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Aware that he was still a little nervous about going it alone, Rainer and Elias had offered to come over, but he’d declined their generous offer.
Garrett was a father. He needed to learn how to be one without a safety net, so he asked Fletcher to shuffle things so he could work from home again.
Stella obliged him by playing quietly on her new tablet or with Meowmus on the carpeted area in front of his desk. He’d had the decorator put some beanbags there for Stella to have her own space in his office.
He wanted her to feel welcome there.
The decorator had wanted to make the beanbags leather in a dark-maroon shade to match the furniture. But having a kid meant making sacrifices. Even if those sacrifices came in bright-pink faux fur.
Stella’s good behavior allowed Garrett to tackle another project while he was home.
Ever since finding out he had a five-year-old kid, he’d been scrambling to catch up. Now that Stella was settled in their home, the next crucial item on his list was to line up the best grade school possible. Their goal was to enroll her in January when the next semester started.
Getting Stella into a premier private school midyear proved tricky, even to someone with his resources. He’d put his assistant on it, but the matter still required his personal attention.
Strings had to be pulled. In the end, it had been Elias who’d held the most important one—his stepmother, Rosemary Gardner.
Rosemary was a true old-money socialite, the second wife of former Governor Graham Gardner, Elias’ adoptive father. She was a woman with hundreds of friends. One of these sat on the board of the private school his assistant had earmarked as the best in town.
A quiet word from Rosemary and a spot suddenly opened up.
His relief at having that settled was substantial. But because Stella wasn’t starting until the new year, Garrett had decided to hire a babysitter who could double as a tutor.
He knew it was just kindergarten, but he didn’t want her to fall behind. The tutor-slash-sitter would ensure her transition in January would be seamless.
Or at least that was his plan.
Garrett had no intention of dumping all his parenting responsibilities on an employee. He could barely handle having Emma and Stella out of his sight as it was. But he’d taken Emma’s words on her mother’s porch to heart.
He couldn’t hold on too tight, so he was trying to begin as he meant to go on.
Garrett would have to go back to the office soon. Fletcher couldn’t shoulder the workload alone. But finding someone whom he trusted around his family was going to be a tall order, so he didn’t waste any time in setting up interviews.
He should have done a better job explaining the situation to Stella.
She had caught on to the fact he was interviewing babysitters immediately, of course, after the first woman came in.
But Garrett hadn’t liked that applicant’s vibe, so he had the next set of applicants run through the gauntlet of Auric’s background check. It was part of the service they provided to new and existing clients, one he hadn’t taken advantage of before.
Once the pool had been vetted, Garrett resumed interviews, trying to time it so he got at least twenty minutes alone with them first. Then he had Stella come in so he could gauge their rapport.
As long as they had the Auric seal of approval, he could afford to take Stella’s opinion into account.
They had just met the day’s final candidate when Emma and Mariana arrived home, exhausted but pleased with the progress they’d made. Mariana’s place would be completely furnished in a matter of days, a cause for celebration all around.
They were halfway through dinner when Stella pricked their collective balloon of happiness with her sterling silver Tiffany & Co. baby fork.
“Why don’t you come down for a Disney princess movie marathon after dinner?” Mariana suggested. “We got the best pink pillows to cuddle up on the floor.”
Stella surprised them all by turning it down and shaking her little head solemnly. “Papa will be sad if he can’t kiss me good night,” she declared, rather decisively for a five-year-old.
Aware that Mariana had been missing Stella something fierce, Garrett pointed out that a sleepover did not preclude a goodnight kiss from either of her parents.
“That’s the great thing about having your Mama-Grandma just one floor down,” he explained, injecting as much enthusiasm as he could muster into his voice. “We can come up and down whenever you want.”
“Yes,” Emma added, setting down her fork. “You should think of it as one big house. So you can go with Mama-Grandma now and we can come down to carryyou to bed.”
“No. Because Mama-Grandma’s not my mama,” Stella announced. “She’s a liar!”