Triple Trouble / A Real Live Cowboy: Triple Trouble. Judy Duarte

she didn’t lie awake thinking about Nick. Being wakened by the triplets several times the night before, combined with her long day, made her tired enough to fall asleep almost the moment her head hit the pillow.

      Unfortunately, Charlene wasn’t allowed to remain asleep for long.

      The first cry woke her just after 1:00 a.m. She tossed back the covers and fumbled for her slippers with her bare toes but couldn’t find them. Giving up the search, she hurried across the hall to the triplets’ room.

      Jessie was standing up in her crib, holding on to the railing with one hand, the other clasping her beloved blanket. Although the room was lit by only the dim glow from the plug-in Winnie The Pooh night-light, Charlene could see the tears overflow and trickle down Jessie’s flushed cheeks.

      “Sh, sweetie,” Charlene murmured, crossing the room and lifting the little girl into her arms. “What’s wrong?”

      Jessie burrowed her face against Charlene’s neck. The heat coming from the little body was palpable.

      “You’re running a temperature,” Charlene murmured, realizing the ear infection was no doubt responsible for the rise in body heat. Jackie and Jenny appeared to be sound asleep. Charlene sent up a quick prayer that they would remain so as she quickly carried Jessie out of the bedroom and into the room next door. Her sobs were quieter now, muffled as her damp face pressed Charlene’s bare throat. Charlene rubbed her hand soothingly over the small back.

      Earlier that day, Melissa had helped Charlene move a changing table and rocking chair into the empty bedroom next to the triplets’ room. The babies still refused to fall asleep unless they were all in the same room—they fretted and worked themselves into a state if the adults tried to separate them. Nevertheless, Charlene was determined to find a solution to their waking each other in the night. If one of them cried, the other two inevitably woke, and the loss of sleep for everyone was a problem that desperately needed solving.

      Charlene managed to ease Jessie back, putting an inch or so between them, just enough to unzip her footed pajamas. The pink cotton was damp, as was the diaper beneath.

      “Let’s change your clothes before we get your medicine,” she said, lowering Jessie to the changing table.

      The little girl whimpered in complaint and when Charlene stripped off the damp pajamas, Jessie’s little mouth opened and she wailed.

      In the bedroom next door, one of the other triplets protested and then began to sob. Charlene groaned aloud. The sound was bound to wake Nick.

      She took Jessie’s temperature with a digital ear thermometer, relieved when it registered only a degree above normal. As she quickly replaced Jessie’s wet diaper with a dry one and tucked her into clean pajamas, Charlene fervently wished the employment agency would find a suitable nanny applicant soon. If the triplets had two nannies—herself and another—then maybe Nick wouldn’t feel required to get up at night when the babies woke.

      And she wouldn’t be confronted with seeing him in the pajama bottoms he’d started sleeping in after that first night when he’d staggered into the triplets’ bedroom in navy boxers. He might believe he’d found a modest alternative to underwear, but as far as she was concerned, the low-slung flannel pants only made him look sexier.

      The low rumble of Nick’s voice as he talked to the babies carried through the wall separating the rooms and Charlene was certain both Jackie and Jenny were awake.

      “Come on, sweetie,” she murmured to Jessie, lifting her.

      She left the room and paused in the doorway of the triplets’ bedroom. Nick had Jackie in one arm and Jenny in the other. Both babies were sobbing, blankets clutched in tiny fists.

      “Jessie’s temperature is up again. I’m taking her downstairs to get her medicine out of the fridge.” Charlene had to raise her voice to make sure Nick could hear her over the crying babies. His brief nod told her he’d understood, and she headed downstairs, leaving him to cope with the two fractious little girls.

      As she pulled open the refrigerator door and took out the prescription bottle, she heard Nick come down the stairs and go into the living room. Jackie and Jenny were still crying, although the volume wasn’t quite as loud as before.

      Jessie’s sobbing had slowed to hiccups and intermittent outbursts. Charlene managed to unscrew the lid from the bottle and fill the eyedropper with the proper dose of pink medicine while balancing the little girl on her hip.

      “Open up, sweetie.” Fortunately, the medication was strawberry flavored and Jessie’s mouth immediately formed an O. Just like a little bird, Charlene thought. Jessie’s lips closed around the dispenser and Charlene emptied the pink liquid into her mouth. “Good girl, you like that don’t…”

      A sudden blast of music from the living room startled Charlene and she jumped, nearly dropping the bottle. Jessie’s eyes grew round, her little body stiffening in Charlene’s grasp.

      “What in the world?”