Crazy About the Baumgartners

Chapter One

I didn’t become a nanny because I loved kids. I wasn’t one of those girls who started babysitting when I was ten and fell in love with children and decided to spend the rest of my life playing Mary Poppins. I became a nanny because I hated school, anything involving retail, and working in fast food. Being a nanny required that I know how to cook and how to do CPR. Basically, I needed to know how to keep kids alive.

Sometimes I thought a monkey could do my job.

Not that I advertised that fact during interviews.

I’d been a nanny for five years and had gone through three families, when I finally found the perfect job. Thank God I found the Baumgartners. Or they found me. I was crazy about the Baumgartners. They were my favorite people in the world. And their kids were great, which is something I couldn’t say about the three families I’d played nanny to before them.

Although they had their moments.

“Henry did it!” Janie, who was eleven, blond and blue-eyed like her mother, stomped into the kitchen where I was making their after school snack-“ants on a log.” They were just celery sticks spread with peanut butter, raisins dotted on top, and looked more like turds on sticks to me, but whatever.

“Henry did what?” I licked peanut butter off the knife and slid it into the sink. Henry, almost ten, was always doing something to annoy his older sister.

“Look!” Janie held her ponytail up to me, showing me a wad of gum so big I couldn’t imagine how anyone even got it in their mouth in the first place.

“Great.” I sighed, putting the ants and logs on a plate in the middle of the kitchen table. There was no point yelling for Henry. He was likely out back, hiding in the tree house his father had built, which is always where he “hid” whenever he’d done something he knew he might get in trouble for.

So I was standing in the middle of the kitchen with a sobbing Janie, Googling “how to get gum out of hair” on my iPhone, when the house phone rang. Of course, the cordless wasn’t on its base where it should have been. I ran through the house, stopping every few moments when it rang again, trying to pinpoint the sound. I finally found it buried between the couch cushions, where I also found a wad of yellow Silly Putty with a penny stuck into it.

“Hello?” I asked, out of breath, trying to get Silly Putty off my fingers in long strings.

“Gretchen, can you stay late tonight?” Mrs. B. sounded just as out of breath as I was. “I have another couple showings and Doc’s at that conference in New York.”

“Sure.” I was always amenable to more time-and of course, more money. Besides, Mrs. B wasn’t as picky as a lot of families I’d worked for. She didn’t mind if I made a frozen pizza for dinner or let the kids watch TV. As long as homework was done and no one was on fire, life was good.

“Is Janie okay?”

I’m sure she heard her howling in the background.

“She got gum in her hair.”

“Ugh. Ice,” Mrs. B said. “Put ice on it. It will get cold and you can chip most of it out.”

“Thanks.” I headed for the freezer, grabbing a glass and dispensing ice into it.

“And you can order a pizza if you want. There’s twenty bucks in the tin. You’ve got to be sick of cooking frozen ones.”

“Okay.” It cracked me up how Mrs. B vacillated between wanting to feed them healthy things like celery and peanut butter and then gave up and ordered pizza.

“I should be back by nine or ten,” she said. “Is that okay?”

“Sure.” I sat a tearful Janie down at the kitchen table, pressing the ice against the glob of gum. She frowned at me, but at least she’d stopped howling. “We’ll see you then.”

“All right, thanks, Gretchen. You’re a life saver.” She hung up.

“Your mom says ice works.” I held my other hand under the ice to catch the drips. “But… if it doesn’t work… are you okay with me cutting it out?”

“What?” Janie’s eyes went wide. “Cut my hair?”

“I think you’d be cute with short hair.” I was trying to set it up, ease her into the idea, because I had a feeling this much gum plus that much hair was going to spell a trip to the hair salon tomorrow with her mother. I was just the nanny, not the Miracle Worker.

“You think?” Janie sniffed, fingering the end of her ponytail, now wet from the melting ice.

“Janie, where’s my goddamned iPod?” Henry stormed into the house, slamming the French patio doors behind him. “What did you do with it?”

“Bite me!” Janie snapped. “Look what you did to my hair!”

“Both of you, watch your mouths.” I sighed, pulling the ice away to find the gum was, indeed, hardening. “Janie, did you take his iPod?”

“Maybe.” She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him. “But he took my eyeliner and won’t give it back!”

It was strange to me how, one minute, they could be playing and the best of friends, and the next minute, they were at each other’s throats.

“Well, if the iPod doesn’t appear in the next five minutes, I’m going to let you figure out your gum problem.” I carried the ice over to the sink, tossing it in. “And if Janie’s eyeliner doesn’t appear in the next five minutes, Henry, there won’t be any pizza for dinner or watching a movie afterward. You can do your homework, eat peanut butter and jelly for dinner and go to bed by eight.”

I turned around and leaned against the sink, arms crossed over my chest, and looked between the two of them. I wasn’t above bribery, it was true. It probably wasn’t the best parenting technique in the world, but I wasn’t their parent. I was the nanny.

“Your iPod is under the treehouse,” Janie grumbled. “I buried it at the base of the tree.”

“Here.” Henry reached into his pocket, handing over the eyeliner. I didn’t even ask why he took it. Janie wasn’t even supposed to have it, but I didn’t mention that either. Then he was out the door to find his iPod.

“Okay,” I said to Janie. “Let’s see what we can do with your hair.”

It took me almost an hour to get all of it out, and it was still sticky to the touch, even after we’d washed and conditioned it six times. Janie thanked me and went to her room to try to brush out the stickiness while I sat at the kitchen table, eating the untouched ants on a log while I ordered a pizza.

Then I called Ronnie to tell her I was going to be late.

“Don’t watch Mad Men without me,” I warned, crunching celery.

“I won’t,” she promised. “I don’t feel well anyway. I think I’ll just go to bed early.”

I frowned. “You don’t sound sick.”

“Stomach thing,” she said. “Maybe my period coming. I dunno.”

“Awww. Fill a hot water bottle.” I licked peanut butter off my fingers. “I’ll come home and rub your belly. I’ll kiss it and make it all better, I promise.”

“I gotta go,” Ronnie said. “My other line’s ringing.”

I sighed. “See you tonight.”

Mrs. B had been asking me to stay late a lot and while I liked the extra cash, I didn’t like spending so much time away from Ronnie. We were best friends and even better lovers. And that, well-it had just kind of happened. I’d been with girls before, but I wasn’t a lesbian. I liked men too much for that. The way Ronnie and I had come together was kind of just meant to be. At first, it was just incredible sex and a lot of fun. Now, it was easy, comfortable, and I loved her dearly.

The pizza came and I paid for it, setting us up in the family room in front of the giant 80-inch screen TV with Surround Sound. Janie was freshly scrubbed in PJs when she came down the stairs. Henry, however, was dirtier than ever from playing out in the treehouse. I made him wash his hands before sitting down at the coffee table to eat. We didn’t even bother with plates. We just sat on the floor and ate out of the box.

The kids were involved in the movie and after I ate a piece or two of pizza, I curled up on the couch. I couldn’t stop thinking about Ronnie. Poor thing. I decided to stop on my way home to pick up some Midol and chocolate. Her favorite, Toblerone. That would brighten her spirits. She’d sounded so distracted, like she didn’t even want to pick up the phone.

“Can we watch another one?” Janie begged. “We did our homework and I’m already showered!”

“As long as you promise to shower right after, Henry,” I warned, cleaning up the pizza boxes, stowing the leftovers in the fridge.

“Scouts honor!” He gave me the Boy Scout salute and I laughed.

I was tidying up the kitchen when Mrs. B came in. I glanced at the clock, surprised. It wasn’t even seven yet.

“You’re early,” I remarked, hanging the dish cloth over the kitchen faucet.

“The second couple cancelled.” Mrs. B tossed a briefcase on the table and sat down in one of the chairs, kicking off her heels. She put her feet up on the table, wiggling her painted red toes in her pantyhose. She had long, tanned legs. “Everything go okay?”

“Got most of the gum out of Janie’s hair,” I reported. “Homework’s done, Janie’s showered. We ate pizza. The leftovers are in the fridge. They’re watching Once Upon a Time and Henry promised to shower when it’s over. “

“Thanks for staying.” She unbuttoned her suit jacket and shrugged it off. Mrs. B wore gorgeous clothes. Sometimes I went through her closet and a couple times I’d tried on a few of her dresses. They were just a little big on me. We were about the same height, but Mrs. B had a more voluptuous figure.

“Not a problem.” I opened the fridge, taking out two pieces of pizza I’d put in a separate Ziploc bag. “Do you mind if I take some pizza home to Ronnie?

“Not at all.” Mrs. B swung her feet off the table to the floor. “How is she?”

“Good.” I nodded, putting the pizza with my purse on the table. “We’re good.”

“I’m glad.” She gave me a tired smile, flipping through the mail on the table, separating out the junk. “Oh, I wanted to ask you. We have friends coming in early August. They’re flying in from Venice. Do you think you could sleep over, camp out with the kids?”

“Sure,” I agreed, watching her open one of the envelopes.

“Oh my God.” She pressed her fingers to her lips, eyes scanning the page.

“What, is something wrong?”

“No… something good!” She brightened, the letter shaking in her hands. “Something very, very good.”

“What is it?” I sat down at the table across from her.

“We’ve been approved as a foster family!” She whispered this, glancing toward the family room where the kids were still so involved with the show they had no idea their mother was even home yet.

“That’s… wow.” I sat back, shocked. Henry and Janie were hitting those tween years and I’d heard the Baumgartners talking about what they were going to do when the kids went off the college, so the idea of them taking in foster kids surprised me. “Amazing. I didn’t even know you applied!”

“I didn’t want to say much, get anyone’s hope’s up.” She nodded toward the family room, her eyes bright. “They’re desperate for a little brother or sister.”

“So you’re going to adopt?” I asked, even more shocked now. Taking in foster kids was one thing-the Baumgartners were very generous and it made sense they would want to give back in some way. But adopting another child? That was a huge commitment. And not even just for them, but for me too.

Mrs. B. nodded enthusiastically. “I hope so.”

“A baby?” Of course, I knew what she was going to say.

“Well who doesn’t love babies?” She smiled, folding up the letter and sliding it back into the envelope.

“Well, congratulations,” I said, pasting on a smile. “That’s wonderful.”

“Thanks.”

I got up to write my hours on a sheet of paper Mrs. B kept on the fridge and there must have been a break between episodes because the kids came bounding into the kitchen.

“Mom!” Janie and Henry rushed in to hug her as I put on my Keds and grabbed the pizza and my purse off the table.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow after school,” I called, heading out the door.

I stopped at Walgreens on the way home to pick up Midol-I knew we were out, I’d taken the last of it-a Toblerone for Ronnie and a Reese’s for me. I didn’t like missing out on the money, but I was glad to be going home early today. I’d get home in plenty of time for Mad Men. We’d even have time to soak in the tub together. Then I could spend an hour licking Ronnie’s sweet little pussy and see how many orgasms I could give her before our show started.

Just thinking about it made my mouth water and my own pussy clench with need.

I pulled my Saturn up to our apartment complex, cutting the engine and glancing up at our apartment. The living room was dark, but the light was on in our room. Ronnie was probably napping. I’d wake her up like Sleeping Beauty, with a hot, sloppy wet kiss under the covers. I smiled, grabbing my Walgreens bag and my purse. I checked the mail-the box was empty, so Ronnie must have gotten it already-and climbed the stairs to our apartment.

The door was locked-I got on Ronnie constantly about keeping it locked, even when we were home. We lived in a nice complex, but there had been a break-in at the storage center, so you never knew who might decide to try doors and commit a crime of opportunity. I unlocked it, going into the darkened living room, shutting the door quietly behind me. I didn’t want to wake her before I got the chance to really wake her.

I left the Walgreens bag on the kitchen table. There was a night light in the hallway and I followed its warmth toward our room. Our door was closed almost all the way, but there was a thin crack of light showing. I smiled, slipping up to the gap, peeking through in hopes of finding my sleeping beauty.

“Ohhh my fucking God, Vince, your cock is so good!”

I stopped, too stunned to move, hearing Ronnie’s voice, knowing that deep, guttural moan all too well. I could only see the edge of the bed, but I could hear it now, the low creak of bedsprings.

“That’s it, baby, take my cock. Oh fuck! Yeah! Squeeze it like that!” A man’s voice, no doubt about it.

“You like that?” Ronnie asked, teasing. “That tight… wet… hot… pussy… you like that wrapped around your big cock like that?”

“Ahhh yeah,” he panted. “You’re so fucking tight. God.”

I stood at the doorway, feeling a hot constriction in my chest. This couldn’t be happening. Ronnie was sleeping with a man-in our bed? I mean, we’d never really said we were going to be exclusive. We never talked about it. Things just sort of happened, and kept happening, until Ronnie and I got a one-bedroom apartment together and we agreed to split the rent.

And I knew she liked guys. She knew I liked guys too. In fact, we talked about guys, we fantasized about them in bed, we’d even talking about bringing a guy into our bedroom, although we’d never actually done it. And God knows, we both like to play with phallic sex toys. We owned lots of dildos, even a few strap-ons. Ronnie loved to be fucked, especially from behind. Hell, I loved to be fucked too. It was no secret. It wasn’t like we were going to get gay married and live happily ever after or anything. I knew that.

But she was fucking a man. In our bed. That just seemed like a terrible betrayal, even given the fluid nature of our relationship.

“I want you to pound me,” Ronnie begged him. “Will you fuck me from behind? Fuck me good and hard?”

I heard him groan in response, heard the bed springs squeaking as they moved and shifted on the bed. I saw the expanse of Ronnie’s back, the wings of her tawny shoulder blades as she pressed her cheek to the mattress. They had shifted over on our queen-sized bed, in my line of sight now. I couldn’t see him, or, at least, not much of him. But I could see his cock.

And Jesus holy jumped up Christ, what a cock it was!

I’d never seen one so big, at least not outside of porn. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually a full foot long. He slapped it against Ronnie’s perfect, rounded ass as she wiggled back toward him and sighed.

“Put it in slow,” she warned, eyes scrunched closed, nose wrinkled as he started sliding inside her from behind. She gave a low moan, biting her lip as he moved in deeper. My God, it just went on and on. He thrust forward, hands on her hips, sliding inch by inch into her sweet little pink pussy. I knew how tight she was, but I knew how much she could take too. I’d had two fingers in there, and had stretched her once to accommodate my whole fist. She loved being pushed like that.

“Oh fuck, Vince, your cock is so goooood!” Ronnie moaned and arched her back, her little breasts brushing the covers. Her nipples were hard and my mouth watered. I wanted to suck them. I was horrified by my own response. My pussy ached and throbbed as I watched my girlfriend-and what else could I call the girl I had regularly sex with but my girlfriend? — get fucked by a man.

God help me, I wanted to join them.

What was wrong with me?

“Okay?” he asked, checking in with her. He wasn’t all the way in, but almost. He could get deeper at that angle, I knew. Ronnie loved it deep.

“Yes!” she gasped. “Oh do it, baby. Fuck me!”

I took a step back from the door as they started to really go at it. Ronnie moaned and arched and begged him for more, while Vince pounded her from behind. And I watched. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the scene, in spite of the horrible twist in my stomach. I was so turned on it was shameful.

I watched Ronnie slide a hand between her own legs, petting his heavy, swinging balls before starting to rub her little clit. Good girl, I thought, licking my lips. I could almost taste her. I knew exactly what it was like to have that pussy mashed against my face, her clit sucked into my mouth, my tongue working that sensitive nub back and forth until she came. Sometimes I could get her to squirt, if I fucked her with a toy or used my fingers deep inside.

“Ohhhh God! Yes! Yes!” Ronnie moaned, her hand working furiously between her thighs. She was so beautiful it hurt, her dark hair spread out all over the bed, back arched, pale ass up high, taking that giant cock again and again. Her ass was pale, her limbs tanned. She had a sexy tan line from her bikini that I loved to trace with my tongue. I bit my lip to keep from moaning, sliding a hand over the crotch of my jeans. My pussy ached, even while my heart was hurting. How was that possible?

“Oh! Oh! Make me come!” Ronnie’s voice rose to that sweet little wail she made when she was close. So close. “Ohhhh fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Coming! Ohhhh!”

I’d seen and heard her come a thousand times, but I’d never been so enthralled with her pleasure as I was now. Her body shuddered and twitched, face tensing, eyes closed tight, and then releasing. Her brow unknitted, hands unfurling, toes uncurling. Her little wail turned to soft kitten cries.

But Vince wasn’t done yet.

“I want to come in your mouth,” he said. “Come on, suck it. Taste yourself on my cock.”

I told myself to walk away, to just walk away. I could take my car and just drive for an hour. Decide what in the hell I wanted to do about this-if anything. Or I could bust into the room. That was also an option, I supposed. Fling open the door, be all angry and confrontational.

But what good would that do?

Besides, Ronnie was sucking him now, and it was impossible not to watch. He laid back on my pillow, holding his monster member in his fist as she worked her mouth up and down. We both loved sucking cock. Ronnie loved coming with a life-like dildo in her mouth, a strap-on in her pussy and my finger slipped into her ass. She’d even said once how much she missed cum. Tasting it, swallowing it, playing with it. That’s when we’d talked about finding some guy and fucking his lucky brains out, but we’d never acted on it.

Now I watched, fascinated, as she gave lucky Vince a blowjob. I knew who Vince was, of course. She’d talked about Vince. She met him at the gym. Ronnie worked out five times a week-she was far more vigilant than me about that-and had started paying extra for a personal trainer at the fitness center. Apparently, it came with fringe benefits.

I wondered how long she’d been seeing him. I couldn’t remember the first time she’d started talking about him. Was it a month ago? Two? How long had they been fucking? A while, if this little session was any indication, because they were more than comfortable with each other. Vince clearly knew she loved to be eaten and that she was multiply orgasmic, because he pulled her over his face and buried it between her legs.

“Oh baby, yeah, eat that pussy!” Ronnie took a break from sucking his cock to gasp out the words. I could see the way her eyes closed in pleasure, how the bulbous head of his monster porn cock turned almost purple in her fist. “Oh fuck, put your fingers in. Yeah, like that! Now finger me! Hard!”

I smiled. I couldn’t help it. I’d taught her that-how to be vocal, how to tell me what she wanted, how she wanted it. She’d learned well.

“Oh pump it, baby!” Vince groaned. “I want you to swallow my whole fucking load!”

Ronnie followed his instructions eagerly, pumping his cock in her fist while covering the head with her mouth. I stood there, my hand rubbing my own sopping pussy through my jeans, watching my girlfriend suck off some guy I didn’t know she was sleeping with, and I was actually disappointed I wasn’t going to see that enormous cock shoot.

What kind of masochist was I?

“Ahhh! Argggghh! I’m gonna… ohhh fuuuuck!”

Vince bucked his hips up on the bed, shoving his cock deep into Ronnie’s throat, making her gag on it. She gurgled and drooled all over it, saliva dripping down his scrotum toward the bed, her eyes widening as he unloaded into her mouth. She couldn’t swallow it all. She choked on it, eyes watering, his cum overflowing her lips, sliding down the shaft toward her clenched fist.

“Oh baby, please!” Ronnie gasped, pulling off his cock, her face full of his cum. “Don’t stop! Lick me! Make me come tooooo!”

She wailed and ground her pussy against his face, sitting up, hands on his chest, her little breasts bouncing as she rocked and rolled her hips. Her nipples were hard, hair falling in her face, obscuring her expression, but I’d memorized it. I knew just what she looked like when she was coming.

“Ohhhhhhh!” Ronnie’s body tensed, her thighs trembling as she climaxed all over his face. Vince, to his credit, didn’t stop. In fact, he wrapped his arms around her hips to keep her there, his tongue working between the smooth, shaved lips of her pussy.

God, I could almost taste her. I wanted her. So much it hurt.

“Oh. My. God.” Ronnie rolled off him onto her side of the bed, out of my line of site. I could see Vince, his erection slowly ebbing. He was a grower, not a shower. You’d never know it was going to be so impressive if you saw it soft, I mused.

“I’m so glad you let me come over.” Vince rolled toward her and now both of them were out of my line of sight.

I shrank back, leaning against the wall, trying to catch my breath, trying to think.

“Well, God, it was your fault,” Ronnie teased. “You kept getting me so hot on the phone.”

“You succumbed to my evil plan.”

“I did. You’re an evil, evil man. A horrible influence on me.”

“So when does your roommate get home?”

Roommate? Is that what she’d told him? That really hurt. Somehow, that hurt more than watching the two of them having sex. How did she explain only having one bedroom? Only one bed?

“Soon,” Ronnie said. “You should go.”

“You’ll be at the gym tomorrow?”

“Of course.”

“Veronica, I have to ask you something.”

Veronica? He called her by her full name? The only other person I knew who did that was Mrs. B. Everyone else called her Ronnie.

“Okay.”

“Would you move in with me?”

Ronnie gasped. “What?”

“I’m just… I’m tired of sneaking around. Hiding from your roommate-and mine. If we lived together, we could do this all the time. Any time we wanted.”

“That’s true,” Ronnie replied, sounding thoughtful.

“Is that a no?”

“It’s just that… Gretchen…” Ronnie saying my name. Talking about me with someone else. It was breaking my heart. At least she was still thinking of me. At least she was still considering me. That was something-wasn’t it?

“She could find another roommate.”

Okay, it was true, I could find another roommate.

But I couldn’t find another Ronnie.

“Let me think about it.”

I crept down the hall, picking up my keys and purse from the kitchen table, and left, locking the door behind me. I got in my car and drove. I didn’t pay any attention to where I was going. I couldn’t stop thinking about what had just happened. What I’d seen. What I’d heard. What was I going to do?

In the end. I found myself parked outside the Baumgartners. I’d just sort of let muscle memory drive me to their house. They lived in a rich subdivision, at the very back, in one of the oldest houses. It was a huge house with three garages. There was quite a bit of yard out back and a big empty field behind that. The Baumgartners did well for themselves. Mrs. B was into real estate and Doc was, well, a doctor. Hence the nickname. Their neighbors were lawyers and corporate executives and other doctors and their houses were just as big.

I sat with my chin on my steering wheel, thinking about how I’d met Ronnie and the Baumgartners. I’d been hired as a nanny by Maureen and James Holmes. Their kids were both brats but they paid well and went on a lot of vacations. They took me to Key West for Christmas break that year, where Maureen had run into Carrie Baumgartner, an old college roommate. The Baumgartners had brought Ronnie along to watch Janie and Henry.

I smiled, remembering the first time Ronnie and I had been together. She told me a story that night I wasn’t sure I should believe-a story about sleeping with the Baumgartners. Doc and Mrs. B had seduced her, she said, and she was sleeping with them both, separately and together. The thought of Doc, tall, rugged, dark-haired, sexy Doc Baumgartner, and Mrs. B, so full and luscious and tanned, with her long blonde hair and full breasts, sleeping with nubile little Ronnie, just turned nineteen at the time, took my breath away. I wasn’t sure I believed her at first, but the story she told was so enticing, so sexy, and turned me on so much, Ronnie and I ended up masturbating together for the first time that night.

And it all turned out to be true. Every single, glorious detail.

The Baumgartners had shared their beautiful, young babysitter during that vacation, and I often wondered if that relationship would have continued-if they hadn’t hired me. All because crazy fundamentally religious Maureen Holmes found condoms in my purse and fired me. I think the Baumgartners felt sorry for me, and Mrs. B decided she needed more regular help, after school and on the weekends, and Doc said they could afford it, and before I knew it, I had a new job. And they didn’t call Ronnie to babysit anymore.

But fate had intervened. At least, that’s what I always thought when I met Ronnie in the mall, Henry and Janie in tow, and we’d struck up a conversation. Reconnected. And things… just happened. And kept happening. Until here we were, me and Ronnie, best friends and lovers. I was still working for the Baumgartners and Ronnie was going to school and we didn’t talk about what had happened between them on that trip to Key West. In fact, Ronnie didn’t even ask about the Baumgartners anymore.

If it weren’t for the Baumgartners, I never would have met Ronnie, I realized. And it was the Baumgartners who gave me the solution to my sudden dilemma. Ronnie had slept with the Baumgartners and had said she loved it. I knew she loved men and she loved women. We both had that particular proclivity. So why in the world couldn’t we share?

Yes, I’d been jealous while I watched her having sex with Vince, it was true. But I wasn’t jealous because I wanted her all to myself. I was jealous just because I wanted her. I wanted her too. It was that simple. I wouldn’t have minded being in the middle of her and Vince, I wouldn’t have minded that at all. In fact, the thought made me incredibly wet.

So the simple solution to my problem was just telling Ronnie I knew-and telling her I didn’t mind, because, really, I didn’t. As long as I could be part of her relationship with this guy, why would I mind? And Vince… what guy on the planet would say no to a threesome, I reasoned. It was a foolproof plan. I smiled, starting the car, the weight on my chest lifted. I couldn’t wait to tell Ronnie. It was the perfect solution.