“It’s nearly dinner time,” Natalie said. “Can we start to clean up?”
Carrie looked at the tiny pile of blocks. It was certainly different than the clean-up times she’d had with children. David picked up the bucket and started dropping blocks into it. Olivia was spinning circles and watching her dress puff out like the sail of a ship.
“Olivia, can you help David, please?” Natalie said.
Olivia continued to spin, seemingly too engrossed in her spinning to hear Natalie.
“I’ll count to three, and then it’s a time-out,” she said gently but firmly.
Carrie, not wanting to step on Natalie’s toes but feeling there may be a better way, said, “Do you mind if I try, just to get a feel for the children?”
“Not at all.”
“Olivia!” Carrie said in a dramatic whisper. “Olivia!” she called again.
The girl stopped spinning and looked at Carrie. “I’m dizzy!” she giggled, which made Carrie smile. She wobbled over to Carrie and cocked her head to the side, her ponytail dropping onto her shoulder. Carrie noticed her light, delicate eyelashes as she blinked her eyes, presumably to clear the dizziness from her vision.
“Olivia. I have my eye on one block, and if you find the one I’m looking for, I have something special for you, but it won’t count unless you’ve put it in the bucket. Do you want to play my game?”
“What do you have for me?”
“Something red and white and minty-sweet!”
“Oh yes!” she said, her little eyebrows rising in excitement.
“May I play?” David called, dumping all the blocks back out onto the floor, the multicolored shapes tumbling onto the carpet.
Carrie laughed. “Yes. You may play.”
One by one, the kids picked up blocks, saying, “Is this it?” and putting them into the bucket.
“I can’t tell you until they’re all in!” Carrie said.
Before long, the two children were hopping around, grabbing blocks and running over to Carrie, smiles spread across their faces. Carrie watched the curiosity in their expressions, the excitement they had, their small hands as they grabbed each block, and it warmed her. There was nothing better than this. She longed to have children of her own, to hear them padding toward her room down the hallway at night, to see them wild-haired and groggy-eyed every morning when they jumped into her bed to wake her up. She wanted to have a home where she had to step over toys to get from room to room, where she sat down only to find a baby blanket under the cushion. Being a nanny was about as close as she could get to that life, and she loved every minute of it. The children hurriedly put the blocks into the bin until the floor was completely empty.
Carrie walked over to the bucket and peered inside. “Hmmm,” she said, digging around. The kids were still bouncing with excitement, their eyes on her. She reached in and pulled out a red, square block. “Who picked this one up? I can’t remember,” she said, and both children threw their hands in the air.
“Me! Me!” they yelled.
“I think it was Olivia…” Carrie said, a mock look of confusion on her face. David’s face fell in disappointment. “Wait. Was it David?” David’s eyes widened, and he looked up from the floor. Olivia was spinning with her arms out like an airplane, every few seconds stopping to look at Carrie.
“I can’t remember! You two picked them up so quickly that I couldn’t keep up! I suppose I’ll have to give you both a treat.” She reached into her handbag and pulled out two red and white mini candy canes that she’d taken from the car and put in her bag at the last minute. “Put them in your pockets for after dinner,” she said. Both kids grinned, their little teeth like Natalie’s pearls, their bright eyes glistening in the lamplight.
“That was a good trick,” Natalie said, smiling at her. “I think you’ll enjoy these two. I sure did. Adam works a lot, so you’ll be on call twenty-four hours a day, but it’s a lovely family, if you don’t mind working all the time. As much as I love them, I’ve found a full-time position that only requires me to work during regular, daytime hours.”
Sadly, Carrie knew that she was the perfect person for the job. With nobody to come home to, there was nothing keeping her from spending every single minute with the Fletcher family. While she felt the excitement of being with the kids and having someone need her around the clock, she wondered if there was a whole world of happiness that she’d never experienced out there waiting for her.
Chapter Three
Take five minutes per day and do something that makes you happy. That’s what Carrie had read in her book, Finding Your Inner Happiness: Live Strong and Happy. She should be extremely happy then, she tried to convince herself. She would be with children twenty-four hours a day. That’s one thousand, four hundred, forty minutes every day. She should be cartwheels-and-dancing-in-the-streets happy, but she still felt she could be happier. There was something missing in Carrie’s life, and she knew what was causing the giant hole. She just didn’t know how to fix it, though. She thought back to the suggestion in her book. If she could spend that much time doing something that she loved and still feel like her life wasn’t all together, how in the world would five minutes help? Carrie ignored the question for now. She had work, and the first thing to do was to meet with Adam to find out his expectations.