Page 25 of The Nanny and the Don
“Do you know the happy birthday song?” I asked him.
“Ms. Devy, I’m not a little baby like Evie. Everybody knows the happy birthday song.”
“Oh, well good. Sing the happy birthday song two times while you brush your teeth.”
“OK,” he said, smiling devilishly like I had told him to do something naughty.
“When you are done brushing your teeth, take this washcloth and wash your face really good,” I instructed.
“OK.” He nodded his little head.
Once I got him squared away, I undressed Evie and put her in the tub. Feeling the warm water must have been Evie’s cue to wake up. As soon as I put her in the tub, she started wailing at the top of her lungs.
“Hey, hey, hey, you’re OK, Evie. It’s Devlan. You remember me?”
I’m not even sure that she could hear me over her own screaming. Thankfully I had reinforcement.
“Evie, look at this,” King suggested, holding up a little tugboat. “It’s bath time, Evie. You like bath time.”
Her brother’s reassurance did the trick, and she immediately dried her tears and accepted the toy. The water was shallow, so I allowed her to splash her little heart out while I gave her a quick bath. Minutes later, I was whipping her out of the tub and drying her off.
After putting on her cute little pink outfit and putting a diaper on her. She was potty trained, but I noticed yesterday thatsometimes as soon as she said she had to pee she started peeing. I was grateful to find pull-ups in their bathroom. They would be perfect for bedtime. I placed Evie on her feet, and she quickly took off behind her brother.
“Buddy, remember that we are inside. We need to use our inside voices. Evie, show me an inside voice,” I said, as I walked behind them.
Sicily and I both laughed at her adorable face as she imitated someone whispering the way I’d shown her multiple times yesterday.
“Good job. Pick a chair, you guys. Let’s get settled down for breakfast.”
“I thought I was helping you cook breakfast, Ms. Devy,” King stated, looking up at me with sad eyes.
“You are. I’m going to give you an important job. You will cut the apples,” I told him.
“With a knife?” he quizzed, frowning at me as if I were delusional.
“Yes. It’s completely safe, but remember you have to be extra careful.”
I walked over to the counter and picked up an apple from the basket, washing it in the sink before placing it on the cutting board and quickly cutting it into slices. I raked the pieces into a bowl then grabbed a butter knife and moved over to the table.
“Now I want you to cut these into little, tiny pieces. We are going to put them on top.”
“OK.” The smile on his face was worth a million dollars.
I didn’t know the specifics of what had taken these children away from their mother, but I knew that it had to be hard on them all. There was no way someone had willingly left their children behind. Then again that was exactly what my own parents had done. Drugs were the specific thing that robbed me of having a relationship with my mother.
There was no telling where she was in the world these days or if she was still among the living. I decided when I connected with Kelsea that I had a new family. I didn’t waste my time wondering why she continued to choose drugs over us. All I knew was that if I was in her shoes, nothing in the world would keep me away from my children. It didn’t take long for me to whip up the oatmeal and toss in the apples that I’d cooked in butter and cinnamon. I walked over to the table to check on my assistant.
“Are the apples ready?”
“Yep, see I cut them up really tiny like you said,” King confirmed.
“Great job. Now let’s let everything cool off just a little bit. We don’t want Evie burning her mouth, do we?”
“No,” King agreed by shaking his head.
“No! No! No!” Evie chanted, causing me to smile.
It was a good thing that the kids were here because they were a great distraction from the reality of the situation. I walked over to the window and looked out to where Sicily was doing something in the yard. Deciding to take a chance, I went to the back door and found that it wasn’t locked or anything. I could just go right out.
