Page 21 of Watching Henry

“Then we agree on the end goal here, at least,” Hadley said. Maybe she'd been too quick to judge. Florence sounded genuine. “Let's do this. It might even be fun.”

There were a few seconds of quiet where Hadley could hear the wind in the trees, the world still for a moment. Then Florence was leaning forward and holding out her hand.

Instinctively, Hadley took it.

And the world crashed over her head. Her pulse sky-rocketed, her skin trembled, her mouth went dry.

She shook Florence's hand as fast as she could, pulling away as quickly as politely possible. She'd never had a reaction like that to a person before.

“We're agreed then,” Florence said. “We'll do this together.”

Was she imagining it or did Florence's voice sound as shaky as she felt?

Hadley swallowed. “Agreed,” she said.

But suddenly the idea of working so closely with Florence seemed an awful lot more appealing and dangerous than it had before. Hadley drained the rest of her wine and closed her eyes. Christ, why did she feel like she was playing with fire?

Chapter Ten

Hadley made her uncomfortable. It really was that simple. And Florence knew exactly why.

With her perfect legs and perfect skin and perfect clothes and perfect hair, Hadley was everything that Florence had never been. She was everything that Florence had always been jealous of, and, frankly, intimidated by.

“Take the next left,” Hadley said.

Florence gritted her teeth. “I know.” They'd literally just passed a sign to the zoo.

“What about you, Emily,” Hadley said, turning to the back seat. “An animal beginning with D?”

Florence frowned at the road, concentrating on her driving while Hadley played with the kids.

If Hadley made her so uncomfortable, then why the hell had she agreed to all this in the first place? For God's sake, it wasn't as though the woman needed the job. Her hair products probably cost about as much as Florence's student debt.

Maybe because she couldn't see another way out of this. Maybe because she needed this job and because three kids were a handful. Maybe just a moment of weakness.

Then she remembered that handshake and her stomach trembled again and she wished that she could close her eyes except she was driving with kids in the backseat.

Because there was something odd about Hadley. Something strange and weird and off, but not necessarily bad. Something that affected Florence in some way, though she didn't exactly know how.

The touch of her hand and suddenly Florence felt warm and breathless and not-quite-right.

Just the memory of it made her very aware of just how close Hadley was sitting to her. Just across the divide, a few inches at most. Close enough that Florence could smell all those expensive hair products.

“Remember the deal,” she hissed, trying to put all other thoughts out of her mind.

“You're the boss,” Hadley said. “I know. That's cool. I'll take the lead for our next trip. Oh, look, that's a giraffe!”

Pretty soon the twins and Hadley were craning their necks to see out of the window and Florence was pulling the SUV into the zoo parking lot. She glanced into the rear-view mirror to see Henry, headphones firmly plugged in, arms folded, face blank, sitting in the far back seat.

With a sigh, she drew into a space and stopped the engine.

Hadley bounced out of the car. Short denim shorts, a t-shirt that casually slipped over one shoulder showing perfectly tanned skin, expensive leather sandals. Florence had to grit her teeth again. She looked down at her own sensible jeans and button up shirt.

Professional, she reminded herself. She looked professional.

“Everybody out,” she called, as she jumped down from the car and grabbed the folder that she'd kept on the dash, pushing her glasses up her nose with her free hand.

“Right, in a line up right here, please.” She gestured to the side of the car and the twins hurried to stand in line. Henry slithered out of the back seat and stood where he was, arms still crossed. Florence pulled out her phone and snapped a quick picture of the three of them.