Page 14 of The Secret

“You’re not sitting there while I’m doing this! You’re distracting enough.”

“I’m giving you moral support.”

I pointed through to the living room. “Support me from the couch, where I can’t see you.”

She smirked as she moved away. “You’re very uptight about a job you don’t want.”

The phone started ringing before I could respond to her. I answered the video chat to see two women staring back at me; one blonde, one brunette, both smiling widely. At any other time I’d have probably thought it was weird, but they seemed so genuinely happy to see me that it immediately put me at ease.

“Hello.”

“Hiiii,” they replied in unison.

“Thank you so much for meeting with us at such short notice. We really appreciate you making the time. I’m Wolfie,” said the blonde one, in an accent that wasn’t American. English? Australian, maybe? “And this is my sister, Freddie.”

“I’m Kit,” I smiled. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Freddie’s bright blue eyes lit up with more enthusiasm than a kid in a candy store. “How much did Marcia explain to you? Shall we tell you a little bit about ourselves and the situation, and then we can go through questions?”

I smiled, finding it hard to hold one in against their eagerness. “Yes, thank you. That would be good. She mentioned it’s a new baby and that was about it.”

“Did she say it’s not our baby?” Wolfie asked.

“Yes, she did actually. Your brother’s?”

She nodded. “Yes, that’s right. We do both have children though. I have a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and a three-month-old son, and Freddie has a two-year-old son, with another one due soon.”

I chuckled. “Sounds like a handful.”

“You’re not wrong, and that’s how we know Marcia. She’s been brilliant for us with our nannies. We love them. And when we were originally looking, we remembered your résumé, but you weren’t available long-term. However, you were the first thought we had when the new baby arrived, and we contacted Marcia straight away.”

“And thankfully you’re available.”

It didn’t surprise me that Marcia hadn’t told them that I wasn’t actually planning to go back to nannying. But the way these two were going, it sounded like Marcia would have had as hard a time saying no to them as I did to her.

“Anyway,” Wolfie continued, “this would be working for our brother, Murray. It’s a bit of an unusual situation. He’s recently found himself to be the father of a newborn.”

I frowned, because how does one suddenly find themselves to be a parent of a brand new baby?

Freddie rolled her eyes at her sister. “Stop being diplomatic; she needs to know the truth.” She looked back at me through the screen. “The baby was left with him yesterday, with a note saying she was his.”

I heard Payton gasp loudly from the other room as my eyes opened wide, and I had to remind myself to blink. “What..?!”

“He didn’t know,” Wolfie interrupted defensively before I could say anything else, although I was struggling to figure out what else there was to say. “He wouldn’t have ever let the mother of his child feel she couldn’t ask for help. He came home and found the baby on the doorstep.”

I’d been rendered speechless. Never, in all my years of child education or nannying, had I heard of this. I knew of Safe Haven laws, but not on the doorstep of a stranger. Or maybe notexactlya stranger.

But either way, that must have been the biggest shock of his life.

Freddie’s laughed pulled me out of my stunned silence. “This was our reaction too.”

“Is your brother okay?”

Wolfie’s face softened slightly. “Yes, he is; thank you for asking. He’s in shock, but our parents are coming over to help him. He just needs something permanent for the next few months to help him find a routine and adjust. He really is great with kids; he’s brilliant with our three, and we have another brother in England who also has three kids. We have a big family.”

I was right with the English accent thing.

“And the baby?”

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