The Au Pairs (The Au Pairs 1)

"Where's Jacqui?"

Mara shrugged. "I don't think she came home last night," she said with a hint of disapproval in her voice.

Eliza yawned. "Good for her." She padded to the bathroom to get ready, just as Jacqui walked into the room.

88

"Old meninas!" Jacqui greeted, a blissful expression on her face. She was glowing and fresh-faced, although Mara noticed she was still wearing last night's clothes.

Mara frowned. "Anna's on a rampage. I suggest you guys meet me and the kids in the main house in five minutes if you all don't want to get in trouble." Mara was irritable from their little stunt the night before, and determined not to let them get away with it again. She stormed off, and Eliza and Jacqui exchanged dismayed expressions.

"What crawled up her butt and died?" Eliza asked. Jeez. She hadn't bargained on having to spend her summer with some hick from the sticks, who was so obviously a little tattle-tale, as well.

Jacqui shrugged. That morning, she and Luca had more than made up for their months apart, and she was still in a romantic daze. She was also sporting a few red hickeys on her neck from their passionate reunion. "She needs un amante. A lover," Jacqui decided. That was Jacqui's solution to everything. Jacqui had had one boyfriend or another ever since she turned thirteen and it was the only way she felt totally comfortable.

"Don't we all," Eliza sighed.

They changed into their shorts and swimsuits and met Mara and the kids by the driveway. William was jumping up and down in the gravel driveway, the baby was bawling in his car seat, and the little girls sat in the very back of the SUV with bored faces.

"William! Please get in the car!" Mara pleaded.

89

"C'mon," Eliza said, picking up William and shoving him in the car. "You better behave or I'm enrolling you in ballet with your sisters." That sobered him up. Mara wished she'd thought of that.

Eliza walked to the driver's seat. "I'll drive, I know how to get there."

Mara nodded, thankful for the help. They piled in and Eliza drove to Georgica Beach. They dropped Jacqui off to go grab lunch at the snackbar and Eliza gave her instructions on where to meet them. It was a struggle keeping all of the kids together, but Eliza finally chose a spot on the sand that was far from where her old crowd hung out. She shook out the towels and reclined on a beach chair. She still had a pounding headache from the night before, and the kids' whining wasn't helping any, but boy did it feel good to be back at Georgica.

Mara affixed a floppy sun hat on Cody's head and began to slather sunscreen on the girls. When Zoe and Madison were good and covered, she tried her luck with William. "Sit still! Wait! I still have to do your back!" Mara pleaded, but William kept jumping and wriggling away.

"I give up!" Mara sighed. She looked around. Eliza was asleep on her towel. They'd dropped Jacqui off almost an hour ago, but she was still missing. What a surprise.

"What happened to him?" Eliza asked, horrified, hours later, when she woke up and noticed William's red, puffy face.

90

"What do you mean?" Mara said. She had been so busy playing with the girls and Cody that she hardly noticed how red William had gotten. Mara had been so grateful when he'd finally gotten out of the waves and splayed out on a towel that it didn't occur to her that lying down might be a tad uncharacteristic for the boy.

"I don't feel too good," William said. His entire body was an angry crimson, with a couple of pale handprints where Mara had succeeded in slapping on a smear of sunscreen.

"Haven't you heard of sunblock?" Eliza asked Mara accusingly.

"I tried to put it on him," Mara said weakly. "But he wouldn't sit still!" She put a hand on his forehead. "He's burning up!"

"Sunstroke. I've seen it happen to tourists. It's bad. We should get him to the doctor," Jacqui said, surveying the damage with a critical eye.

The girls panicked. William began to hyperventilate. Mara's heart began beating hard against her chest. She scooped William up in her arms and ran to the car. Eliza and Jacqui packed up the remaining kids and the bags in helter-skelter fashion and scrambled after them.

At the hospital, they deposited an unconscious and feverish William in the arms of a gentle nurse and a kindly doctor, and handed the other three kids off to Laurie, who'd met them there. "I won't tell Anna. For now. But call if you need me," she said sternly before driving off.

"It's my fault," Mara said quietly. She felt terrible for neglecting

91

him. It didn't even occur to her that he had been Eliza and Jacqui's responsibility as well.

"Well, he really wouldn't stay still," Eliza conceded. That was as close to an admonition of guilt as Eliza would get. Still, she was really worried about the kid--and not just because they might get fired.