Kathryn Springer - Jingle Bell Babies

Lucky her.

Lori’s response to his bluff the night before, when he offered and she accepted the nanny position, had left him stunned. It wasn’t until Jesse watched her car glide up the driveway that he let himself believe she’d really accepted the position. And even then, he half expected to see her do a U-turn and hightail it back to town.

He’d stopped asking God for help a long time ago, but if Jesse didn’t know better, he’d be tempted to think He was still looking out for him anyway.

Lori felt her face grow warm and she shifted uncomfortably under Jesse’s intense perusal. Had her mascara smeared? Did she have a smudge of grape jelly on her nose?

An unhappy squawk on the other side of the door saved her from having to ask.

She and Jesse instinctively turned toward the sound.

“Brooke.” They said the name at exactly the same moment.

Lori grinned at the expression on Jesse’s face and she shrugged. “She’s always the first one awake and ready to eat in the morning.”

A shadow darkened Jesse’s eyes. “I keep forgetting that you…know them.”

Know them. Love them. Had even held them in her arms before Jesse….

Lori decided those thoughts were best kept to herself as she stepped into the nursery to say good morning to the girls.

She blinked, giving her eyes a moment to adjust to the shock.

Someone had painted the room…pink. But not a delicate, seashell-pink. A bright, vibrant, sensory-overload shade of Post-it Note pink.

But aside from the color of the walls and the identical white cribs lined up against the wall, it didn’t look like a nursery.

No pictures on the walls. No mobiles over the cribs. The windows lacked curtains and, other than the beds, there wasn’t a stick of furniture. Not even a rocking chair.

Lori’s gaze moved to an enormous cardboard box positioned under the window. She decided it didn’t count.

A sudden noisy chorus rose from the direction of the three cribs, and Lori no longer had time to dwell on the décor. Or lack thereof.

“When one wakes up, they all wake up.” Jesse shook his head. “I stopped setting my alarm a few months ago—it seemed a little unnecessary.”

Lori went to Sasha first, even though the baby wasn’t exercising her lungs the way Brooke was. She’d captured her toes and was studying them with the same serious, intense expression Lori had seen on Jesse’s face. She reached into the crib and Sasha’s dimpled hand closed around her finger.

“Good morning, sweetheart. How did you sleep?” She glanced at Jesse. “Do you have a changing table somewhere?”

“It’s in the box,” Jesse muttered.

The box under the window.

Madison rolled over to watch the show, her thumb tucked firmly in her mouth. Lori blew her a noisy kiss. “Patience, sweet pea. I’ll get to you in a minute.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Lori saw Jesse’s scowl.

It occurred to her that, if he’d fired someone for the songs she’d sung to the girls, maybe kisses were against the rules, too.

Not on her shift.

She’d spent hours caring for babies, and she knew that the more stimulation they received—the more people who touched and spoke to them—the more they thrived.

“If you have work to do, I can take it from here.” And she’d be much less nervous if Jesse wasn’t watching her.

Jesse hesitated.

“Really. We’ll be fine.” With Sasha in her arms, Lori breezed over to the changing table…box…and with one hand, flicked open a blanket before laying the baby down. She kept one hand on Sasha’s tummy while reaching for a clean diaper from the stack on the floor.

Jesse hadn’t taken the hint, and Lori felt the weight of his gaze as she deftly changed Sasha’s diaper. It wasn’t until all the babies had on fresh diapers that he finally retreated.

Lori sighed with relief.

“I must have made it through round one,” she whispered to Madison.

The baby grinned.

“I know, I know.” Lori winked at her. “I won’t get cocky. Now, let’s go down to the kitchen and find some breakfast.”

And get ready for round two.

“So, what do you think? Is this one going to work out?”

Clay’s innocent expression didn’t fool Jesse for a second.

He knew he should have followed his gut instincts. But no, in spite of his better judgment, he’d gone down to the barn and put himself in the crosshairs of Clay’s wicked sense of humor.

As far as Jesse was concerned, the topic of the nannies that had come and gone over the past few months wasn’t open for discussion. But if there was an invisible line drawn in the sand, his brother had to cross it.

“Time will tell.” Jesse chose the safest response.

Clay rolled his eyes.

“She’s very…calm,” Jesse offered.

Really calm.

Lori hadn’t seemed a bit rattled by the prebreakfast commotion. Jesse was always a little overwhelmed in the morning, when all three girls woke up within minutes of each other, bawling like newborn calves for their breakfast.

In his mind’s eye, he saw Lori’s lips purse as she blew a kiss to Madison. He shook the image away, but another one—of Lori tickling the bottom of Sasha’s tiny foot while Brooke wailed for her share of the attention—took its place.

“Patient,” he added.

“That should work in your favor.”

“I meant patient with the girls.”

“Right. Sorry.” Clay grinned. “And she didn’t run screaming back to High Plains when she saw the living room. That’s a good sign.”

Jesse had thought so, too.

Not that he hadn’t tried to keep up with the housework. And the laundry. And the cooking.

Even with two hired hands pulling ten-hour days and Clay coming onboard to help, Jesse had a difficult time staying on top of things at the ranch. It took every ounce of his energy to take care of the triplets in the evening and find a few free hours to work on the books. When he’d let the last nanny go two days before Tommy turned up missing, the house had taken a downward spiral.

Who was he kidding? Downward spiral? It had already hit bottom. Crashed and burned.

“I’m having dinner with Nicki so I won’t be around this evening.” Clay reached out and clipped Jesse lightly on the shoulder with his fist. “Lori sounds too good to be true. Don’t mess this up.”

“Me?”

“I’ve got two words for you: five nannies.”

“I wasn’t the problem.” Jesse glared at his brother. “They weren’t what I…expected.”

The teasing sparkle in Clay’s eyes faded. “Jess…” He paused, as if trying to find the right words. “You can’t expect the girls’ nanny to be like their…mother. It’s not the same. It’s not going to look the same.”

His brother didn’t realize the truckload of irony in that statement, Jesse thought. Marie hadn’t wanted to be a mother. He’d watched her emotionally distance herself from the girls—the same way she had with him.

He had prayed. Back then. He prayed she would eventually come around. He prayed she would see the girls for the miraculous gift they were—but those hopes had been crushed when he found the note and her wedding rings that day.

A wave of bitterness swept through him. Belief in answered prayer. Hope. At one time, Jesse had had a surplus of both. But that was before he’d realized they left a lingering aftertaste of disappointment.

“I know this has been hard for you, Jess, but I’m here to help.” Clay met his gaze. “Not just with the ranch but with…everything.”

“Yeah, but for how long?” Jesse retorted.

As soon as he saw the shadow skim through his brother’s eyes, Jesse silently berated himself.

“For as long as you want me to, whether you believe it or not.” Clay’s quiet promise weighted the air between them.