Miss Betty Suarez, Nanny
Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 10
Daniel took a breath and finally sent his email to Wilhelmina with all his demands. She was damn lucky she was so good at her job or he'd have fired her the second he became in charge of Meade, but he knew she was the best for Mode, as unfortunate as that was.
He managed to work for the next hour, compiling all the monthly reports from the other publications and finally set up that meeting with that author for her new magazine pitch, some Sofia Reyes.
He glanced up to look to Betty's desk. How was it that he could miss her so soon after seeing her. How had he managed to do this job for so long without any help.
Now that he worked with her, even for simply a few hours, he felt incomplete when she wasn't here. He smiled remembering to how she'd said she would see him at home. Was it completely nuts that he loved that she said that?
He smiled at the thought that he not only had his son to look forward to seeing, but now Betty. He would have never thought he'd find someone like Betty. He just hoped he was strong enough not to screw it all up. He knew how impulsive and in the moment he could be, and he just prayed he'd have enough self control to keep their relationship completely professional.
When the car stopped out front of DJ's school, Betty got out and stood by the car quietly, noticing DJ talking with his friends. She smiled as she watched him, seeing so much of Daniel in him. She was sure he'd grow up to be quite the charmer, much like his incredibly handsome and charming father. She felt a wave of butterflies flutter about at the thought of him, and what she said to him before she left.
The knowledge that she gets to see him at 'home', gave her a tingly and surprising feeling. She almost wished he wasn't so handsome and charming. It'd make it so much easier to do her job without constantly worrying she'd do something stupid to mess it all up.
She had always been a self-restraining and level-headed person, but the mere presence of Daniel made her lose any of that self restraint. In the minute time she's gotten to know him he'd managed to shake her up so much she felt this strange urge to be impulsive with him.
She knew she needed to get a handle on her feelings. It was totally inappropriate and unprofessional for her to have these intense feelings for her boss, no matter how charming and hot he was.
DJ seemed to notice her and she looked away, not wanting him to get upset and embarrassed that his friends might see her again, but she was surprised when he yelled "Miss Betty!"
She looked up to see him rushing over with a bright smile. She smiled back at him "Hey DJ?"
Her eyes grew wide when he hugged her tightly "Miss Betty, I passed my test! I got 100%! And all the bonus questions!"
She held him by his shoulders and looked at him with a bright happy grin "What? DJ! That's amazing!"
He nodded with a smile. "My science teacher gave me this rocket kit because I was the only one who got a perfect test!" he said as he opened his backpack to show her the box with the rocket kit.
Her eyes lit up "Wow! That's so great! Aw I'm so proud of you!" she hugged him again and he laughed. Her eyes got glossy suddenly and she shook her head as she let go of him. How in the world could these two practically perfect strangers cause her to feel such strong emotions? It didn't make any sense!
She took a breath and looked to him as he was looking at her with a smile and said "I can't wait to tell my papa!"
She nodded with a smile "Oh, I just know he is going to be so proud of you, DJ! Hey, I have an idea, so...It's almost the second week in October and I know you don't know this yet, but Halloween is my absolute favorite and I noticed you guys don't have decorations, what do you say we go get some to decorate your house and then make some halloween cookies as a way to congratulate you?"
He nodded with an excited smile "Yes! I love Halloween too!"
She grinned "Great! We can surprise your dad, too!"
He grinned and said "No, we must scare him!"
She giggled "Ok"
They got in the car and she told Mike where to take them.
After a minute she looked to DJ with a hopeful smile. She was so glad that DJ was starting to like her. She was happy that he was so excited about doing so well on his test.
"So, that's so cool your teacher gave you a rocket"
He nodded with a smile and opened his backpack again and took it out "Yes! It's so cool! I want to make it with you and my papa this weekend!"
She smiled, her heart fluttering at him wanting to include her. "That would be fun!"
He placed it back in his backpack and took out his D.S. and started to play. She smiled as she watched him play his game, the same fondness she felt for her nephew surfacing for him.
DJ was playing his game, but was feeling happy that Miss Betty was so excited for him doing good on his test. He was kind of starting to like her.
Sometime later, he and Betty walked into the Halloween store, both lighting up at all the decorations. "Oh, we must get this" DJ said as he walked up to a rather cool looking skeleton.
She nodded with a smile "Ok. And definitely lots of this!" she said as she picked up some packets of fake cobwebs.
He nodded in agreement. They walked around picking up some orange pumpkin lights to decorate the outside of the house, and some spooky looking candlesticks, pumpkin lanterns and a few cauldrons and tattered witch brooms.
Betty smirked as she saw DJ was distracted by some ghost decorations. She got down on the floor hiding behind a shadowy grim reaper, and used the arm of a skeleton to grab at DJ's leg. He jumped in surprise letting out a small yelp, causing her to giggle as she stood up holding the skeleton arm.
"Betty!" he glared at her and she giggled more, placing the hand of the skeleton on his shoulder. He pushed it away and she laughed .
He laughed in spite of himself and shook his head. "I'm going to get you back!" he threatened.
She smirked "Good luck" she said before she walked off towards the costumes.
DJ shook his head as he watched Miss Betty walk away. She was so sneaky! How had he not seen her? He was the prankster and now he was being pranked?! He most certainly had to get her back!
Betty was looking at some of the costumes, not finding anything that she liked. Nearly all the women costumes were slutty in some way. She kept looking when she felt something tickle her shoulder. She looked and saw a giant spider leg and simply laughed "It takes a lot more than that to scare me, mister!" she teased.
He pouted "Betty! You're no fun!"
"Whatever! You're just upset you couldn't scare me!"
He rolled his eyes but said "I think we can scare my papa!" he laughed. She giggled wondering how he was going to do that.
"So, you never did tell me how your math homework went and your Frankenstein book?" she asked curiously.
He shrugged "I got all the math questions right!"
She laughed as he seemed like it wasn't that big of a deal. "Yay! That's great!"
He shrugged again, and then said "I didn't finish reading. The book is too hard for me to understand."
"Hmm...well, maybe I can help you read it when we get home, ok? What do you have to do for homework today?"
"I only had to read a chapter in my science book about the levels of the sky, but I read it in class, already."
"That's great! Then after we decorate and make cookies we can read your book together, okay?"
He nodded with a small smile. DJ didn't want to admit it, but he was liking Miss Betty a lot. She was funny and didn't treat him like a baby like the other nannies. She was fun and he liked that he could prank her without her crying or screaming to his papa, and that she pranked him, too.
And not to mention, he could see his papa liked her a lot, too.
"Miss Betty, do you have a costume yet?" he asked in wonder, seeing that she was looking through them.
She shook her head. "Not exactly. My ex boyfriend broke the wings on my butterfly costume last year. I have to find a new one. What about you?"
He shrugged "I'm not sure what to be. I want a cool costume!"
She nodded "I'm sure you'll think of something. Let's look around and see if we can both find something, here. "
After a minute of them looking through costumes, DJ picked out a Wonder Woman costume and held it out to her "ooo, Miss Betty, this is very sexy, no?" He asked resulting in her eyes to grow wide in shock "DJ, I can't believe you said that!"
He chuckled, but shrugged. "I bet my dad would like it" he wiggled his eyebrows playfully.
"DJ!" Her eyes grew wider, a blush creeping across her cheeks.
He laughed, and she pushed him away causing him to laugh more. Betty bit her lip, glancing to the costume and blushed at DJ's comment about his dad liking it.
Of course, it was an awesome costume, but she would never be comfortable wearing a skirt that short or bodice that revealing.
She had to wonder if DJ picked up on her crushing on his dad. It was so embarrassing. She just hoped he wouldn't tell his father.
She re-joined him and they finished picking out their decorations and baking supplies for their Halloween cookies and made their way.
Once they made it home they grabbed their walkies and dropped all their bags filled with Halloween decorations in the living room and began to pick them out.
DJ placed the skeleton down next to her on the couch and she laughed and threw a fake spider at him making him laugh.
"So, should we put the lights outside first, or do the inside first?" she asked
"No, let's leave the lights last until my papa comes home, so we can surprise him" he suggested. Betty nodded with a smile "Great idea!"
"Oo, here, let's at least place some of these lanterns in the garden" she suggested as she picked up a few of them and he got up to grab the rest and followed her to the double french doors that led to the courtyard.
"And these gravestones too!" DJ said as he brought out a couple of them to stick inside among the plants.
They set those up in various places around, and had some left over lanterns to place along inside the house. They decided to stick to decorating mostly the first floor where the majority of their time was spent, and DJ convinced her to leave some decorations for the game room upstairs, too.
"Hey, we should put some music while we decorate" Betty suggested to make it more fun. He nodded and picked out his phone and found a playlist online of halloween-themed music and connected it to the speaker. Music started to play throughout the whole floor and Betty looked in surprise "Wow, that's awesome! Yay!"
He laughed at how excited she got over simple things. They went back to the decorating, placing all up the stairs tattered fabric and cobwebs for the rails and some pumpkins and witch brooms along the stairs.
As they decorated together, they laughed and joked about how easy it was to transform the house from warm and inviting to spooky and haunted just by making it look more tattered and worn, of course, a few bats and spiders and cobwebs certainly helped.
They continued to decorate the front making sure to make it extra spooky for when Daniel came home. DJ insisted on placing the fog machine close to the front to add to the atmosphere. As DJ went to place it on, Betty said "Wait, why don't we put it on after we're done so we can see everything better."
He nodded in agreement "yes, Oh I forgot, I will be right back." he ran up the stairs and she wondered what he was getting. While he went up, she placed some more pumpkins and skeletons around. She smiled as she picked up another pumpkin; she was having so much fun with DJ. She was so happy he was starting to loosen up with her.
While he was still enjoying teasing and pranking her, she saw that it was becoming more from a place of fun than trying to get rid of her.
She noticed he'd taken a while and picked up her walkie "Princess sunshine to Dark Knight, copy?"
"Dark Knight, copy! I'm coming!" he responded and she laughed and placed the walkie back down on the floor next to her. As she started to gather some of the candlesticks, Dj came rushing down and said "I found it!" he had some kind of black case with intricate patterns along it. "What's that, DJ?" she asked curiously.
He grinned and set it up somewhere and cut out some of the interior lights to reveal that is was a lantern that created unique patterns that looked sort of like shadows along the walls. "Wow, that's cool!"
The house had quite a bit of natural light so it was difficult to make it totally dark in the house, but somehow she thought it made it a bit spookier that the 'shadows' were somewhat faded.
"I also have a bubble machine we can put later?" he suggested. She nodded with a smile "Ok, that's awesome! This is so much fun! I can't wait to decorate the kitchen!" she said excitedly, since they got some pretty great decorations to make it look like a witch's kitchen.
He laughed and helped her continue to decorate the upstairs formal living room and dining room, and then coming back down to finish up the main living room. Once they finally got to the kitchen DJ laughed at how excited Betty was to start decorating it.
He grinned as he helped her take out the 'witchy' things to set up. They placed cauldrons and candles and funny-shaped jars and bottles all along, adding in some more cobwebs. They decorated the fireplace, and DJ decided to put some 'bones' inside for extra spookiness.
DJ was really having fun with Miss Betty. She was so much more fun than the other stupid nannies. He liked how funny she was and silly, and clumsy. He laughed when she opened the bag of bones to have them flying everywhere.
She blushed and laughed, "Oops?"
DJ helped pick them up from the floor to place them along the counters.
Once they placed the last bat and witch broom, they looked to each other with grins "Yay, we finished" Betty stated in excitement. "I think we made a great team, don't you?"
He nodded with a grin and held his hand up for her to high five. She laughed and smacked his hand playfully, but then he laughed when she hugged him.
When she let go, he looked at her "Uh..Miss Betty?"
"Yep, Dark Knight?" she said with a smirk. He smiled and held his hand out for her to shake "friends?"
A bright smile crossed her face "Aww, you want to be friends?" she asked, the overwhelming excitement nearly bubbling over. He nodded with a laugh. She smiled even brighter if that was possible and hugged him "Aww, yay! Yes, of course, we're friends, DJ!"
He smiled and hugged her back, feeling happy. He had been so upset and angry when his dad brought her over, because he was so annoyed by all the nannies, and he missed his dad since he was working all the time, but having Betty made everything more fun and interesting, and well, she was very nice and he liked talking to her. She didn't treat him like a baby, and actually listened to him.
Betty felt so happy to have DJ want to be friends with her and when he hugged her back, she couldn't help her eyes from becoming glossy at the love she felt for him. It surprised her so much, she pulled away, feeling embarrassed as she wiped a stray tear from her cheek.
He noticed and said "Miss Betty, you don't have to cry!" he stated with a laugh. She blushed. "I can't help it, I'm so happy to be friends with you, DJ"
He chuckled, but thought she was so nice to care about him that much. "Me too. come on, can we make the cookies, now? I'm hungry!" he said as he started to get out the things they bought to make the cookies; the cookie cutters in the shapes of ghosts, bats, cats and pumpkins, and candy sprinkles and frosting and the cookie dough.
She laughed and nodded "Yes, me too! I'm so excited to make them!" Betty wrapped the orange and black apron she bought around her waist.
"Why don't you make the frosting all the colors we need with the food coloring?" she handed him the frosting packs and coloring and he nodded "Yes, that is fun! Oh, let me go put the fog machine and lights on" he ran off and she giggled. He was so cute all excited about surprising his dad.
A smile crept over as she thought about Daniel. She couldn't wait to see him again and see his face once he saw all the decorations.
She started singing along with the music while she started to mix the ingredients to make the cookie dough.
DJ laughed as he came over to hear her singing badly along to the song. She giggled as she looked to him.
"Mm…" he swiped a finger through the cookie dough in the giant bowl and brought it to his mouth for a taste. "Yum!"
She laughed, but said "hey, you're not supposed to eat the raw cookie dough, you know."
He smirked, but she looked at him and said "Oh, who am I kidding here, I eat the cookie dough, too! Here!" she grabbed a spoonful of cookie dough and handed it to him, and picked up her own and did the same as she ate it.
He laughed and ate his cookie dough, finding Betty so funny. He started to make all the colors for the frosting and eventually sang along with Betty to the music of thriller, too. He didn't think he laughed so much as she acted out all the spooky narration during the song.
He grinned and threw some flour at her, "DJ! Hey!" she cried and threw some flour on him, but pulled him close and placed frosting on his face.
Daniel couldn't get home fast enough today. He had so many unexpected things pop up after Betty left for the day, one, being Wilhelmina giving him a piece of her mind after she received his very professional and quite frankly, much too nice, email about his demands to her, considering how damn aggravating she was and how she stole from his company.
She was damn lucky she was one of the best in the business or he wouldn't hesitate letting her go.
He also got a call from his mom's new lawyer that they were planning on moving up her hearing. He was so stressed out. He ended up on the phone for an hour with Alex complaining about how terrible his timing was about being out of the country and that surgery.
He sighed as he walked up the stairs to the front door. He was so glad to be home. He unlocked the door and as he opened it the loud music washed over him, and smoke floated over to his legs, but he quickly realized it was 'fog'.
He smiled in awe as he walked in to see the house transformed into this amazing haunted mansion. It was so awesome.
He picked up his walkie and nearly called them over it, but decided to surprise them, too. He made his way through the house, awe filling him at how amazing everything looked. He knew this had Betty written all over it and he loved it!
He felt his heart start to race in excitement as he saw Betty and DJ in the kitchen singing and making what looked to be cookies together. They were turned away from his direction so they couldn't see him walking in.
He couldn't keep the goofy grin on his face seeing Betty in his kitchen singing and baking cookies with his son, the place decorated so awesomely with witchy Halloween decorations. He would be lying to himself if he said he didn't want her to be here forever. She just fit so well.
He watched them for a minute, clearly lost in their own world as they sang Michael Jackson's Thriller together. The smile on his face was simply growing by the minute.
He suddenly had the strongest urge to pull Betty to him and kiss her. She looked so hot in that skirt dancing; he smirked as she swung her hip into DJ pushing him.
He was lost in his fantasy for a moment, but then couldn't stop his laugh when DJ threw some spider sprinkles at her. "DJ!" she laughed.
They heard his own laugh and turned to look to him in surprise. "Dad!" DJ ran over and hugged him tightly. Betty smiled brightly when she saw him and said "Oh Daniel! Sorry, we didn't um… even hear you come in."
"What in the world have you two done to this place? What is going on here?" he asked curiously, the smile still on his face.
Betty smiled "We're um...celebrating"
He looked to his son "celebrating?"
DJ nodded with a grin "It was Betty's idea!" he said looking to her. Daniel's eyes met hers as he let go of DJ to walk over.
"DJ should be the one to tell you why, though." Betty looked to him.
Daniel looked back to DJ expectantly, who said "Uh...I passed my science test!"
"What?! That's awesome, DJ!" Daniel hugged him, but Betty walked over and said "He not only 'passed' his test, he got 100% AND all of the bonus questions right AND because he was the only student who got a perfect test, his teacher gave him a rocket kit!" Betty gloated proudly.
DJ blushed when Daniel hugged him so tight "DJ! What the hell!? That's awesome buddy! Wow, I'm so proud of you! Look how smart you are!" Daniel felt like his heart was bursting with joy at hearing how great his son did on his test and seeing how proud and happy Betty was for him made it even better.
DJ blushed and pushed him back "Dad, please, you're embarrassing me!"
Daniel and Betty both laughed. "Well, get used to it, buddy! I'm so proud of you" Daniel hugged him again, and Betty felt so happy to see them like this together.
"It's all Miss Betty's fault!" DJ said and pulled her over. She blushed, especially when Daniel looked to her with the most heartwarming smile on his face. "You are so amazing."
She glanced down shyly; her heart nearly stopped beating when Daniel lifted his hand to her cheek to wipe at a spot, which she was sure possibly had either frosting or flour, thanks to DJ.
She looked up to meet his eyes, as he looked into hers, feeling hypnotized by their blueness.
This crackling energy seemed to heighten between them and she was almost certain she'd faint from the feeling.
Daniel was lost in Betty, wanting more than anything to pull her close and kiss her! She was so damn cute! Especially now that he saw this sexy witch apron wrapped around her waist, and the frosting that was on her face.
He felt his heart race at the feelings that flooded him. He knew he had to control his crazy impulses. It wouldn't be right to cross the line with her. Especially when there was so much at stake. She wasn't just some woman he liked, she was his son's nanny, and his assistant. He needed her more than ever and he wasn't gonna screw that up no matter how much he wanted to lift her on top of the counter and kiss her senseless.
DJ glanced between Miss Betty and his dad with a smirk, seeing how lost in each other they were. He raised his eyebrow as they looked at each other as if they were going to kiss. He cleared his throat "Ehm! Hellooo!?" he teased.
They both snapped out of their spell and looked to him. He laughed and said "Dad, Betty said Halloween is her favorite and because I did good on my test she said we could decorate the house and make cookies" he informed happily.
"I hope it's ok" Betty stated shyly.
Daniel nodded. "Definitely! This place looks fantastic! I'm very impressed. And wow, those cookies are looking amazing!" he said noticing the ghost and pumpkin cookies.
DJ smiled and placed his arm around Betty's waist in a side hug and said "Betty is awesome, dad! I...uh… I like her" he admitted shyly, blushing when Betty hugged him back and said "Awww, DJ!"
Daniel smiled happily "I'm very glad you like Betty so much, buddy! I lo-uh like her a lot, too!" he declared in agreement.
"Aww, you guys are making me want to cry" she said as her eyes started to get teary.
Betty didn't know how to explain how she was feeling right now. She felt as though her heart was going to burst at how amazing and sweet they were.
Daniel and DJ both laughed and shared a look and decided to both hug her.
She smacked them and said with a laugh "Stop making me cry!"
They both laughed, Daniel smiled finding her so cute, and said "So, what's for dinner?"
"Actually, we haven't even thought about that yet. We've been decorating the house and making cookies."
"Hmm...well, I'm starving. How about we order something?" he suggested.
She nodded "Ok"
"Dad, since I got my favorite burgers last time and you got your favorite Chinese yesterday, Miss Betty should pick her favorite today?" DJ suggested and Betty smiled at how sweet of DJ that was.
Daniel nodded with a grin "Great idea, buddy. That's definitely fair. So, what will be your favorite, Miss Suarez? Besides french fries and chocolate cake, of course?" he smirked with his eyebrow raised in flirtation referring back to her excitement over her chocolate cake at lunch today.
Betty blushed, "Um...well, I love Thai food! That is definitely one of my favorites"
Daniel smirked, but said "Cool, I think there's a great Thai place nearby. DJ can look up the number and menu online"
DJ went and picked out his laptop from his backpack and started to look it up.
Betty smiled as she watched DJ, but then noticed that Daniel was watching her. She glanced to him with a smile and stepped closer to him "So...you'll be happy to know, DJ and I are friends now" she said in a quiet tone.
Daniel smiled and said "I'm not surprised, Miss Suarez. You are fantastic"
She looked to him, her eyes shining in admiration. "Thank you so much, Daniel." His eyes met hers again, his smile was so mesmerizing. She felt like a magnet was drawing them together, but there was a sudden beeping and she realized it was the oven with the rest of the cookies.
"Oh no! I almost forgot about the other cookies!" she said as she nervously rushed over to the oven and took the rest out.
"We wouldn't want Miss Betty to burn those, too!" DJ said teasingly as he came over with his laptop and the phone.
Betty made a face at them "ha-hah, very funny!"
Daniel laughed and DJ snickered.
"Hey, how about we have some of these awesome cookies while we wait for the food to arrive" Daniel said as he picked up one of the already decorated ghosts. Betty shook her head and took it out of his hand and said "First, you have to help me decorate these with the frosting!"
"Yes, ma'am!" he teased as he stood close to her. She blushed, the heat rising at his proximity.
DJ rolled his eyes and said "I think we should order the food, first, then you guys can flirt with each other!" he teased, resulting in both of them to stammer and blush "Haha, what, uh, we weren't"
"That was just, we're not-"
DJ couldn't help it, he burst into laughter at them. Daniel and Betty glanced to each other, nervously, this unmistakable spark was between them.