“I’ll warn you now, they’ll all come at once. You won’t get away with inviting them one at a time,” I said with a nervous chuckle. I wasn’t going to mention that if we tried one at a time, they’d all just turn up anyway and ask exactly why only one of them had been invited.
Matty nodded slowly as he processed the sudden realisation that he was being thrown into the deep end. “Sure, the more the merrier. Bring kids, partners, whoever. It’ll be fun.”
“It’ll be chaos.”
“That can be fun,” he said. “And you’ll be here, and that’s all that matters.”
I kissed him and sighed happily, a picture of our future starting to form in my mind. Maybe it was too early to think about what our lives could look like, but there was no harm in dreaming. My feelings for Matty were deep and sure, and there was a certainty about them I’d never felt before. My heart hadn’t led me wrong before and it wasn’t now.
One thing was clear: I loved him, perhaps in a way I’d never loved anyone before.
And from here, the future looked sweet and sunny.
“I’ve just put the kettle on. Do you want a cup of tea?” I asked, sticking my head around the living room door where Hannah was seating herself on the second sofa opposite Matty. Nausea bubbled in my stomach and I couldn’t remember when I’d last felt this nervous.
Technically Hannah didn’t really have a say in Jack’s care or in Matty’s and my relationship, but I wanted us to all get along well. Besides, this wasn’t just about her. It was also about my career and who was going to look after Jack.
Most of all, it was about Jack.
We still hadn’t told him and every night I’d gone to sleep upstairs in case he woke up in the middle of the night and crawled into Matty’s bed. On one occasion last week he’d even climbed the stairs to my room to find me, which I’d thought was adorable until his tiny toddler feet had connected with my testicles while he snored.
“I’d love a cuppa,” Matty said with a smile. “Thanks, sunshine.”
“I don’t suppose you have any coffee?” Hannah asked, pulling a notebook out of her handbag. It was a soft teal and had a little rabbit on it, and I really wanted to ask where she’d gotten it because it was adorable.
“Not enough to satisfy your caffeine addiction,” Matty said teasingly.
“Then I’ll be fine, thank you,” Hannah said.
“Back in a second then,” I said, ducking out and walking back to the kitchen to quickly make two cups of tea. I grabbed a packet of chocolate biscuits too, if only because having tea without biscuits on this occasion felt like an actual crime!
When I returned, the two of them were chatting amicably about Jack and potentially enrolling him in something like baby gymnastics to help burn off some of his energy, and Hannah added something about maybe taking him to see a kids’ theatre production ofThe Very Hungry Caterpillarthat was currently touring.
The pair of them looked up as I stepped through the door, Matty smiling warmly at me, his expression reassuring me it was all going to be okay.
“I brought biscuits too,” I said as I handed him his tea and sat down next to him.
“That’s because you’re the best,” Matty said, shooting me a little wink that made my stomach flip.
“I try.”
There was a moment of silence as Matty sipped his tea and hummed happily. Then he said, “Right, Jack. And other things.” He looked at Hannah as he reached over to interlace his fingers with mine, resting our hands on his thigh. “Harper and I are together. Properly now.”
She smiled and nodded, shooting us a look that said,Took you long enough. But all she actually said was, “Good. I’m happy for you both.”
“Thanks. We haven’t told Jack yet because we wanted to talk to you first, but Harper has plenty of resources and ways to explain it that’ll make it easier for him,” Matty said. “We want to make sure we can answer any of his questions and make sure he still feels loved.”
“That all makes sense. And I appreciate you waiting, even though you didn’t have to,” she said.
“I know, but we wanted to.” He squeezed my hand. “In terms of Harper being Jack’s nanny, we have a couple of options.”
“Either I can stay on and we talk about how payment would work, although I’m not sure how that would work with the agency. Or I can find another job and either see if I can take Jack with me or find something with shorter hours so I can work while Jack’s at nursery, or you can hire another nanny for Jack,” I said, watching Hannah’s face carefully. She was clearly listening, considering the options as if this were another corporate meeting.
I’d been thinking about the different ways this could work for a few days now, and I definitely had my preferences. Even though it wasn’t Matty’s favourite, finding a day position with a family with children a similar age to Jack, who’d be happy for me to bring him along, was probably one of the better options. Plus it would be great socialisation for Jack and would likely only be Monday to Friday, which would mean I’d still get to take Jack to the rugby at the weekend.
Marissa had floated it to me, but I hadn’t put much thought into it until the other night when I’d seen a post on Instagram from a nanny friend of hers and her son and remembered she was still working with the family she’d been with for at least four or five years. I’d reached out to ask for some advice on how she made it work, and she’d walked me through everything.
My hope was, if it came down to that, we could find someone Matty knew who was looking for a nanny—someone on the team perhaps.
