Daycare Mum to Wife / Accidental Father. Nancy Robards Thompson

his brood that they’d be with a carer while he dealt with this business in Sydney. Deserting them when they’d only just arrived was the last thing Dan wanted to do, but he was going to have to do it.

      Dan had a good business, but he was still a man with five children. He’d rented a house in Sydney and worked hard to save enough so they could buy their home out here, where things were cheaper and they could all enjoy a quieter lifestyle.

      Jess Baker had told him her umbrella had bent bits, but something about the set of her chin suggested she might be a godsend, just the same.

      ‘Luke, Rob, Daisy, Mary, this is Jess Baker.’ Dan glanced at the child in the young woman’s arms. He couldn’t remember if Jess had said her daughter’s name, yet he had no difficulty at all remembering the soft touch of Jess’s fingers on his arm. He was…curious about her.

      No. Dan wasn’t curious. He was a father on his own with five children and eighteen years of memories of the one love of his life, and Jess was a very young woman and potential employee. Dan forced his gaze to Jess’s daughter. ‘And this is—’

      ‘Ella.’ Jess filled in the blank for him with a smile that transformed her face.

      Rather than focus on that transformation, Dan gestured to the child in his arms. ‘This is Annapolly. Her name’s Pollyanna, but we started saying it the other way around and it stuck.’

      Dan would simply push the confusing thoughts about Jess Baker away. And how could he think about reacting with awareness to this young woman anyway, when he hadn’t done that about any woman at all for the last four years?

      There’d been Rebecca for Dan since they were childhood sweethearts. They’d married, had the first four children. Partway through Rebecca’s pregnancy with Annapolly, the doctors had discovered Rebecca had cancer. Rebecca had died a month after Annapolly’s birth. Dan had just stopped with all that when he lost Rebecca.

      ‘Hello.’ Jess offered a uniform smile as her gaze shifted from one child to the next.

      Rob responded with a curious, ‘Hullo.’

      ‘We saw you speaking with our father,’ Daisy observed.

      Mary asked hopefully, ‘Are you gonna feed the ducks?’

      ‘Yes.’ Jess nodded. ‘I am.’

      Jess Baker was young, and she would come with her baby in tow, but Dan’s instincts said Jess would be committed about the work. Those were the only instincts he needed to consider.

      He pushed his thoughts into business mode. ‘We’ll have lunch at our new house. It’s a big farm-style home on a ten-acre allotment on the northern edge of town.’ To his children he added, ‘I’ll explain what’s happened with my work and how Jess has offered to help us on the way back to the house.’

      Throw Jess into the middle. Let Dan see how she managed among the stacks of half-unpacked boxes and the children.

      ‘Straight after the ducks,’ Jess agreed, and handed out pieces of bread.

      Dan’s younger children gathered around. Luke and Rob didn’t. They’d fallen into a whispered conversation. No doubt they had questions. Dan would answer them when he had everyone in the van, and hopefully there wouldn’t be too much of an explosion when he told them they’d be in childcare for a fair chunk of their holidays.

      Maybe they’d accept Jess’s care easily. Maybe this would be all right. Maybe Dan’s sea change for the children wasn’t about to turn into a premature disaster before they even had a chance to give it a go.

      Maybe?

      And maybe Dan would be able to shove aside the way he’d reacted to Jess. He certainly wouldn’t let it happen again. Dan failed to notice that, in thinking that, he had admitted to himself there was a reaction in the first place.

      ‘Jess, I wonder if you’d mind sorting out lunch while I see to things with Roy, here?’

      The Internet technician had arrived in his van as Jess Baker drove up in her small, older-model hatchback.

      Dan spoke the words as he, the children, Jess, and the Internet technician trooped into the house. Dan had taken his moment to explain the childcare need to his children on the drive back here.

      To allow them to moan and groan and then to make it clear there was no choice.

      Now all Dan could do was see if Jess could manage. He’d made it clear he expected cooperation from the children with that.

      ‘Of course, Dan. That’s what I’m here for.’ Jess’s gaze darted this way and that. The kitchen was farther into the house, to the left through the open-plan living room. Jess spotted it and asked, ‘Do any of the children have food allergies?’

      ‘No.’ Dan was lucky in that respect.

      ‘Great.’ The bow atop Jess’s soft hair bobbed as she nodded her head.

      Her clothes were bright and cheerful, and there were enough wooden bangles making their way up her arm that she could use them to start a small fire if she needed to.

      Something about the combination of puckish face, bright clothing and the determined set of Jess’s chin told Dan she might have lived more life than her youthful age suggested.

      Right now she stood straight as an arrow with her baby perched on her hip while she looked around at the chaos inside the house. At least she didn’t turn and walk right out again.

      Dan didn’t want her to go. He wanted a chance to get to know her.

       What you want is a chance for her to look after the family while you’re dealing with this work situation.

      And if he tried to get to know her he might as well be getting to know an alien species. Jess Baker was a whole generation away.

      ‘If you’ll come this way with me.’ Dan gestured the technician forward.

      As they walked away Dan heard Jess say to his two eldest, ‘How are your muscles? Do you think you could push those boxes into a line so they block that half of the kitchen? That way Ella will be safe while I make lunch.’

      ‘Looks like you and the little lady have some chaos happening here.’ The technician flipped the comment Dan’s way as they walked into the den.

      ‘It’s to be expected.’ With another part of his mind Dan heard the first volley of questions from his curious younger offspring, and Jess’s calm answers and the open and shut of cupboard doors as she looked inside. She wouldn’t find much.

      He had grossly overestimated how much unpacking one man and five excited children could get through in an evening and the following day. Dan had taken them into town to the park hoping to calm them down so he could come back and finish the work. Or at least get halfway there with it. ‘Things are under control. Let’s get this Internet connection sorted out.’

      Roy set to work. A few minutes later he turned to Dan. ‘There you go. The problem was this component.’ Roy showed Dan the small box. ‘I’ve replaced it. You won’t be charged for this. I’ll just send this one back.’

      With that issue sorted, and Dan therefore connected once again to his working world via his computer, he thanked the man and let him out of the side door. Dan quickly jumped on to check his emails. There was just enough room to sit with the boxes shoved aside and stacked up.

      ‘Lunch is ready, Dan. There’s enough for an extra person—’ Jess broke off as she glanced into the den.

      She’d looked quite serious at first. Dan would even have said there were worried shadows in the backs of her eyes. Had those been there when they first met? Had he been too busy thinking about his own problems to notice? Were they related to caring for his brood?

      Somehow he didn’t think so, though that could prove to be challenge enough for her.

      As Dan asked himself these questions those