Baby Lessons

frowning. As usual.
Madison felt herself smile as she took in the pink bow headbands jauntily placed on each of the babies’ heads. Twin girls—identical, with matching, precious faces, tiny rosebud mouths and their father’s dreamy blue eyes. One of them laughed and kicked her little feet, and it took every bit of self-control Madison possessed not to melt into a gooey puddle at Jack Cole’s arrogant feet.
She forced herself to meet his gaze. “Are you hiding from me?”
“No,” he lied, the twitch in his scowl a dead giveaway.
Madison crossed her arms. “So you normally skulk in corners like this?”
“Always. I’m an expert skulker.” He shrugged one massive shoulder. “It’s kind of my thing.”
She smiled again before she could stop herself. “We keep...um...running into each other, but it seems we haven’t met properly. I’m Madison Jules.”
She stuck out her hand, and he took it. She braced herself for another delicious spark like she’d experienced the other brief moments they’d touched, but this time was different. His grasp was warm, and there was something more honest about it this time. Tender, almost.
It made Madison feel oddly weepy. She aimed her attention back toward one of the twins, blinking at her with impossibly long eyelashes. Were all babies this cute, or just his?
“So.” She swallowed. “You have twins.”
“I do.” He dipped his chin toward one of the girls and then the other. “Emma and Ella.”
Even their names were darling.
Madison nodded. “I met your mom last night at knitting class and she told me you were looking for a night nanny.”
Why was she still talking? She was supposed to chastise him for hiding from her and then walk away with her dignity intact instead of hinting that she might be serious about the job.
He rested a protective hand on each of his daughters’ tiny chests. “Right, but...”
“But you think I’d be terrible at it?” She would, probably. But the fact that he thought so stung for reasons she didn’t care to contemplate.
“I didn’t say that,” he countered.
“You didn’t have to.”
He shook his head. “It’s not...”
Then he stopped, sighed and glanced out the window toward the fire station across the street. The air between them swirled with the heady, homey scents of sweet maple and freshly ground coffee. Madison couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to rock this man’s beautiful babies in her arms, to feed them and dress them in warm footy pajamas and press tender kisses to their soft little heads while their daddy slept in the next room.
The notion was ridiculously intoxicating. God, what was happening to her?
“Look, I know I haven’t made the best first impression. Maybe we could start over? I’m sorry I’m late for this interview, but I got distracted this morning by...” She glanced down at the copy of the Bee in her hand and tossed it onto a nearby table. Facedown, so she wouldn’t have to see Fired Up’s latest missive in the corner of the front page. “Never mind. It’s dumb.”
So dumb.
Three bullet points totally counted as a list. What could someone who wrote handwritten snail mail possibly know about modern journalism? Absolutely nothing. Readers had the attention span of gnats nowadays. If she didn’t organize her articles into tiny, easily digestible bites, no one would read them. It was just the way thing were.
But why she was wasting her time thinking about Fired Up while she was in the throes of the most awkward job interview of all time was a mystery she couldn’t begin to fathom.
“Anyway. I might not be the worst person in the world to babysit your twins.” Her heart gave a wistful little squeeze. Don’t say it, just don’t. “I grew up without a mom around, too, so...”
His gaze swiveled back toward her, and his icy blue eyes softened, ever so slightly. Madison felt achingly exposed all of a sudden, so she hugged her Louis Vuitton tote to her chest like a child with a security blanket.
“Right. Well,” she stammered. “Good luck finding the perfect nanny.”
“Wait,” he snapped as she turned to go. Then softer, almost under his breath, he said. “Just wait a minute. Please?”
Every logical thought in her head told her to walk away and never look back, but Madison had never been a slave to logic. It was probably the most striking difference between her and her nemesis, Fired Up. So she stopped, took a deep breath and waited for whatever it was that Jack Cole wanted to say.
“Are you at all—” His gaze narrowed and he enunciated the following word with great care “—qualified?”
Not in the slightest. Madison’s only response was a hopeful smile.
He gave it another shot. “Have watched over a little one before? Ever?”
“There’s a three-year-old named Toby who positively adores me,” she said proudly.
It wasn’t a lie. Not entirely. He’d said little one, and Toby was definitely little, albeit not exactly human.
“Okay, then. I suppose you’re hired.” Jack Cole nodded, and an irrational surge of joy flowed through Madison until her hands started to shake. “Can you start tonight?”
Tonight? As in, just a few hours from now?
“Absolutely.” She nodded with far too much enthusiasm for a person who didn’t actually want the job in question.
And it was then that Madison realized she wasn’t entirely sure what—or more accurately, who—she wanted anymore.
Madison arrived at Jack’s house promptly at six, anxious to show that yes, she was an actual, responsible adult who could get places on time when she wasn’t feeling hopelessly distracted by a letter-writing troll with no sense of humor or whimsy whatsoever. Unfortunately, this stunning show of punctuality meant that she’d had to go straight to her new night nanny gig from her job at the paper, so she was still dressed in her best Chanel blouse and Marc Jacobs skirt with the twirly hem, along with her go-to pair of Louboutin heels. Not exactly prime nanny attire, but she’d have to make it work. They were babies. How much harm could they do?
She knocked on the door, reminding