Page 53 of The Billionaire and the Nanny: Part 2

Epilogue - BAILEY

When you havetwo little girls and another baby on the way, your third store location opening up in the City, and a cookout to get to at your parents’ in Connecticut, it can feel like your breath has been taken away. But that’s how it’s been ever since Zayden came back into my life—busy, busy, busy.

CEO of the ever-growing JetFlash and other new companies, Zayden still lives in the fast lane, is super driven and uber successful, and we go along with him everywhere. We fly, we drive, we move around with Daddy, and every so often, Daddy stays home for a month or two. Daddy is never too far, because Daddy adores his family, as I knew he would.

I love Zayden so much. He’s everything I could’ve ever hoped for. Andmore.

Home Sweet, my chain home goods store, caters to the average working family clientele and has taken off like I never would’ve imagined. We offer stylish and unique kitchen, bedroom, bath, and living room items, all in modern colors and styles at affordable prices. I don’t make the same income as Zayden, but hey, he’s been doing it longer, and wait ‘til all these kiddos are in school together—then I’m really going to give him a run for his money. I’m going to rule the world! It’ll be interesting to see who’s more successful—me orhim.

Not like I’m competitive or anything.

Granted, it’s easier to own a business when you have the money to invest, and for that I’ll always be grateful to Zayden, but I’ve still had to put tons of hours of work, all while raising two little girls, and being a kickass mom. In case you’re wondering—no, I don’t use a nanny. Not that there’s anything wrong with hiring a nanny, I just love being a full hands-on mom too much. I love the challenge of trying to balance it all. I’m a perfectionist that way. Sometimes I recall how I almost took a teaching job in Perrysbug and told Zayden “no” to this beautiful life. One inch to the left, and life works out one way. One inch to the right…

I often think about what made me change my mind that day, and I’m pretty sure it was instinct. Pure instinct. I just knew he was a good man in his heart. I knew he was telling the truth that day in my parents’ driveway, and most importantly, I knew he was ready for change.

Anyone looking back at our situation five years ago would’ve told me, like my mom tried to warn me, that Zayden wasn’t for me, that he was a tortured man who had to figure himself out first before he could be anyone’s knight in shining armor. That we were co-dependent in our ways, and sometimes we still are. Life’s not perfect; we still get into arguments, but we always solve them together.

Zayden’s been attending therapy every week since that day and has never missed a session. Sometimes, I’ll sit in—just because. It’s good to understand what he needs, so I can try and be there for him. He can’t do it alone. But holy crap, is he dedicated. That’s the word to describe my husband—dedicated. To his work, his wife, our family, my family, our beautiful daughter, Olivia, the precocious five-year-old who stole my heart almost five years ago, our three-year-old, Brooke, and now our little boy, Rain, on the way. Seven months pregnant and dying to see my precious boy already, I cannot believe my good fortune inlife.

The landscape zips by, as Zayden drives, the backseat filled with giggles of two silly girls. I sit here smiling, because I can’t believe it. Sometimes, I’m fully in the moment with ketchup stains on my shirt while two little girls hover in the bathroom doorway singing Moana songs while I try to pee. Other times, I sit in the passenger seat of our Lexus and stare at my life, wondering, How did this happen???

Zayden glances at me and smiles. “What? What’s that goofy facefor?”

“We did it. Look at our life, babe. We didit.”

He nods, hands on the wheel as we pull into my parents’ driveway. They moved to Connecticut to be closer to us and their grandchildren, and like us, never looked back. “It’s pretty awesome, isn’tit?”

“It is.” It’s not just awesome. It’s miraculous that we’re even here. There was so much going againstus.

We get out of the car, and I unbuckle Brooke while Zayden gets Olivia. Our children even look alike, with striking blonde hair and Zayden’s blue eyes. Olivia knows she has a mommy who will see her again one day, but right now is “away.” No more, no less. She knows I’m her stepmom and calls me Mimi, because it sounds like Mommy but with a twist.

“Yay, Nana and Pa’s house,” Olivia sings and runs to the front door of the white colonial with the red door. She wears her Moana tapa and pandana skirt complete with her Heart of Te Fiti shell necklace. Though she looks nothing like Moana, try telling her that. With the way she sings her heart out daily and ties her hair into a knot, she thinks she isMoana.

Already, we smell the BBQ smoking up the backyard. My dad’s left the garage open to showcase his beautiful handmade furniture to passersby, and the front door is, of course, open.

Olivia strolls in like she owns the place. “Nana! Pa! I’mhome!”

Zayden and I laugh. Each of us holding one of Brooke’s hands, we walk up to the house and enter to the joyous sounds of my mom cracking up as she lifts Olivia into the air and hugs her. “There’s my little girl!” Mom smiles. I love how she’s never treated Olivia any differently than she does her own flesh-and-blood children and grandchildren. “Where’s my other princess?”

“Brooke’s the princess,” Olivia corrects her. “But I’m the chief!”

“Oh, how can I keep forgetting?” Mom pretends to be forgetful, and the girls laugh. Brooke runs up to Nana and hugs her legs then together, then my little girls run to the back of the house. As we follow them and Mom talks to me about the food and the weather and how she thought it was going to rain but thank goodness it didn’t, it quickly becomes apparent that we’re not just here for aBBQ.

The moment we step out the back French doors, everyone already here yells, “Surprise!” Blue streamers fly our way and blue balloons bounce in the September breezes. It’s a baby shower…forus!

Dad comes up and gives me a bear hug like I’m not even pregnant, then everyone else follows suit. My aunt and uncle are here, Grandma’s here, cousins I haven’t seen since last Christmas, our friends from the City…everyone. I’m overwhelmed with emotion. Even though it’s not my first baby shower, it feels like it. Everyone’s so excited that we’re having a boy, it may as well be a brand-new experience.

Zayden hugs and talks to everyone like they’re his family. Like they’re his own family. You’d never guess that he married into mine, because he blends in like nobody’s business. He gets along better with my cousins than even I do. My dad and uncle spend the entire BBQ baby shower chatting it up with Zayden, while I hang mostly with my mom and college girlfriends.

“I love the cowboy theme,” I tell Mom even though Zayden and I decided on a Noah’s ark theme for the baby’s room. But I still love it because she put so much effort intoit.

“You like it? Grandma helped me. So didVero.”

“Vero’shere?”

Zayden’s maid from back in the day no longer works for him, but from the moment I came back to live at the house, she was by my side, helping me with everything and even became one of my best friends. I haven’t seen her since she moved to LA to pursue her acting career.

“Yup. Right over there.” Mom points to a svelte, sexy woman hanging out in the corner surrounded by her husband and some of Dad’s friends. She’s always been a man magnet, thatone.

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