Baby Lessons

she was mistaking the tangle of nerves low in her belly for anticipation when it really meant dread. She’d tried to get ahold of Jack to explain the whole Queen Bee thing before he saw it on television, like everyone else. Naturally, he’d been too busy saving baby ducks, putting out fires and being generally heroic to answer his phone. Just as well, because she wasn’t quite sure why she felt such a need to confess. He probably didn’t care what she got up to in her spare time. She was his night nanny, nothing more.
Still, when the cab pulled up in front of his familiar, cozy cottage, her heart gave an undeniable tug. She gathered her things, paid the cab driver and tried to tell herself it was only jet lag. Because she couldn’t be developing real feelings for Jack Cole. Likewise, she had no business gazing wistfully in the shop windows of the posh baby boutiques on Park Avenue, fantasizing about going on a full-on baby fashionista shopping spree for Emma and Ella. But she’d done exactly that after her segment had ended, when her time would have been better spent pounding the pavement for a real job.
“Thank you,” she said, pressing a stack of bills into the driver’s hand.
“Anytime. Welcome home.” The older man nodded toward the overnight bag slung over her shoulder. “Let me get that for you, dear.”
Welcome home.
An annoying little lump lodged itself in her throat, and she swallowed around it as she handed the driver her bags. She knew better than to argue with a Vermonter, and honestly, having someone care enough to haul her things and walk her to Jack’s door wasn’t terrible. Such a thing never would have happened in New York—not in a million years.
“Thanks again, I’ll get it from here,” she said once they’d reached the threshold.
The driver ambled back to his car and pulled away, leaving Madison alone to take a deep breath and knock lightly on the door, in case Emma and Ella were sleeping.
The seconds before Jack answered her knock were excruciating. For a moment she managed to convince herself that he’d been too busy saving the good citizens of Lovestruck—human and animal alike—from imminent danger while also caring for his infant daughters to watch Good Morning Sunshine. But it didn’t matter whether or not he’d seen it for himself. The small town rumor mill had had all day to work its magic. Someone would have filled him in by now.
At last, the door swung open, and for an insane instant, Madison felt like throwing herself at him, which was ridiculous. She’d just returned from a quickie overnight jaunt to her favorite city on the planet, not a voyage around the world.
“Hi.” She smiled a nervous smile.
“Hi,” he said back, gaze flitting briefly to her partially smoothed-down hair. Her curls had started to spring back to life the closer she’d gotten to Vermont, as if they’d sensed her reentry into the land that had killed her best hair straightener. “The girls are sleeping. Come on in.”
She could tell just by the way Jack was looking at her that he knew all about Good Morning Sunshine. He knew about Queen Bee and her war with Fired Up in Lovestruck. She may as well have been standing on his front porch completely naked.
“Sorry about the baggage.” She nodded toward her overnight bag as she stepped inside, although the sentiment applied in myriad ways. “I came here straight from the airport.”
He took her luggage from her, along with the pastel shopping bags filled with sweet little onesies and ruffled bibs for the girls, and gently set them down on top of a worn leather trunk he kept by the door. Ever the gentleman, ever the hero.
She suddenly felt like the biggest liar in the world. “Jack, I...”
“Madison, I...” he said at the same time, both of them talking over each other.
Then they both stopped and laughed. And Madison felt just like she had when they’d knelt beside the bathtub together, on the verge of something wonderful.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted. She didn’t want to stand with one foot in New York and the other right here, with Jack and the twins, when the here and now was beginning to feel far more important than anything else.
His eyes went dark, and he shook his head. As usual, she had no clue what he was thinking, but something about his expression made her heart clench. Maybe the fact that she was Queen Bee was a bigger deal than she’d thought. She’d expected him to be surprised, but thought they’d eventually laugh about it and move on. He’d probably never want to kiss her again, since she hadn’t been exactly one hundred percent honest about who she was, but that was okay—for the best, really.
Almost kissing Jack Cole had turned out to be a massive distraction. Actually kissing him might be more than she could handle.
She bit down hard on her lip. Stop thinking about kissing. But his signature brooding expression was doing strange things to her insides. She felt all fluttery and warm, like she’d just been sipping brandy by a fire on a cold winter’s night instead of trekking all over the Northeast in the dog days of summer. She averted her gaze in an effort to steady herself, but her attention snagged on the big wooden bowl of apples on the kitchen island and it reminded her of their run-in at the Village Market.
“Please don’t apologize,” he finally said, sounding oddly tortured.
The fruit in the bowl glistened like rubies in the moonlight streaming through the kitchen windows. Madison couldn’t seem to take her eyes off it, or maybe she was just looking for a distraction from this conversation, which had suddenly taken an awkward turn.
Funny, she’d never figured out why Jack needed so many apples.
She kept apologizing.
Jack had to get her to stop. He needed to just tell her the truth and admit he was Fired Up in Lovestruck,