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Damn, I was already letting my emotions get the best of me.
“So, there’s three children?” I asked, feeling a bit queasy over this new adventure of mine. I had the sudden need to sit, and I plopped back down on the sofa.
I must have looked a bit shocked because Boone’s demeanor changed. “It’s okay. I understand your apprehension, but yes… three. One for each of us. They can be a handful, as Hank here already demonstrated this morning. Which is why we live together on this compound. It makes life easier. Besides, the kids like each other, and they usually play well together. If any of this is a problem for you, please let me know now.”
I knew this was a turning point in the interview. If I even flinched, it was over, and the opportunity would go on to the next person who walked through that door. Who, in the scheme of things, was probably much more qualified than I could ever be.
“Absolutely not!” I said, standing again, getting my determination back. “And what… what’s their ages exactly?”
“Hank is going on four,” Boone said, gazing down at his son, grinning.
“In six days, Daddy,” Hank corrected as he sat on the floor, flipping through the pages of his book, smiling at the pictures.
“Right. Hank’s birthday is coming up. Emily, Austin’s girl, is already four, and Annie, Kasey’s girl…”
“Is almost five but acts more like she might be going on fifteen,” Kasey said, interrupting Boone, as he entered the room, dressed in a light-gray, long-sleeved t-shirt, and those same jeans that had looked as if the only thing holding them up had been the bulge in his pants. They were zipped now and pulled up on his hips. He looked much more presentable.
To be honest, I preferred it when those jeans were about to fall off, but that wasn’t appropriate thinking at the moment. I needed to keep focused but being in such proximity of these two incredibly sexy men proved to be an emotional challenge.
Still, I somehow managed to drag my thoughts out of the gutter long enough to wonder about the kids’ moms. Where were they? I knew Austin’s wife had died a couple of years ago, but I hadn’t read anything about Boone or Kasey having wives. Did they still live in the house, and I simply haven’t met them yet? I immediately switched out of lust mode and turned on my business mode, and the appropriate question came to me in a flash.
“Is there anyone else who will be making the decision?”
“Nope. That’s it,” Kasey said. “That’s everyone who lives in this house, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Are you sure you don’t want something to drink? This interview might take awhile,” Boone reiterated.
“Sure, a cup of hot tea with milk and honey, if you have it, might be nice,” I said, finally getting comfortable with the situation.
“Coming right up,” Kasey said. Once again, he left the room, leaving me alone with Boone and his son, who decided to climb up on the sofa with me to show me the great-big purple dragon in his book who liked to eat tacos with hot peppers.
In that moment, as little Hank cuddled up next to me, and told me the story about Carter, the dragon who liked tacos and couldn’t breathe fire until he ate a red-hot jalapeno pepper, I knew I had this nanny job all sewn up.
Hank was my new dragon.
Austin 5
“You look familiar,” I told the curvy beauty sitting on our sofa, as I placed a small tray on the table next to her. No one in this house, not even the nannies we’d hired, had ever asked for tea before. Everyone drank coffee, except for Marta, who drank gallons of Dr. Pepper. So, when Kasey came into the kitchen asking for a tea setup, I knew I wanted to meet this potential nanny. My wife would drink tea out of fancy English cups. Not only would she drink tea each morning, but it was her daily ritual of making a pot of tea each day around four. I’d sometimes try to join her, depending on what was happening with the other guys and our music. As soon as our baby girl Emily passed her second birthday, her mom had introduced her to the art of high tea in the afternoon, and she still loved it.
I was very familiar with the art of making and serving tea, so I did just that. I placed a small tray that contained warmed milk, a honey bear, a pot of steaming hot tea, with an infuser of English Breakfast loose tea, a tiny ornate spoon, and one of my wife’s fancy English cups next to her on a small side table.
Loraine, our guardian angel, better known as our house manager, tossed on a couple of small cookies as well.
“This is beautiful. Thank you,” she said. “Not many people know how to serve tea. This is perfect.”
“My late wife loved tea, and everything that went with it, but that’s not why we’re here today. Have I interviewed you before? I can’t quite place you.”
“No interviews, but we have met before,” she quickly said, then turned back to reading to Hank.
I stared at her for a few more moments trying to place her but couldn’t. It was still early, and I was working on my first cup of coffee this morning. I usually needed at least three to lift the cobwebs out of my head.
I’d thought Kasey and Boone were in here interviewing her, so once I’d heard our first potential nanny was here, I’d taken my time getting ready. I hated interviewing a possible nanny. They were usually all the same. Either they were super fans and used this to get closer to us, and knew nothing about raising kids, or they were students who had dreams of becoming teachers of young children.
Neither way worked, and they’d be gone within a few weeks, either on their own, or we’d have to let them go. Our last nanny, Marta, would run and hide whenever Hank screamed or when my little girl Emily would start crying for me when I was busy with the guys, and didn’t want to be disturbed unless there was blood. We were all like that. When we started working, unless there was good reason, we expected the nanny to keep the kids entertained enough so they didn’t need us. We’d play with them in the mornings for a while, then we’d work on our music for a few hours, or just talk business. Sometimes, we’d come out for lunch and have more fun with the kids, but then we’d work again. Weekends were usually spent entirely with the kids, going somewhere special or doing something that we all enjoyed.
No matter what, we’d stop working on weekdays around six for an early dinner with the kids and do something with them afterwards. Either as a group or one on one until it was time for bed. Annie had her own room now, so Kasey would read to her every night, trying to keep her in her own bed, in her own room, while either Boone or I would read to Hank and Emily. Then it was lights out and nightlights on.
That was our schedule. It had taken us a long time to come up with a schedule, and now that we were in it, we didn’t want anything to disrupt it. That went for a nanny who didn’t understand how to enforce the rules in a kind way. Above all, we were looking for a Sound of Music, Maria, and not the female version of Baron Von Trapp.
