Nanny in the Middle (Love in Massachusetts #2)

Chapter 1

one

GREER

“I’m so sorry!” Lachlan popped her head into Nathalie’s front door.

Greer skidded to a halt in the morning routine that she’d started with Alaric weeks ago, which he was taking to like a champion. Lachlan was supposed to be there thirty minutes ago with the twins, but she was just now showing up?

“Davina was making a mess of things this morning and refused to get dressed and Halle threw a fit over breakfast, and I just didn’t know what to do.” Lachlan threaded her fingers through her long dark hair that was beginning to go gray and sighed heavily. “I don’t know how you do it most mornings.”

Greer pursed her lips. She did it because she set a routine and expectations, which was something that Lachlan, Ivy, and Nathalie had yet to manage to do. She wasn’t going to say that right now, though. It was the last thing that Lachlan needed to hear, especially when she was running late to work already.

“It’s fine. I’ll take care of it.” Greer stepped forward and held her hand out for the girls. “Hey, babies. Did you have a good night?”

Both Halle and Davina raced over to Greer and clung onto her legs in a hug. This was her happy place. She just had to remember that. Taking care of kids was exactly what she wanted to be doing, each and every day. She just wasn’t sure that these three families with their peculiar arrangement of sharing a nanny was really what she wanted. Or that it was really functional.

“Where’s Nathalie?” Lachlan asked.

Greer shook her head. “She left for the office almost two hours ago.”

“Two hours…” Lachlan trailed off. She glanced at the watch on her left wrist and huffed out a breath. “That’s what she gets for only having one.”

Alaric snagged his jacket from the front hall closet and immediately walked up to all of them. “I’m ready!” He grinned, his two front teeth missing in what he called a flourish from the tooth fairy. Greer had to put the treats under his pillow that night though, because she’d been damn sure that Nathalie was going to forget all about it in her rush and busyness.

“Oh God. School drop off.” Lachlan winced. “I didn’t make you late, did I?”

“Not quite,” Greer answered. She put her hand on Alaric’s shoulder. “But we will be if we wait around here much longer.”

This was her biggest gripe so far with them. Mornings. Alaric had been late more times than she cared to count, and when Shepherd and Leon were there too, the chaos was tenfold. Luckily, the boys were with their other mother this week, so Greer was stuck with only the three to wrangle, and the twins during the day.

“I better get going too.” Lachlan again threw her hand through her hair, pulling at the strands slightly in her own form of anxious chaos monitoring. No one would know that this fertility doctor who seemed calm, cool, and collected in the office was actually someone who struggled to get up in the mornings and get everything organized at home.

“We’ll just hop right into the car,” Greer said, looking at the twin three-year-olds that were still clinging to her legs. “You want to take Alaric to school today?”

“Yes!” Davina shouted.

Halle, however, had a distinct pout on her lips, and if Greer didn’t cut it off quickly, then she knew she was going to run straight into a fight or a meltdown or something of that nature.

“Then when we get back to your house, I’ll make you French toast sticks. Okay?” Greer said that to Halle, hoping that it would distract her enough to at least get her moving toward the car. The last thing she really needed was another call from the school and from Nathalie Coeur about why her son was late that day—yet again. She’d already been yelled at plenty times over for that.

“Okay,” Halle said, then she gave her mom a sheepish grin like she was getting exactly what she wanted.

“Oh, I already fed her breakfast.”

“We’ll do it as our mid-morning snack,” Greer countered. “Kids at this age are always needing some type of calories to keep them going.” She didn’t want to come off as pushing, but she really did have to get going, and in order for that to happen, Lachlan needed to leave. “I can write out my routine for you so that you can try to mimic it on the weekends. I’m sure that it might help to keep some consistency.”

“Right, we talked about that before, didn’t we?” Lachlan frowned. “It’s a good idea.”

And that was usually as far as the conversation went. And sure enough, right on cue, Lachlan bent down and held her arms out for the girls to give her hugs. She planted kisses on their cheeks and then waved goodbye to Alaric before slipping out the front door.

Greer sighed.

As essentially the only adult who was taking care of five kids throughout the week, it was a definite struggle for her to get everyone on the same page. She’d had issues like this with families before, but she’d never had the complication of working with three families at once who shared a nanny.

But this way, she was less likely to get laid off when the kids outgrew her.

Instead of taking the kids out the front of the house toward the vehicle that Nathalie had given her to drive Alaric to and from all of his activities, she took them to the garage. It’d give Lachlan a few extra minutes to get out of the driveway and down the street, which would cause fewer arguments with Halle, who was attached at the hip with her mother on a good day.

On a bad day… well, Greer wanted earplugs for those days.

She loaded the kids into the Suburban, putting the twins in their car seats and helping to buckle them in properly before Alaric jumped into his seat. Greer was finally behind the wheel when Alaric popped up with his brilliant grin, dimples on full display.

“We’re learning how to add today,” he said from right behind Greer.

“Oh, are you?” Greer knew this already. Alaric had told her several times in the last few days, and he’d already started learning math, but he seemed super excited to learn even more. Greer backed out of the driveway slowly and pulled onto the street. She’d spent a good hour with him the afternoon before just writing out very simple random math problems so that he could solve them. He’d loved it. Greer had mostly enjoyed the quiet time with him.

“Yeah!” Alaric bounced in his booster seat.

“You’ll have to tell me all about it when I pick you up.”

It didn’t take her too long to get to the school, as it was only a two-minute drive from the house. She’d love to be able to walk one morning with all of the kids or even just with the twins in tow, but that would mean that Lachlan would have to get them to her on time. Until that happened, Greer would have to stick with driving this beast of a vehicle.

Pulling up outside the school, Greer got out of the driver’s seat to open the door for Alaric. She left the twins in the back, really not wanting to unstrap them just to strap them back in five seconds later. But Alaric loved it when she would walk him to the door.

He hopped out, reaching back in for the backpack that was way too big on such a little boy, and he threw it over his shoulders, again grinning with that beautiful dimple and two front teeth missing. Greer put a hand on his back and guided him out of the street and straight toward the front doors to the school.

“Greer!”

She would recognize that voice any day. Leon bounded toward her and immediately wrapped his tiny little arms around her hips in a hug.

“Ooof!” Greer said with a little chuckle. She patted Leon’s back and gave him a slight hug as well. “Hey, kiddo.”

Looking up, her eyes locked on none other than Leon’s other mother, who Greer was quickly learning would be the bane of her existence and her job. She really couldn’t fathom why someone was so dead set on getting her fired and out of the house or how someone could be so damn mean to the other parent of their children, but Penny was it.

Greer swallowed the sudden lump in her throat as Penny approached. In another life, where Greer didn’t know who the woman was underneath the sheep’s clothing, she would be attracted to her. She was older, she carried herself perfectly, she was always made up and didn’t have a stitch out of place. And she had that mean girl look on her lips, like an ever-present snarl that Greer would be scared of if she didn’t secretly daydream that the snarl meant love.

But this was Penny, and that snarl was real. She hated Greer. Hands down hated her with a passion and wanted her out of Leon and Shepherd’s lives as soon as humanly possible. And Greer was, unfortunately, acutely aware that Penny was exactly what happened to the previous nannies that Ivy, Lachlan, and Nathalie had hired.

Aside from the chaos that these three families contained, Penny was their biggest adversary.

“You’re about to be late,” Penny said, her voice dripping with unrequited anger. But was she saying that to Leon? To Alaric? Or was she talking to Greer? Because it really felt like she was speaking directly to Greer’s soul.

“Yeah, Alaric, why don’t you head inside.” Greer managed to rip her gaze from Penny and give Alaric a quick hug before sending him on his way.

Alaric wrapped his arm across Leon’s shoulders, and they turned toward the front door of the school together. It was honestly adorable, and if Penny hadn’t been standing right there, Greer would have absolutely whipped out her phone and snapped a picture to send to the three of them in the group text. She loved to send little reminders and glimpses of what the kids had been up to that day while the parents were at work.

But that wasn’t going to be in the cards for her today.

Greer sighed and glanced back at the giant black Suburban that was now her misery and her life. She didn’t want to say another word to Penny. She wanted to escape before anything could be said that either one of them would regret.

“Did you leave the twins in the car again?” Penny’s dislike of Greer’s nannying was awful. “You shouldn’t do that. It’s illegal, you know.”

Greer resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She straightened her shoulders and took a step back toward the car.

“I should call the cops on you someday, you know. See what they make of it.”

But that was it. Greer spun around, fire in her toes as she faced down the biggest Mean Girl she had come up against to date. “I highly doubt that the local law enforcement is going to want to take that call. I’m twenty feet from the vehicle. The girls are fine and strapped into their seats. And it would be wasting precious time and energy of the police officers who very much need to be dealing with actual problems in this city.”

What Greer didn’t add, but she really wanted to, was that perhaps they could investigate the abusive hold that Penny had over Ivy, and the very fact that Penny had called the police on more than one occasion over something that Ivy had done with their sons, and they’d found her completely innocent. But still had to take time to deal with drama that they really shouldn’t have to.

But saying all of that would only get her into even hotter water. And it’d certainly only poke the bear that was Penny Villegas.

“My, my, my, are you trying to have a backbone this morning?” Penny stepped in closer, using her height over Greer as a way to intimidate. The problem was that Greer faced down toddlers throwing temper tantrums every single day of her working life, and she wasn’t about to give in to an adult who was trying to bully and manipulate either.

“Hardly.” Greer squared her shoulders and kept her face calm. “What I have is simple logic and an ability to let go when I get mad. Maybe you should take a few classes to help you learn those skills.”

Penny snorted. “Me?”

“Yes. You.” Greer didn’t wait. “Instead of wasting time on me, someone who takes care of your two kids half the time and someone who cares deeply for them. It’d really be a better use of your energy.”

Without saying another word, Greer glided back toward the Suburban. That had felt good. She was so tired of being told what to do by someone who wasn’t giving her a paycheck. And she’d be damned if she was going to let Penny bully her into anything. What she cared about—what she’d decided to care about—wasn’t Penny or the drama of the ongoing and never-ending divorce between her and Ivy.

It was those kids.

All five of the beauties that she was hired to care for and love.

And she would do that to the best of her damn ability. Greer wasn’t someone who could be pushed around by exes or by bosses. She’d been there too often in her life, and she wouldn’t let it happen again. She wouldn’t let her life be run by someone else.

It was why she wasn’t married. It was why she was still very happily single. Not one person could fulfill her, and not one person could influence her into giving up the way she chose her life to be. And anyone who dared to think that they could had another thing coming.

Still, she was going to have to tell Ivy about the interaction with Penny. And that, she was going to hate. Each and every time she had to do that, Ivy would start to shut down and close in on herself. The pain and the exhaustion was overwhelming, and Greer hated causing any part of it, even if she wasn’t the ultimate cause.

Climbing into the car, Greer put on her seatbelt and glanced in the rearview mirror.

“You ready?” Greer asked Davina and Halle.

“Yeah!” they shouted from the back.

“Then let’s go, girls.” Hitting the radio, Greer was pleasantly surprised to find Shania Twain playing loudly. She turned up the volume and pulled away from the curb. She’d decompress by singing her brains out on the way home, and then it would be time to make some of her famous French toast sticks that Halle had fallen in love with.