Page 23 of The Secret

“Sounds good.”

I followed them back into the playroom where my mother introduced her to everyone. Freddie got up to hug her, followed by Wolfie, who still had Mac in her arms.

“Okay, I’ll take Kit round and show her where her room is, and the baby’s things. You can stay here.”

“Sure.” I looked at Kit and couldn’t decide if she was amused or slightly horrified. “Welcome to the chaos. As you can see, my mother is in charge right now, but thank you for coming. I’ll wait until you guys are done, and hopefully you won’t change your mind when you see how much help I need.”

“Don’t worry; it’s nothing I can’t handle. You’ll be a pro by the time I leave.” She smiled at me before allowing my mother to drag her off.

I flopped back down on the chair, my head resting on the back, my eyelids heavy again, but the thought of finally being able to sleep was currently giving me more joy than I’d ever felt in my life. I jerked, opening my eyes wide, halting them from closing permanently, only to find Cooper and Jas staring at me.

“What?”

Cooper tilted his head. “She’s going to be living here?”

I nodded.

“And you hadn’t met her before today? Had you seen a picture?”

I shook my head. “No, she seems alright though I guess. I saw her résumé and that was solid. Thought she’d probably be a bit older. Do you think she should be? Yours are much older, right? She seemed experienced though and had good references, but I don’t know what to look for in a nanny apart from ‘Keep Child Alive’,” I air-quoted.

Cooper looked at Jasper, then got up and closed the door, moving to stand in front of the girls.

“What do you two think you’re doing?” Wolf and Freddie halted the deep, whispered conversation they were in.

“What do you mean?” Wolfie’s tone exuded innocence in a way that made me pay more attention than I normally would have.

“Cub...” Jasper warned.

I frowned, my head moving between the four of them. “What’s going on?”

Cooper’s glare stayed trained on the girls. “They’re meddling.”

“In what? I said it was okay for them to hire the nanny, they know better than I do for what I need.”

Jasper scowled at Wolfie. “Yeah, that’s not what they’re doing. Is it?”

The pair of them stayed silent, holding the boys’ stare with dogged determination.

“Mate, I’m not following. What are you talking about?”

I think even if I wasn’t surviving on an hour’s sleep a night I’d still be having trouble following this line of conversation.

Jasper turned to me. “They haven’t hired Mrs. Doubtfire; they’ve hired a Jude Law fiasco waiting to happen.”

My frown deepened. “What?”

“Darling, I don’t know what that means.” Wolfie’s voice held strong, but I could tell by the way she wasn’t quite meeting his eyes that she knew exactly what he meant, even if I didn’t have a clue.

Jasper’s arms crossed over his chest. “You know exactly what that means. He’s got enough to deal with, without this.”

“She came highly recommended; she has an excellent résumé. She’s just got her PhD in early childhood education,” she argued back, listing the points off on her fingers. “And she’s got the same birthday as the baby.”

What the fuck did that have to do with anything?

“Victoria Jacobs!” He dropped his head, shaking it as he first named her. I still had no idea what he was talking about, but it must have been serious if he first named her. She was rarely called Victoria, even though that was her given name, having been known as Wolfie since she was little.

My patience, already thin from my lack of sleeping, was currently so stretched from my inability to follow this conversation, it was see-through.

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