Jade asked, drawing Annie’s attention away from her sister.
“Again, don’t worry. We’ll deal with what happens at the time. My mom used to say we shouldn’t borrow stress by worrying. What we fear might never happen.” Annie paused a few seconds to let that bit of wisdom sink in then added, “Time for bed. Have you said your prayers?”
Jade shook her head. “But we will. Jeremy needs our help.”
“Yes, he can always use your prayers.” Annie stood back while the twins walked to the double bed.
The two girls knelt and went through a list of people to bless. At the end Jasmine said, “God, please fix my brother. Amen.”
When they hopped up, Jade crawled across the bed to the other side while Jasmine settled on the right. Annie moved to the doorway and switched off the overhead light.
“Good night, girls.”
Jasmine turned on the bedside lamp then pulled the covers up over her shoulders, saying, “I need a light on to go to sleep,” while Jade murmured, “Good night.”
“Door open or closed?” Annie clutched the knob.
“Open,” Jade replied while Jasmine said, “Closed.”
“I’ll leave it partially open.”
Surprisingly, the two girls remained quiet, and Annie hurried toward Jeremy’s room to see how the boy was doing. She rapped lightly on the door and waited for Ian to answer. A few seconds later, he appeared with a weary expression on his face.
He stepped into the hallway but glanced at Jeremy asleep on the bed. “I need to call a doctor I know who deals with seizures in children. I hope to get Jeremy in to see him tomorrow before his office opens. He’ll need to run some tests and possibly prescribe medication for Jeremy. Will you watch him while I make that call?”
“Of course. I’ll stay as long as you need me.”
“Thanks. How are the girls?”
“They are in bed in Jade’s room. They prayed and asked God to help Jeremy.”
“Then, He’s been bombarded with prayers this evening. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Ian gave her a tired smile and headed for the staircase.
Annie checked to make sure Jeremy was still sleeping then took the chair Ian had been sitting in. She needed to come up with what she’d do when Jasmine was late to go to school. If not tomorrow, she would be probably soon, and the child needed to know the consequences. Annie could remember some of her own battles with her mother over boundaries and how neither parent ever backed down. No meant no. She realized she needed to talk with Ian to see how he’d want her to handle it.
Ian returned ten minutes later and motioned for her to join him in the hallway. Some of the tension in his expression relaxed as she came toward him.
“You couldn’t have come at a better time. I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here. More and more I realize a person can’t be in two places at once.” One corner of his mouth hitched up. “Although I’ve been trying to these past months.”
“Take it from me, it’s scientifically impossible. I’ve tried myself, though. Did everything work out with the doctor?”
“Yes, Brandon will see him first thing tomorrow morning, but I’ll need to postpone introducing you to the teachers until Tuesday. I’ve let the school know that you’ll be bringing them and picking them up, so it’ll be okay. The one thing that’s working for us is they all go to the same school.”
“So you want me to take Joshua, Jade and Jasmine in the morning?”
Ian nodded. “And be prepared for a hundred questions from Joshua the whole way. He’ll want to know exactly what happened to Jeremy and what the doctor will say even before we know it.”
“What do you think is happening?”
Sighing, Ian glanced toward his son in his room. “It could be epilepsy, but it takes more than one seizure to determine that.” He rubbed his chin. “Now I’m wondering if some of Jeremy’s behavior these past months might have indicated petit mal seizures. I haven’t had a lot of experience with epilepsy, so I might be wrong.”
“I’m glad I’m here for you and your family.”
Ian grinned. “Just in the nick of time. Do you have any questions about tomorrow?”
“I may be wrong, but I have a feeling Jasmine will test me about getting ready for school on time.”
“No, you aren’t wrong. She even did with Aunt Louise. She has always been my prima donna, even as young as two. I think she was trying to be as different from Jade as she could.”
“I’ve told her I won’t allow her to make her siblings late for school, so I have a plan to stress my point.” Annie looked into Ian’s green eyes and for a second lost her train of thought.
“What?”
Okay, he had great eyes. She had to ignore them. Annie peered down the hall toward the girls’ bedrooms. “She will ride with me to school dressed or not. I’ll drop the others off, come home and let her finish getting ready, then take her back to school.”
“But that’s—”
“The consequence of having me drive twice to the school is that the next morning I will be waking her up thirty minutes earlier. That means she’ll go to bed thirty minutes earlier, so she’ll get the required amount of beauty rest she insists she needs.”
Ian chuckled. “My daughter is an eight-year-old going on eighteen. I wish I had thought of that diabolical plan.”
“So you’re okay with it?”
“Yes. I like your creative way of dealing with it.”
“I try to look for ways to have natural consequences for a child’s actions. It tends to work better.”
Ian checked his watch. “You’d better catch some sleep yourself.”
“I’ll peek in on the girls and Joshua, then leave.”
She started to turn when Ian clasped her upper arm and stopped her. “Thanks again. Just taking the girls to their room and putting them in bed was a huge help.”
Ian’s touch on her skin riveted her attention to his hand for a few seconds before he released his hold. Her heartbeat kicked up a notch. In her previous nanny positions she usually dealt with the mothers, but since Ian was a single parent she would be working with just him. She’d never thought that would be a problem—until now.
“It’s part of my job,” she murmured then continued toward Joshua’s room next to Jeremy’s.
When Annie climbed the stairs to her apartment, she stopped on the landing and rotated toward the yard. She saw a few lights off in the distance. The cool spring air with a hint of honeysuckle from the bushes below caressed her skin. The sky twinkled with stars—thousands scattered everywhere.
Her first unofficial evening had gone okay. It reinforced she’d made the right decision to work for Ian McGregor, instead of one of the other five offers she’d received. The family needed her, even more so because Ian was a single parent. Her only concern was the man she worked for: he was attractive, intelligent and caring, all traits she at one time had dreamed of in her future husband. Now, though, she thought of herself as a modern-day Mary Poppins, going where needed then moving on before her heart became too engaged. No sense getting attached.
* * *
Annie kept an eye on the kitchen clock while she scrambled the eggs, expecting the kids and Ian any second. When she glanced at the doorway, she spied Joshua dressed in the clothes they’d picked out together this morning. Other than his tennis shoes on the wrong feet, he appeared ready to go to school.
“Good