Have to Have It by Melody Mayer Read Free Book Online

the club golf course were normally off-limits to anyone who wasn't playing. On this exceptional Nanny and Me day, though, the welcome mat had been put out. There was literally a red carpet leading down the cobblestone path to the golf clubhouse, and a banner hoisted across the path announced: NANNY AND ME MINI-GOLF TOURNAMENT. TODAY! PUTTING GREEN CLOSED FROM 1:00 P.M. TO 3:00 P.M. NANNIES AND KIDS ONLY .
    The moment they hit the red carpet, Easton and Weston charged ahead. The second they started to run, the pack of kids ran after them, laughing and shouting. A couple of little oneseven dropped to the ground and rolled on their sides all the way to the bottom, nannies screaming and chasing after them, not wanting to be blamed for the damage done to clothes recently purchased at Fred Segal.
    When they reached the putting green itself, Kiley saw that it had been decorated specially for the competition. A leaderboard had been erected, on which each of the kids' names had been painted, along with blank spots for their scores on eighteen holes. There was even a spectators' gallery, with bleachers and an overhang to protect it from the sun. Once all the nannies had taken charge of their kids, the head golf pro—forty years old with a hawkish nose and chiseled features; dark hair that was just beginning to gray at the temples; and tanned, muscled biceps straining his short-sleeved white golf shirt with the country club's logo embroidered in blue on the left-hand breast pocket—spoke into a wireless microphone attached to the collar of his shirt.
    “Welcome, kids, nannies. I'm Oliver Sturman, head pro at the club and MC for today's event. Would the nannies please take seats in the bleachers? I'm sure you won't mind the break in the least. Golf staff members, please join up with two or three of the children. Thank you.”
    Lydia poked Kiley as they moved into bleacher seats with the other nannies. Meanwhile, eight attractive young men and women, all wearing the club's official white golf shirt, trotted out of the clubhouse. Each of them held a putter.
    “Sturman,” Lydia guffawed as she found a seat. “Sounds like Studman.”
    Esme, who sat on the other side of Kiley, peered around to Lydia. “Don't you ever stop thinking about sex?”
    “In all honesty, rarely,” Lydia confessed. “Well, of course, I do. When I think about shopping.”
    Kiley laughed. Even from where she sat, she could see a handsome young man—spiky, short dark hair, luscious caramel skin—speaking to Easton and Weston. They were obviously speaking Spanish, because the girls jabbered back as if this guy was their long-lost uncle. Then they turned to the bleachers with huge happy smiles, looking for Esme.
    “Excuse me,” Esme told Kiley and Lydia. “I think I'm being summoned. Save my seat.”
    “Nannies,” Oliver Sturman intoned into his microphone, “we're pleased to present you with a welcome basket to this event, compliments of the club. You'll find those baskets directly under your seats.”
    Kiley reached under her seat. Sure enough, her hands touched a white wicker basket. It held everything that the nannies might need to be comfortable during what would evidently be a kids' putting competition: oversized J. Lo sunglasses, a butter yellow Lacoste sun hat, and a liter bottle of Badoit water from the Loire Valley in France, nestled in a special icy container—which also featured the club's logo—to keep it cold. There was also 40 SPF Kiehl's sunblock, Rosebud Salve, a jet black iPod Nano already filled with three hundred summer-centric songs (à la the Beach Boys), a copy of the latest editions of
People, Glamour
, and
Los Angeles
magazines, and a soft foam cushion to go between butt and seat.
    Lydia pawed through her basket. “Screw this stuff, I need clothes. They couldn't throw in a designer T-shirt or two?” She held up the iPod. “Hmmm. Maybe I could sell this on eBay.There's a notion. Maybe you could start an eBay business out of