Nanny Undercover

Chapter 8: Defining Things

"Babies can't help crying, it's their only way of communicating," Goldie said, feeling irritated and defensive. She picked up Jemma and smoothed her lovely brown hair down on her head. "And they can't very well clean themselves, you know?"

"Oh, I know, I know," Kylie assured her. "I didn't mean to offend you or anything, and like I said, these babies don't bother me at all."

Jemma pointed a chubby pink finger at Goldie's eye and said, "Goop."

Goldie kissed the finger and put Jemma down.

Pippa began to fuss a little, the cries she made when she was getting tired.

Goldie hoped Jeff came home soon, the babies needed their naps. She decided to get their bottles ready to save a few minutes, and went to the kitchen.

"Wait a minute, where are you going?" Kylie asked. "You have to stay here and watch them, you can't leave me alone with them."

"I'm just going to the kitchen to get their bottles ready," Goldie assured her. "Don't worry, they're safe." What did she think they were going to do, explode?

She measured out the formula and added the water, making sure everything was the right temperature and shaking them.

"How much longer are you going to be?" Kylie called. "One of them just rolled over, twice, she's nearly off the blanket."

"Oh? Which one?" Goldie lined the bottles up on the counter.

"I don't know which one, I told you, they all look the same to me." Goldie could hear panic in Kylie's voice. "Now please, hurry and come back here!"

Goldie came back.

"Genie, you clever girl, where were you trying to go, hm?" Goldie asked as she put Genie back on the blanket. She looked over at Kylie. "Would you like to hold one of them?" she asked, gesturing to the girls.

Kylie shook her head. "No," she said decisively. She gestured to her sweater. "This is Italian cashmere, you see."

"Oh. I see."

Pippa continued to fuss, so Goldie picked her up, checking her watch. "Don't worry, Daddy will be home soon," she assured the baby, hoping her words were true.

Just then they heard the key in the door, and both women looked toward it with expressions of relief.

"Guess what?" Jeff said as he opened the door. "I never do stuff like this, and I hope you don't think it's too much, but I got you a surpr—" his words died on his lips as he saw Kylie seated on the couch. He caught the small, velvet box he'd tossed in the air and carefully put it back in his pocket.

"Kylie, what are you doing here?" he asked, shock making him blunt.

"Surprise," Kylie said with a small smile, finishing Jeff's word.

Goldie just looked back and forth between the two of them, blue eyes huge. Once again, she wasn't sure what to do. She couldn't just leave, she was supposed to be taking care of the girls, and three was just too many for her to just pick them up and go.

"Well, it's a nice surprise," Jeff said, recovering and coming forward to hug her as she rose from the couch.

"I wanted to ask you something, and I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I'd just pop by and ask in person, you know?" Kylie explained. "Then Goldie said you were gone but that you'd be home soon, so I thought I'd wait, and visit with your daughters. We've been having a great time, haven't we?"

Goldie could only nod.

"Yes, Genie rolled over and everything," Kylie added.

"Did she?" Jeff asked rhetorically.