Chapter 3
three
GREER
“Someone’s at the door!” Alaric raced toward the front window.
Greer checked the time on her phone, curiosity and confusion filling her. She really hadn’t expected anyone to show up at this time of day. Perhaps it was just a mail courier or someone dropping off a package. Leon’s birthday was coming up. Greer glanced at all of the kids, making sure they were where they were supposed to be.
Both Leon and Alaric leaned over the back of the couch to see out the great big window to the front of the house. But it would be impossible to see the front door from that angle. Shepherd was attempting to climb up the couch to join his big brother, but failing, so Greer scooped him up into her arms. And the girls, well, they were ignoring all the commotion like they normally did.
Walking to the front door of Ivy’s house, Greer popped Shepherd on her hip and held him close. She opened the door and stopped cold in her tracks. Penny stood on the other side of the screen door. Quickly, before anything else could happen, Greer leaned forward and clicked the lock on the screen door.
Penny sneered at her. “I’m here to pick up Leon and Shepherd.”
“It’s not time to exchange kids,” Greer answered. This was one schedule she’d done her best to memorize, and it was also one schedule that was never supposed to change. Unlike Lachlan and Baylor, who often shifted schedules to accommodate because they had a mutual divorce and separation, Penny was the opposite.
She would bully her way into anything she could, and Greer seemed to be her newest target. Especially after that school incident the other week. Greer held onto Shepherd tightly as he tried to lean forward to see his other mother, completely oblivious to what was actually happening during this conversation. Two-year-olds were good for that. They loved just about everyone.
“I’m here for my kids, Greer .” The way Penny added a tone of disgust onto the end when she said Greer’s name didn’t sit right with her.
While Greer understood that a lot of people didn’t find her career choice to be worthy, or anything other than just a stay at home and have your own damn kids type of career, she didn’t see it that way. And she loved every single minute of her life since she’d chosen to be a nanny and left the world of business behind.
“I’ll have to call Ivy and talk to her, because she didn’t mention anything about a change in the schedule.” Greer still kept Shepherd on her hip, holding him tightly. She was too scared to look behind her and see if any of the other kids had ventured this way.
“You don’t have to call her. I’m their other mother.”
“You might be, but there’s an arrangement in place, and I need to stick with the schedule that was given to me by my boss.”
Penny’s lips thinned to the point that Greer almost couldn’t see them anymore. She put her hand on the screen door and turned the handle, trying to wrench it open, but the lock held. Greer glanced down at the handle, her heart rate kicking up a few notches and a nugget of fear sitting deep within her belly. She hated this. She’d never really dealt with contentious separations before as a nanny, but this was definitely one for the books.
“Let me in, Greer .” There was that tone again.
Greer took a step back from the door and then halted, feeling tiny little hands on her legs as someone peeked their head around her.
“Mommy?” Leon asked, his tone fearful and worried.
“It’s okay, baby, I’m here to pick you up. Okay? Greer —” that tone again “—just won’t let me take you home right now.”
Oh, so Penny was going to put the entire blame on Greer. Perfect. The kids would start to dislike her for getting in the middle of everything. She knew that wasn’t how Ivy saw it, but she couldn’t explain the complex intricacies of something like this to a six-year-old—and definitely not to a two-year-old.
“Leon, will you go get my phone please? I think I left it on the coffee table.” Greer knew exactly where it was. She always did. And when Leon hesitated, Greer held her ground and waited. She wasn’t going to let Penny take them without permission from Ivy, and she was pretty damn sure that Ivy wasn’t going to give that permission.
Finally Leon left her side and then came back with the phone in hand. Greer unlocked it with her thumbprint and found Ivy’s number immediately.
She looked directly at Penny. “I’m going to shut the door now so I can have this conversation in private.”
“In private with my kids?” Penny tried the door again, jiggling it hard. Leon whimpered and clung to Greer’s side. “Those are my kids. Let me have them.”
Greer said nothing as she leaned forward, the phone pressed between her shoulder and her ear, and she flicked the front door closed with a loud thud . She flicked the lock just for good measure. Steadying her breathing, she turned around and looked down at Leon, Alaric, Halle, and Davina—all of them staring up at her.
“I want you all to go to Leon’s bedroom, all right? He’s got some toys in there.” She put Shepherd down on the floor. “Alaric, take Shepherd with you.”
Alaric held out his hand, and as the true leader and oldest of the crew, he listened to everything that Greer asked without question. Greer watched them go, listening to the phone ring and ring. Ivy wasn’t going to answer, was she? When it went to voicemail, Greer didn’t bother. She hung up, sent a text that said 911 - Penny and then waited a full sixty seconds before she called again.
Ivy’s voice came out rushed. “What happened?”
“Penny is here, at the house. She’s demanding that I give her Leon and Shepherd.”
“What?” Ivy could cut ice with how sharply she said that. “No. It’s not her night.”
“I know that, and I told her that, but she’s insisting. I told her that I was going to have to call you to get this figured out. I locked the screen door and the front door.” Greer let the fear and nerves hit her a little, finally. If Ivy could be in charge of this, that would be great. Because while Greer could stand up at first, she wasn’t very good at dealing with the rush of emotions later—and the one thing she hated more than anything was blatant and mean-spirited conflict. She’d had enough of that growing up.
“I’ll call her.” Ivy hung up.
Greer stared down at the phone before walking to the back door and the garage door. She locked those as well. She wasn’t going to give Penny a chance to get into this house. She checked on the kids, who were playing very quietly in Leon’s room. When they noticed her, she shook her head and told them to keep playing, that she’d check on them again soon.
She wanted them as far away from this conflict as possible.
They didn’t need to witness adults being assholes. They needed to be protected from it. Greer held her phone, waiting for some kind of call or text back from Ivy to tell her exactly what to do. But she didn’t get it. What she did hear was Penny cussing up a storm outside the front of the house. What she did notice was Penny skidding off in her expensive ass car. And what she did feel was the wash of relief that she was finally alone in the house with the kids. But like hell was she going to unlock those doors until Ivy came home.
And thankfully, she didn’t have to wait long.
Greer had dinner cooked for the kids and was standing in the kitchen while the kids ate when the lock clicked from the door to the garage. Greer’s heart was in her throat again, and she immediately went into protective mode, putting herself between that door and the kids.
When Ivy popped her head around, saying, “It’s me! It’s just little old me!” Greer relaxed instantly. She’d never been more relieved to see Ivy’s caramel brown head and tiny body, or to hear the click of her stilettos against the tile floor.
“Mama!” Leon jumped up from the table and raced directly over to her, giving her a hug that meant so much more than welcome home . Shepherd followed, babbling as he went, but he didn’t understand the danger they had all been in—not like Leon did.
“Hey babies.” Ivy hugged them, glancing up at Greer and mouthing, thank you.
Satisfaction rolled through Greer. She’d done the right thing. She’d made the right call, and she had handled everything as well as it could have been handled, at least for now, right? She’d need that verbal confirmation later. Because it would be the only way for her to truly feel like she’d done right by those kids for the last few hours.
The air in the house was tense, and Greer winced when Ivy told the boys to go back and finish eating. She set her purse and her briefcase onto the kitchen counter and leaned against it. She looked like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. The lines deepening in her face, the tension that she held there. Did the boys notice it too? Surely Lachlan and Nathalie did, right?
“Aside from this drama, was it a rough day?”
Ivy sighed heavily and nodded. “I can’t really talk about that part though. But add in that my boss, Abagail, is really not happy that I left early to come home and deal with this.”
Greer canted her head to the side, fully curious as to why. It’d been two hours since Penny had left, and it wasn’t like Ivy had come home right away when it happened.
“I went to talk with my lawyer and file a police report.”
“Ah.” Greer nodded. Now she understood what had taken so much time.
“Remind me to never get married again.” Ivy let out a wry laugh. “None of this is worth it.”
Greer frowned. “Marriage isn’t something that ever interested me.”
“Oh?” Ivy looked at her curiously.
Greer shook her head. “I never thought that one single person would be able to make me happy, and since the government frowns on other types of ceremonies and legal marriages, it leaves me with very little choice when it comes to getting married—which is to not.”
“Interesting.” Ivy genuinely looked intrigued by that. “I called Nathalie and Lachlan. They should be here soon.”
“Good. I was hoping to be able to talk to all of you about this incident, because I don’t imagine it’ll be the last time that it happens.”
“Probably not.” Ivy frowned, another heavy sigh leaving her lips. “She did this once before with another nanny, and I fired her because she let Penny take the kids. She’s definitely throwing her weight around.”
Greer glanced at the kids still sitting at the table, all of them talking and eating mindlessly. But she really didn’t think it was appropriate to have these conversations in front of them. She pointed to the living room. “Shall we?”
“Sure.” Ivy followed her, the clicking of her heels on the tile the melody that Greer had gotten so used to in the last few months working there.
Nathalie and Lachlan arrived not too long after, and Greer went to get the kids cleaned up and send them back to Leon’s room to play for a bit. When she joined the women in the living room, she was struck by just how different they were from her. Each in their own way was doing life alone. They were older and wiser than she was, and they had a long-standing friendship and work relationship between them that never seemed to cause very many issues. Sure they’d argue from time to time or disagree, but it never caused friction in their tight-knit relationship.
They were a family in their own right.
And that was exactly what Greer had wanted her entire life.
A family that was calm, loving, and supportive of each other—no matter what. One where there wasn’t negativity and shaming, where the gaslighting and the pain that was caused wasn’t intentional. And it was fascinating that this was where she found it.
“We need to talk about Penny,” Greer said, sliding into the conversation and pulling the women back on track to why they were there. “I’m not sure that it’d be wise for the kids and me to stay at Ivy’s after school anymore.”
“We agree,” Nathalie said. She was such a hard one to read. Was she angry? Upset? Or was this simply a deep understanding of what Greer had already said? Even though Greer lived in Nathalie’s house and spent the vast majority of the time there, she still hadn’t managed to figure out how to read those small nuances.
“We do,” Lachlan said. She was always the warmest one of the three, and Greer latched onto that. “We think that after school, you should divide your time between my house and Nathalie’s instead. Ivy can pick up the boys there, and she’ll be home for all custody exchanges with Penny from now on.”
That settled an uneasiness in Greer’s chest that she hadn’t even begun to name yet.
“And if you’re still uneasy about that, we do have a kid room at the office where you can bring them after school if you want. Even Shepherd and Leon. They used to be in there often when they were younger.”
“A kid room?” Greer frowned. “Like you have a playroom?”
Lachlan nodded. “Yes, not only for our children, but for children of our patients. If they need a place to play during a procedure, they’re allowed in there.”
“Is it an unsupervised room?”
“It is currently,” Nathalie jumped in. “But when children are in there, it’s supervised by someone from the office.”
“So would I also be in charge of supervising those kids?”
“No,” Nathalie said immediately, her voice firm. “You would not. You’re only hired to watch our children.”
“Right.” Greer bit the inside of her cheek. That was becoming a really bad habit. “I’ll think about it.”
“Baylor and I were actually discussing it last week. He was wondering if you could bring the girls there, when you don’t have Ivy’s kids, just so he can see them more often.”
“That would disrupt Alaric’s routine,” Greer pointed out. “Not that I’m opposed to it if that’s what you want me to do, but we’d need to consider that Alaric comes home from school to eat a snack and do homework.”
“All of which he can do at the office,” Nathalie said firmly.
“Right.” Greer still wasn’t sure she liked the idea of it. But if that’s what they wanted, then that’s what she would do. She’d figure out a way to make it work. That was her job, after all, wasn’t it? “But back to being at Ivy’s, since that won’t be happening, I’ll draw up a new schedule for which house we’ll be at.”
“Good.” Nathalie immediately stood up, snagging her purse. “I’m off then.”
She didn’t wait for them to say anything as she trudged toward the bedroom to get Alaric. Greer stared after her. She wasn’t ready to let the conversation end there. She needed someone to talk all of this out with, to ease the worry and tension that was still residing deep within her chest.
“Thank you, Greer,” Ivy said. “I don’t think you know how much I appreciate what you did today.”
Greer nodded silently.
“Really, we do,” Lachlan added. She also stood up and made her way back to where the kids were.
“I guess we’re done then…” Greer said awkwardly. She took her time standing up from the couch, her Converse feeling like heavy weights on her feet. She gathered up her stuff and walked out of Ivy’s house and straight next door to Nathalie’s house.
She really needed to talk this out with someone. And only one person came to mind.
Kam.