Jenny (Babysitter's Club 5)

She seemed able to calm them when I couldn’t, and they responded to her gentle touch. I never saw Lauren mistreat them, but the fact that she was so easily ready to take their lives leads me to believe that maybe there was a lot I’d missed.

As a father, I should be cautious, but I know in my heart that she would never mistreat the kids that she’d risked her life for. And besides, she loves me; I’m as sure of that as I am that I’m breathing, she’d die before she’d hurt me.

Damn, what a time to realize this. She felt me staring at her just as we reached the line to see that seemed to be a mile long. She turned with a smile, her eyes twinkling with merriment. Such a beautiful girl, damn. How the hell had I missed that before?

Because I didn’t allow myself to look. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You’re beautiful!” I pushed a lock of her long hair back behind her ear and grinned at her. I must’ve laughed more in the last few hours than I have all month.

The girls were perfect angels as we waited in line. Of course, Jenny and I had to entertain them until then and again when they were sitting on Santa’s lap. That’s how I ended up with an album full of laughing clapping babies in their first-ever Xmas pictures.

I realized as we got ready to leave that the evening had been much better because of her because she was here. She didn’t get flustered when the girls acted up the way their mother used to. She was patient and always ready with a smile. It did my heart good to see them coming out of the funk they’d been in for a while after their mother left.

Speaking of which, I have amazed myself with the ease with which I’ve been able to put her out of my mind. Once the divorce papers were signed, and I was granted full custody of my girls, it’s like she was just another phase of my life that I needed to put behind me.

Now when I look at Jenny, there’s no layer of guilt over what I’m beginning to want with her. We strapped the girls in, and I helped her into the passenger seat and belted her in sans the sassy attitude this time.

“You haven’t eaten, and neither have I.” I looked back at Emma and Sara, who were already nodding their little heads and fighting sleep. “These two are in no condition to sit and watch us eat, so what say we go home, order in, and have that talk?”

“But, I thought you were going to help me with my homework Mr. Masters, you promised.” She batted her lashes at me. Was she deliberately trying to get my dick hard? That pouty lip, with the big eyes and that voice, was well on the way to getting her fucked.

“How did you hide this person? How? I can’t even…” I just shook my head and started the SUV while she grinned and relaxed back in her seat. That’s another thing I’ve noticed about her, the ease with which she adapts.

I still can’t get a handle on her because she seems to have about ten different people living inside her. I guess I’m destined to attract fucking nut jobs, only this one I think I like. Her crazy doesn’t run to murder and running my ass over. Nope, hers just seem to be aimed at making me hard and just as crazy as she is with need.

She pulled her phone from her pocket, and I tried not to let it bother me. I’m still a little raw, I guess, after everything that had gone down in my marriage while I wasn’t looking. But I should’ve known my sweet Jenny wouldn’t do me like that. For all her acting up here today, there’s something about her I know I can trust.

“We are having Thai.” That was news to me.

“We are?”

“Uh-huh, I just put in the order at my favorite place, they should be meeting us there or just a little behind.”

“I didn’t hear you say a word on the phone.”

“I don’t have to, they have my favorite order programmed in their database, I just have to go in and hit reorder, and this time I entered your address instead of mine and confirmed with my password.”

“Pretty neat trick.”

True to her word, they arrived not even ten minutes after we did. We’d just come back downstairs after putting the girls to bed since they were already asleep.

My little angels must’ve known daddy needed some alone time with the babysitter because neither of them budged as we got them out of their winter gear and wiped them off a little before putting them in their cribs.