and headed toward the crowd in the foyer.

"Rand!" I hugged her. "You look so freaking cute." Miranda was standing in a Jasmine costume, her mid-drift exposed and a long black wig on her head with the gold band.

"And you...wow...Sophia you look amazing." She motioned for me to turn around.

"I'll say." I turned and saw Lucas who was standing next to Benji. Benji was dressed to match Miranda, of course, in an Aladdin costume. Lucas was dressed as one of the Disney princes, but I couldn't tell you which one. I smiled.

"Thanks." He walked forward and took my glove covered hand, kissing my knuckles. I heard a familiar giggle and turned around to see Victoria watching the exchange with a large smile.