LITMIR.BIZ

       Chapter One

      Jamie Stockton turned the page on the calendar and stared at the letters that spelled out the month. D-E-C-E-M-B-E-R. The final month of a year that had mostly been a blur in his mind.

      Twelve months earlier, he’d been anticipating the upcoming holiday and already thinking about this Christmas, when he and his wife would celebrate the holiday with their babies. Now Henry, Jared and Katie’s first Christmas was only weeks away, but Paula was gone and instead of being excited about the event, he was simply exhausted.

      His fingers automatically wrapped around the heavy mug that was thrust into his hand. He lifted it to his lips and swallowed a mouthful of hot, strong coffee. The caffeine slid down his throat, spread slowly through his system.

      He turned away from the calendar to face his sister. “Thanks.”

      “You looked like you needed it,” Bella said, as she started breaking eggs into a bowl.

      He swallowed another mouthful of coffee. “Henry was up three times last night.”

      “Teething?”

      “I don’t know. His cheeks weren’t red, he wasn’t drooling and he didn’t have a fever.”

      “Hmm.” Bella turned and looked at the triplets, lined up in three high chairs beside the butcher block table, each of them focused on the cut-up pieces of fruit she’d offered to tide them over until she could cook breakfast. “He looks okay now—certainly a lot better than you do.”

      “Thanks,” he said dryly.

      She added a splash of milk and began whisking the eggs. “Did Jared and Katie sleep through the night?”

      He shook his head. “Jared was awake once. Katie made it all the way through until her wet diaper woke her up at four this morning.”

      “And since you had to be up at five, you probably didn’t even try to go back to sleep after she was changed.” She poured the egg mixture into the hot pan on the stove.

      “Nope,” he agreed.

      The truth was, even when the kids were settled in their cribs at night, sleep didn’t come easily to him. When he tumbled into his own bed, unable to keep his eyes open a minute longer, his body would immediately shut down. His mind, not so much.

      Although he’d always wanted to be a father, he never planned to be a single father. But that’s what he was, and while the joys of being a parent to ten-month old triplets were countless, the trials were also numerous.

      “I really think you should consider putting them into day care,” Bella said gently.

      It wasn’t the first time she’d made the suggestion, and he understood that—for a lot of reasons—it was a valid one. Of course, he’d nixed the idea the first dozen times she’d mentioned it, vehemently when the town was in the midst of an RSV outbreak. But now that the epidemic had passed, maybe he would reconsider.

      He nodded, because he agreed that socialization in a structured setting would be good for his children. And while the cost of day care for three babies was somewhat prohibitive, he also knew that he couldn’t continue to rely on community volunteers to provide in-home care for his young family.

      Since the tragic death of his wife after the birth of their babies, he’d been the grateful recipient of an outpouring of support and assistance from the residents of Rust Creek Falls. Under the direction of his sister, Bella, several volunteers had come together to create what she called a baby chain and help him take care of the triplets in rotating shifts.

      For the past ten months, his sister had been the anchor of that system. Despite the demands on her, she’d somehow found the time to meet and fall in love with Hudson Jones. And Jamie knew it was time for him to take control of his own life so that she could get on with hers and the planning of her wedding.

      “So you are thinking about day care?” she prompted, evidently surprised.

      He lifted his mug again, to hide his smile behind the rim. “I’ve heard a lot of great things about Country Kids.”

      Bella, who worked at Just Us Kids—the day care center managed by her fiancé—narrowed her gaze as she stirred the eggs in the pan.

      He chuckled. “I’m kidding.”

      “I hope so.”

      “On the other hand, Fallon does work at Country Kids,” he pointed out. “And they offer a discount for more than one child.”

      “Just Us Kids does, too,” she told him, as she took the platter of bacon and toast out of the oven and set it on the table. “Plus, I’m pretty sure I can wrangle a family discount for you.”

      “I’m not looking for anything full-time,” he told her, snagging a piece of bacon as soon as she turned her back.

      “Of course not,” Bella agreed, tearing a slice of toast into pieces for Henry, Jared and Katie to chew on. “Half days would be a better introduction for them. Any change in daily routine is an adjustment for a child, although the triplets do have something of an advantage in that they’re accustomed to being cared for by different people.”

      Because they’d never had the benefit of a mother and a father to tend to their day-to-day needs, Jamie lamented silently. “That’s an advantage?”

      She winced. “I’m sorry. You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

      “I know,” he confirmed.

      “So...half days,” she said, attempting to refocus their conversation as she set a plate of eggs in front of him. “Mornings?”

      He nodded as he picked up his fork to dig into his breakfast. “But not every day.”

      Bella sighed as she scooped smaller portions of egg into three bowls on the counter to cool off for a few minutes before she gave them to the babies. “Part-time only a few days a week isn’t going to be very helpful to you when you’re juggling so much,” she pointed out. “You leave the house at the crack of dawn every morning, then you come back to have lunch with your kids, then you head back out to work and drop whatever you’re doing to come back to check on them again in the afternoon.”

      “And yet I still feel guilty about relying on other people to care for them during so much of the time that they’re awake,” he admitted, adding a couple slices of thick, buttered toast to his plate.

      She sat down with her own breakfast. “You’ll feel less guilty when they’re in day care—and less inclined to interrupt your day to check on them.”

      “Three days a week,” he decided.

      “Four,” she countered, reaching out to snag a couple of pieces of bacon before he emptied the platter.

      He scowled. “They’re only ten months old.”

      “And I’ll be at the day care every minute that they are,” Bella assured him.

      “I don’t know,” he hedged.

      She didn’t press any further as she finished her own breakfast, then

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