Newton Neighbors (New England Trilogy) (2 page)

“Yes. I’m English, from a town called Dorking, in Surrey. It’s just south of London.”

“Yeah? My wife, Maria, is from Puerto Rico.”
Why did I say that? Act normal, you ass!
“What are you doing in Newton?”

“I’m over here for a year. Studying at Wiswall College.”

“Oh, that’s cool. It’s just down the road.”

“Yes, it is. I’m so sorry I was a little late this evening. I got lost, but I assure you, Mr. Sanchez, it won’t happen again. That is, if you want me back.”

“Please, call me Rick.”
 

Jessica had enormous dark blue eyes which seemed bigger now that she looked anxious. He got the urge to reach out, but that would have been ridiculous. Inappropriate. Against the law?

He laughed louder than he meant to. “No problem about being late. We’re pretty relaxed in this house. If you keep the kids content, Maria and I will be more than happy.” They walked into the living room.

“Oh, an Xbox.” Jessica grinned at Cody, who was back from putting the dog out. “How good are you on this thing? Because I have to warn you, I’m an ace.” She winked at the ten-year-old. Cody’s eyes lit up, and he lunged for the controls.
 

“You’ve just secured a place in my son’s heart, Jessica. Xbox is his life. If you’re as good as him, he’ll never want another sitter.”

She sat down next to Cody and took the other controller. Then she glanced at Rick. “Call me Jessie.”

He nodded. There was a time when something like this—seeing an incredibly good-looking woman—would have fired him up. Rick would have had all the witty one-liners, all the charm he required, but time had softened him. Eleven years of marriage, two kids, and the fact he spent more time at the country club than the nightclub all meant he’d lost his edge. How could he have let that happen?

Rick watched the two of them settle onto the sofa. Seeing the gorgeous young sitter with the game controller was a reminder that he was ancient in comparison. She had more in common with Cody than with him.
 

Lucky kid
.
 

Rick and Maria were heading out to yet another fortieth party, but the stunning blonde on his living room sofa made him think it would be a lot more fun to stay in than head out.

Would you get a grip? You could almost be her dad—almost.

Maria was at her wit’s end. How could he have shouted up the stairs like that? Was he absolutely brain-dead? With an hour’s sleep, Alice was sufficiently rested for a big-time tantrum.

She tried to soothe her back to sleep but that didn’t work. So Maria scooped up her daughter and paced the floor in the darkened nursery. Alice was a strong-willed baby, however. She wouldn’t stop until Maria switched on the bedroom light. For a moment it looked like that worked. Then the doorbell rang and Orga started barking, and the child knew something was going on downstairs. Alice wailed even louder, huge sobs racking her little body.
 

Then it happened.
 

Maria wasn’t quick enough, and Alice off-loaded her full nighttime bottle of milk—now semi-curdled—over Maria’s cleavage and new dress. The warm, wet liquid soaked through the cocktail dress and secret underwear onto her skin. It appeared even NASA technology was no protection against baby puke.
 

Maria called down the stairs for help, but everyone was out of earshot. Eventually she gave up, stomped back into the nursery, and peeled off both Alice’s clothing and her own. She gave herself and the baby a quick wipe down with a damp cloth and then got Alice into a new pink onesie. The baby cried the entire time, and Maria wondered why her husband didn’t bother to come up and help. He was always better at soothing their little girl. Maria had a dark suspicion her daughter simply preferred Ricky to her. Even Cody seemed to have a way with his little sister. Sometimes when she cried and Maria couldn’t stop it, her ten-year-old boy would take over and soothe Alice with ease.
 

Maria was tempted to cancel the night. It was Ricky’s fault. If he hadn’t shouted, Alice would still be asleep. She took the little screamer into her bedroom and let the baby bawl on her bed for a minute while she wiped herself down again. Maria tried to sniff her own skin and didn’t smell any baby puke, so she threw on her old black party dress, scooped up the still-screaming Alice, and headed down the stairs.
 

Naturally enough, as soon as Alice saw they were going down to where all the action was, she stopped crying. It was so damn frustrating. Maria prayed the new sitter would be good with babies. Stopping in the kitchen, she picked up a fresh bottle of formula and then followed the sounds of laughter into the living room. Cody was yelling death threats already, so she knew he was playing his precious Xbox, and Rick was shouting encouragement at the seventy-two-inch flat screen. The level of excitement in the room was at a fever pitch.

“Hi,” Maria said as she walked in the room. Then she saw her sitter.
Wow
, she thought. In all the years she’d been hiring sitters, she’d never had such a pretty one. Maria stopped and looked at Cody sitting right beside her on the sofa and Rick hovering next to them. Her men sure seemed to like the new girl. She scowled. Was that why her husband hadn’t heard her?

Jessie hit the pause button on her controller as soon as Cody jumped to the next level in his game, and then she jumped to her feet. “Hullo there,” she said, but her focus was on Alice not Maria. The baby looked mildly interested as the sitter slowly approached.

“Maria, this is Jessica—Jessie—our new sitter,” Rick said. “She’s from England and she’s the eldest of five. She likes dogs, too.”

This much information annoyed her. “Didn’t you hear me calling you?”

Rick looked blank. “No. It must have been when I was walking Jessie around the house. You okay? You’ve changed your dress.”

“Alice vomited all over me.”

“Poor you. How awful,” Jessie said. “Do you think the baby is sick?”

Maria appreciated the sympathy but said, “No, I don’t think so. She was settled for the night, but
somebody
shouted up the stairs and woke her.” She glared at her husband. “Alice here was crying so hard she made herself sick. She does that sometimes.”

Jessie stood next to mother and baby and stroked Alice’s tiny fingers. She talked in a gentle, higher pitched voice—cooing and gurgling at the baby. It worked. Alice started to gurgle back.
 

“May I?” She gestured to Maria, putting her hands out to take the baby. Maria wasn’t so sure.
 

“She’s in a foul mood this evening.” But even as Maria said it, she could feel Alice’s body shift. The baby leaned toward Jessie, wanting to get into the new girl’s arms.
 

Maria felt a tiny stab of jealousy but suppressed it and let the sitter take her daughter. It was a seamless handover. Alice looked highly amused by the ridiculous noises the newcomer was making.

“I think I’ll let you ladies talk,” Rick said and left the room.

Jessie sat beside Cody and bounced Alice gently on her lap, which gave Maria a chance to sit and really study the new girl. Her long blond hair was scooped in a loose clasp, but a few spiral tendrils had escaped and fell around her face in soft waves. Her skin was very fair, and she wore almost no makeup, perhaps just a little pink on her cheeks. Or was that natural? There was a glow to her skin—
the glow of youth
, Maria thought, starting to feel frumpy and a million years old.

Jessie spoke to Cody. “Will you help me with your little sister? You’ll be able to tell me where I go to change her nappy and show me where her crib is?”

Cody dropped his remote on the sofa and began gently banging the leg of the table with his foot. Maria knew what he was doing—it was just enough to show that he was fed up but not so much that she would get mad. Her boy was obviously upset that he’d lost his Xbox partner thanks to his sister’s intrusion.
 

“I don’t know what a nappy is,” he grumbled, clearly not wanting to cooperate.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I think I mean diaper,” Jessie said. “Look, as soon as she’s down, I’ll challenge you to a rematch and we’ll play for the whole night. What do you think?”

Cody glanced up at her, grinned, and then ran out of the room. Maria was impressed because she knew how hard it was to keep two children happy. Not bad for a girl who had been in the house twenty minutes—if that.

“Alice started on formula last month, so here’s one.” She put the bottle on the table next to them. “And there’s more in the fridge if you need it, but I don’t think you will.”

“Would you like me to heat the bottle before I give it to her?” Jessie asked.

“No, she’s used to it cold,” Maria said. The girl knew a thing or two about babies, she realized. “So you have little brothers and sisters?”
 

Jessie nodded but continued playing with Alice. “There are four more at home—two boys and two girls, all younger than me. In fact the youngest is only eight, so he’s younger than Cody. His name is Tristan.”

“And you’re British?”

She nodded again. “I’m studying here for a year.”

“What’s your major?”

“Psychology. I’m doing my master’s.”

“Wonderful. You can help me figure out what makes my two tick. What aspect of psychology are you doing your master’s in?”

Jessie’s eyes brightened. “Emotion regulation and interpersonal competence in romantic relationships.”

“Oh.” Maria felt awkward now. “Anything else?” She was joking, but it seemed Jessie thought she meant it.

“Well,” she said, “I also have an interest in the role of the family environment on a person’s emotional development.”
 

Cody picked that precise moment to skip back into the room balancing the toaster on his head. “Mom, can Todd and I go toasting later?”
 

Maria glanced at the sitter. “You came to the right house if you want crazy family environments.” She rolled her eyes. “Cody get that toaster off your head!” She wondered if Jessie could see through her and her happy family façade.
 

“What’s toasting?” Jessie asked Cody.

“You don’t know what toasting is?” Cody’s tone was condescending. “It’s ghosting but with burnt toast.”

She smiled, all the time stroking Alice’s little back. “Okay, you’ll have to tell me what ghosting is.”
 

“Don’t tell me you don’t know what ghosting is? Everybody has that.” He plonked the toaster on the coffee table.

Jessie shook her head. “I don’t think we have it in the UK.”

“Cody, you’re making a huge mess. Crumbs everywhere. Put that thing back in the kitchen.” Maria stood up and put her hands on her hips in annoyance.

He picked up the toaster, balanced it back on top of his head, and made for the door. “No ghosting? Jeez,” he said.

Maria watched her boy leave the room and then sat back down. “You could as easily have said you didn’t have electricity. He wasn’t impressed. Ghosting is a Halloween thing. It’s kind of a nice idea. The kids put a note on a friend’s doorstep telling them they’ve been ghosted, and they leave a little bag of candy.”

The boy bounced back into the room, without the toaster this time. “It has to be anonymous,” he said.

“Oh, Cody. Good job! That was one of your list words from school this week. Well used.” Maria meant it as a compliment, but then she saw her son flush and realized too late that she had embarrassed him in front of the pretty new sitter.
 

“So you don’t write your name on the note?” Jessie asked. Maria studied the younger girl. Was she oblivious to Maria’s mistake or smoothing things over? She couldn’t tell, and that unsettled her even more.

Cody moved on. “No way, and you have to do it when it gets dark. You put the note and the candy on their doorstep without anybody seeing you. Then you ring their doorbell and run as fast as you can. If you do it right, you can hide and watch them open the door to get the candy. It’s cool.”

Maria sighed. “Yes, we’ve had a lot of visits this year, but the problem is Orga gets overexcited and now she’s barking at everybody.”

“Okay, I’ll keep an eye out for that.”

Then Cody jumped up. “But I want to do toasting with Todd—not ghosting.”