Babies in the Bargain

“I will,” Betty answered before bustling out amidst her goodbyes.

And then there Kira was, alone with Cutty and that incredible face that looked amused at something, and two babies who both eyed her warily.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Cutty asked then.

“Absolutely,” she said.

And she honestly thought she was.

Even as she glanced around at the stacks of dirty dishes, at the babies who seemed to hate her, and thought about all she suddenly found herself in charge of.

Marla had done it. And done it well.

She would, too.

“You were on your ankle too much, weren’t you?”

It was nine o’clock that night before Cutty got the twins to bed and, coming down the stairs after putting laundry in the dryer, Kira saw him flinch as he sat on the couch and raised his foot onto the throw pillow on the coffee table.

“It’s okay,” he said, looking embarrassed to have been caught showing pain.

But it was Kira who was really embarrassed. She’d been much more hindrance than help today and she knew it. She had only to look around at the chaos that had grown rather than diminished to realize just what a detriment she’d been.

“Why don’t you sit down so we can talk?” Cutty said then.

“That sounds bad. You’re going to fire me, aren’t you?”

He laughed. A deep rumble of a laugh that sounded better than it should have to Kira. “You just look like you need to sit down,” he said.

She caught sight of her reflection in the living room’s picture window and was nearly startled by what she saw. Her blouse was partially hanging out of the waistband of slacks stained with Mandy’s chicken-noodle soup from lunch, half of her hair had slipped from the scarf-tied ponytail and the other half was bulging out of it more on one side of her head than the other, and all in all she looked as if she’d just been through the wringer. In fact, she was more of a wreck than the house was.

“Oh,” she said, reaching up to snatch the yellow scarf so her hair could fall free. She stuffed the scarf into her pocket and then finger-combed her hair into some sort of order.

“Come on. Sit a minute,” Cutty urged.

She did, perching like a schoolgirl on the edge of the easy chair to his left.

Cutty’s dark green eyes studied her, and it occurred to Kira that even though they’d basically been together all day and evening she’d been so enmeshed in one thing after another that she’d hardly glanced at him.

He didn’t look any the worse for wear, though. The gray workout pants that stretched across his massive thighs and the muscle-hugging white T-shirt he wore were still clean. Even the five o’clock shadow that darkened the lower half of his striking face only gave him a scruffiness that was very sexy.

But the last thing Kira needed was to notice that now.

To avoid it she forced herself to stare at the apple-sauce caked on her shoe. “I’m so sorry about…” She shrugged helplessly. “Everything today. Really, I swear I’m usually the most organized, efficient person anyone knows. And believe it or not, my apartment is always spotless.”

“I don’t doubt it,” he said. “But add a couple of busy, mischievous eighteen-month-olds to the equation and it tends to throw everything off.”

Why did he seem to think her failure today was funny?

“Even when my focus was on school and I was under a lot of pressure to get grades as high as Marla always had, I could still juggle all my work at home with all my classwork and even my research. My room at home and my apartment after I left home never looked like this…” Kira motioned to the even bigger mess all around them. “I was sure if Marla was a whiz at all of it the way Betty said she was, that I would be, too.”

“Marla wasn’t always a whiz at it. She started out having trouble taking care of a baby—one baby—and everything else, too. We both did. But as time went on—”

“I’ll get better,” Kira promised before he could finish what he was saying. “I mean it. I’ll come over here at four tomorrow morning before you or the girls are awake and—”

“Whoa!” Cutty said with a shake of his head and a big hand held up palm outward. “I didn’t want to talk to you about trying harder—”

“So you are firing me.”

“I never hired you, how could I fire you? You’re just helping out and all I wanted to talk to you about was relaxing.”

“Relaxing?” Kira repeated as if the word wasn’t in her vocabulary.

“I think you’re trying too hard and getting in your own way.”

Trying too hard? Was there such a thing?

“It’s making you kind of fumble fingered.”

“I know I seemed to drop and spill everything I touched today, and I spent all my time cleaning up my own messes rather than making any headway with the ones that were already here. I’m not usually that clumsy.”

“And when it comes to the girls—”

“They still don’t like me.”

“You’re just unfamiliar to them, and they’re missing Betty—she’s like a grandmother to them. They’ll get used to you but you can’t force it. They can be pretty contrary when you try.”

And Kira had the soiled clothes and shoes to show for it.

Still she knew he was right. The way she’d handled the twins certainly hadn’t been the recipe for success, since all they’d wanted to do was escape from her overly cloying attentions—frequently by displays of temper—and Cutty had ended up having to step in to do everything.

“I’m sorry,” Kira said again. Then, with another glance at the debris all around them, she added, “Maybe I can get some things done now.”

“I think what you should do now is go soak in a bubble bath,” Cutty said. “And we’ll start over tomorrow. Maybe without so much concern about how Marla did things.”

Kira had spent an inordinate amount of time asking how her sister did everything. “Betty said—”

“I can imagine what Betty said. But Betty isn’t here and neither is Marla, and we just need to get things taken care of regardless of what Betty said or how Marla did things.”

“Okay,” Kira agreed, thinking that that was a nice way of saying she just needed to get something—anything—done.

But then he managed to raise her sinking spirits with a simple, winning smile. “You know, I appreciate that you’re here and willing to help out. And I’m glad you want to get to know the girls. I just think things will run more smoothly if you can go with the flow. Like I said, relax. Have a little fun, get a little done. There’s no right way. There’s no wrong way. There’s no big deals.”

Kira nodded. “I’ll try.” But the truth was, she’d been taught that there was always a right way and that was how she had to do everything. She wasn’t too sure she could ignore that now.

Cutty took his foot off the pillow and stood then. “Come on. Let me give you a key to the back door so you can get in whenever you want, and then you can go have that long soak in the tub. Tomorrow will be a better day.”

Kira thought he was probably figuring it couldn’t be a worse one.