Caydee woke up just after dinner, while Elsa was cleaning up the kitchen and the rest of them were listening to music, drinking, and talking in the family room. G and Jake were discussing their latest collaboration tune that they had been working on in fits and starts for nine months now. G was about ready to hit the studio in Oakland and start recording. Jake agreed to spend a good portion of the next week in the Compton rehearsal studio with G and his boys so they could finalize the project.
Caydee spent another hour and a half being passed around from G to Neesh and then back again. Elsa had, by this point, retired to her quarters and was no longer in the rotation. At 9:30, Laura, who was a bit beyond tipsy at this point, took the baby into her bedroom and gave her a bath in the little insert in the tub. Once she was clean and dressed in her jammies, she then carried her back to Jake, who fed her one of her bottles. Once she had her fill, he told everyone to tell her goodnight, that it was her bedtime.
“How long will she sleep for?” asked Neesh.
“She’s getting pretty good at staying down at night now,” Laura said. “She’ll usually sleep from ten until about six or so.”
“Six o’clock in the morning?” asked G with a wince. “You call that pretty good?”
“It’s a lot better than having her wake up every three hours,” Jake said. “You take what you can get in the baby world.”
“Man,” said G, shaking his head. “The fuckin’ sun ain’t even up at that time of morning.”
“I can verify that,” Laura said with a giggle.
Jake carried his daughter into her room and laid her down in her crib. By this point in her existence, she no longer liked being swaddled. In fact, it was a chore just to keep her blankets on her. She snuggled into the mattress and looked up at her father in anticipation. She knew what came next.
Jake walked to the corner of the room where his old Fender was leaning against the wall. He carried it over and sat in the chair next to the crib, where Caydee could see him well. He began to strum the guitar. She cooed happily at the sound of it. She really liked listening to her daddy play and sing for her.
He started with one of her favorites: Nights in White Satin by the Moody Blues. He sang the first two verses and the choruses for her—emphasizing the ‘I love you’ parts—and then gave her a little Zeppelin, playing Going to California. For the finale, he began to strum out the melody that she had always enjoyed when she had been in Laura’s belly—the tune in which she had come by her name. As she had done in utero, she kicked her little legs in cadence with the rhythm. Jake played the melody for her over and over again, his fingers moving automatically, his eyes watching her as her eyes grew heavier and started to droop. Finally, she was asleep, but her little legs kept kicking a little until he stopped the music. She fussed for a moment and then went back to sleep.
He stood slowly. “Good night, little girl,” he whispered to her, kissing the tip of his finger and then touching it to her cheek. “Sleep tight.” He smiled one more time. “I love you.”
He put the guitar back down and then left the room, turning off the lights but leaving the door open. As had been the case in Oregon, they used no baby monitor for fear of someone intercepting the take from it.
He went and rejoined the gathering, making himself another drink first and foremost.
Meghan Zachary sat at the dining room table in the formal dining room. It was 11:00 AM, two days after Laura had bought the new minivan, and she was here for her final interview for the job of nanny to the Kingsleys. She had been told to dress casually for the event and she had done so. She was wearing a pair of black slacks and a button-up blouse. Her brunette hair was down and flowing over her shoulders, though it was neatly styled. She had cubic zirconia studs in her ears and a Christian cross on a chain around her neck. Her face was pretty, a younger version of her sister’s, but her body was a little bigger than Danielle’s and she was just a little shorter. She was not fat by any stretch of the imagination, but full-bodied—the kind of body where weight might be an issue later in life but currently was not. She had a healthy set of young breasts on her and while Jake managed to keep his eyes from dropping to them, Laura could not help but catch little peeks every now and then. She really did enjoy the sight of a nice pair of healthy boobs.
“First of all,” Jake told her, “before we go any further here, I have to ask: Do you want the position?”
“Oh yes,” she said immediately. “It would be a dream job! Living here in your house, taking care of just one baby. I’m all in for this.”
“Don’t you want to hear the particulars?” Laura asked. “You know? How much we’ll be paying you? Benefits? That kind of thing.”
“Whatever it is, it’s better than what I have now,” Meghan said brightly. “I’m making a little over six dollars an hour for twenty-four hours a week and have no benefits at all. No health insurance, no sick time, no vacation time. And I live with my parents, who are good people and they love me and I love them, but they can be a bit overbearing and I would rather live somewhere else.”
“I suppose that’s a good way to look at it,” Jake said. “Shall we discuss salary and other compensation now?”
“Sure!” she chirped. “I can’t wait to hear it.”
“We are prepared to pay you two thousand dollars a month for being our nanny,” Jake said.
Meghan’s eyes got very wide. “Two thousand dollars ... a month?”
“That is correct,” Jake said.
“Oh ... wow,” she said. “Just wow, I mean. That’s like three times as much as I make now.”
“That is pre-tax,” Jake pointed out. “And for forty hours a week of actual work time instead of twenty-four. But that is only monetary compensation. You will also have the benefit of room and board here in the house and a parking spot in the garage. If you need to take Caydee somewhere in your vehicle, we will compensate you for the fuel you use. In addition, we will foot the bill for a comprehensive health insurance, dental, and vision plan. You will have weekends off for the most part, but if we do need to use you on a weekend or at night, we will pay you time and a half of your average hourly rate, which, when we do the math for an average of forty hours per week divided by two thousand dollars per month, is...” He looked at some figures he had scribbled on a piece of paper. “ ... twelve dollars and fifty cents per hour, time and a half of which would be eighteen dollars and seventy-five cents per hour.”
“Wow,” she said again. She then looked at the couple carefully. “And this is just for ... you know ... taking care of Caydee for you, right?”
“What else would it be for?” Jake asked. “Your duties will be well-defined.”
“Uh ... well ... when I told my mom and dad about this job ... they ... uh ... they didn’t want me to take it. They wanted me to stay away from you two.”
“Because of our reputation?” Laura asked.
“Yes,” Meghan said. “They’ve heard all kinds of things about you two. That you have orgies up here, that you do drugs all the time, that you even ... you know ... rape women. They’re afraid that you’ll sell me into white slavery or something if I work for you.”
“If we sold you into white slavery,” said Jake, “then who would take care of Caydee when we’re working?”
She looked at him for a moment and then laughed. “I guess that’s a good point,” she said. “Anyway, I like you two and I get good vibes off of you, but ... you know ... I just want to make sure that all you’re paying me for is to be the nanny and that there are no misunderstandings about that.”