When we woke up, Harry seemed much more calm and rested. I glanced at the clock. It was 4:00 PM. "Wow, I guess we were both pretty sleepy," I told him. "We slept for three hours!"

"I feel better now, Nanny Jules," he said in a thick, deep voice that didn't match his childlike persona.

"I'm so glad, Harry. And hey, I was thinking. You're getting older so maybe you don't have to call me Nanny Jules. You're almost an adult. How about if you just call me Jules?"

Harry sat up abruptly and looked at me with his jaw dropped wide open. "I'm almost an adult?" He said in wonder.

I giggled and nodded my head. "When you turn 18, you'll be an adult. When is your birthday?"

He looked perplexed. "I don't know."

Oh for fuck's sake, I could think of about ten people I'd like to bash over the head with a shovel right now. And all their names were Theodore!

"Do you remember having cake and ice cream? Or celebrating with balloons and presents? Was it a long time ago?" I asked, trying to get him to at least remember the time of year.

The look of bewilderment stuck fast. "I...I don't remember. I think maybe once, lots of years ago."

"Many years ago," I gently corrected him. "Lots of years makes sense, but it sounds more mature to say many years ago."

For once, he didn't apologize. "Oh, thank you, Nanny Jules."

I gave him a pointed look to see if he would remember what I had told him about my name. He didn't immediately change his wording. "Jules. You can just call me Jules, okay?"

"Oh right. Jules," he said, testing it out. "Thank you...Jules."

"Or if you like Juliette better, you can call me that. Like Romeo and Juliette, except her name was spelled differently than mine."

"Who are they?" He asked in perfect innocence.

Oy vey! This kid had so much catching up to do. Although, I wasn't sure a Shakespearean tragedy was the way to go, at least not yet.

"We'll learn about them some time," I told him. "They're a famous couple in history, in love with each other but their families refused to let them be together." I didn't tell him about the tragic ending and I moved quickly on to another topic. "Well, I'm going to find out when your birthday is," I told him. "Everyone deserves cake, ice cream and presents on their birthday!"

"Yes!" he agreed happily. "I'm so 'cited."

"Excited," I said slowly and he repeated after me. "You know what? I'm going to bake you a cake today, even if it's not your birthday. How does that sound?"

"Yummy," he grinned.

"And I will teach you how to make it, too."

He leapt off the bed and raced down the hallway to the kitchen.

When I arrived in the kitchen on his heels, I pulled the stand mixer out from under the cabinet and attached the beaters. Then I dug out a cook book and found a recipe for classic chocolate cake. While I got out the measuring utensils, I asked Harry to get the eggs, butter and milk from the fridge. We were interrupted, however, by the door to the suite opening.

There stood a very unhappy-looking Theodore. "Ms. McGill," he growled. "May I speak to you in private?"

"Certainly," I replied, trying to be accommodating while hiding the fact that my knees were shaking.

I followed him just outside the second doors of the suite where they fell closed with a click of the lock.

"Why is that door usually locked?" I asked before he had a chance to speak.

"For your protection," he snapped.

"What if Harry and I had to get out? In case of fire? Or some other emergency?"

"You can escape through the back door off the patio and every room has egress windows. If there's any other emergency, you can always call me. My phone is with me at all times."

"Yes," I hissed. "But it feels like you're holding us hostage."

A flicker of amusement crossed his face. "I am not a violent man, Ms. McGill. Now, about my reason for this visit. What were you doing lying in bed with Harry?"

I physically reeled with the impact of his words, taking a step back to not lose my balance. "You're watching me?"

"It's a nanny cam. Ever heard of it?" He asked. "Answer the question."

"Harry was scared so I laid down with him and held him. For your information, children - all people - need physical affection to thrive. Harry has been starved for affection and I'm merely feeding him."

"Yes," he said in somewhat of a quizzical voice. "Just so long as you don't allow him to cross any...boundaries. He still has the mentality of a child, remember."

I shook my head, his insinuation making me feel rather ill, although I was a bit surprised that he wasn't fighting me on the physical affection. "I'm not a pervert. I'm just a woman who happens to care very much about Harry and his mental, physical and emotional well-being. It doesn't seem like he's had that in quite some time."

"Are you suggesting I neglected my parental responsibility in choosing my employees? Not a chance. I know people," he said. "I can read them. Understand who they really are." He leaned in and held my gaze hostage. "I can tell what they want." There was almost a seductive edge to his tone.

I cringed, saying, "If you had the nanny cam, then why didn't you know when his other nannies were watching TV all day or giving him drugs out of their bags or hitting him?"

"I told you before," he said amusedly. "The boy fabricates all sorts of tall tales."

"He's very lucid when we talk, Theodore. He has no reason to make things up."

"Except to get attention," Theodore jeered.

"Maybe," I shouted, no longer able to contain my anger, "he's just a boy who needs attention from his father and has never gotten that!"

Theodore grabbed my shoulders and thrust me against the door. "I know what that boy needs so don't act like you're the hero!" He spit through his teeth.

"I thought you said you weren't a violent man," I challenged him, my chin jutting up to meet his eyes in defiance.

He let me go, stepped back and smiled, even let a small chuckle escape from his throat. "I apologize. I just happen to enjoy spirited repartee."

"This is not repartee," I spat, pushing myself away from the door and standing tall. "This is a serious discussion about your son's well-being." I raised my eyebrow and added, "As well as borderline assault."

He rolled his eyes and cocked his head a little. He was acting strange, more...congenial, almost if that was even a possibility for him. Still arrogant and insufferable for sure. "We both want the same things, Ms. McGill," he said with a true smile this time. The man would be strikingly handsome if he wasn't such an asshole, with rugged tanned skin, blue eyes that sparkled like the ocean and warm sandy-colored mess of hair curling at the top of his head.

"I doubt that," I muttered. "Are there cameras in all the rooms? I would rather not have my body on display for you or one of your lackeys when I'm in the privacy of my suite or my bathroom." 

He laughed. Legitimately burst into laughter. I couldn't understand what was so funny but apparently, he found me very amusing. "You have the wrong idea about me," he said, laughter still erupting from his throat. As I said, he was acting very strange. "The only cameras installed are in Harry's bedroom, the kitchen, the learning room and his play room," he said. "You have my word."

"Thank you, and again, I can assure you that I only want to show Harry appropriate affection. Which he needs," I emphasized again. "Can I go back now?"

"Of course," he said, opening the door for me to enter the breezeway. "And Ms. McGill." I turned to look back at him after I was half way through. "If you feel the need for some physical affection, do let me know. I'll see what I can do."

Vomit literally bubbled up into my throat and I had to force it back down. I just gave him a sneer and returned to the suite. Creepy bastard. Maybe that was the only qualification he had looked for with the other nannies, a willingness to jump in bed with him or suck him off in his office, but he didn't know anything about me. At first, he was an intolerable asshole (okay, he still is) but now he was acting like he's some Casanova. The man was certifiably insane.

I let it go as I entered the kitchen and found Harry with the mixer inside the mixing bowl with a sheepish look on his face. I smelled something burning, not like burning food but something electrical. I noticed smoke rising from the mixer and rushed over to pull the cord from the wall.

"What happened?" I asked, trying not to laugh. Clearly, Harry was very upset.

"I wanted to surprise you," he said, his lip now trembling, telling me that tears were imminent.

"Aww, Harry, that was a very sweet thing to do," I said encouragingly.

"You're not m...mad?" He asked and then the dam broke. I threw my arms around his shoulders since was taller than me - can't say I'd ever had a student like that before - and hugged him tightly as he sobbed.

"Harry, it was a mistake. Of course I'm not mad. Besides you were trying to do a nice thing for me. I'm very touched."

"Touched?" He asked, pulling away, sniffling and wiping his nose with a napkin.

"It just means I feel loved because you wanted to do something sweet for me," I explained.

"I do love you, Nanny....I mean, Jules," he said emphatically.

"I know you do, Harry. And I love you, too." I turned to the mess and found that Harry had put whole eggs into the bowl, along with cold, hard butter and a lot of flour.

I managed to release the beaters from the mess and scrape it into the trash. Then I turned back to him and asked, "Do you want to try again?"

He nodded happily but then he stopped and said, "That's broken," pointing to the mixer.

"Probably," I answered. "But we can mix it by hand. We just have to use a fork or a whisk."

We worked together, slowly but surely creating a chocolate cake that we couldn't wait to eat. When it came out of the oven all warm and moist, I mixed up a small batch of frosting to glaze it. When I glanced at the clock, it was close to 6:30 PM.

"You want to do something silly?" I asked.

"What?" Harry's eyes widened, telling me he was certainly game for some silliness.

"Let's just have cake for dinner!" I suggested and he jumped up and down and then hugged me while jumping up and down.

"Can we do that?" He finally asked and I found it so adorable, thinking that in his mind, he probably somehow believed that there was some ultimate rule-making force that dictated everything we could and couldn't do.

"When you're grown up, you can do whatever you want to do," I said, setting the cake in front of him. "Of course, you know some things are right and some things are wrong, right?"

He nodded, "I know that." His eyes watched longingly while I sliced through the warm chocolate dessert.

"And sometimes, just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should," I explained, placing a large slice of cake in front of each of us and then pouring milk for us both as well.

"What do you mean?" He asked, scooping the first gooey bite onto his fork and shoving it into his mouth.

"Well, we're here alone, just the two of us. We could eat this whole cake tonight. But do you think we should?"

"No," he said, shaking his head side to side dramatically. "I'd get a tummy ache and barf."

I burst into laughter, luckily having swallowed my bite of cake. "Exactly." I drank some milk to wash down the crumbs. "You know that you could eat a lot of cake but doing so would make you sick. I don't like throwing up either." I wrinkled my nose. "So adults get to make a lot of decisions for themselves, like where to live, what to wear, what to eat, what kind of job they want. Things that little kids can't always choose for themselves." I looked at him to see if he was following. He appeared to be. "But adults have to follow rules and laws, too."

"Like what?"

"Like driving, for example. When you drive you have to obey the traffic laws, like driving on the right side of the street, stopping when there's a stop sign, and not going too fast. If you break those rules, you can get a ticket and have to pay a fine to the police. Or you might even lose your license and not be able to drive anymore."

"Oooh," he said. "Gotcha."

I chuckled at his use of the word Gotcha. "So when you grow up, you have a lot of freedom to do what you want, but a lot of responsibility, too."

"Mmhm," he said, enjoying another mouthful of cake.

When we were both full of cake and milk, we cleaned up together.

"Jules?" Harry asked quietly.

"Yes?"

"Will you teach me?" He asked even more softly.

"Will you teach me how to be a grown up?"

Even if Theodore and I were in completely separate books in different libraries in different cities, I knew in that moment that Harry and I were on the same page.

* * * * *

Theodore just continues to up the creepiness level, doesn't he? While Harry keeps getting more adorable!