“Yes,” I confirmed and felt my heart rate triple. I wasn’t an impulsive person and yet today, I’d upped and quit a job without thinking it through and now I was agreeing to—“Wait. I’m not saying yes, yet,” I backtracked in a panic. “But hypothetically, where would a nanny be going exactly?” I’d seen pictures of the industrial areas around the cities. This guy was a billionaire. Which meant he probably needed a nanny while he worked. What if he lived high up in a penthouse in an ugly city, and I never got to experience the France of my dreams? “And I need straight truth right now. Am I going to be nannying next to a smokestack? And are you sending someone to childmind the demon spawn? Is that why no one else will take the job?”

She gave a smirk. “South of France, no and no. They are an amazing family. At least they seemed to be when Arriette—Mrs. Pascale—was alive.”

My heart rate wasn’t slowing down. South of France? I’d taken French in school and always meant to do a refresher. I’d thought I had plenty of time. What if I couldn’t speak to anyone? And what about nannying experience? Was I really going to do this? I grabbed my gin and took three hearty gulps.

Meredith seemed to realize I was freaking out. “Hey there. Breathe,” she demanded.

“I—I don’t have enough experience, do I?”

“You babysat tons growing up,” Meredith assured me, then frowned. “Didn’t you?”

“I have an in at the YMCA,” Tabs cut in before I could answer. “I’ll get you in tomorrow’s Child and Adult CPR and First Aid class. No problem. You need that anyway to be covered under my company’s insurance policy.”

“Insurance policy? Like if something happens to the child on my watch?” The magnitude of responsibility was growing bigger. “Oh my God, I can’t breathe. What did I just do? How old is the kid again?”

Tabitha was now stroking my hand like I was a wild horse about to bolt. “You’re not as qualified as some of my girls. Actually, at all. I’m going to tell Xavier Pascale you’re not normally a nanny. But that you’re good with kids. He just needs someone he can trust. Dauphine is ten. She’s hardly a baby. It will be a walk in the park. A walk in paradise even. I’ll tell him I’m staking my reputation on you. That I trust you. And I do.”

I swallowed.

In through the nose, out through the mouth. In through the nose. Out through the mouth.