Joshua jumped up, splashing the water, and stepped out onto the tile floor. “Okie dokie.”
Ian waited at the doorway for his youngest to dress himself. When Joshua ran past him and toward the stairs, Ian made a detour to Jeremy’s room and knocked on the door. No answer. He decided to make sure Jeremy was there, so he pushed the door open and found his eldest curled on the bed, his eyes closed.
Ian sat next to Jeremy and shook his shoulder to wake him up.
His son’s arms lashed out at Ian. “Get away.” Blinking rapidly, Jeremy pushed away as if he was coming out of a nightmare and didn’t know where he was.
“What’s wrong? A bad dream?”
Jeremy looked around him, then lowered his head.
“Dinner is ready.” Ian spied Joshua in the doorway and waved him away.
His eldest son clenched the bedcovers. When he didn’t say anything, Ian rose, not sure what was going on. “I expect you downstairs to meet the...Annie.”
Jeremy flung himself across the bed and hurried out of the room—leaving Ian even more perplexed by his behavior. Not sure his son would even go to the dining room, Ian hastened after him.
Annie took the seat at the end where the twins indicated she should sit. All the food was on the formal dining room table, and Jade and Jasmine sat on one side, constantly looking over their shoulders toward the foyer or staring at Annie.
She checked her watch. “Maybe I should go see if your dad needs help.”
“Knowing Joshua, he’s probably hiding. He does that sometimes,” the girl closest to Annie said.
Jasmine? They were both wearing jeans and matching shirts and ponytails. According to Ian, they didn’t dress alike anymore. Obviously, tonight they had other plans.
The other sister grinned. “We should go ahead and eat.”
Annie shoved her chair back. “Wait until the others come. I think I’ll go see what’s keeping them.” Something didn’t feel right. She started for the hallway and found Joshua coming down the staircase, his lower lip sticking out. She hurried to him. “Is something wrong, Joshua?”
“Daddy is in Jeremy’s room. He made me go away.”
She escorted Joshua to his seat across from one of the twins. “Well, sometimes parents need private time with a child without any interruptions.”
“Jeremy was telling Daddy to leave. I saw his angry face.”
“Jeremy is in one of his moods,” one of the twins chimed in.
“Jade, I think—”
“I’m Jasmine.”
“Okay, Jasmine. I think we should go ahead and eat before the food gets cold.”
“But you said we should wait,” the real Jade said, her pout matching Joshua’s.
A sinus headache, common for her in the spring, hammered against Annie’s forehead behind her eyes. Remaining calm was the best way to deal with children. She took a moment to compose herself then bowed her head.
“What are ya doin’?” Joshua grabbed a roll from the basket near him.
Annie glanced at him. “Blessing the food.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing, Joshua. I pray over my meal before I eat.”
All evidence of a pout vanished, and he grinned. “I pray at night before bed.”
“We used to with Aunt Louise, but those other nannies didn’t,” Jasmine said, grabbing the bowl of spaghetti and scooping pasta onto her plate.
“We do when Daddy eats with us.” Jade folded her arms over her chest. “I’m waiting.”
“I’m not. I’m staaarving,” Joshua said.
While Jasmine joined him and piled sauce all over her spaghetti, Jade glared at her sister, then her little brother. When her two siblings started eating, she slapped her hand down on the table. “We should wait.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Annie spied Ian entering the dining room with a scowling Jeremy trailing slowly behind him.
“Good. You have started. Spaghetti is best when it’s hot.” Ian winked at Annie then took his chair at the head of the table. “Jeremy, this is Annie.”
“Hi, Jeremy,” Annie said.
“I don’t need a nanny. I’m gonna be ten at the end of next month.” Jeremy’s mouth firmed in a hard, thin line.
“Neither do we.” Jade mimicked her older brother’s expression. “We’re eight. Nannies are for babies.” She sent Joshua a narrow-eyed look as if he were the only reason Annie was there.
“I’m not a baby.” Joshua thumped his chest. “I’m four. I’m gonna be five soon.”
“How soon?” Annie asked him, hoping to change the subject.
Joshua peered at his father.
“Two weeks. The twenty-seventh.”
“You act like a baby. Look at what you did today. You could have died today.” Jade shoved back her chair, whirled around and ran from the room.
Annie’s first impulse was to go after the girl, but she didn’t know her yet. Jade must have been the one who’d screamed at the bottom of the steps earlier when Joshua was on the railing.
Instead, Ian stood. “Keep eating.” Then he left the room.
Wide-eyed, Joshua looked at Jeremy, then Jasmine and finally Annie. “I won’t die.”
The pounding in her head increased. “Jade was just worried about what you did today. Standing on the railing is dangerous.”
“Yeah, dork. You have a death wish.” Jeremy snatched a roll and began tearing it apart.
“Death wish?” Confusion clouded Joshua’s eyes. Tears filled them. “I don’t wanna die.”
“Then, stop doing dumb things.” Jeremy tossed a piece of bread at his younger brother.
Joshua threw his half-eaten roll at Jeremy. It plunked into the milk glass, and the white liquid splashed everywhere.
Grabbing for a roll in the basket, Jeremy twisted toward Joshua.
“Stop it right now.” Annie shot to her feet. “The dinner table is no place for a food fight. If you don’t want to eat peacefully, then go to your
