Four Times the Trouble

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  “How late?”

  You have children to watch.

  “I only stay up past my bedtime on special occasions.”

  He was grinning. She had to look away.

  “You’re on. I’ll pick you up at eight.”

  Michelle had never felt lonelier in her life.

  * * *

  JESSIE, ALLIE AND MEGGIE dragged in from school Friday afternoon, the oversize 49ers T-shirts they were wearing seeming to weigh them down. They walked through the kitchen, their multicolored backpacks still across their shoulders, not even stopping to take a sip from the three glasses of milk he’d set out on the table.

  “Hi,” Jacob said, smiling at them.

  “Hi,” they answered in identically unhappy voices as they continued on out of the kitchen, traipsing down the hall to their room.

  Jacob looked at the untouched peanut-butter sandwiches still sitting on the table while a knot formed in his stomach. The only time Allie had ever passed up food was that time she’d reacted to her diphtheria inoculation and run a fever of 103. Enough of this mind-reading routine—he was going to trust his own judgment. Leaving the sandwiches on the table, Jacob turned and strode down the hall.

  The girls were sitting on Meggie’s bed, their backpacks dropped haphazardly in the middle of the floor. Jacob stood in the doorway, wishing he was a lot more sure of himself. He could hardly believe he was intimidated by three pint-size seven-year-olds.

  “Who’s going to tell me what’s going on?” he asked glancing from one to another. They looked so small and vulnerable as they sat there huddled together. But he managed a relentless stare, anyway.

  “We promised Ms. Wilson we’d do our best on everything from now on,” Allie finally said solemnly.

  “That doesn’t sound so bad.” He didn’t see the problem yet.

  “I have to be Cinderella, Daddy,” Jessie said, looking wistfully excited and ready to cry all at once.

  “You got the part?” he asked. He’d thought the triplets had either skipped the auditions or blown them.

  “And we’re her evil stepsisters,” Allie said, pointing to herself and Meghan. Meggie’s hair was loose, hiding her face. Jacob hoped she wasn’t crying.

  He went in and sat down on Allie’s bed. “I don’t get it. You guys loved acting in the Christmas play. It’s all you talked about for months. And now you’re upset because you got picked for the starring roles of a story you all three know by heart?” He tried not to panic as it occurred to him that his daughters weren’t just his children—they were females. This was what Eleanor Wilson and, later on, Michelle had been trying tactfully to point out. That just by the nature of the beast—male versus female—there were going to be times when he missed the boat.

  Allie’s little chin trembled. “If I gotta tell you something, you promise you won’t get mad enough to go away like Mommy did?”

  “Go away?” Jacob was completely unprepared for that. He joined the girls on Meggie’s bed, pulling them all into the circle of his arms. “I’m not going anywhere, ever—at least not without you three. You could lie and cheat and steal, and I’d punish you for sure, but I’d never leave you. Never. I love you.”

  Three little pairs of arms wrapped themselves around Jacob, and his words of love echoed back to him in triplicate. Jacob sought the gaze of his eldest daughter by nine minutes. “We’re a family, Allie, you and Meggie and Jessie and me, and nothing’s going to change that. You guys are stuck with me until you’re all grown-up and so sick of me you’ll be begging for your own apartments.”

  Jacob felt an extrahard squeeze around his middle. “I’m going to live with you forever, Daddy,” Jessie said.

  “You can’t, Jessie,” Meggie said. “Not when you get married and have babies.”

  “Then I won’t get married.”

  “Don’t you ever want to be a mommy, Jess?” Allie asked.

  “Not if I have to leave Daddy.”

  “That’s dumb.” Meggie scooted off the bed and sat on the floor by the bookcase.

  “It’s not dumb, is it, Daddy?” Jessie asked, climbing onto his lap.

  “It is kinda dumb, Jess,” Allie answered for him, playing with the fringe of his cutoff denim shorts.

  “Is not,” Jessie said, burrowing her head into his chest.

  “Is too,” Meggie said. She was leafing through Green Eggs and Ham.

  “Is n—”

  “Okay, girls. We’re kind of getting off the subject here. But for the record, whether Jessie’s feelings withstand the test of time or not, they aren’t dumb—not if Jessie’s feeling them. Now, back to Cinderella. What’s the problem? You don’t like acting anymore?”

  “I do,” Jessie said.

  “Me, too,” Meggie agreed, still thumbing through the book.

  “It’s the costumes, Daddy. Ms. Thomas—she’s the boss of the play—says they all have to be homemade and we don’t even have a sewing machine,” Allie said, frowning up at him.

  “And Cinderella has to have two costumes because of being a maid and going to the ball,” Jessie added.

  Jacob’s mind was spinning as he tried to find a way to reassure his daughters and find a solution to their problem at the same time. “So we’ll learn how to sew,” he said, knowing that was going to be a near impossibility. A sure impossibility considering the time he had to work with.

  “Even we know you can’t sew, Daddy,” Meghan informed him. She was no longer turning the pages of her book. Glancing down he read silently, Would you could you? He had a feeling Meggie hadn’t stopped there by coincidence.

  “So we’ll find someone who can,” he said, realizing he knew someone who both could and probably would. He remembered the homemade curtains at her windows, the throw pillows on her couch.

  “But we can’t just go take them to somebody, Daddy, ’cause we have to help,” Allie said.

  Jacob shifted Jessie more firmly onto his lap. “Then we’ll have to find someone to come here just like Nonnie does.”

  “We could ask Nonnie,” Jessie suggested.

  “Nonnie can’t sew, Jess,” Meggie said, clearly irritated with her sister’s naiveté. “Her fingers hurt her all the time and she has to look through those funny glasses just to read our papers.”

  “I’ll find someone, girls, I promise,” Jacob said before another argument flared up.

  “There’s more, Daddy,” Jessie said timidly.

  More? “Well, now’s the time to lay it on me.” Jacob injected an extra note of cheer into his voice. He wanted them to trust him with their troubles, which meant that one way or another he was going to have come through for them when they did.

  “Ms. Thomas said to tell you we need someone to help us change during the show,” Meggie said, closing her book with a snap.

  “Yeah, she said we couldn’t have another incibent like the one at the Christmas play where you came into the girls’ changing place. The other girls and mothers didn’t like it ’cause you’re a boy,” Jessie said.

  Jacob figured he’d been more embarrassed than anyone else present that night. “I’ll tell you what. When I ask someone to help with the costumes I’ll make sure she can be there on play night, too. How’s that sound?”

  Meggie’s smile transformed her usually serious face. “That sounds real good, Daddy.”

  “Yeah,” Jessie and Allie chorused.

  “Laurie’s coming over to babysit later tonight, but how about we play a game of hoops before dinner?” Jacob asked.

  “Yeah!” All three girls scrambled up, their worlds all right again.

  Jacob shook his head and wondered how much his promise was going to cost him as he followed his daughters out to the small basketball hoop he’d installed beside the garage. He knew
who he had to ask to help them—someone who’d already offered her services; someone who’d looked longingly at strangers’ children the other night.

  It was the perfect solution. The girls would have some female companionship; they’d get their costumes made and still be safe from emotional disaster. Michelle was already married, committed elsewhere. It would be no reflection on the girls when she moved on. They’d know going in that she’d already promised her life to another family. If only Jacob could trust himself to remember the same thing.

  * * *

  HE WAITED until Monday to approach Michelle. He could have called her at home over the weekend, but he’d wanted to keep things as impersonal as possible. He chose his moment, the two-minute commercial break in the middle of their show. Short and simple, that was how he planned to keep things.

  Leaning forward on his stool, he rested his arms on the counter in front of him. “Remember what you said the other night about me never asking for anything?” he asked, turning his head to glance at her. She looked good. Man, she looked gorgeous.

  “Yeah.” The one word brought him back with a snap.

  “Well, I’m about to change that.” Get a grip, Ryan.

  “Congratulations.” She slid off her stool and headed for the door.

  Jacob sat up and stared at her. “Where’re you going?” The words came out more sharply than he intended.

  She turned back with a startled look. “We only have another eighty seconds and my throat’s dry. I need a drink.”

  “So that’s your answer, then?”

  She walked back to the counter. “My answer to what?” she asked, clearly perplexed.

  “I just took you up on your offer to spend some time with the girls.” And it was much harder than even he’d thought it would be. If she said no…

  She started to smile. “You did?”

  He suddenly felt pounds lighter. “Yeah, I did.” He smiled back at her.

  “Five, four, three, two…go!” Bob’s voice piped over the speaker from the control room.

  Michelle mouthed yes as Jacob started in with the weather report. It was going to be a bright sunny day in Los Angeles.

  * * *

  MICHELLE DIDN’T second-guess her decision to take on Jacob’s girls even once, though she thought of little else all morning. Spending time with Jacob’s daughters would certainly entail spending more time with him, and considering the way she’d been feeling about him lately that might have been a problem. Except that she’d just spent the longest weekend of her life picturing Jacob in the arms of some new beauty. When she realized she was actually jealous, she’d been reminded of just why she’d never been tempted by Jacob before. His inability to commit himself to a long-term relationship was a basic flaw that was sure to prevent her from seeing him as anything more than a friend. But mothering his children for a while was another ball game entirely. Michelle knew they were just what she needed—and suspected they might very well need her a little bit, too.

  “So when do we start?” Michelle asked the minute they were off the air.

  Jacob started gathering up the material they’d used for that morning’s show. “Maybe you’d better wait until you find out what you’re getting into before you commit yourself,” he said.

  Michelle’s smile faded as she watched him. “You don’t want my help now?” she asked. She should’ve expected he’d change his mind. Jacob never let himself rely on anyone.

  “That’s not it,” he said, throwing newspapers in the trash. “But I should explain a few things first. You want to go for coffee or something?”

  He wasn’t meeting her eyes, and she had a pretty good idea why. She just wished it wasn’t so hard for him to ask for a little help. “A diet soda would be great,” she said.

  They went to the deli next door to the station and ordered bagels to go along with Jacob’s coffee and Michelle’s soda. The girl behind the counter obviously approved of the way Jacob was dressed. Or maybe it was his smile that fascinated her. All Michelle knew was that the girl looked at Jacob more than she did her cash register; she was flirting so obviously it was embarrassing. But though Jacob flirted right back, his response seemed somewhat mechanical. Michelle wondered if that was how he managed to keep women from getting too close.

  “Allie, Meggie and Jessie are great kids,” he said after he’d emptied three packages of sugar into his coffee.

  “You don’t have to tell me that, Jacob. I’ve seen them at the company picnics the past three summers. They have wonderful manners and they certainly seem to mind you.”

  “But they’re also an awful lot of work. Everything has to be done in triplicate, and I mean everything. If one gets a hug, they all need a hug. If one asks for a drink, they’re all going to want one.” He glanced up, the look in his eyes warning of difficult times ahead.

  Michelle thought it sounded heavenly so far. “If you’re trying to scare me off, you’re going to have to do a lot better than that,” she told him.

  He set his bagel down, uneaten. “Okay, here it is. The girls are in a school play. They need costumes, four of them, homemade by the end of April.”

  “Okay.” Michelle liked to sew. And making costumes sounded like fun.

  “They have to help.”

  “All right.” It might take a little longer that way, but considering her lonely evenings that made it all the better.

  “And they need a woman to be with them on play night to help with changing and hair and things.”

  “Fine.”

  He pushed his untouched coffee aside.

  “You don’t even know when play night is.”

  “I assumed you’d tell me, Jacob. It’s not like I have a demanding social schedule.” She placed her hand over his. “Relax. If you knew how much I wanted to do this, you’d be charging me for it.”

  He pulled his hand away from hers. “I just don’t want any surprises. For either of us,” he said, grabbing his cup to take a sip of coffee. “And I need to know that if you agree to this, you’re not going to turn tail and run when you have three voices coming at you at once demanding three different things that all have the utmost urgency.”

  She couldn’t hold back her smile any longer. “If only you knew how good all this sounds to me. I’ve got enough patience and love to go around, Jacob, trust me.”

  He looked startled for a moment. “I guess I do trust you or I wouldn’t have asked in the first place. I just don’t want the girls disappointed.”

  She understood his concern. “I’ll never knowingly do that. You have my word on it.”

  He nodded. “There’s one other thing… You’ll be spending some time at the beach house.”

  “I figured as much.”

  “I live there.”

  Michelle thought she was beginning to understand. She felt like sliding under that table as it dawned on her that Jacob might have caught on to the way she’d been responding to him. How humiliating! It could ruin everything—not only their camaraderie on the air but, even worse, her chance to give a little bit of the love she had stored inside to three children who needed it almost as much as she needed to give it.

  “And I’m married,” she said maybe a little more forcefully than necessary. “Don’t you see? It’s like I told you the other night. I look for good things to make the waiting easier. Helping Allie and Jessie and Meggie is a good thing. But I’ll still be waiting, Jacob. Faithfully. Every minute of every day. Especially now that Frank is finally getting some leads.”

  Jacob nodded. “And the girls need to understand that. Right from the beginning. I don’t want them to start weaving impossible dreams of ‘happy ever afters’ in their naive little heads.”

  “You’d like me to tell them about Brian?” Michelle didn’t really want to do that. Sh
e didn’t want to have to start their time together with such an unhappy story.

  “I’ll do it. But it wouldn’t hurt for you to drop reminders now and then.”

  “If you think it’s necessary,” she said.

  “I know my girls. They’ll have us married an hour after you’re in the house.”

  And they both knew how completely impossible that was.

  * * *

  JACOB HAD LET MICHELLE talk him into bringing the girls over for dinner that night so she could start getting to know them. He hadn’t been prepared to jump into things so quickly, but she’d convinced him otherwise by detailing what was involved in sewing a gown. And she had four of them to do. He could see that she probably needed to get started as soon as possible.

  “Is it time to go yet, Daddy? Is it?” Jessie asked, bouncing up and down in front of the bathroom mirror as he tried to fix her hair.

  “Almost, punkin. Where’re your sisters?”

  “In the bedroom. They just need hair done, too.”

  Working his way from the bottom up, Jacob attacked the day’s worth of tangles. He never could figure out how Jessie always managed to get twice as many knots in her hair as her sisters. “They’re wearing their jean skirts and Mickey tops like I asked?”

  “Yep. And you’re wearing jeans, too, Daddy. We all match.”

  He made it through one section of hair. “You need to stand still, Jess, or we’ll never get there.”

  “She’s pretty, isn’t she, Daddy?” Jessie’s big innocent eyes caught his in the mirror, reflecting her excitement.

  He pulled gently at a tangle at the back of her neck. “Who’s pretty?”

  “Michelle. When we saw her last summer at the picnic she smiled at us a lot.”

  “Sure Michelle’s pretty. That’s why she’s married. Brian Colby saw how pretty she was years ago and snatched her right up.”

  “Ouch!” Jessie’s hand flew to the back of her neck, covering the spot where Jacob needed to put the brush.

  “Just a little bit more, honey. We almost got it,” he said, gently removing her hand. He’d thought about cutting the girls’ hair shorter a time or two, but he could never bring himself to do it. He loved it long.