nickngreg | The Greggie Diaries

Title: The Greggie Diaries
Author: kieksterbanjo
Rating: Chapter 1: PG
Warning: Other Pairings
Summary: AU. He loved his job. He just never thought his next position would turn out to be so complicated.

The Greggie Diaries

Chapter 1-The Meeting

“Gracie, come on! You take any longer and the other kids will get the good swings!” I yelled up the stairs and heard stomping coming from the second floor followed by the sound of feet bounding stairs and then the sound of giggling as the source of the stomping and bounding launched herself into my arms and I spun her around.

“I’m ready to go Greggie!” She smiled at me when I set her down and ran down the hall towards the front door.

Greggie. That was me. Well, not to everyone. A selected few actually. Gracie was one of them; just like Hayden, Joel, Lynzee and Teigan before her. Hayden didn’t like peanut butter. Teigan was allergic to Wheaties cereal. Lynzee had always wanted her name to be Paige. Joel had always wanted a twin brother and Gracie has saved every bottle cap since she was 6. I was Greggie to each of them for several years and they each hold a special place in my heart.

In case I’m not being clear; I, Gregory Hojem Sanders, was a male nanny.

Gracie was the latest of my charges but this story isn’t about her, or about Joel or Hayden or Lynzee or Teigan. Well at least not directly. This story starts my last week working for Gracie’s parents, Neil and Lacey. Gracie’s tenth birthday had been around the corner and my last official day of work was the day after her birthday party.

That day, however, I was still working with Gracie and we were about to partake in our favourite afternoon activity; daredevil swinging at the large park three blocks from Gracie’s house. Her parents were still at work and Gracie would get bored after school. It was on that day, that this story begins. And it all began with a crash…literally.

I was trailing behind Gracie as she skipped and ran ahead of me through the park to the swings. She had turned to run backwards to tell me about a boy at school who’d thrown up all over another girl’s art project when they collided. Gracie was spun in a circle and landed with a thud on the pavement while the boy she had collided with landed on a grass patch.

I ran to catch up and picked Gracie up to stand on her feet, checking her palms to find quarter size scraps on each palm where she had broken her fall, “You okay Gracie?”

She nodded, staring at her palms as if she was deciding if they hurt or not. I turned to make sure the little boy Gracie had collided with was okay, to find him already on his feet. He couldn’t have been more then 4 or 5 and he wore an argil sweater vest over a white dress shirt and khaki shorts…quite the departure from the usual park outfit.

“Are you okay little man?” I asked.

He looked down at his body, clearly unscathed except for two small patches of grass stains on both his knees. He shook his head, “Mommy isn’t going to like this.” He said sadly, kicking out a foot to get a better look at the damage.

I quirked an eyebrow. Surely tiny grass stains weren’t enough to cause a mother of a five-year-old boy grief but as I would come to find out I was way wrong. But we’re not there yet, “Do you want to go home Gracie?” I asked, turning back to the little girl still examining her palms.

“Don’t go home! Come play with me!” The little boy piped in grabbing Gracie’s hand without reservation.

“Now wait a minute. Didn’t your parents tell you not to talk to strangers?” I asked, looking around for said parents. Clearly they shouldn’t be far.

As if on cue I heard a panicked, “”Lear?!” Being shouted behind me and spun at the voice.

“Wow.” The comment slipped from my lips before I could stop it and Gracie looked at me oddly. I shrugged with a sheepish smile and looked away from her.

“Lear!” Relief laced the voice and the little boy, Lear, was pulled into a tight embrace, “Don’t run off like that!”

“We crashed.” Lear supplied pointing at Gracie and brown eyes connected with mine that, if I’d not been so embarrassed by my first ‘wow’ would have conjured another.

“I’m so sorry. I looked away for a second and he was off.” Now for the purpose of privacy and blah blah blah the real names of the adults within this story, other then my own, had to be altered. So the man in front of me offering up his apology will henceforth be known as Mr….Hottie? No, too generic. Mr. Wow? No, too magician. Mr. (insert unintelligible noise of pleasure here)? No, too long. Gorgeous? … That’s it. Mr. Gorgeous. Perfect.

“Mr. Gorgeous.” He extended a hand to me and I took it, trying as hard as I could not to blush. I’d gotten over the school boy crushes a long time before but the strong arms, golden skin, brown eyes you could get lost in, dimpled smile and slight southern accent standing in front of me was enough to have anyone flustered.

“Greg. And this is Gracie.” I squeaked and cursed my voice.

“Now you’re not a stranger. Come on.” Lear butted in and grabbed Gracie’s hand to pull her away.

Mr. Gorgeous and I stood quietly for a moment, not overly sure what we were supposed to do, looking after our respective charges for the afternoon (I’ve been in the business long enough to know you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. I’d gotten mistaken for my charges parent on more then one occasion and no longer assume that a child paired with an adult was a biological offspring).

“She’s beautiful.” Mr. Gorgeous said to break the silence.

“Thanks.” I nodded. It seemed odd however to say it considering Gracie actually wasn’t mine. It was almost like taking credit for someone complimenting a meal at a restaurant you didn’t cook, so I added, “She’s not mine though.”

Mr. Gorgeous eyebrows rose and he seemed to, for the first time, take a close look at Gracie and I only to discover that we actually looked nothing alike. Beyond the fact that I was fairer haired and hers was almost black, none of our features looked remotely similar. He may have been hot but he wasn’t overly observant.

“Niece?” He asked.

I shook my head, “I work for her parents.” I supplied and he ‘ah’ed with realization only to have his brows knit again as if the explanation did not explain why I was in the park with my employer’s child in the middle of the day, “I’m a male nanny.” I added for clarification.

He seemed to struggle with the idea, as most people did, but his confused look was even hotter then his normal look it would turn out, “Good pay?” He asked awkwardly.

I laughed, “It’s not the most stereotypical job I know. But I love kids and it IS really good money.” He nodded and smiled, looking back over to where the two kids were playing a game of hopscotch

“He’s adorable.” I threw out; gesturing towards Lear.

His smile brightened as he watched Lear make a hard jump over the hopscotch squares, “Yeah I think I’ll keep him.” Mr. Gorgeous was definitely a proud papa and I smiled at his profile, “But we really should be going.” He added before cupping a hand over his mouth, “Hey Learjet!” He called and Lear turned with a smile and ran towards his father only to be picked up by Mr. Gorgeous and thrown over his shoulder while he spun around.

“Mr. Gorgeous, I asked you not to do that.” And suddenly the warm afternoon sun was frosted over and the temperature dropped below freezing. Without even turning around, Mr. Gorgeous stopped in his tracks and put Lear on his feet. His entire demeanor had changed, he’d gone from relaxed to tense and even Lear’s smile had turned into a frown and he’d lowered his head, “We must be going. We don’t have the time for this.” Came the snippy voice and I turned to find a woman dressed to the nines stalking towards us, cell phone in hand, probably on the line with someone even as she spoke scolded Mr. Gorgeous. I knew right away that this woman was Mrs. Gorgeous but it in no way had anything to do with her looks. If Mr. Gorgeous was the epitome of natural perfection, Mrs. Gorgeous was the epitome of bought perfection…that wasn’t do much to perfect. She was all sharp angles and pinched skin.

“We were just coming to meet you, Darling.” Mr. Gorgeous said softly.

“You’ve got work and Lear has a play date.” Mrs. Gorgeous said off handedly, “Would you stop trying to get me to go with the salmon.” She said into her phone, annoyed, “I’m not going to have my guests…What in heavens name happened to his pants!” She said loudly enough for several people nearby to look in our direction. I winced and I wasn’t sure why.

Mr. Gorgeous was clearly caught off guard by the question and turned to survey his son’s pants, “You let him get grass stains?!” Mrs. Gorgeous said shrilly.

Mr. Gorgeous sighed, “He accidentally ran into this little girl. They’re not that noticeable.” He said irritated, pointing to Gracie who had moved to stand next to me.

Gracie and I were fixed with the coldest blue eyes I’d ever seen and I actually grabbed Gracie’s shoulders should I need to protect her. The woman was that scary, “Could you not have controlled your daughter?” She asked as if I were dumb.

“She’s not my daughter.” I said on instinct.

I could tell Mrs. Gorgeous was going to respond when Mr. Gorgeous broke it, “It wasn’t his fault, or her fault. I looked away from Lear for a second and he ran off. It was an accident. This is Greg and Gracie. Greg is Gracie’s nanny.”

There was a change in Mrs. Gorgeous’ demeanor. Her face lightened with intrigue and she looked at me like I was a pair of shoes to be bought, “A male nanny? How intriguing.” She said softly, “How long have you been doing that?”

“Almost 10 years.” I answered.

“We just lost our nanny. Poor dear had to move back to Mexico to care for a relative.” Mrs. Gorgeous said with fake sympathy for the young girl who I would later find out had been deported, “Honey give him your card.” Mrs. Gorgeous instructed Mr. Gorgeous who scrambled to comply at the snap of her fingers. He handed me a crisp white business card with an apologetic smile, “Give us a call. I’m sure Lear would love to have you as a nanny.” She said, “Now come on Lear. We have to change your pants before your play date.”

I looked down at the card in my hands as she walked away with her son, thinking there was no way on God’s green earth that I was going to take that job, even though I was in the market for a new one, “You should come for an interview.” I looked up, startled at Mr. Gorgeous’ soft words. He shrugged, “You know. If you want.” He mumbled.

“Mr. Gorgeous!” He winced at the shrill call.

“I’ve got to go. It was good to meet you.” He said with a nod, “Sorry about the crash.” He said to Gracie who shrugged. And with that Mr. Gorgeous turned and walked slowly towards the parked car where his wife and son stood.

“Are you going to call?” Gracie asked, breaking me out of the trance that watching Mr. Gorgeous’ perfect bottom outlined in crisp dress pants had put me into.

I looked down at her with furrowed eyebrows, “I…don’t know.” I said and cleared my throat, “But what I do know is that I’m going to jump further then you off the swings!” I said and Gracie giggled running down towards the swings.

I slipped the business card, after one more glance, into the pocket of my jeans. I had thought at the time that I wasn’t going to call. That I was going to forget about the whole encounter and the married man that had sent my heart racing. Boy, was I wrong…

TBC

A/N: So after being MIA for a while I have returned to the writing gig. And believe me, you may get sick of me over the next couple of months. lol. I’ve got a few stories on the go that will be up within the next couple of weeks. This is the first of them. As always the feedback would be loved. It’s good to be back!