A Bundle of Mannies

by Lorelei M. Hart

  I parked the car, sending a quick text to my assistant that I would call him in a few minutes but to be prepared in case we needed to cancel meetings, then jogged up the steps and into the house.

  “Zave. Maggie,” I called into the living room.

  “Daddy.” She came barreling out and tackle-hugged me. “You’re home. Come see.” She grabbed my hand and tugged on it until I followed her into the kitchen where I found Mae on Zave’s chest in a wrap and Zave reading to five little boys ranging from about two to eight. I thought she had two grandkids. “Gramma Sally’s grandsons are here. She has five. That is a whole handful.”

  I had a feeling it was much more than a handful.

  Zave had their rapt attention, none of them even noticing my appearance, although the wink from Zave told me he saw me but didn’t want to break the magic spell of the bird who was trying to get a pet gorilla.

  Maggie dropped to sit on the floor in front of him, all the chairs being used by the plethora of additional children who had made their way into our home. I just stood back and watched as Zave interacted with the kids, getting them to say the repetitive bits of the book and giggle hysterically at the antics of the silly bird.

  “I changed my mind.” Zave’s bird voice had me wanting to laugh, too. “I don’t want a gorilla. I want a sloth.”

  And just like that, he closed the book, and the boys began to clap. He was freaking the Pied Piper of our street.

  “Zave, we have guests.” The last thing those boys needed was to know how upset I was at the situation. If Jonathan was their father, and he was the better choice, then their lives had been far from sunshine and roses.

  “Grandma said we were going to wait here until our sperm donor gets back,” the boy who looked to be the second oldest said, earning him a smack from his brother.

  “Grandma said not to say that.” He scowled.

  “But Mama calls him that.” Those poor kids.

  “Not my mama. She calls him the deadbeat,” a third one pipped in.

  “My daddy calls him the loser,” said another while the youngest began to cry.

  “Your grandma said you boys like pancakes.” Zave stood up, placing the book on the table. “Is that true?”

  “With syrup!” one of the boys, I didn’t even see which, shouted.

  “Then you boys better wash up while I make the batter. And what is the one rule?” He gave them a stern look.

  “If we mess with your girls or make them cry even on accident, the fun times are over,” the oldest said with all seriousness.

  “Close enough. Maggie show them where the bathroom is and come right back.

  She scampered off and they followed.

  “What did you tell them was the one rule?” I asked when the last of them cleared out of the kitchen.

  “That they were guests and as guests they needed to be kind and safe.” He shrugged.

  “I’ve got this. I don’t pay you to watch the community.” I grabbed a bowl and the box of pancake mix from the cabinets. “You can just chill with the girls. It is make-and-take day at the bakery, right?” Maggie’s favorite day. Frost a cookie and bring it home to eat after dinner...not that we ever followed that part of the rules, the cookie long gone before we walked home. We had frosting in the pantry as well, from an attempt to get the cookies home then decorate, but all we’d ended up with was gobbled, undecorated cookies.

  “It is, but I’ve got this. You have three meetings today.” He almost tsked.

  “How did you—”

  He gave me the really? Look. “I listen. Now go.” He pointed to the door. “I will put Mae down and get them fed.”

  “But cookie day...”

  “Sally will be back by then.” He really didn’t know her.

  “I doubt that.”

  He rolled his eyes.

  “How do you know?” I countered, reaching for Mae as he began to unwrap her.

  “I told her my going rate was ten dollars an hour.”

  At least he hadn’t let her drop them off for free, like I probably would have.

  “That is not much.”

  “Ten dollars an hour—each for the first two kids and eight dollars an hour for each additional kid.” Holy cow, he was charging her over forty dollars an hour. The man was a genius.

  “Speaking of which, I thought she had two grandbabies.” Where did the others come from, the unspoken question.

  “So did I.” Sally sure had her hands full.

  “Are you sure?” I took Mae into my arms, kissing the top of her head.

  “I’ve got this, and tonight...dinner is on me. I’m gonna be rich,” he teased. I doubted she would even pay him, but at least he’d put a curb to her doing this again.

  “I made lasagna to be heated up.” I’d stress cooked the night before when Zave went out. It was dumb. I wasn’t his, and he wasn’t mine. It shouldn’t bother me when he had plans that were not with me. Yet it did. A lot.

  “How did I miss that?” He opened the fridge and pulled up the tin foil on the casserole dish, rubbing his belly in delight. I did make a mean-ass lasagna.

  “You were out on your date.” I shrugged, trying to not show my hurt.

  “My hot date with my old landlord about the supposed things I left in storage he was trying to charge me for?” Was that a smirk he was wearing?

  “We all date differently.” I handed him Mae as the kids came running back in. “‘I’ll be home normal time. Call me if you need anything.”

  I left with a quick hug from Maggie and a bunch of smiley boys waving. At least Maggie had someone to play with on her school’s teacher workshop day.

  Chapter Twelve

  Zave

  Manny Guide page 7: Continuing education in childcare is highly recommended.

  I was on a roll with the girls, had a routine down, and already had decided that maybe I’d approached the educational system career from the wrong angle. I hated being in administration and wasn’t too crazy about working with upper level kids. But since I’d become a manny, I’d found out I worked really well with the younger set. The question was whether to stay as a manny, which I wouldn’t do with anyone but Ronnie, or to go back and complete a certification in early childhood education.

  When Sally showed up at the door with the five kids in tow, I’d been online researching the certificate, in fact, and had decided to sign up. I had no expenses to speak of, and my salary would cover the classes, especially since I could take most of them at the local junior college. But my idea was tested with the five boys added to my twosome of girls. These were not kids who had come from happy, well-run homes like Maggie and Mae. They didn’t even share the same sets of parents. While Sally’s son was alpha dad to them, there were at least three or four other moms and omega dads involved. I was a little confused on the exact details.

  So...instead of two angels, I had something much more like class of mixed kids. And even though I was now sitting in the bathtub at eight-thirty at night so exhausted I planned to fall directly into bed after I soaked out the sore muscles earned chasing seven active children. Well, six. Luckily, Mae wasn’t walking yet.

  A rap came on the door, and I called out, “In the tub. Do you need something?”

  “Just checking on you. You’ve been in there an hour and a half and I thought you might have drowned. You okay?”

  I chuckled. Usually, I was a five-minute shower guy, and Ronnie must have noticed. “Fine, just relaxing.”

  “Well, I brought you a glass of wine. I’ll just leave it out here.”

  Mmm. “Is it the wine from dinner?” It had been an amazing full-bodied, smooth cabernet.

  “Yep.”

  I considered the impropriety before saying, “I’ll tug the curtain closed, if you don’t mind bringing it in and handing it to me? Honestly, I learned today that I’m old. Those kids totally wore me out.”

  He chuckled, and, as I yanked at the shower curtain, he came in. “Old, huh? Well, I don’t think anyone could have d
one better. Sally called to say she only wished she could afford to hire you as her manny.” His hand came around the edge of the curtain, holding the promised glass of wine. “Here you go.”

  I took it gratefully. “You’re the best boss.”

  “Should I be worried? You’d probably make more money taking care of five kids.”

  “Not a chance. Not that they were bad, considering the bits and pieces they shared with me of their lives. But I wouldn’t make it a week. And she couldn’t possibly pay me what it would be worth.”

  His silhouette bent as he took a seat on the floor and leaned against the wall. “Well, good. I don’t want to lose you.”

  I wished he meant it a different way, but I’d take what I could get.

  “Nah. I like it here. And I’m crazy about the girls.” I sipped at the wine and sighed. “This is so good.”

  The bottle appeared around the curtain. “More? I opened a second one. I think we both deserve a few glasses tonight.”

  “A few?” He rarely had more than a half glass at dinner. “Are you sure?”

  “I’ve pumped, and the alcohol will all be out of my system before morning. I don’t want to get drunk. Just for once, I want to relax. You know you’ve made that possible?”

  “I have, how?”

  “Being here. Helping with the girls. Letting me go to work knowing that when I get home, they will be happy and well cared for. I didn’t even know how tense I was until I wasn’t.”

  I swallowed around a lump in my throat. “I won’t be here forever, you know.” Because my feelings were getting stronger every day.

  “I could only wish. But I hope you’ll stay until Mae is old enough for daycare, at least. She’s still too delicate to be exposed to all those kids every day... Hey, none of those boys were sniffling, were they?”

  “If they had been, I’d have thrown them right back at Sally.”

  “And she got back in time for Maggie’s cookie?”

  I tipped the glass back and held it around the curtain for a refill. “Uh, no. We all went. Like a parade of ducklings. So everyone had a cookie. The boys seemed kind of thrilled by it actually. Then we stopped at the park to let them run off some energy.”

  “I hope Sally paid for the cookies, too... She did pay you?”

  “Nope. She’s waiting for her retirement check, she said. She’ll pay me next week.”

  The irony. She’d offered me a job while not paying me for today’s work.

  The water was cooling, and I’d added hot several times already, but I hated to end the conversation. It was more intimate than others we’d had, something about the steamy, small room creating a private atmosphere. What would he say if I invited him to join me in here?

  OMG the wine was making me stupid.

  “Well, I’d better get out of here, so…”

  I saw him rise. “Yeah, I’ll give you space. I just wanted to thank you again for everything you do.”

  I heard a click and stood up myself, dragging the curtain open at the same time. But he wasn’t gone. The click had been something else. Maybe his keys, which he always had in his pocket, tapping the tile floor.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” I gasped, grabbing for the towel. I wrapped it around my waist, hoping he hadn’t seen the evidence of my pleasure at his being there with me. I got a hard-on every time he talked to me.

  Ronnie turned away. “No, it was my fault. I shouldn’t have stayed in here while you were...that is...oh man. Awkward.”

  “Just a little and I didn’t mind you staying. Ronnie?”

  He faced me, but kept his gaze fixed on the floor. “Yeah?”

  “I know you saw... I can’t stay forever because I feel more for you than an employee ought.”

  Then he wasn’t looking at the floor anymore. And I wasn’t in the tub but somehow standing right in front of him. And we were kissing.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ronnie

  What had I been thinking bringing him wine? It wasn’t my big brain that was doing its fair share of the work, that was for sure. I was only being kind, I justified. He had a rough day.

  But that was all bullshit. He was behind the closed door naked, and I’d had that wine waiting for him since he drew the tub. I had it all envisioned in my head perfectly. He’d relax in the warm soapy water, and afterward we would watch a movie drinking our wine.

  Nothing would come of it, of course. He was in my employ. It would be wrong.

  That didn’t keep my mind from wandering to us snuggling on the couch, his head leaning on my shoulder as we pretended to watch some crappy movie, both of us wondering what might’ve been had we not been such chicken shits back in our youth.

  Not that I’d have changed a thing. My life had been a freaking fairy tale until cancer came a’calling. Lauren was the perfect alpha for me at that point in my life, and, as a result, I had two amazing children.

  But fantasy me still wondered what kinds of sexy fun we might have had back in college before...just before. When times were more carefree than any other.

  I didn’t even know who started the kiss. Me probably as I ogled his erection and pretended not to. Damn. I’d done that—had him so hard his cock pointed at me like a freaking homing beacon. How was I not to look?

  And then all of a sudden, I wasn’t looking, anymore, Focused on the kiss, I was tasting, sucking, exploring. There was nothing casual about it and, as much as that should’ve sent off warning signals, it didn’t. To the contrary, it had me throwing myself into the kiss completely, his towel no longer around him, his damp, hard, naked body pressed against my fully clothed squishy body.

  At first, it was just our mouths that moved, our arms wrapped around each other, perfectly still, but as a moan of pleasure escaped me, the floodgates opened and our hands began to explore until one of the worst sounds on the planet ripped throw our ears.

  The sound of puking followed by the sobbing cries of Maggie.

  “Fuck.” I snapped back. “Gotta go,” I said like an idiot. Of course, I had to go. My dear sweet baby girl needed me. He wouldn’t question why I was running away. No one would.

  I ran down the hall to Maggie’s room to find her sitting up in bed completely sobbing, her bedding covered in the remains of her supper.

  “Baby girl.” I rolled the blanket down and picked her up. I could worry about fixing the sheets after I got her calmed down and cleaned up. “Daddy’s got you.”

  “I’m sick.” She sobbed as I carried her to the master bathroom.

  “I know, honey. Let’s get you cleaned up.” I kicked open the door, flicking on the light switch with my shoulder.

  “This is your bathroom.” Huh. Somehow that yanked her from her crying. I needed to remember that.

  “I thought you might like a shower with a chair.” I made it up on the fly. I wasn’t going to tell her the bathroom she normally used was full of a naked man her father had just been kissing. And it was true, the master bath had a stand-alone tub and a shower that had a built in seat. It would be more comfortable or at least a little bit distracting for her. I learned early on that tubs after puking were a bad idea that often resulted in a tub filled with…not good.

  “Thanks, Daddy. I think I ate too much frosting,” she confessed as I set her down and attempted to take off her nightgown without getting her hair full of yuck. My shirt was already a lost cause, but that made my task easier since it was no longer saturated.

  “How much frosting did you eat?” Because, as far as I knew, she had one cookie.

  “We had a contest.” She hung her little head. No matter what she was about to confess, she had already paid the price. “Who could eat the most frosting while Uncle Zave changed Mae. I won.”

  I’m not going to get mad at those kids. Their lives have been bad enough. I’m not going to get mad at those kids. I sucked at convincing myself.

  “I bet you wish you didn’t.” I turned on the shower and snagged a couple of washcloths. One for cleaning her body and the other to
cover her eyes when we had to rinse her hair.

  “I don’t like being pukie.” She climbed into the shower and sat down. I took down the showerhead, rinsing her off and wetting her hair.

  “This was at the bakery?” Zave didn’t seem the type to allow them to run amok there, but he had seven kids with him, so that situation being out of control would be completely understandable.

  “No.” She took the washcloth I offered her and folded it up, bringing it to her eyes as I shampooed her hair. “We ate the jars in the pantry, and Hal said to close them up right quick so we didn’t get caught. But I got caught by the stomach fairy. I’m sorry, Daddy.”

  “Let’s just get you cleaned up and back to bed.” I rinsed her hair. She was feeling guilty, if her actions were any indications. She didn’t once complain about getting her hair rinsed, which was her very least favorite thing and often involved tears.

  “I forgive you, Mags. And I would bet you learned your lesson.” I handed her a washcloth with body wash on it.

  “Yeah. I puked on my bed.”

  “And I can clean that up after I you get cleaned up. Deal?”

  “Deal.”

  I had gone from a hectic morning to a nice dinner to a sexy encounter to puke patrol in one day. I was going to need to sleep for a week.

  After I dried her off and wrapped her in a towel, we began to walk down the hallway just as the thump thump thumping of an unbalanced washing machine echoed through the halls.

  “I got it.” Zave ran past us.

  I didn’t think too much of it until we got to Maggie’s room to find the bed completely changed and her Skunk Ballerina nightgown sitting there ready for her.

  Zave didn’t have to do that.

  But he did.

  And right then and there, I knew we couldn’t let what happened earlier that night happen again. We needed him, and if that meant I couldn’t have him in any other way—so be it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Zave

  Manny Guide page 9: Never intrude on family moments.

  I slipped away to my room and left Ronnie to tuck in his daughter. Their low murmurs followed me down the hallway, creating an ache in my chest. I had promised to stay until Mae was in daycare, but it couldn’t be much longer. I was already too attached not only to my former college crush but to his beautiful, smart, funny daughters. Even Mae, as little as she was, had a way of wrinkling her nose before passing horrible gas that cracked me up.