Bringing Up Babies

Chas shook his head. “No. We recognized that each child needed individualized attention, and we’ve all more or less adopted a child to be our own. The kids stay together all day, then in the evening I take care of Annie, Evan and Claire will have Cody, and Grant gets Taylor.”

Lily shot him a confused expression, but Chas decided that was good. She might be sweet, she might be nice, she might even have honorable intentions about trying to care for kids, but he suspected she was only here temporarily. He wasn’t about to hire somebody who wouldn’t stay around.

“So, what you’re telling me, then, is that the job is more of a daytime thing?”

“And we’re planning to hire a housekeeper,” Grant said encouragingly.

“You simply want someone to care for the children?”

“Absolutely,” Grant said, grinning charmingly.

“Eventually,” Chas contradicted sternly. “For now the nanny will have to do basic housekeeping, and the job is at least ten hours a day,” Chas reminded, again bringing everything back to reality. “Because you’d be the primary care giver, there will be times we’ll expect you to baby-sit in the evenings. There will also be times you would be responsible for overnight duty. Grant’s in the process of bringing his construction company north and once it’s here he’ll need a full night’s sleep. I’m setting up my law practice. I won’t always have to get up first thing in the morning, but when I do, I’ll also need my sleep.”

“But the nanny will have a room upstairs for convenience in caring for the kids,” Grant put in immediately. “You’ll live here. Room and board is part of the package. Afternoons or mornings that you’re not needed will be your free time. We’ll try to work out advance schedules,” he added, skewering Chas with a look that dared him to try to throw water on that one.

“It sounds like exactly what I’m looking for,” Lily began, but Chas stopped her.

“That’s great,” he said, rising from his seat to walk around the desk. He placed his hand on the small of her back and guided her to the door. “Like I said, once I’ve completed all the first interviews, I’ll begin calling people back for second interviews. I do have a number where you can be reached, don’t I?”

“I’m staying at the bed and breakfast on Main Street,” Lily said, handing Taylor to Grant. “If you want me for a second interview, just call Abby, I guess.”

“Okay. Fine. That’s great,” Chas said as he directed her out.

He got as far as the door before Grant said, “What in the hell are you talking about first interviews and second interviews for? We are desperate. Desperate. I want somebody here tomorrow. I’m supposed to be in Savannah on Thursday. I’m not going to make it if we don’t get some help soon.”

Chas tried to silence Grant with a glare, and Lily took a step forward out of the way of the two tall, angry, obviously disagreeing men. Dressed in a plaid work shirt and jeans, Grant was frightening and imposing, but Chas was majestic. His sandy-brown hair was straight but cut short and styled in such a way that not even one strand was out of place. His green eyes were clear, direct. Even wearing casual tan slacks and an open-necked yellow shirt, tall, whipcord-lean Chas had the look of a person in power. It could have been the way he carried himself. It could have been the fact that he didn’t back down from his older, brawnier brother. Or it could have been because he seemed to be the one calling the shots.

Lily also wasn’t surprised Chas didn’t want her. She’d seen disapproval in his pale gray-green eyes the minute he opened the door to her. Men always had one of two reactions to her. They either thought she was a bubble brain or they thought she was riffraff.

Dignified, stately Chas apparently thought she wasn’t good enough for his family.

“Grant, why don’t we let Ms. Andersen go, and you and I will discuss this privately?” Chas asked.

“Why don’t we let Ms. Andersen wait in the living room while I convince you you’re an idiot, and that way I won’t have to drive to town to apologize to her and beg her to take this job,” Grant quickly countered.

Because Lily had been down roads like this one many times, she stepped in before the dispute became ugly. “Okay, look, I’m not going to pull any punches here.” She faced Chas. “You think that because I’m blond I’m stupid,” she said, opting for the nicer of the two choices for why Chas immediately disliked her. “Since I know I’m not, and since I know I’ll do a very good job as nanny for your children and you’ll be glad you hired me, I would be more than happy to work out some sort of a trial period.”

Lily watched Grant smirk cockily and cross his arms on his broad chest as if he knew her argument had won the battle, but she nonetheless held her breath waiting for Chas’s reply. She might be staying at the B&B tonight and maybe tomorrow night, but basically that was all she could afford. She had to find a job today. Because it was already three o’clock, nanny to the Brewster children might be her salvation.

Chas sighed heavily. “Ms. Andersen, it isn’t that I don’t think you’re capable of caring for the kids. I’m afraid you’ll only be temporary.”

She gave him a puzzled frown. “What do you mean?”

“Well, your home is awfully far away. What’s to say you’re not going to get homesick and just pick up and leave?”

Lily answered without a second’s hesitation. “I won’t.”

When he didn’t immediately respond, Lily knew her first guess was right on the money. Though he might truly question whether or not she’d stay in this town, that wasn’t the real reason he didn’t want to hire her. Since she couldn’t defend his possible opinion of her social status, she chose to defend her abilities.

“My sister is ten years older than I am, and she had three babies in three years. Not only did I live with her after our mother died, but I baby-sat while she worked.” She caught Chas’s gaze and held it. “I can handle three kids. I’ve already done it.”

“She’s got you, Counselor,” Grant said with a laugh.

“All right, a trial period,” Chas said as if he were doing her a supreme favor. “But these babies are very important to us,” he warned soberly. “If you don’t do an excellent job and I do mean excellent, you’re out. Do you understand me?”

“Oh, I understand you very, very well, Mr. Brewster,” Lily said, giving Chas a pointed warning look of her own, before she turned to walk out of the den. “I’m going into town to get my things from Abby’s. Please have my room ready when I return,” she said, then left.

“I guess she told you,” Grant said with a laugh after Lily was gone.

“I should punch you for getting us into this mess,” Chas said, striding back to his chair behind the big desk.

“Punch me? Punch me? You were about to let the only nanny to answer our ad walk out the door. We’ve had that ad in the paper for months, and not one person answered it until Lily.”

“Someone will come along eventually.”

“Oh, yeah, right,” Grant said and fell to the seat in front of Chas’s desk. “No one wants this job. Face it, Chas, you are in rural Pennsylvania now. This isn’t Philly. Nannies aren’t flocking here in droves.”

“Still, that doesn’t mean we have to take the first person who comes along, either. Do you know you hired her before I had a chance to get references?”

“So, we’ll get references when she returns.”

“And what if we find out she’s wanted for a felony in Wisconsin? What do we do then?”

“Then we let her go. That’s what trial periods are for.”

Chas dropped to his chair in exasperation. “All this is so easy for you because you’re going to be out of town. What if she’s careless or persnickety? What if she can’t handle all three kids alone?”

“She’s not going to be alone. It was never our plan to leave the nanny alone with the kids for long stretches of time. That’s why you’re setting up shop at the house, Counselor,” Grant reminded archly. “You volunteered to be the watcher and helper so that Evan would have the freedom to take over the mill.”

“Yeah, and what are you supposed to be doing while I’m the watcher and helper?”

“I’m supposed to be bringing my very successful construction company up from Savannah, remember?” Grant said, reaching out to lift Taylor from the play yard when she began to cry. He snuggled her against his neck, then sighed and said, “Come on, Chas, we need her. Period. End of story. At least until Evan gets back from his honeymoon. When Evan gets back we’ll hold another meeting, maybe regroup and change our plans, but for now it’s just you and me. And I have to go to Savannah.”

“So, go. I’ll take care of the kids.”

“I’m not leaving you with three babies and no helper. Besides, Lily looks very capable to me.”

Chas gave him an incredulous stare. “Oh, yeah. She looks capable, all right.”

“What? You think because she’s pretty she can’t take care of kids?”

“No, I think that because she’s pretty she’s got bigger fish to fry than being nanny for the children of two bachelors in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Use your head, Grant, she’s probably going to New York and we’re a convenient stop along the way. A place where she can rest and earn some extra cash.”

Having settled Taylor, Grant rose from his chair. “I don’t care if she is only temporary. She’s solving an immediate problem. As far as I’m concerned that’s good enough.”

He turned to walk out the door, but Chas called him back. “Grant, one of these days you’re going to have to start thinking about the future.”

Grant laughed. “Not as long as I have you around.”