Chapter Three
JAKE
I was having the most pleasant dream that I was in my cozy bed, without children climbing on me, sleeping in for once in my chaotic life. Nowhere to be. No alarm to wake up to. Just sleeping until my body told me it was time to get up. It was heavenly.
I rolled over, sinking deeper into my blankets, soaking in the silence, believing the dream might be a reality when I felt something wet under my leg. It took a minute for my brain to register what had happened, but when my eyelids opened and I spotted the top of Piper’s curly head, I knew.
The clock on my nightstand read five o’clock. So much for sleeping in until my six-thirty alarm.
I climbed out of bed and snuck into the room she shared with Ava and grabbed some clean clothes and undies. When I returned, she was sitting up in bed, whimpering .
“I peed, Daddy.”
“I know. It’s okay, sweetie. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
“In your tub?” Her face was suddenly alight with joy.
“Yep.”
The girls liked using my big clawfoot tub instead of their “boring tub.” Mine was deeper. Like a swimming pool, they said. I normally wouldn’t use it for regular baths since it was harder to bend over the edge, but I didn’t want to make a commotion in the girls’ bathroom across the hall from their rooms and risk waking Nora and Ava.
I ran a shallow bath for Piper and lowered her in.
She immediately pouted. “Deeper.”
“Not right now, Pipes. We have to get you squeaky clean.” I took a bath sponge and soaped her up, and she giggled when I put some soap on the tip of her nose.
“Is the nanny coming?” she asked.
“Soon,” I told her. “We’re going to meet a girl named Lindsey tonight. Does that sound good?”
She shook her head. “Tally.”
I looked into her big blue eyes. “Did you like Tally, Piper?”
A huge dimpled smile spread across her face. “She played with us.”
“Yes, she did.”
“She read to us.”
“Lindsey might do that too.”
I was kind of hoping the girls would take to Lindsey like they had to Natalia. She was great, don’t get me wrong. And she was more than qualified for the job. But I had a bit of a problem when it came to Natalia. Ever since we met in the grocery store, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her wide aqua-blue eyes, or her heart-shaped lips, or the soft, melodic tone of her voice. Imagine my surprise when I opened the door to meet my children’s potential nanny and came face to face with the girl who’d left such an impression on me. How very inconvenient.
I rinsed the soap off of Piper. “Are you ready to fly?”
Her face lit up as I grabbed her under the arms, lifted her out of the tub, wrapped a towel around her wet body, then spun her around like she was flying. Her giggles made my heart explode with love.
I placed her firmly on the ground. “All clean.”
“Again, again!”
“How about we fly to my room and you lay on the chair while I clean up my bed?”
She giggled and clapped her hands.
“But we have to be extra quiet so we don’t wake your sisters.”
“Okay, Daddy,” she whispered, then held her index finger over her lips. “Shhh.”
I helped her get dressed, flew her into my room, and plopped her down on the chair. It was pointless to try to get her to go back to her bed after having a bath. Hopefully, this would give me some time to strip off my bedding and run a load of laundry.
Piper was long past the days of potty training. She’d mastered that before she even turned two and had been doing fine until Kate announced she was leaving me for another guy and was moving to Montana with him. Things between us had gone south long ago. We fought constantly. We hadn’t been intimate in ages. I thought we could fix things or at least hold it together for the sake of the girls. Obviously, Kate didn’t feel the same. Not long after the girls found out, Piper started intermittently wetting the bed. I tried putting her back in pull-up diapers, but she hated them and always took them off.
“I’m a big girl. I don’t need diapers,” she told me over and over. But clearly, she did.
I thought about taking the girls to therapy. Nora had become withdrawn, Ava was extra clingy, and along with the bed-wetting, Piper sometimes got aggressive, hitting her sisters and yelling. They were all dealing with Kate’s departure in their own ways, and I felt lost as to how to help them.
Kate had given me full custody without much of a fight. She was wrapped up in her new boyfriend and her new life, as if our life together had never even happened. She constantly made plans to come back to Abbottsville to stay with her parents and see the girls, but only twice in the year since she’d been gone had she followed through. Every time she said she was coming, I knew it probably wouldn’t happen, and my heart broke, knowing the disappointment would send the girls into another spiral of emotions. How I wished I could protect them from that.
Kate’s parents, George and Marjorie, were such a help. But they had already done so much for us this year by picking the girls up from school and daycare and keeping them until I got home from work every night. They’d gone above and beyond, and I knew that was partly because of their disappointment in their daughter’s life choices, but I couldn’t expect them to always be available. And my dad was alone now since Mom passed away, so he didn’t often watch the girls on his own. They were kind of a handful for him.
It was definitely time to bring in a nanny and give us all a little more stability. I knew it wouldn’t fix what they were going through, but I hoped it would help.
I was unsure about hiring Natalia, though. I had no doubt she would be great with the girls, but would I be able to keep my cool around her? I was pretty sure I’d come across as flirtatious during the interview. Her cheeks had turned the loveliest shade of pink, which I wasn’t proud of. And that’s what worried me. That I would make her uncomfortable if I couldn’t rein in my attraction to her.
By the time I got home that night, I was already running late. Lindsey was scheduled to arrive at seven-thirty for our interview, and I had a voicemail from Kate I hadn’t bothered listening to.
My in-laws were already at the house, waiting with the girls until I arrived home.
“I’m so sorry.” I rushed inside and dropped my bag on the floor just inside the kitchen. “Stupid traffic.”
“It’s all right, Jacob.” Marjorie closed the dishwasher door and pressed start. “We love being with the girls. You know that.”
“I know you do. And you know I appreciate all the help.”
George walked over and gave me a pat on the back. “You’re doing a good job, Jake.”
I blew out a deep breath. “I’m trying. ”
“The girls have been fed,” Marjorie said, “and I made them change into something nice and brush their hair.”
“Thank you, Marjie. You’re the best.”
They hung around for a few more minutes while I ran upstairs to change. I didn’t have the energy for this interview. All I wanted was to get the girls to bed and crash on the couch with leftovers, but I had to do it.
George and Marjorie hugged us goodbye, and ten minutes later, the doorbell rang.
Ava and Piper started cheering.
“Go sit on the couch and wait, please,” I told them.
Surprisingly, they did as they were told.
“Where’s your sister?” I asked when Nora was nowhere in sight.
“In her room,” Ava answered.
I bolted upstairs and peeked my head into Nora’s room. “Come downstairs.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes. You need to meet Lindsey. Maybe you’ll like her better than Tally.”
“I don’t want a nanny.”
“Well, I need to hire one, so you’ll have to get used to the idea.”
The doorbell rang again, and Nora gave me a snotty look.
I was about ready to lose it.
“Get downstairs, now!” I spoke more forcefully than usual, trying to keep my voice at an even level rather than yelling, but I failed.
She twisted her body overdramatically as she got off the bed and stomped past me and down the stairs.
I dropped my forehead against the wall beside her door and groaned .
The doorbell rang again.
“I’m coming!” I shouted.
Downstairs, I found Nora flopped not-so-ladylike on the couch in the living room and the younger two peeking out the front window at Lindsey.
“Go sit with Nora,” I told them. “Now!”
They both whined as they went.
Great. This was going well.
I opened the door to greet Lindsey, but she was on her phone.
“Sorry. It took me a few minutes to wrangle the girls,” I said. “Come on in.”
“No problem.” She put her phone away, and I held the door open for her, led her into the living room, and introduced her to the girls.
Lindsey was perfectly lovely. She was in her early twenties and had one prior nanny job for two years. She even had a degree in Early Childhood Education, which was a huge plus.
But when it came to the girls, they didn’t click like I hoped they would.
“How old are you girls?” Lindsey asked.
“Six,” Ava replied.
Piper held up three fingers.
Nora ignored her, which infuriated me.
“What do you like to do?” she asked them.
“Play with my dolls and my fidget toys,” Ava declared happily.
“Kangamoo!” Piper cried, referring to her favorite kangaroo stuffy.
Nora sat with her arms crossed, no reply.
I thought maybe Lindsey would ask more questions or try to get Nora to respond, but she didn’t .
The younger girls tried their best to get her to engage with them, though.
“Will you play with us?” Ava asked her.
“Read to us,” Piper begged.
“I’m here to talk to your dad about being your nanny,” she told them.
They looked sad, which tugged at my heart.
There was nothing wrong with what she said. It was true. But I liked the way Natalia had gone with it and got down on their level.
When Lindsey was gone, I asked the girls what they thought.
“When is Tally coming over?” Ava asked.
“Tally plays with us,” Piper said.
They were obviously smitten.
And honestly, so was I. Which was a problem.
After the girls were in bed, I finally opened the voicemail on my phone and reluctantly listened to Kate’s message.
“Nora told me you’re interviewing nannies.”
Of course there was no “Hello” or “How are you?” She just jumped right into it.
“I think I should have a say in who’s taking care of my children, don’t you?” Her tone and her saying my children grated my nerves. “Are you doing a background check on these women? You need to set up some kind of video call so I can be there for the interviews and ask them questions, too. It shouldn’t all be up to you, Jake.”
I rolled my eyes as if she could see me through the phone.
“They’re my children too. Call me back right away.”
“Are you kidding me?” I said aloud to an empty room .
I sent her a quick text to avoid having to hear her voice.
I’ve already made my choice for the nanny. Don’t worry about it.
The phone rang two seconds later. I didn’t want to answer, but if I didn’t, she’d keep calling back. Better to get it over with.
“What?” I asked.
“You can’t do that. I need to know about this woman. Did you do a background check?”
“Yes. And I called references, Kate. I’m not a complete idiot.”
“How old is she?”
“Why does that matter?”
“Are we talking Mrs. Doubtfire here or some teenager?”
“I wouldn’t hire a teenager. She’s a nanny, not a babysitter.”
“How old?” She wouldn’t let up.
“Old enough.”
“Is she capable of taking care of three little girls? And if she’s young, will she be bringing strange men into the house?”
“What? No.” Truthfully, I had no idea what Natalia’s dating life was like, but she didn’t seem the type.
“So, she’s young then?”
“Oh my gosh. She’s twenty-seven.”
“Why isn’t she married?”
“I have no idea, Kate, and it’s not our business. She’s good at her job, she’s had three previous nanny jobs, and most importantly, the girls like her. ”
“They met her already?”
“Of course they did. I wouldn’t hire someone without knowing if they got along with the girls first.”
“I should’ve been there.” Was that a twinge of sadness in her voice?
“You made your choices.” And so far, those choices had been all about her.
“Don’t try to make me feel guilty,” she snapped. “You know we weren’t happy.”
“Yes, but you didn’t have to move across the country. You could’ve left me without leaving the girls too.”
“We’re done here.” She hung up on me. She hated when I told her the truth she didn’t want to hear, but I would never stop saying it. And I hoped she did feel guilty for what she was putting our daughters through.