heard the echo of himself in his son's words. "Thanks, Lee. But I'm good."
"You're not good, Daddy." Jane found her place on the free cushion next to him. "Lee's right. We can do something for you."
He wrapped an arm around each of them, pulling them closer. "Just sit here with me a few minutes." Closing his eyes, he let his head drop back and took in the warmth of his children pressing against him. As he blew out a long breath, he felt some of his tension ease. They were good, his kids. Holding them helped.
The ache in his heart was still sharp. It killed him to think he'd fallen in love with the nanny only to watch her walk away from him, but he'd survive. The kids would lighten the weight of it.
The kids would lighten the weight of it.
His eyes popped open. He looked down at his beautiful children and the way they'd rallied to him. The way they were cuddled up to him right now, adding their strength to his.
Oh. My. God. The kids would lighten the weight of everything. Meaning, Mick realized, that they weren't a burden on his emotional foundation, but a buttress to it. This was the magic he hadn't understood. It went way beyond Disneyland. Together, they were a team. And "together" meant he wasn't alone in ensuring the family's health and happiness. He should have known that. Seen that sooner.
He cleared his throat, new optimism filling his chest. He'd been a short-sighted dummy, but he'd been given the breath of life just in time. God, he hoped it wasn't too late. "Kids...about Kayla."
Jane looked up at him, her dark eyes solemn. "She thinks she has to leave us."
Lee shot upright. "What?"
Mick squeezed his son's shoulder. "I've got an idea about that." A hope about that. It gave him new energy and he pushed to his feet, a grin breaking over his face. "I think you two are going to approve." Forget a hundred and four. He was a young man with a plan to get his woman.
Although the night was cold, Kayla felt completely comfortable under a patio heater and beneath a soft old quilt on the tiny space behind her friend Betsy's little cottage. It was detached from her employer's house and adjacent to the neighbor's spacious backyard. Kayla took a sip from her wineglass and noticed a male figure pass through the sliding glass doors at the rear of the big place next door.
"Is that him?" she whispered to Betsy.
The other woman nodded. "The crabby one. The smell of charred flesh is the giveaway."
"Ew," Gwen said. "Do you have to speak of grilled beef in that manner? There's nothing wrong with a man who likes to barbecue."
"There's something wrong with this one. I am definitely not fixing him up with anyone I know. He's taken to calling me Boopsie."
Gwen and Kayla glanced at each other. "The twins call you Boopsie."
"Exactly. So I don't know why you guys want to keep talking about him. Sure, he's handsome and everything. Not to mention that hard body of his. But he's disagreeable - hello? Crabby! - and I need a third four-year-old in my life like I need a hole in the head."
Kayla decided against pointing out no one said anything about Mr. Crabby getting into Betsy's life. Who was she to comment on someone else's business? She was in disentangle mode.
Gwen swiveled to gaze at Kayla again. "Your life hasn't been going smoothly either, I hear?"
"Huh?" Kayla frowned. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Patty Bright came to me about her family's posting to Europe. She said she tried to persuade you to be their nanny."
Betsy gasped. "You're going to Europe? You're going to leave Mick and the kids?"
She didn't want to say that out loud. "No, I'm not going to Europe, Bets. That didn't seem to be the right step for me."
Gwen lifted an eyebrow at their hostess. "How about you, Betsy? Not that I encourage my nannies to play hopscotch with their positions, but it is a wonderful opportunity. Several months overseas, plenty of off-time for solo travel..."
Betsy looked down at her wine, then her glance stole across the fence to the house next door. "I'm not much of a solo girl. And my boys need their Boopsie."
"All three of them?" Gwen murmured, for Kayla's ears only.
Kayla hid her own sad smile. If she left town, she might miss the previously unscheduled but clearly upcoming adventures of Boopsie and Mr.