Nanny Undercover

Chapter 7: Realizing Things

"Good morning, baby girls," she sang from the door way.

Two brown heads and one blonde turned alertly toward her, and three smiling faces greeted her, making her heart swell.

She got them changed and down to the  living room, where she started on their morning bottles. She could manage all three on her own, and wanted to let Jeff sleep if she could, but he wandered into the kitchen just as she was screwing the tops on, his head in bed-heady disarray, looking sexy as fuck.

"Good morning," she said to him, smiling.

"Morning," he answered, leaning in to kiss her, causing her tummy to swoop a little. He stood a little closer to her than necessary, putting his hands on her hips. "Is that okay?" he murmured, looking intently into her eyes. "Can we set some ground rules, and agree that kissing is okay? Or would you rather not?"

Goldie savored the feel of his hands on her body and tried to focus on his words. "Yum," she said. "I mean, yes, sure," she corrected herself, nodding as she saw the laughter in his eyes. "Kissing is fine."

"Smashing." He grabbed two bottles from the counter and turned toward the living room.

"Morning, darlings, time for your bottles," he called.

They sat together feeding the girls, talking about what they were going to do that day.

"Well, I plan to do laundry, so hold me down if I start to float away from all the excitement," Goldie joked. "I think that, between the three of them, the girls are down to four clean outfits, so I've got a lot to do. Come to think of it, I don't have a lot of clothes without spit up on them, either, so yeah, I'll be washing all day, pretty much."

"Well, that sounds like a lot of drudgery," Jeff commiserated. "I have a meeting this morning, but I can help after I return."

"Oh no, don't get me wrong," Goldie assured him. "You have a washer and dryer right in your apartment, that's real luxury. We'll be fine, won't we, girls?" She sat Jemma up on her shoulder to burp her, though at nearly ten months, she really didn't need it anymore. Goldie just liked to hold her.

"Where do you have to go?" she asked.

"I need to see my solicitor," Jeff explained. "Maggie and I were very remiss about keeping things up to date about the girls, and I haven't done anything since her death. I need to get things neatened up and straightened out regarding custody of the girls and where my money goes, things like that."

"Oh." Goldie tried to keep her voice casual. "How's all that going to be set up?"

"Well, if anything happens to me, all my money is held in trust for the girls, like Maggie's, and as far as custody, they go to my parents, in England."

"Wouldn't that be difficult?" Goldie asked. "I mean, with Maggie's parents living here in the States? What if they wanted to fight?"

Jeff stared at Goldie. "Hadn't thought of that." The two he was holding were finished with their bottles, so he set them down to play as well. "I'd better get all this sorted so they don't wind up with the Velasquezes, then, hadn't I? They're such nice people, though." He sighed. "It does my head in, honestly, thinking about all this. I'd like to just think that we'll all just make up and be happy and that of course nothing will happen to me, but look at what happened to their mum?" He gestured to his daughters. "Obviously, anything can happen to anyone, at any time, it's no good sticking your head in the sand and pretending, is it?"

He looked at Goldie curiously. "Why are you so interested in this, anyway?"

Goldie shrugged. "If it affects the girls, I'm interested, you know that."

He went to shower before his meeting, leaving Goldie ruminating on the sofa as she watched the babies play.

So Jeff planned to cut the Velasquezes out of the girls' lives completely and permanently, and was taking legal steps to make it so.

Genie looked around. "Dadada?" she asked, making it a question. "Dadada?" she pointed toward the stairs and the upstairs hall.

Goldie nodded delightedly. "Yes, that's right, sweetie! Daddy went upstairs to take a shower so he can go to his meeting! You smart cookie." She walked over and dropped a kiss on Genie's blonde head.

When Jeff came downstairs, Goldie told him about Genie and what she'd asked.

"Imogene, how wonderful," Jeff said, swooping Genie up and blowing raspberries on her tummy.

Genie shrieked with laughter, causing her sisters to laugh as well and lift their arms, wanting the same thing.

So Jeff lifted first Jemma, then Pippa, and blew raspberries on their tummies also, causing them to giggle as well, so that when he left, all three girls were smiling and happy.

"Bye bye, Daddy," Goldie said, waving at Jeff. "Say bye bye, girls."

Jeff began walking toward Midtown as he looked for a cab, and decided after he'd walked a couple of blocks to just walk the whole way. For some reason, it was a nice day, not crazy hot, with low humidity, and he wanted to stretch his legs. It felt like forever since he'd been out like this, alone, with time to just walk.

He felt odd as he walked, enjoying the feel of the sun on his shoulders, feeling a strange urge to sing one of his old songs, or at least hum it. He thought of his daughters, sitting on the floor with Goldie, smiling and laughing as he left. He thought of Goldie, looking beautiful with her hair down, playing with his girls. What was this strange emotion he was feeling? He wasn't exhausted, as he usually was; he wasn't feeling grim, or worried, like he had been for so long; he didn't feel like he was drowning, like he had before Goldie came; even the sorrow that had tinged his every waking moment since Maggie had died had abated.

Joy.

Jeff realized with shock he felt happy.

In those first, dark days after Maggie had died, he'd really believed that he'd never be happy again. And yet here he was, less than a year later, bopping uptown, up Broadway, no less, feeling cheerful, jolly, jovial, all of those words plus many more he couldn't even think of at the moment.

Obviously his girls brought him tremendous joy, but that wasn't it. They'd been with him the whole time, and he hadn't felt this way three months ago. He hadn't been free to enjoy them until she'd come, Goldie, laughing, beautiful, loving his girls.

He was walking by a jewelry store and, on a whim, he entered. He chose a flower pendant with sapphire petals. He just thought it looked like something she'd like. The salesman was thrilled, it was the easiest sale he made all day.

"No, don't even wrap it," Jeff said. "I'll just carry the box in my pocket."

Jeff laughed at himself as he exited the store, patting his pocket. He'd never been impulsive before.

It felt good.