Nanny Undercover

Chapter 26: Jeff

After Goldie's tearful departure, Jeff was left with three crying babies to contend with.

"Godie no bye-bye," Jemma wept, pointing at the door.

"Goldie, Goldie," Genie called miserably.

And Pippa just wailed from where she sat, clutching her stuffed monkey.

"Come on, darlings, Dada is still here," Jeff tried, sitting with the girls and pulling out one of their favorite books.

"Dadada? Dada book?" Jemma was the first to turn, seemingly willing to be distracted from Goldie's tragic departure.

"Yes, Jemma, Daddy has a book," Jeff encouraged, patting his lap.

Jemma shuffled over, still sniffling, and within minutes all three were in his lap, getting comfortable for yet another reading of Mars Needs Moms.

This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, because when he got to the part where the mom gives her helmet to her son and breathes the poisonous gas to save him, the part that Goldie usually read, the girls looked around, realizing all over again that she was gone.

"Goldie book," Genie demanded, looking around. "Goldie wead book."

"Godie bye-bye," Pippa reminded her, and the three little faces began to crumble into desolation and tears once more.

"No, no, darlings, Daddy can read that part as well," Jeff tried to reassure them. He hastened to put words to act and gamely read about how the aliens needed driving to ballet and soccer practice, all the things moms do and have done since time immemorial.

"No! No Dada wead! Goldie wead!" Genie commanded. She put a little hand up to his mouth, as if to force the words back.

Jeff put the book back and instead tried to entertain them with their toys. This worked marginally well to pass the time, and helped Jeff not to think about what had happened.

Goldie had betrayed him, lied to him.

He pushed the thought away. Right now he had to take care of his daughters. Through his own actions, he'd become their solitary caregiver once more, and he needed to keep his wits about him.

"Okay, girls, bath time," Jeff said finally, trying to keep the relief out of his voice. Bed time was in sight. He realized as the words left his mouth that he had to somehow corral all three up the stairs, no easy feat when they were cranky and had been crying.

He first tried to just hold two little hands and get the third to follow, but when he turned around, Genie merely looked at him and continued "reading" her baby animals book.

"Genie, come on, petal, please."

This time Genie didn't even look up. Meanwhile, Jemma and Pippa had begun climbing the stairs on their own, and were nearly half way up, pulling on Jeff's hands as they went.

Jeff finally picked up the two who were on the stairs and went back for Genie, gathering her up as best he could so he was holding all three.

He hadn't done this in quite a while, and realized that they'd grown quite a bit. He very nearly couldn't do it, simply based on their size alone. If any of them had been wriggling, he definitely wouldn't have been able to do it.

"Dada hold Genie," Genie said amiably, as though she hadn't been ignoring him moments before.

"Dada hold Gemma," Gemma added, patting his shoulder.

"Dadda hold Pippa," Pippa finished, smiling at her father.

"Yes, Daddy is holding all three of you, and if you'll cooperate, we can get you all in the bath, yeah?" Jeff muttered, staggering up the stairs under their collective weight.