Page 9 of The Billionaire's Instant Triplets

Ria waded through the pile as Jamie belly-flopped onto his bed and started rolling around, singing. Jacob picked up a stuffed giraffe and kissed it on the head. Jasmine went to the bookshelf and returned with a stack of picture books so high, it was hard for her to balance it in her small arms.

“Everyone into bed,” Ria said in her best soothing voice. She turned down the dimmer on the light switch and helped each toddler into bed, tucking them in tight with a few stuffed animals. The next half an hour was spent reading, talking, fetching a last-minute glass of water, repeatedly putting Jamie back in bed when he wiggled out, and finally singing softly until the children’s eyes grew heavy.

Once they were all asleep, Ria waited for a few more minutes before she tiptoed out of the room, turning on the nightlight and shutting off the overhead light as she went. She made sure that the baby monitor was on before slipping into the hallway and slumping against the wall.

It had been a good day, in the end, but wrangling the triplets had been a challenge. They’d had fun (and so had she), but the house was strewn with toys she hadn’t had time to tidy up, and Tristan was still nowhere to be found.

Ria padded downstairs, yawning, put in her earbuds with her favorite playlist, and began cleaning up the toys. There seemed to be little rhyme or reason to the toy organization, so she started labeling bins and sorting toys by type. She put a few bins out of reach on a high shelf to be swapped out later when the current toys stopped being interesting. Next up was the kitchen, where she wiped down the high chairs, washed up the dinner dishes, and did a general tidy. Finally, she went into the living room, where the triplets had curled up to read earlier. The carnage wasn’t as great here, but there were a few books strewn around and blankets discarded on the floor.

Humming along to her favorite song, Ria danced across the living room, picking up books, folding blankets, and throwing away wrappers from the triplets’ afternoon fruit pouch snack. As well as potty training, she’d need to start cleaning up as she went, ideally enlisting the kids’ help. Caught up in plans for the next day and thoughts about the one she’d just had, Ria was barely paying attention to her surroundings. She picked up a blanket, turned to shake it out, and heard a loud crash over her music.

Immediately, Ria’s blood turned to ice. She was often clumsy, but knocking something over on the first day was a terrible start. She pulled out her earbuds and turned to see a large gray vase, decorated with bright yellow lines, shattered on the floor. Ria’s eyes widened as she bent down and lifted a large shard. There was no repairing it.

Although, if she had to break something, at least it was something this ugly. The vase had clearly never been beautiful, even when it was in one piece, so it couldn’t be too expensive. Right?

Ria heard footsteps behind her and whirled. Tristan strode into the room, his expression furious.

“What happened here?”

“I’m sorry.” Ria straightened up, a piece of the vase in her hand. “I was cleaning up in here and I knocked this over.”

Tristan’s eyes widened as he took in the pile of shattered ceramic on the floor beside her. “Do you have any idea how much that cost?”

“I really don’t.”

Tristan shook his head. “Let’s just say it was more than your monthly salary.”

Maybe you should be paying me more, then,Ria thought. Certainly, she must be worth more than this ugly vase, especially since she’d been taking care of the triplets all day with no sign of Tristan. She kept that thought to herself, though.

“I am very sorry, Mr. West. I’ll be more careful.”

“If you can’t be trusted with an inanimate object, how can you be expected to look after children?” Tristan’s tone was low and serious. The ice in Ria’s veins grew colder. Breaking something was a bad move, obviously, but it seemed her job was in danger. And worse, Tristan wasn’t sure he could trust her with the kids — there was real fear behind his question.

“I’ve been looking after children for over a decade with no accidents,” Ria said, her voice calm. “I’m very sorry I broke your vase, but the children had a lovely day, and there’s really no need to worry about them.”

“Maybe I should find another nanny.” Tristan looked from the vase to Ria, who took a deep breath. It was time to level with this man. Surely he had an ounce of compassion somewhere deep, deep inside.

“Please, give me another chance,” Ria said, keeping her tone level and lifting her eyes to meet Tristan’s. “Take the cost of the vase out of my wages, if you need to, but I can’t lose this job on the first day. And I don’t want the kids to lose me, either. I really think I can help you, and them. And if I lose this job, I’ll be in a lot of trouble.”

Tristan sighed. “Fine. Just get this cleaned up before one of the kids gets hurt.” As though the mention of the kids had reminded him of their existence, he looked around. “Where are the kids?”

“They’re sleeping upstairs,” Ria said.

“What are they doing asleep? It’s only seven thirty.” Tristan’s eyes narrowed.

“Yes, it is seven thirty, which is a very reasonable bedtime for toddlers their age.” Ria folded her arms. It was one thing to be upset about the expensive, ugly vase, but it was quite another to go after her childcare skills.

Tristan shook his head. “I need to go check on them.” Without another word to Ria, he turned on his heel and headed for the stairs. Ria watched him go, anger and worry swirling in her chest. She was probably going to lose this job the moment he got back downstairs, which would mean an end to her tenure with Oh Pear! Perhaps that was for the best. Ria would find another job, she always did, and her upper-middle-class clientele tended to be a lot less trying than the extremely rich Tristan West and his peers.

Even if Ria was about to lose her job, she was still employed now. With that in mind, she headed into the kitchen to find a dustpan, which she used to sweep up and dispose of the shards of the vase. By the time Tristan returned, the living room would be perfectly safe for little feet — and the ugly vase would be in the garbage, where it belonged.

CHAPTER6

TRISTAN

It was all Tristan could do not to let out a long, frustrated sigh as he climbed the stairs to the triplets’ room. Ria had been in his home for less than twenty-four hours, and she’d already destroyed an extremely expensive vase. Tristan had lost enough of his prized possessions to the boisterous play of young toddlers. He didn’t need the nanny smashing things, too, even by mistake.

Worse than the vase was the fact that she was lying. She had to be. Tristan had never seen all three triplets sleeping at the same time, at least not before midnight. One of them was always up, crying, needing water or a diaper change, or wanting to play. Ria must have just left the kids alone upstairs.

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