Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 68066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68066 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“You don’t know anything! Especially not how I’m feeling!”
It was the truth.
No one knew what I was going through.
Not one damn person.
“Jackson, I’m just trying to help!”
“Nobody wants your help!” I shouted, grinding my teeth. “When are you gonna get that?”
“You need my help, your dad needs—”
“My dad?” I scoffed out with pure disgust you could feel through the walls. “You’re seriously going to play that card? Oh, come on, Sky! That’s a joke and you know it!”
“That’s not fair. Your dad needs you now more than ever, and you being a little shit doesn’t help any!”
“Where’s my dad, Sky?! Huh? Tell me! Where’s the man who needs me? Cuz I haven’t seen him in months! Why would he come home when you’re always here taking care of his responsibilities? How many times do I have to tell you, you’re not my mother?! So just turn your ass around and go home for once! Nobody wants you here!”
Out of nowhere, I heard a voice I didn’t recognize, roaring, “Jackson Pierce, you do not talk to her that way!”
Instantly, everyone’s heated glares shifted to the woman standing with a peaceful Journey in her arms. Her eyes widened when she realized what she had just done.
Narrowing my eyes at her, I scanned her up and down with a demeaning stare. “Who the hell are you?”
“Jackson,” Skyler snarled, bringing my attention back to her. “I’m interviewing her to possibly be your new nanny.”
My mouth dropped open. “Are you fuc—”
“Boy, you finish that sentence and I swear I will wash your mouth out with soap. Do you understand me?” the woman warned, interrupting me.
“Oh ... this is bulls—”
The expression on the chick’s face was enough to render me silent.
I scowled, shaking my head as I backed away. “Whatever.” Eyeing only the woman, I assessed her again. Except this time, I really took my time taking her in.
She was young.
Latina.
Pretty.
Closer to my age than my old man’s, that was for damn sure.
My friends would like her. A lot.
I cocked an eyebrow with a predatory regard. “At least Mary Poppins is hot. Maybe her ass will make my dad leave the hospital and come home for once.”
She jerked back, and Skyler seethed, “Jackson Pierce! You apologize! Right now!”
I rolled my eyes, snidely smiling. “You’re the one who hired her, right?” I shrugged. “Should have thought of that before you decided we needed a babysitter. I am a growing boy, after all. So now what? Should we call you Mommy?” I asked her.
“Oh my God, Jackson,” Skyler bellowed, her face turning bright red from embarrassment.
Mirroring Mary ‘fuckin’ Poppins.
Before anyone said another word, I angrily turned around and stormed into my bedroom. Slamming the door so hard behind me, it rattled the walls.
I waited, listening to them intently at the door.
Skyler sighed deeply with humiliation I could feel through the drywall.
“Wow... that is not how I thought this would go down,” she expressed. “I’m so sorry, Camila.”
Camila?
“I completely understand if you no longer want the position. I truly apologize for wasting your time.” I quickly heard Skyler’s footsteps. “I’ll see you out.” Seconds later, she stopped. “I have to ask. That song... the song you were singing to Journey. Why that song?”
I didn’t have to wonder long what Skyler meant because Mary Poppins answered, “The Annie song?”
The Annie song? The one that made Skyler’s career?
“Yeah,” Skyler agreed. “Out of all the songs you could sing to her, why that one?”
She was singing to Journey? Is that why she was so quiet?
Over the last month, Journey would fall into a fit of fury only I could stop. I understood her, feeling the same way she was.
I wanted my mom and dad too.
“Oh...” Mary Poppins coaxed. “Um... I used to sing it to my siblings all the time. They loved it. I mean, my sisters must have watched the original movie a thousand times.”
“You never saw the remake?”
“No. Why?”
“You really don’t know who I am, do you, Camila?”
My eyebrows lowered.
She didn’t know who Skyler was?
Everyone knew who Skyler Bell was. We couldn’t walk into a gas station without someone asking for a picture or autograph. She used to be the biggest celebrity in the world. Until she married Noah and became Skyler Jameson.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know—”
“Please don’t apologize,” Skyler interrupted her. “When I first promised Bailey I’d be here for her family, I was terrified I wouldn’t find the right woman to help me take this on. I had this nagging fear the women I interviewed would be here for the wrong reasons. For who I am and not for the kids. I didn’t want to mess it up, you know?”
She did? I didn’t know that.
“Bailey’s my best friend.”
She was your best friend, she died.
This was one of the hardest parts about my mother’s death. No one talked about it. It was as if we were waiting for her to come back home, walk through the front door at any moment, knowing in our hearts it would never happen.