“Don’t you need to work on any to-do lists or plans for tomorrow and the rest of the week?” I asked.
He blew warm air into my ear, making me shudder with anticipation. Without raising his head, he said, “I have an appointment at the Charleston Museum archives tomorrow at ten and then I thought I’d come home and have lunch with the twins and give Jayne a break before heading into my office to work a little bit on my new story idea.”
I pulled back to look at him. “I thought you went to the archives this morning.”
His tongue began a slow lapping around my ear and I had to practice my Lamaze breathing so that I wouldn’t scream at the torture. “I did. But they have a new person in charge now and he’s a guy. And apparently somebody who believes in calendars and rules and appointments. You’d probably like him.”
“I probably would. Should we invite him to dinner sometime?”
He lifted his head and frowned at me. “No.” His gaze traveled to my electronic gadgets, then back up to me. “It’s time to turn these off, I think,” he said as he reached for my iPhone.
I held it away from him. “Hang on—I’m almost done. You know how boneless I get after we, um, well, you know, so I have to do this now while my brain is still functioning.” I squinted down at my laptop. “Either something’s wrong here and it’s not syncing properly or Jayne isn’t being consistent with updating the spreadsheets for the twins.”
In a move like a stealthy panther, Jack sprawled across me and reached into my nightstand drawer. “Mellie, didn’t your grandmother ever tell you that squinting is going to give you wrinkles?” He dumped my reading glasses into my lap, then returned to his nuzzling. “Maybe this will make you get your work done faster so we can play.”
I placed the glasses on my nose and mentally slapped down all my nerve endings and brain cells that were reaching for Jack. “But seriously, what if she’s not doing the spreadsheets? And I don’t think she’s labeled their drawers yet, either.”
With a heavy sigh, Jack straightened and plumped a pillow behind his head so he could sit up against the headboard. “Whether she did so or not, she’s spent countless hours playing with them, taking them for walks, reading to them, singing to them, making them laugh. The sorts of things we do with them when we’re here. I’d rather my children be happy than organized.”
The word “blasphemy” came to my tongue, but I bit it back. Because somewhere, deep down, I realized that he might be right. “Still,” I said, “I think she should discuss with us if she wants to change something.”
“Well, actually . . .”
“Jack! Don’t tell me you had a conversation with her about our children’s care and didn’t consult with me!”
“Well, last Saturday when Jayne had her day off, we happened to leave the house at the same time for our morning run and of course our conversation turned to the children and what she thought of her job so far.”
“Jayne runs?”
He shrugged as if he hadn’t really considered this before. “Yeah, I guess so. I mean, she had no problem keeping up with me and she looks pretty fit, so maybe she does do it regularly. Anyway, she mentioned how much fun she was having with the children, how bright and sweet and well tempered they are—guess they get that from me, huh?”
I smiled as if I were listening to what he was saying instead of obsessing over his words “she looks pretty fit.” Jayne was the nanny. Presumably, she had a body, but Jack wasn’t supposed to be noticing it.
“Anyway,” he continued, “she was mentioning how much she enjoyed their outings and playtimes but how she was afraid it was cutting into her other chores such as keeping up with the spreadsheets and labeling. So I told her to keep doing what she was doing, because the children are apparently thriving and love her.”
“Without consulting me first,” I said frostily, immediately regretting my tone. My toes were still tingling from his caresses and I didn’t want to disappoint them or the rest of my body if there would be no follow-up because I’d been unreasonable. It was all about control, something I’d had to fight for ever since I was a little girl and was currently having problems relinquishing now that I had more support in my life. It was just really hard giving it up completely.
He sat up straighter. “Now, Mellie, we love our children equally. And you’re a great mother. But you and I have different styles of parenting. I’m wondering if maybe the reason why we haven’t been able to hang on to any of the previous nannies was that they were stuck in a tug-of-war—”