Page 12 of The Nanny and the Don

Since I was working on building a routine for them, they would be up by eight and down at eight.

That was plenty of time to learn, play, and burn off the energy that might otherwise prevent them from sleeping at night.

I was going to tire their asses out and hopefully my own in the process.

I was up until after two this morning only to wake up by seven. I went to King’s side of the bed first.

“King,” I sang his name as I gently shook his shoulder.

His handsome little face brightened with a smile as I tickled him awake.

“Ms. Devy, you came back,” he said through a fit of giggles.

“Yes, I did. I want you to get up so we can brush our teeth and wash our face. Then you are going to help me make breakfast.”

“I’m too little to make breakfast, Ms. Devy.”

“That’s why I’m going to help you. Do you like apples?” I asked him.

“Yes!”

“Good. Get up and put on your slippers while I get Evie.”

As I moved around to Evie, I could see that her side of the bed was soaked. I had to keep in mind a cut off time for her drinking before bed. Since I was banished upstairs at night, Mr. Gray was going to have to help with that and even consider taking her to the bathroom during the night.

“I didn’t pee this time. I’m getting to be a big boy. That’s why I can help you cook breakfast.”

“That’s right. You’re doing a good job,” I said, acknowledging King as I picked Evie up and carried her little sleepy self to the bathroom connected to the room they shared.

Evie was still knocked out as I turned on the bathtub to run enough bath water to get her cleaned up. I moved back to the room and quickly found something for her to change into.

“You see my toothbrush, Ms. Devy?” King asked as I walked back into the bathroom.

“Oh wow! A superhero.”

“Yep, just like Uncle Steel. He saved me and Evie from those bad people that took us from our mommy. They didn’t even give us nothing to eat even though we were crying.”

“That must have been scary,” I said, sympathizing with the talkative little boy.

“Yes, I miss my mommy, but she said that Uncle Steel is going to make sure we are OK until she comes back. She still loves me, but she has to go away for a while. That’s what she said.”

“I’m sure your Uncle Steel will take good care of you,” I assured him although I wasn’t so sure about that statement.

I didn’t know the man from a can of paint, but there aren’t a lot of people that I can think of that would take on the responsibility of other people’s kids.

None of my siblings’ dads or any of our distant relatives came to the rescue when I was tossed into the system like trash.

I had no idea where they were these days, neither did I care.

It was honorable of Mr. Gray to take in his sister’s children. Not everybody has it in them to do.

“Help me put the toothpaste on,” King requested, causing me to turn to him and help him with his task of brushing his teeth. I wet a washcloth and added a little mild soap.

“Do you know the happy birthday song?” I asked him.

“Ms. Devy, I’m not a little baby like Evie. Everybody knows the happy birthday song.”

“Oh, well good. Sing the happy birthday song two times while you brush your teeth.”

“OK,” he said, smiling devilishly like I had told him to do something naughty.

“When you are done brushing your teeth, take this washcloth and wash your face really good,” I instructed.

“OK.” He nodded his little head.

Once I got him squared away, I undressed Evie and put her in the tub. Feeling the warm water must have been Evie’s cue to wake up. As soon as I put her in the tub, she started wailing at the top of her lungs.

“Hey, hey, hey, you’re OK, Evie. It’s Devlan. You remember me?”

I’m not even sure that she could hear me over her own screaming. Thankfully I had reinforcement.

“Evie, look at this,” King suggested, holding up a little tugboat. “It’s bath time, Evie. You like bath time.”

Her brother’s reassurance did the trick, and she immediately dried her tears and accepted the toy. The water was shallow, so I allowed her to splash her little heart out while I gave her a quick bath. Minutes later, I was whipping her out of the tub and drying her off.

After putting on her cute little pink outfit and putting a diaper on her.

She was potty trained, but I noticed yesterday that sometimes as soon as she said she had to pee she started peeing.

I was grateful to find pull-ups in their bathroom.

They would be perfect for bedtime. I placed Evie on her feet, and she quickly took off behind her brother.

“Buddy, remember that we are inside. We need to use our inside voices. Evie, show me an inside voice,” I said, as I walked behind them.

Sicily and I both laughed at her adorable face as she imitated someone whispering the way I’d shown her multiple times yesterday.

“Good job. Pick a chair, you guys. Let’s get settled down for breakfast.”

“I thought I was helping you cook breakfast, Ms. Devy,” King stated, looking up at me with sad eyes.

“You are. I’m going to give you an important job. You will cut the apples,” I told him.

“With a knife?” he quizzed, frowning at me as if I were delusional.

“Yes. It’s completely safe, but remember you have to be extra careful.”

I walked over to the counter and picked up an apple from the basket, washing it in the sink before placing it on the cutting board and quickly cutting it into slices. I raked the pieces into a bowl then grabbed a butter knife and moved over to the table.

“Now I want you to cut these into little, tiny pieces. We are going to put them on top.”

“OK.” The smile on his face was worth a million dollars.

I didn’t know the specifics of what had taken these children away from their mother, but I knew that it had to be hard on them all.

There was no way someone had willingly left their children behind.

Then again that was exactly what my own parents had done.

Drugs were the specific thing that robbed me of having a relationship with my mother.

There was no telling where she was in the world these days or if she was still among the living.

I decided when I connected with Kelsea that I had a new family.

I didn’t waste my time wondering why she continued to choose drugs over us.

All I knew was that if I was in her shoes, nothing in the world would keep me away from my children.

It didn’t take long for me to whip up the oatmeal and toss in the apples that I’d cooked in butter and cinnamon.

I walked over to the table to check on my assistant.

“Are the apples ready?”

“Yep, see I cut them up really tiny like you said,” King confirmed.

“Great job. Now let’s let everything cool off just a little bit. We don’t want Evie burning her mouth, do we?”

“No,” King agreed by shaking his head.

“No! No! No!” Evie chanted, causing me to smile.

It was a good thing that the kids were here because they were a great distraction from the reality of the situation.

I walked over to the window and looked out to where Sicily was doing something in the yard.

Deciding to take a chance, I went to the back door and found that it wasn’t locked or anything. I could just go right out.

“You bringing the kids out here today?” she quizzed.

“I was thinking about it. It’s nice out.” I observed as I looked around taking in my surroundings. The yard was massive. Trees lined the edges of the property at a distance making me wonder what was on the other side. “There aren’t any bears out here, are there?”

“The worst thing I’ve seen was a deer. We get a lot of rabbits too.

There’s miles of forest over there. Mr. Gray owns all of it.

I think I heard him tell someone that a mile of the land around him, on either side, belongs to him.

Then there’s a house a few miles down the street, and he owns that too. ”

“Damn,” I muttered.

She laughed. “I know right. Everybody ain’t able.”

“You ain’t joking.”

“Well at least you get to live here with him. I don’t think anybody has lived upstairs since his sister left.”

That made my ears perk up. “The kids’ mother?”

“Yeah. She used to live upstairs. It was way before she had the kids. I didn’t even know he had a sister, but I heard him telling his friend Four that someone was finally up there after all these years, and he didn’t know how to feel about it because he had that apartment built for Angela.”

“Wow.”

“He must really like you. I clean this spotless castle from top to bottom every day, and I’ve never spent the night here.”

“Well, the nature of my job calls for me to live here, I guess. The kids are always here,” I noted.

“Who do you think took care of them up until you got here? I didn’t spend one night here. He made sure that I got out of here at eight so I could be back by eight.”

“How long have they been here?” I quizzed.

“A few weeks. Maybe a month now. Let me tell you, he is clueless when it comes to those kids, and he’s not interested in learning what to do with them from what I can tell. He’s all business all the time. They’re just another thing that he has to handle or have someone handle.”

“So, where is their mother?” I asked, hoping she could shed some light on that part of the mystery.

“Who knows? He’s so elusive to questions. If you like your job, you learn not to ask too many questions. I love my job, so I try not to pry. I didn’t even know he had a sister until he told me to get the rooms ready for the kids.”

I wondered what he’d told her about me. I knew that he hadn’t initially planned on bringing me here because he couldn’t have known that I was at Brendan’s house. He came there with intentions of confronting Brendan and just took me as collateral. Still, I wanted to know how much she really knew.

“Did he have you to clean the upstairs apartment before I came? It was spotless.”