Bottle Rocket

“Taking the nanny job was supposed to be temporary. Catching feelings? Definitely not in the game plan.”

I’ll admit, running away from my wedding wasn’t on my list of to-dos.

Neither was losing my salary, my company car, and every ounce of stability my board of directors decided to strip away.

So when Trey Hartley’s nanny ghosts him mid-season, I do the unthinkable: I offer to help.

Yes, me. Vivi Newport. CEO of Seattle’s top staffing agency. I haven’t changed a diaper or enforced bedtime in over a decade, but desperate times, desperate measures.

Trey Hartley is six-foot-five of hockey muscle, ex-military discipline, and protective uncle vibes. He doesn’t ask for help—and definitely doesn’t know what to do when I show up with chore charts, late-night cocoa rituals, and a nine-year-old who already has me wrapped around her finger.

Now I’m balancing ballet recitals and board meetings, carpool lines and corporate fires—all while trying very hard not to notice that Trey isn’t looking at me like a woman who’s still supposed to marry my ex-fiancé to save my CEO position.

The longer I stay, the less “temporary” this feels.

And the harder it is to remember I’m supposed to leave.

Because falling for Trey wasn’t part of my carefully laid plans.

It hit hard, fast, and explosive… like the bottle rocket neither of us saw coming.