Page 65 of Daigo

He grinned reluctantly, placing a kiss on the tip of her pert nose. "I doubt it. Those two look like they've never been with a man before, let alone know what we were on the verge of doing. Did you see the way Mabel's eyes lit up when she came back into the playroom? I had sent them out so that I could spend some time with the babies, and they weren't pleased."

Shelby's expression turned sober. Dropping down on his chest, she snuggled against him. "It was a blessing when we hired them two weeks ago."

"You fought it tooth and nail."

"I wanted to be supermom," she recalled.

"Instead, you ended up going back to the clinic for therapy." His own expression became thoughtful as he recalled how frustrated she was becoming. He had had to go back to the office, and after several days of absence, he had to make up the time. His mother had taken to stopping by every day, and, bless her big heart, Mrs. Bailey, the housekeeper, had made herself available to help out, but it was not enough. The babies were demanding, and with three of them, it soon became a monumental task.

He had come home one evening to find her in tears, reeking of frustration. The babies had been particularly fussy, and Mrs. Bailey had had to make a run to the market. His mother had not been around because of a luncheon.

Without a word, he had placed a call to the exclusive agency and gotten on the phone with Monica, the manager, who was a personal friend of his. Immediately, she had recommended the twins.

"Funny you called. These two ladies have just left their posts. They were babysitting for the Reynoldses, and their twins are now old enough not to need their services anymore. Daigo, take it from me, these two are what you're looking for."

She had sent them over the next morning, after he had spent the night convincing Shelby that it was a fait accompli.

"I wanted to strangle you when you kept insisting that you could manage."

She pouted, fingers trailing down his chest. "I thought I could."

"You're an idiot," he told her mildly. Capturing her wandering hand, he reversed their position so that his body was covering hers. "But I love you anyway."

"Let me think if the feeling is mutual." Her laughter was cut off abruptly as he closed his lips over hers.

Chapter 16

"We're married women with children." Tammy bounced her three-month-old daughter on her knees, her face wreathed in a wide smile. She looked over at the three babies crawling over the padded floor of the playroom. "I cannot believe they're so big. When I first saw them at the clinic, they were so tiny, it got me scared."

Whipping out a blanket, Shelby dabbed at the froth at the corner of her son's mouth as he scrambled after his sisters.

"He's always trying to keep up with those two." It was the weekend, and the November wind was soaring through the trees. Soon it would be Christmas, her babies' first one, and Shelby had every intention of making it the best. She was aware that they would have no idea what was happening, but that did not matter. She and her husband were immensely grateful that, apart from several ear infections and a scary trip to the clinic after Keira ran a temperature of more than a hundred degrees, they hadn't had anything crazy going on with them.

Laughing, she plucked the energetic Keira up and lifted her above her head, swallowing the lump in her throat at the baby's wild laughter.

"Daigo is so reluctant to leave them. We're thinking of traveling to the Caribbean after Christmas." She glanced over at her friend, who was absorbed in changing her daughter's soiled diaper.

"Derek might have other plans." Tammy tickled the baby's stomach and smiled when she kicked her feet in response. "She looks so much like me and Derek that I could almost imagine I gave birth to her."

"She's yours, honey," Shelby reminded her. She had watched her friend mature and grow over the last few months. Tammy had gone from being lost in her grief over her cancer diagnosis and the subsequent surgery that had dashed her hopes of becoming a mother to finding a man who loved and cherished her. Now she was also a mother to three kids.

"Okay, my little Chelsea." Tammy lifted the baby in her arms and cradled her. "Here you are, nice and dry and ready for a nap." She looked over at her friend. "Thanks for the invite to sleep over. With Derek gone for the night and Madison and Jerome at his parents' home for the weekend, the house felt empty."

"Honey, it's my pleasure." Settling the children in the mobile swing, Shelby turned her attention to Tammy and baby Chelsea. "Hand her over. You've been monopolizing that sweet little girl since you came."

Tammy did so reluctantly. "Derek says I'm spoiling her." Moving to the comfortable chaise in the corner of the room, she stretched out. "She sleeps through the night, so much so that sometimes I get up and go into the nursery to see if she's still breathing. Derek has given up on making me stop," she admitted with a laugh.

"And you're determined to be a stay-at-home mom."

"Oh, absolutely. We can afford childcare, but I want to spend time with her. The other two are at school, but I love to be there when they come home. I've started taking cooking and baking lessons in between writing my articles."

"Ah. The magazine." Shelby stroked the baby's satiny cheek in wonder.

"Yes." Tammy nodded. "The girls are asleep." She gestured to where the twins were stretched out in the swing set, nodding off.

"The nannies have a kind of homing signal. Ah, here they are." Shelby beamed as the two women bustled in, ready to take care of their charges. "Right on time."

"After you banished us from the playroom, we had no choice but to sit in the kitchen and have coffee and sweet cakes with Mrs. Bailey." Marva clucked her tongue as she unstrapped Keira and hoisted the baby to her shoulder. "Tuckered out, are you?" She patted the baby's diapered bottom and smoothed down the frilly red-and-white romper she had put on her that afternoon.