the same.”
“Thanks a lot.” Jade attempted to smooth the front of her shirt.
Wes laughed as he settled Audra into the empty bouncy seat and lifted Hadley into his arms. “I didn’t mean that to sound as insulting as it did. It was a poorly worded offer to watch the girls while you take a few moments for yourself.”
“Are you sure?”
“Considering I made a commitment to help bring these three into the world, I think I can commit to babysitting while you shower.”
“Thank you.”
“But...this is a onetime deal, Jade.” He didn’t want to delude her into thinking he’d changed his mind about being involved in their lives. “I’m here now, but once I walk out that door, I’m not coming back.”
He couldn’t—wouldn’t—risk his heart. It was already on the verge of shattering into a thousand pieces.
Jade awoke with the worst backache of her life. She eased her body out of the rocking chair she had tried to sleep in last night. Staying in the guest bedroom down the hall proved futile after hours of tossing and turning. It didn’t help that she kept getting up and checking on the girls every few minutes. The video baby monitor was great during the day, but it was difficult to see at night when the only light in the room was an elephant lamp on the dresser against the far wall.
How had her sister done it alone in a house this size? It was the middle of summer and the place creaked whenever the wind blew. She could only imagine how loud it was during the blustery Montana winter. There was too much house, too much baby and not enough time to breathe.
Liv had surprised Jade when she’d first mentioned in vitro. It had been one thing to want a baby with her husband, but as a single parent? Their mom had failed at single parenting ten times over. And she couldn’t help wondering if their mother was part of the problem. She had never bonded with them and vice versa.
Jade tried to remember the days after the girls were born. Liv had stayed in the hospital for three days and the girls had been in the neonatal intensive care unit for almost two weeks. It had been so hectic that she hadn’t noticed if Liv had bonded with the girls. Could she have missed the signs? Even though she’d been sore, Liv had been determined to get up and move around when she needed to. In hindsight, Jade shouldn’t have left so soon. Work had beckoned and despite her connection to the girls, she should have sucked it up and stayed an extra couple of weeks with her sister.
Jade quietly slipped out of the nursery and grabbed her phone off the charger in the guest room. It was a few minutes after five in the morning. Los Angeles was an hour behind them, but knowing Tomás, her assistant was probably awake. The man had been her shadow for the last five years. His attention to the finest of details and endless amount of energy kept her business running smoothly. He was the only person she would ever trust to handle any given situation the way she would.
The hardwood floors groaned as she made her way to the narrow staircase leading to the kitchen. She hesitated on the top step and listened for any sign that she’d woken the girls. Confident they were still asleep, she continued downstairs and beelined for the coffeemaker. Once the caffeine began coursing through her veins, she dialed her assistant.
“Good morning, gorgeous.” Tomás’s chipper voice boomed through the phone. “And how is our temporary mummy holding up this morning?”
“Let’s just say I made it through the night in one piece.” For the next fifteen minutes, she sipped coffee and filled Tomás in on yesterday’s events, including Wes. Tomás had been the one person she had completely confided in about her past. He knew the good, the bad and the ugly.
“Oh, darling. You’ve been holding out on me.” He lowered his voice to a whisper so not to wake his husband. “I just pulled up your cowboy online, and that’s the finest male specimen I’ve seen in forever. He just oozes testosterone and ruggedness.”
“Tomás!” Jade nearly knocked over her mug. “Do I need to remind you what he did to me?”
“No, but I think I need to remind you he was only a teenager back then. Now...” Tomás clucked his tongue. “He’s a hundred percent man.”
“I don’t care when it was. Cowboys never did it for me.”
“Your cowboy is a champion bull rider and his earnings last year were almost four times more than what I made.”
Jade straightened in her chair. “You can see how much he made?”
“I sure can.” He gave her the web address and she pulled up his stats.
“I had no idea bull riders made so much money.” Jade continued to scan the page. Turned out Wes was one of the top bull riders in the country and fifth in the standings this year.
“It also seems your boy is active in social media. That’s quite a good morning.”
“What are you talking about? How did you find that out?”
“I went to his website, westonslade.com.”
Website? “I didn’t realize he was that popular.”
“I thought you said you looked him up online.”
“I did. But I used one of those people directories, so it showed me his place of employment first. And that’s where I stopped.”
She typed in the address. Okay, the website was impressive. Professionally done and sexy, yet unreservedly masculine. She clicked on the first social media account and wondered if he had a team posting for him as she did. Nope. A selfie of him lying in bed with the caption Good Morning had posted a few minutes earlier and it already had close to a thousand likes. The hair on the back of her neck rose as she read one erotic reply after another. Most from women although there were a handful of men on there too.
“I swear, Tomás,” she warned. “I better not see your name pop up.”
Tomás cleared his throat and the sound of him rapidly hitting a key on his computer reverberated through the phone.
“I can’t believe you.”
“It’s not like I hit Send.”
She continued to read the posts and noticed Wes hadn’t responded to any of the comments. “Okay, so maybe he’s just a narcissist.”
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say your kitten claws have come out.”
A flicker of movement on the baby monitor caught her attention. Hadley’s legs were beginning to kick. Judging by last night’s diaper changes, that was the sign another was coming.
“I’ll have to call you back. The little ones are waking up.”
“Okay, love. You take care of those beauties and I’ll touch base with you sometime this afternoon.”
An hour later, Jade was either on the verge of tears or a nervous breakdown. She couldn’t do this full-time. And she was used to dealing with difficult. But Hollywood bridezillas were easier to handle. And potty trained.
When Maddie stopped by around six thirty, Jade almost threw herself at her feet and begged for mercy.
“Oh, Jade.” Maddie’s eyes trailed up and down the length of her. “What have they done to you?”
Jade thrust Mackenzie into her arms. “How can anyone in their right mind think having a baby is a good idea?”
Maddie laughed. “You must’ve had some night if you’re swearing off kids altogether.”
“I’ve never wanted children. Never. I’m too busy and too active to be tied down. And so was my sister up