Nanny Undercover

Chapter 19: The Question

Goldie resolutely put Griffen and his texts out of her mind. She was in Kent, in England, dammit, for the first time in her life, with the man she was in love with and the three babies that she loved as if they were her own. She was going to enjoy it.

The sleigh ride was indeed magical, with the runners sliding silently over the snow. The girls' faces were rosy with the cold, and their wispy hair blew out from under their little matching hats as they turned this way and that, seeing everything around them.

"Reminds me of Robert Frost, you know, 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening'?" Goldie asked Jeff as they slipped by a small pond, frozen over from the cold.

"And miles to go before I sleep?" Jeff quoted back at her. "Yes, one of my favorites, as a matter of fact."

"Bird," Pippa announced, pointing as a bird did indeed wing its way over their heads, dark against the blue sky.

"Tree," Jemma countered, pointing at the trees they were passing.

Jeff sat back and sighed, his breath coming out in a puff. "It's really happening, isn't it?" he asked rhetorically. "They're getting older, already more toddlers than babies."

Goldie leaned across the girls, who were between them, to rub his shoulder. "And you're going to leave us in the fall and go off to school somewhere—" he took her hand and kissed it.

"Couldn't you just go to school in the city?" he asked, turning to her. "Just keep living with us and go to school nearby?"

"Jeff, how in the world could I help with the babies if I were going to school all day and studying all night?" Goldie answered.

"I'll hire someone to help with them."

Goldie smiled. "You're going to hire a new nanny so your old nanny can go to law school?"

"It's my money, I can spend it how I like, can't I?"

"Of course you can." Goldie released Jeff's hand to retie Genie's hat under her chin where it had loosened from the wind. "Besides, I've applied to Columbia, NYU and Fordham, which are all in the city."

Jeff looked at her, eyes full of hope.

"But there's no guarantee I'll get into any of them, and I certainly couldn't keep living with you if I did," Goldie continued.

"Why not?"

"Look, Jeff, I need to tell you—"

"Sir?" the driver called from up front. "Time's about up. Do you want another 30 minutes?"

"Yes, please," Jeff responded. He turned back to Goldie.

"Who knows?" she tried to joke. "We might not even be together by then."

"That's not funny. We, the girls and I, love you, you know that."

"I love you, too, Jeff, but no one knows what the future will bring, what will happen. I mean, look at what happened to you."

She felt bad to bring up Maggie, but he was talking total nonsense. And she knew that there would be no forgiving her for what she'd done, what she was doing.

"I know, exactly," Jeff answered earnestly. "The mother of my children, the woman I loved, died, and I honestly didn't think I could ever be happy again. And now look, less than a year later, I've found someone new to love, someone my girls adore, who seems to adore them as well." Again, he reached over the girls' heads and grasped one of Goldie's hands in his own. "Why would we want to throw it away? I mean, does something this good come along so often that we can just cast it aside?"