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“Saw that. Come this way,” he tells me. I follow him, and he launches right into how he wants his kid to be treated.
“I don’t get the impression that you have kids, so I want to be sure you know how to take care of a baby,” he tells me. I don’t say anything, so he gives me a look with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes, of course,” I say.
“Good. I dealt with a lot of women yesterday who didn’t seem to know shit about what it takes to care for a kid,” he says.
I want to ask him if he even knows what it takes, but I bite my tongue. No need to get snarky with him this early on.
“I know what I’m doing,” I assure him. “I won’t let him out of my sight. He’s got my full attention and he’s my priority. I know this is a job, but I also care about him being happy and safe. I’m not going to leave him unsupervised at all, you can count on me for that.”
He nods as we reach the room. When he opens the door, I try not to be enraptured with the feelings that encompass me. The three of them together in the same room with me once again. I can’t remember the last time—save for the interview yesterday—that this happened, and my heart just refuses to stay where my mind is.
“Jeanette!” Terry says with a grin. “Meet Hendrix!”
He has the little boy in his arms, and he walks over to me. He hands the child to me, and my heart skips a beat. I don’t know why my mind imagines for just a moment what it would be like if this were our child that we share, but I ignore the thought almost as soon as it’s in my brain, looking down at the baby and smiling.
Hendrix’s mouth erupts into a smile, and all three of the triplets seem happy with the way the introduction is going.
“I told you she was a good fit,” Julian says. “Look, he’s taken to her already.”
“I do like that,” Caleb says.
“Great, this should be pretty easy then,” Terry says. “Also, we leave tomorrow night, you’ll be ready by then, right?”
“I don’t have a whole lot to do before then,” I say.
“Good. Pack light,” Caleb directs me. “There’s going to be a second bus with most of our things as well as our manager—who is also a woman, by the way, so you can bet on having some help with Hendrix on the road—but we still don’t want to have a lot of baggage to carry.”
“Wait, what?” I ask. “I thought I was taking the baby and staying here.”
“We would rather spend time with our son, and with the job we have, it only makes sense to bring him with us,” Caleb says. “You’ll be able to travel with us on our bus, which means you’re not going to have to take care of Hendrix all on your own. Just make sure you have him when we’re doing shows.”
“The four of us?” I ask. “On the road, in your bus?”
“Five of us,” Julian says. “Five of us with little Hendrix. Our manager is more than happy to help out every now and then as you need, so it shouldn’t be that bad.”
“Six if you want to include our driver,” Caleb says. “But who’s counting?”
My mind spins. I’m immediately second-guessing myself. I can’t see this ending well for me. How am I going to handle spending so much time with the three guys who made my life hell my entire senior year? Especially after what they did to me my junior year?
This will mean a lot of time for us to be together on that bus.
I’m not sure I can do this after all.
SEVEN
JULIAN
“You think she’s going to show up?” I ask as I look out the window of the tour bus.
“She seemed pretty interested yesterday. I mean, outside of telling us she didn’t plan on going out with us, I think it was pretty clear she was taking the job,” Caleb replies.
“But with her reaction to the idea of being on the tour bus with the three of us, I wouldn’t be surprised if she called the whole thing off. Take her time to think about it, then decide against it the day of,” I say with a shrug.
“I doubt she’d do that, but knowing Jeanette, if she did something like that she would at least text us to let us know about it,” Terry chimes in. “I can’t see her pulling a no call/no show on us.”
“Even with the clear hatred she’s got for us?” I ask. “I don’t think she could be any clearer on that front, either. What did she say yesterday? She’s very professional, and she’s going to strictly take care of Hendrix?”
