Flare by Posy Roberts

day?”
    “Pretty much.”
    “Why become a parent if you don’t want to… parent?” Hugo asked, and he saw a small smile form on Rowan’s face.
    “I’ve often wondered the same thing, but it’s not really my place to question that. I simply do my best to be a good nanny and keep in touch with those kids once I’ve moved away.”
    “Crazy. I never thought I’d raise kids, but now I can’t imagine not having those two in my life. Even hiring you was a hard decision for us, but I’ve basically allowed my career to stagnate the last six months, aside from the sort of stuff I’m heading to LA to do this week. My first love is the stage, but it makes pennies compared to the jobs I’m doing this summer. I just got a call about another job this morning, and I’ll be gone even more than I thought, so it’s a good thing Kevin took the initiative and hired you. But this is an entirely new situation for all of us. I hope we don’t screw things up.”
    “I’m glad I could be here, and I doubt there will be any screwing up. An adjustment period is sure to be in order, yes, but I’m not new to this,” Rowan said with a confident nod. “We’ll figure it out together. I promise.”
     
     
    T HE REST of the morning, Hugo drove around showing Rowan the various locations she’d need to drive Brooke and Finn. While she hadn’t driven in the US since she lived in Montana, Rowan had an international driver’s license, and at the next stop, Hugo allowed her to drive on the backstreets. He breathed a huge sigh of relief when he saw how good a driver she was. That had been one of his greatest concerns about leaving so soon after Rowan arrived. What if she struggled with driving on the right rather than the left side of the road? Hugo had worried he’d need to cancel his trip, but it was obvious Rowan had a lot of experience driving.
    “I had a Mini back home,” she shared at a stop light in Hugo’s burnt-orange Mini Cooper. Granted, the entire steering column had been on the other side, but Hugo was glad his car was at least familiar to her.
    On the way home, they stopped at a deli to take out a late lunch, and Rowan drove home, pointing out familiar landmarks as if reminding herself how to get back. While they sat on stools pulled up to the kitchen counter, Hugo showed Rowan a three-ring binder he and Kevin had put together that contained maps, phone numbers, addresses, and a well-established calendar. They’d worked on it for what seemed like weeks, Summer making suggestions one evening when she and Russell were over for movie night with the kids.
    “One other thing,” he said, handing Rowan a cell phone. “We got you a phone. We figured it might be easier to stay in touch this way. Kevin and I use an online calendar we’ve invited you to use, and the phone has GPS and all that so you won’t get lost as easily; that was more for us than you, probably,” he admitted with a laugh. “We wanted to give you paper copies of everything Kevin preprogrammed into the phone as well,” he said, gesturing to the two items in front of her and then reaching over to pat the binder.
    “Thank you. Are your numbers in the mobile already?”
    “Yep. Under our first names. Brooke has an e-mail and phone too.” Hugo winked at Brooke as she jealously looked at Rowan’s smartphone, which was far beyond the basic “stupid phone” she used. Hugo understood the sentiment.
    “I’ve got to get Finn to his appointment at two,” Hugo said after glancing at the clock. “Why don’t you ladies take some time getting to know each other and play around with the phone while us boys go for a ride? We’ll be back before you know it.”
     
     
    A S H UGO sat in the waiting room while Finn talked to Lori, he sent a text to Kevin.
    Rowan is great with the kids, drives really well, seems responsible, and is at home with Brooke exploring her new phone.
    It was several minutes before he got a response, but Hugo smiled when he read