Nanny

43

Kate

After eating breakfast, we drove around the city for half an hour to see some of the sights. We drove down the Champs-Élysées and saw the Arc de Triomphe up close. Then we circled back around to see the Eiffel Tower. We couldn't get out of the car because we were short on time, but it was neat seeing them anyway.

The flight back felt extra long, especially after only seeing a couple of hours of Paris. I texted Miranda about it, and she quickly put me in my place by threatening to send me photos of the diapers she was currently changing, and that she would gladly swap places in a heartbeat.

Braxton and Adam spent the flight preparing for their afternoon meeting. I curled up on the couch with Mathias and took a nap while he watched a movie.

The twins were excited to see us, especially since Braxton brought them stuffed animal lions with the French flag draped behind them like capes.

"Of course I was correct," Claudette said when we told her about the crepes. "About the food, and most other things."

"Paris is more beautiful than Berlin, I must admit!" Mathias said. He took Claudette by the hands and began dancing with her while humming La Marseillaise, the French national anthem. She laughed and smiled as they danced their way around the kitchen, with the twins chasing after them excitedly.

The rest of the week felt like a let-down after Paris. I took the twins to the park to play the next morning, and Nelson tagged along to protect the twins, just in case. Mathias made me exercise on both Thursday and Friday since we had skipped our Wednesday workout while we were in Paris, but I didn't mind. He was right that exercise was the best way to get over jet-lag, and I felt my body clock returning to normal on Friday afternoon.

That evening Braxton gave Claudette the night off and we ordered pizza. Braxton asked if I wanted to stay for dinner before taking the car back to Norwalk, and I eagerly agreed.

The twins spent dinner telling their father about all the new words they had learned in Spanish, each of them trying to one-up the other.

"You're doing a great job," Braxton told me. "I was hoping they would take to foreign languages quickly, but I didn't expect it to go this well."

"They're very bright," I replied, smiling at them across the table. "They make my job easier."

"We'll see how easy that job is when you start teaching them Japanese. I hated learning it."

"It'll be a challenge, for sure," I agreed. "If I need to work weekends with them, I don't mind. Seven days a week is better than five."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Braxton rolled a piece of crust between his fingers and considered me. "You mentioned you're bored whenever you go home for the weekend. Do you want to stay here this weekend? Instead of going back to Connecticut?"

"I'd like that," I said with a grin. "You want me to watch the twins?"

"Not exactly." He bit into the crust. "There's an event I'm going to tomorrow night. I need a date."

"Are you inviting me?"

"That was the implication, yes."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You wouldn't rather invite a movie star or model or something?"

"Alicia Keys and Anne Hathaway were both busy, and I didn't feel like scrolling farther than the A-names in my contact list."

"Ariana Grande would've been a good choice," I pointed out.

We laughed, and then Braxton gazed at me warmly. "All joking aside, why would I take any of them when I can take you?"

There was a touching note in his voice, a sincerity to the statement that shocked me. He really would rather take me than any of those celebrities.