The Nanny Part 28

The day after sharing with Vanessa Fitzgerald the kiss that had shot up to joint Number 1 on his all-time earth-shattering kiss list (together with the one he'd shared with Lucy Spires from first year round the bike sheds when he thought his body was literally going to explode) he had felt great. His ideas came thick and fast, and he and Tom had worked furiously on the campaign.

He was on such a high that the last thing he could do was call Vanessa. It was too big a risk. (Lucy Spires-raw, fearless Lucy Spires-had gone into school the day after the magnificent bike shed experience and magically rechristened him All-talk Anthony. How the h.e.l.l was he supposed to know she'd take it personally that he hadn't let his body explode? Why didn't anyone just tell you the rules?) He couldn't face that experience again.

The longer he left it, the more the kiss with Vanessa became a pure fact, uncomplicated by afterthoughts, regrets, or apologies. He hadn't wanted it ruined. And now it would all be ruined. He would have to see Vanessa again, hear her icy tone, feel her indifference. At least he had one thing on his side, he thought gratefully. Thank G.o.d he'd be in a six-foot-tall bunny suit.

Vanessa buzzed Tricia, who had to then humiliate herself by canceling an important meeting with another big client. The two women stood together in the lift. Vanessa smiled at her junior. She knew it wasn't fair that Tricia had had to look an idiot in front of the most notoriously awful clients, just because the Creatives chose this moment to be ready.

"Were they awful?" Vanessa asked her.

"They called me a lying wh.o.r.e."

Vanessa gasped. "You're joking?"

Tricia shook her head.

"Don't worry, I'll have a word with Max," said Vanessa. When Tricia's chin started quivering, she added. "Come on, chin up. Think bonuses. I'll see what I can do for you."

Tricia managed a smile.

"But of course I will have to know one thing, purely to back up our case," said Vanessa, in a matter-of-fact tone." Are you a lying wh.o.r.e?"

By the time the door was opening, Tricia was managing a smile.

Vanessa had already had to have soothing words with Max, who was getting jittery and was now popping into her office on average four times a day. Of course, he'd never bother Creatives-they were far too precious to bother-so he'd shouted at her instead. He was on his way up to the meeting-he'd been called out of a working lunch.

Oh boy, she thought, this presentation had better be good. She had b.u.t.terflies. Oh boy, she thought, this had better be because of the presentation.

She and Tricia walked into the office and found a six-foot-tall white rabbit drinking a cup of tea, pinkie daintily held out. He stood up when he saw them come in and made a deep, majestic bow.

"Welcome...to Wonderland," came Anthony's warm, s.e.xy voice from inside the rabbit costume.

The backs of Vanessa's knees went spongy.

"I love it!" bellowed Max. "Love it!"

Anthony watched Vanessa and Tricia smile at Max from behind his outfit.

"Rabbit on the phone! Rabbit on the phone! A Wonderland of communication! I love it!" repeated Max. "f.u.c.king genius!"

Anthony was sweating like a pig in his rabbit outfit, but it had been worth it. It was unheard of for Creatives to get dressed up for anything other than the actual pitch before, but he and Tom had been so nervous they'd decided to go ahead anyway. And it had worked. Not only that, but the bunny outfit made him feel strangely braver.

After the meeting, he swiveled his head inside the costume and watched Vanessa slowly and carefully tidy her pens and notebooks while the others left the room. Suddenly, he leaned across the table and rested his big white paw on her hand. She jumped slightly. So did he. He watched her look up into his eyes.

"Please take that outfit off, Anthony," she said.

"How are you?" he asked, hearing his m.u.f.fled voice echo back to him.

"Fine!" she exclaimed. "Why wouldn't I be? I'm in Wonderland."

He followed her out of the office. Max, Tricia, and Tom were already out of sight. As they came to the door of one of the stock cupboards, Anthony spotted that Vanessa's head turned fractionally toward it. Without pausing for thought, he grabbed her round the waist, pushed open the door and tumbled her into the cupboard, slamming the door behind them.

They stood, breathing heavily, in the pitch-black silence, surrounded by four thousand Silly Nibble chocolate biscuits.

"What the h.e.l.l am I in here for?" whispered Vanessa, her voice trembling.

"Well, rabbits are known to excel at one thing in particular," he said, edging her away from the door.

"Let me out," she whispered, backing away from the door.

"Okay," he said, kissing her.

Five minutes later, Vanessa pushed her way out of the Silly Nibble cupboard door, straightened her hair, did up her top b.u.t.ton, and rushed to follow the others.

Chapter 16.

By the time Jo was rounding up the children for the fourth time that day to collect Ca.s.sandra from school and Josh from work, she was exhausted.

Tallulah fell asleep the second Jo strapped her into her car seat, snoring so loudly that neither Jo nor Zak could hear Zak's favorite tape. By the time Jo had eventually found a parking s.p.a.ce in the limited Hampstead s.p.a.ces, put her sticker on the window, and dragged Tallulah out of her seat, the little girl had been deeply and happily unconscious. Naturally, as anyone would be after being dragged out of an idyllic slumber, Tallulah was grumpy. So grumpy, in fact, that if she hadn't been four years old, Jo would have a.s.sumed she had PMS.

"Don't sing that song, Zak," whined Tallulah, as Zak hummed the tune on his tape that he'd been trying to listen to on the way there.

"Stop walking ahead, Zak," she whined. Zak and Jo exchanged quick knowing looks and kept as quiet as possible.

When Tallulah dropped precariously off to sleep in Jo's arms, Jo gave Zak a quick wink, and whispered, "Good practice." He didn't know what it meant, but he grinned anyway.

Tallulah refused to walk, so Jo had to carry her all the way to the school gates. A deadweight four-year-old is heavy at the best of times; a deadweight four-year-old with PMS is somehow far heavier.

Jo walked up the steps to the playground where the children milled around waiting to be picked up. Ca.s.sandra, as usual, was standing to one side with her little friend Asha, who somehow always made Jo want to say very kindly, "I am not going to abduct you."

"Do you want to sit in the front until we pick up Josh?" Jo asked her when they got to the car.

"Alright," said Ca.s.sandra.

None of the children talked to each other on the walk back to the car, and Jo let them be. She knew that sometimes you just want to be alone with your thoughts, especially after a hard day.

By the time the prepremenstrual post-toddler was strapped safely in her seat, Zak and Ca.s.sandra were already arguing. Their rows could flare up faster than a rocket up a cat's tail. One second they could be giggling together, the next trying to kill each other, then back to giggling. Jo was firm but fair. It was Ca.s.sandra's turn to listen to the music, Zak had listened to his on the way there. Zak soared into an apoplectic fury because he hadn't been able to hear his tape thanks to Tallulah's snoring, until Tallulah sorted out the situation by snoring so loudly no one could hear Ca.s.sandra's music either.

By the time they got to Highgate Station, the evening had turned fine, and Josh was waiting in the sun, his tie loosened and a smooth olive-skinned collarbone just peeking out of his navy blue s.h.i.+rt. Jo took a deep breath, beeped her horn, and turned away when he looked up. He grinned at his family and tousled Ca.s.sandra's hair as she got out of the front for him and moved into the back. Ca.s.sandra grinned ruefully, the dark netherworld of school already diminis.h.i.+ng to the background of her real life, where she was Number 1 child with a pretty nanny, a fun half brother, and a mummy and daddy who'd be home soon.

Josh got into the front seat.

"How's the family?" he asked, in a particularly friendly voice. Jo's spirits rose.

"Fine!" they all shouted.

"I meant these ones," he said, pointing to Jo's cuddly toys on the dashboard. "Daffy, Duffy, Dozy, and Dud."

Jo tutted. "Huh. I won't leave you to name the children."

d.a.m.n. That had sounded different outside than in. She wanted to counter it with some pithy, pointed backst.i.tch comment but was preoccupied by her skin s.h.i.+fting and resettling. And, anyway, Josh had either not heard it or ignored it and was turning round already, teasing the children.

"Jos.h.!.+" bellowed Zak, as if Josh was still in his office and deaf. "Will you play cricket with me when we get in?"

"Jo! After my homework, can I do your hair?" asked Ca.s.sandra.

Tallulah snored like a rhinoceros in the back, and they all laughed.

Jo concentrated on driving without grinding the gears as much as her teeth. She couldn't tell what she wanted to do most-apologize again to Josh or hit him very hard on his bruises.

Josh settled into his seat. "Another day another dollar."

"For some," said Jo pleasantly. "My day's only halfway through."

"Good thing it's an easy job then." Jo almost stalled.

Later, as the children galloped ahead into the house and Jo and Josh bent down to pick up the new yellow pages outside the front door, Jo told him quietly but firmly, "I think Ca.s.sandra had a horrid day."

He caught her eye. When their knees touched briefly, they both acted as if they'd got an electric shock.

"What makes you say that?" he asked.

Jo shrugged. "I don't know." She looked ahead at Ca.s.sandra, already inside the hall. "Just...be gentle with her."

"Thank you," he said. "Until you came along, I always treated Ca.s.sandra with a rod of iron." And he walked into the house ahead of her.

She locked her jaw as she stood up and followed him.

It was a long evening. Jo and Josh divided responsibilities without conferring, Josh playing with Zak in the garden and Jo playing with Ca.s.sie and Tallulah in the conservatory. Jo found it hard to believe that only last week she would have found it more fun for Josh to be indoors. She hoped Zak was tiring him out in the garden.

Meanwhile, in the garden, Zak was tiring Josh out, winning at cricket with all the grace and goodwill of a six-year-old boy.

"I'm winning!" he yelled inside to Jo. "I'm killing him!!"

"Good boy," said Jo. "I'm proud of you."

Zak, giggling, raced back outside to thrash his half brother. He hoped Josh would never leave.

"I don't think I want to bowl anymore," said Josh, pulling his s.h.i.+rt out of his trousers and flapping it to give himself some air.

"But I'm in bat," said Zak nonplussed.

"Oh."

"You can be wicketkeeper," offered Zak magnanimously.

"Wow!" exclaimed Josh. "You mean I get to keep your wickets? Forever?'

Josh enjoyed the delicious sound, like water trickling off rocks, of a boy unable to control his giggles.

"No!" said Zak, when he was able to speak. "They're my wickets!"

"That's awfully good of you," continued Josh. "I'd have thought you'd want to keep them."

Zak tried to get a grip.

"No," he gasped, "that's not what wicketkeeper means!"

"How long can I keep them for?"

More water trickling off rocks, then some serious cricket and half an hour later, after Josh had been thrashed good and proper, he pretended to collapse, which took longer than he'd hoped, given the bruises. He lay on the gra.s.s, blinking up at the sky. "I'm dead," he said gravely. "The shock of losing to a four-year-old."

Zak became hysterical with laughter again, jumping from foot to foot.

"I'm six!! Not four!!"

"Sorry. Five-year-old."

"Six!" managed Zak.

"I'm going to heaven now," said Josh, getting up slowly. "In the kitchen. Look after my plants."

Zak followed Josh inside, yelling, "I won! I beat him!" He overtook him, barely noticing Josh stop still in the doorway.

Jo was motionless, sitting cross-legged on the floor by the conservatory window, her back elegant and straight. Her thick dark hair was being meticulously plaited by the two silent girls, who were draped around her. Tallulah was sitting on Jo's lap, Ca.s.sie kneeling behind her. Six limbs were intertwined and every now and then, soft whispers of encouragement from Jo caused flickers of half smiles. Occasionally, Jo stroked Tallulah's head, and Ca.s.sie hugged Jo. The sun was coming in through the conservatory doors, and a deep glow of blue seemed to lighten the strands of Jo's hair that Tallulah kept dropping.

Josh stepped inside the room slowly, like a swimmer hauling himself out of water.

"I beat him!" repeated Zak.

Jo spoke without moving. "Well done, Zak, just in time for tea."

Zak found little to engage him with the girls and joined Josh back at the garden door.

"Mate," said Josh with a knowing wink. "The ladies don't like it when you hold your ding-dong."

Zak became temporarily speechless with laughter.

"The ladies! My ding-dong!" He giggled eventually, then stopped suddenly. "What's for tea?" he asked.

Jo pointed to the oven and hob, where some vegetables were steaming and some fish fingers were grilling.