“I love you, too. That’s why I’m doing this for you. We don’t mind picking up the slack. What we all want is for the girls to have some consistency in their lives. Hendrix and Madden work, and your father and I are retired. We want to be grandparents, so it was time to make this move. Bailey comes highly recommended. She handled all the questions in the world this afternoon. Your father and I watched her with the girls. You know how Cammy wasn’t sure with Hendrix at first until Madden coaxed her. That didn’t happen. Bailey has a calming quality about her, and both girls were happy.” She has a point. I can’t depend on everyone to pick up when I can’t. That doesn’t mean I have to like how she went about it.
“Tell me everything. Don’t leave anything out. I’m not walking into this blindly, and if anything doesn’t seem okay, you’re calling the agency, no questions asked, and she’ll be gone. You did the hiring, you can do the firing.” I’m firm on this. There’s no way I’ll get railroaded when it comes to my two girls.
THREE
Bailey
“What do you want to do today?” I ask Piper. Cammy is in school, and with this being my first day being their full-time nanny, I’m being eased into the fold. I’m thankful because I’ve had to jump in headfirst before. I do not recommend that, but it also works for some families. Obviously not this one, which I’m kind of grateful for. Catherine and Hendrix allowed me to dip my toes into the family fold, giving me time to bring in a few things from my car this morning, leaving the rest for when Piper is napping or when both girls are in bed for the night. After our talks, it was stated that when Mr. Hughes was doing out-of-town work, I’d stay in the guest room inside the house. If he’s in town, the pool house would be where I’d stay, unless he stated otherwise.
“Pway, Bai.” Two-word sentences, maybe three at most, is what Piper speaks in. So far, I’ve made her breakfast, helped her brush her teeth, did her hair in two high ponytails on each side of her head with a zig-zag pattern down the middle, and topped it off with huge bows to conceal the elastic. Piper clapped her hands, laughed and smiled, then it was off to get her dressed. She was very bold about what she wanted to wear. I was okay with it, and the Hughes family didn’t seem like they would mind what Cammy and Piper wore unless it was their school uniform, which Cammy didn’t grumble about at all when she was getting ready. Catherine made sure she was ready while I hung out with Piper, though I saw the way she looked at Piper’s hair with a gleam in her eye, so maybe tomorrow I can suggest doing her hair.
“What would you like to play?” I respond, taking a seat on the floor in their living room, another adjustment. The last family I worked for was not this down to earth. They were affluent, and the kids were expected to be seen and not heard, wear the right clothes at all the right times. Toys were in another wing of the home, and there was not as much family togetherness like the Hughes family unit has shown me so far, something the Landry’s were not. I think it was expected and maintained with their family because of a few things—both parents worked in an industry where prestige was everything, old family money type of thing, and I knew it would only get worse with the promotion. I hated saying goodbye and not seeing their children again, but knowing that it wasn’t my life passion to move abroad was even scarier, so we said our goodbyes.
“Hmmm,” Piper replies, shrugging her shoulders. I already know that Cammy will want to go swimming once she’s home from school and her homework is done, a request she verbalized before walking out the door, backpack slung on one shoulder, a lunch box in the other, and waving goodbye as she left.
“What about if we work on writing our name and coloring?” I suggest as I crawl over to where the table and chairs are set up. This room has it all—a plush couch deep enough to fit three people, L-shaped, the fabric an oatmeal color, and the ottoman you can tell has taken on both girls at one point in time. It’s lived-in and cozy.
“Okay.” Piper moves to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. The bottom area has doors for keeping some of the stuff out of sight unless they pull it all out. When she starts pulling things out, going every which way, I decide it’s time I help her. If not, it’ll be me who cleans it all up. It was during the final interview process that Catherine mentioned doubling my salary if I could keep up with some of the housework as well as cooking dinner during the week. On the weekends, they could figure something out, but it would help Forest and the girls to have a balanced meal along with not eating dinner at eight o’clock at night. There wouldn’t be any deep cleaning as Forest has a cleaning service that comes in every other week to tackle the bigger jobs.