Employed by the Boss (Managing the Bosses 7)

For a moment the old Christine snuck through, and there was an edge to the words that was almost sharp. Jamie froze, wondering if she'd made the wrong decision after all, but then Christine shrugged again and smiled at her.

“Sorry,” she said. “It's still kind of habit. But my therapist and I are working on it.”

“Working on it is all anyone can do,” Jamie said, impressed that her sister had even noticed that she was stepping out of line with the comment, let alone apologizing. It seemed like therapy was doing her a lot of good.

She led Christine down the hall toward the nursery, where the twins were in their playpen with a few toys.

“So, they're going down for their afternoon naps in about an hour, or an hour and a half. As long as it's before one. There is rice cereal in the kitchen cabinet if they need something more than bottles, but they shouldn't. And the diapers are in the drawer. Once they lie down, they sometimes wake intermittently, and one of them might need a diaper change. One of them usually does.” She smiled at her sister. “But if you need anything or you have any questions, you can just ask me. I'll be right down the hall in my office.”

Christine looked away from the twins and the smile she gave Jamie was real. “Thank you. I'll be sure to get you if anything seems wrong.”

She leaned down over the playpen, cooing at the babies, and both of them looked up at her with wide eyes. Jamie stifled a laugh. They knew their Aunt Christine, but not well; it was about time that she got to build her relationship with them. Just as much as Jamie didn't want them having a distant mom, they shouldn't have a distant aunt, either. She wished they had a grandma they could have a good relationship with, but the rest of them would just have to love the twins a little extra to make up for it.

“I'm going to go ahead and get to work,” she said, taking a step toward the door. “So have fun.”

Her sister didn't even look up, just lifted one hand in a wave and went back to entertaining the twins. She was going to do a great job, Jamie was sure. She headed down the hall and got settled into her chair to finally get some work done without interruptions.

An hour later, Jamie stood and stretched. She hadn't heard any noise from the nursery, but she wanted to see how the twins were doing, and how Christine was dealing with taking care of them on her own for a bit. So she started back toward the twins' room, keeping her footsteps quiet. If they were asleep already, she didn't want to disturb them.

A good distance from the nursery, she started hearing sounds. There were the usual happy baby noises, but intermixed with them was Christine's voice, playful and occasionally dissolving into laughter. Jamie felt a smile forming on her lips. She'd been right. They were doing great.

The suspicion was proven correct when she moved in to stand at the edge of the doorway.

Christine was kneeling on the floor, careless of her clothes for the first time since Jamie could remember, and trotting a stuffed horse across the carpet in front of the twins, who were squealing with delight and reaching for it with their chubby little hands. Christine would let them get close, then let out a little neigh and trot it away faster. Jamie laughed, and her sister looked up, for a moment looking like she'd been caught at something she wasn't supposed to be doing before her shoulders relaxed and she smiled back at Jamie.

“Having fun?” Jamie asked.

“We are, actually,” Christine said, glancing down, and Jamie realized that she was shy about it. Her sister had never been shy about anything, but then, she had never been caught doing something so totally unsophisticated as playing keep-away with two babies and a stuffed horse. “I mean, I assume that they're having fun. Going by the laughing.”

“They're having so much fun you can hear it ten feet down the hall,” Jamie said, stepping further into the room. “I think you're doing great with them. I knew you would.”

She sat cross-legged next to her sister, and gave the twins a wave. They didn't return it, still fascinated with the stuffed horse.

“That means a lot to me to hear you say,” Christine said. “I mean... We were really hard on you, Jamie. You could have chosen to throw it back at us, but you never did. You just kept trying. And I think that, without you, I wouldn't be here today.”

“You don't have to—”

“I mean it,” Christine interrupted before Jamie could finish. “You're the one who found me on the floor that night. You're the only person who cared enough to come check. Dad means well, but he just didn't think about it. Mom doesn't care unless there's someone to put a show on for. But you just came, just because you were worried. And you visited me in the hospital. Mom didn't. You're a good person.”

Jamie reached out and laid a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “I care about you, Christine. We had a rocky start, but so did Alex and Matt. If they can work through their issues, so can we.”

Christine gave her another tentative smile.

It was around that time that Lillianna decided to use their distraction as an opportunity, falling forward to clutch at the stuffed horse. She gave a crow of victory when she got her hands on it, and both women turned to look at her, laughter filling the space between them.

“You go, Lilli,” Jamie said. “You totally got him.”

Christine, still laughing, gave the toy over and Lillianna promptly stuffed one of the ears in her mouth. Jamie’s sister grimaced.

“What?” Jamie teased. “Scared of a little drool?”

“I guess I’m still a little uptight in some areas,” Christine said, and Jamie bumped her sister’s shoulder with her own.

“You’ll figure it out,” she said.

Benton, deprived of the toy, tried to reach out and take it from his sister, but Lillianna pulled it away. Jamie quickly reached for one of the other stuffed toys, handing it to Benton before he had time to tear up. He banged it contentedly against the floor in what may have been an attempt to copy Christine’s earlier trotting.

Sometimes, Jamie thought, watching the twins play with their toys and glancing over at her sister’s bright face, the world catches you by surprise in a good way. Last year had been hard, but they’d made it through, and now they had a family coming together and a business still going strong. Alex was healthy. She was finally learning the ropes of working with kids. They were going to make it, she was sure.