The New Normal

Fresh out of the hospital, wounded soldier Bradley Martin is suddenly a father of three when the mother of his young daughter, and her own set of twins, passes away. He’s overwhelmed and grateful that Mannies Incorporated have found a male nanny for him to help, not only with the kids, but with some of his needs as well. Recovering and learning to walk again is hard enough without the three children that have landed full time in his life.

David “Duffy” Dufferin has been a manny since graduating from college, and he loves his job. He gets to be a part of so many families, and he loves helping raise all the children he works with. He’s thrilled to be starting a new assignment with a brand-new family.

Both Duffy and Brad are shocked and delighted to discover that they not only know each other, they were friends with benefits before their lives took them in different directions. Life is never going to be the same for either man, but together, they just might find that their new normal includes a happy ending for all.

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Stress and the Modern Dad

Can a new dad and a community center program director find common ground and fall in love?

Bry Michaelsson’s sister died from cancer right after giving birth to her second girl, leaving Bry as a brand-new father of two. He’s dealing with his grief and his new daughters as best as he can, though most days that best is just keeping his head above water. One of the bright spots in his days is the hour he can bring almost-three-year-old Hannah to the community center’s toddler hour where she can run around, spend time with other kids and make all sorts of crafts.

Cor Dawson loves his job as the program director for his local community center. It’s the perfect job for his degree and has plenty of potential for him to move up the ladder. Then Cor meets Bry and his daughters and everything changes. Drawn immediately to the man and his family, Cor offers to help Bry out with putting together new children’s furniture. One thing leads to another and the two are soon spending most evenings together, playing with the kids, and sharing meals, along with some light flirting.

When Bry’s search for a nanny for the girls results in disaster, Cor offers to step in and, it turns out, loves his position as a nanny more than his job. Can Bry and Cor’s burgeoning relationship survive the change, not to mention Cor’s protective sister, who isn’t at all convinced that this is the right step for her brother?

Take the journey with Bry and Cor in the latest Mannies Incorporated novel.

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Family Portrait

Ashton Grumfeld is a photojournalist who has spent a lot of years embedded with the troops in Afghanistan, only coming home to visit his sister Amy and her family for a few days at Christmas every year. When Amy and her husband are killed in a freak boat accident, the guardianship of their four children falls to him.

Darren Swanson has been nanny to the Grumfeld’s children since just before nine year old Diana, the eldest, was born. When their parents die, he’s left on his own with four kids until their uncle can make it out of Afghanistan and get home. It takes almost two weeks before that happens, two weeks of having to deal with newly orphaned children all the while wondering what’s going to happen when Ashton finally arrives on the scene.

Will Ashton and Darren be able to make a new family as they figure out how they fit together in the children’s lives, and each other’s? Find out in Family Portrait.

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Composing a Family

Tenor Abriole has just finished his stint as nanny for the Wilsons. He was with the family for twenty-one years, ever since he was eighteen. Now he’s looking for a new family, but finding that at thirty-nine, many people think he’s too old, and those who don’t think that’s a problem are balking at the fact that he’s a man, or that he’s gay, or both. He finally turns to Mannies Inc. for help finding a new position.

Daniel Thorpe is a well-known composer who lives and breathes music. He very much wants to be a father, so he goes the surrogate route, and winds up with triplets on the way. He turns to Mannies Inc. well before his girls are born, but so far has not been happy with any of the men who have applied, until Tenor shows up for an interview. Tenor’s experience being nanny to five children, as well as the fact that he stayed with a single family that long are both pluses in Daniel’s book.

Could it be that Tenor is the last note Daniel needs to compose his greatest work yet – his family?

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Three to Get Ready

Single father Jack Jones is in dire need of a new nanny. His five year old son Nathan is legally blind, he has twin baby girls arriving in less than two months and the girl currently working for him is leaving at Thanksgiving to go home and continue her higher education. If Mannies Incorporated doesn’t come up with a viable candidate soon, he’s not sure what he’s going to do.

Dan Miller is on the hunt for a new job. He’s had some great placements with Mannies Incorporated, many as manny to multiple birth families to get them over the hump. He even has experience with special needs children, so the job he’s interviewing for looks like it’s right up his alley.

When Dan arrives at Jack’s house, he discovers that this Jack Jones is his Jack Jones, the man he was in love with during college, and who broke up with Dan because Dan wanted children. Will Dan and Jack be able to put the past behind them and work with each other, or will their past keep them from having a future together?

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Mannies Incorporated

Slayde's got the best job on earth: he's a nanny to Army nurse and widow Mindy's three kids. He's been with the family since the oldest was born and is Uncle Slayde to all three children. When Mindy's deployed, things aren't easy, but he manages just fine. At least he does until Mindy's big brother Drake shows up unexpectedly, announcing he's there to help while Mindy is gone.

Drake is almost a stranger to the kids, hot as hell, especially in his motorcycling leathers, and straighter than straight. On top of that, Drake's not used to dealing with kids, or with things like gluten free, recycling and not eating fast food and soon has Slayde's tight routine in shambles.

Slayde thinks Drake is far more of a hindrance than a help, at least at the start, but he tries to get along for Mindy's sake and eventually, having Drake around is easier than not. But what's he supposed to do when the straight, sexy leather wearing ex-cop makes a pass at him one night? Maybe there's more to Drake than Slayde assumed.

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Making it Work

Parker has been Manny to Grif and Blue’s kids ever since the twins were first born. Fourteen years later, he’s caring for five kids and Grif is now a widower. Everything is about to change again for Park and his charges, though, as Grif is marrying a man with three girls of his own and the new family is moving to a big house they’ve built just outside of Ottawa.

Rand has been with his family since fifteen-year-old Josie was little, and he now finds himself transplanted from Austin, Texas to Ottawa, Canada when his charges’ father, Mike, marries Grif. Coming to a new house in a new country with a new blended family, he’s determined to make sure that even though they’ve been uprooted, his girls still have everything they want and need.

What could go wrong?

Park and Rand’s styles as mannies couldn’t be more different, the kids all hate each other on sight, and the newlywed fathers are busy honeymooning. It seems pretty clear the whole situation is a recipe for disaster. Can everyone find their place in this brand new family, including both mannies? And will Park and Rand ever see eye to eye on anything? The answer surprises even them.

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Parker Bouchard guided the movers on where to put the last few boxes, shook their hands, handed over a check, and waved them off. Well, that was it. He had three boxes to finish unpacking in the kitchen, four or five—most of which were books—in the huge playroom just off the massive kitchen, and everything would be officially moved in.

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There were still two boxes in the master suite—he’d felt uneasy unpacking the new husband’s personal belongings in there. He was sure Mike wouldn’t have minded that much, but Park liked to keep a little personal space between himself and the parents. He’d always needed to with Grif and Blue, who’d had no concept of personal space. Sure, he was a member of the family, but he was only the kids’ nanny, not everyone’s. Everything else was unpacked, and if the kids wanted to move their stuff around in their rooms, they totally could.

Now he was rattling around in the biggest house ever built for the new blended family he was charged with. He’d always figured that Grif would find someone new after Blue had died, he just hadn’t expected they’d be adding three more kids to the family when he did. Three kids who came with a manny of their own.

The family was coming back from the crazy honeymoon they’d gone on, complete with all eight kids but without the mannies. It was great to get a break, but Park thought they were both a little insane for having done it. Still, as far as he knew, no one had been arrested and no one had died, and they’d be home in two days. The other nanny—Rand—was arriving today.

Eight kids. Park wasn’t intimidated, though. He’d been managing five on his own for years, hell, he’d been with Grif and Blue since the twins, London and Paris, were just three days old, the two ‘creative’ fathers absolutely out of their depth when it came to two squealing babies. Adding three girls to the mix wasn’t going to be easy, but he’d bet, in the end, they’d be madder about the move out of the city than having to suddenly deal with new family. At any rate, he ran a tight ship and knew he could assimilate the new girls. Not Von Trapp–tight or military school–tight, but the kids were not wild children.

Moving into the bright kitchen, he put new grounds in the filter and turned on the coffee machine. It was too bad there weren’t any cookies, but he wasn’t going to make them until tomorrow. They’d be fresher that way. He grabbed an apple instead.

The front door opened and he heard, “Good Lord, look at this place. It’s the size of a cruise ship!”

That had him chuckling, and he headed through the kitchen to the huge living room/front hall/great room/whatever that made up the front third of the main floor of the house to greet who had to be the other manny.

Hey there. I’m Parker Bouchard, but you can call me Park.”

He stopped, more than a little stunned. The kids had warned him that the Richards’ manny was a hippy, but he hadn’t thought they were serious. This guy wore two braids hanging to his waist on either side, a vest and a pair of baggy tie-dyed pants and rope sandals, and piercings in his lip, his ear, and in his nose. There was a guitar slung over one shoulder, a lean body covered in wildly colored tattoos, and a bright rainbow bag. “Rand. Rock on.”

Right. Dude.” Because a guy like Rand had to be a dude, didn’t he? Park shook himself mentally. Be nice. He’d met Mike and the girls, and the girls were well-behaved young ladies. “I was just making a cup of coffee, we could sit and have a drink and I’ll give you the loonie-tour afterwards.”

Works for me. I brought some kickass free-trade organic coffee from Austin, along with all the kids’ teas. I can’t wait to explore my grocery options.”

Grocery options? I put in an order once a month online, there’s a half a cow in the freezer, and we get a green goods box every week for fruit and veg. I’ll just increase the order.” They had to combine the family, right?

Yep. Penny is vegan. Josie is gluten free, and Carrie, at this point, only eats peanut butter and eggs.” The man put his guitar and bags down. “Lead on, MacDuff.”

Is Josie allergic to gluten or have celiac disease?” He didn’t hold with different food for different kids, but allergies had to be worked around. He was even willing to find vegan options for the Penny as long as she followed through on that mindset in the rest of her life, too. But the youngest was SOL as far as being catered to went. If you were hungry, you ate. He led the way to the kitchen.

She’s gluten-sensitive. It bothers her ADHD. No need to worry. I’ll cook for them. I have that down. I’m sure you heard about the horror when your brood visited. They couldn’t wait to get home to ‘real food’.” The last words came with air quotes.

I don’t see why we have to make four different meals just to feed the kids. They’ll all have to learn to compromise. And your youngest needs to learn she eats what’s on hand or she doesn’t eat. You can’t let her dictate you like that or it’s going to expand into more than just food.”

He grabbed an extra mug and poured them each a coffee.

Thanks for the input.” That didn’t sound even a bit like an agreement.

COLLAPSE

First Day of School

The men from And Manny Makes Seven are back along with Adam's five siblings.

It's the first day of school for the twins and Lizzie doesn't want to go. Hutch would love to let her stay home with him, but he knows it's his job to make sure she doesn't need him anymore and school is the first step.

Once the kids are gone, Adam teaches Hutch the hidden benefits to having the house to themselves!

Originally published as a stand alone and in Family Time Anthology by Torquere Press.

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And Manny Makes Seven

When Adam's parents died three years ago, he kept his five younger siblings together, playing parent as best a twenty-one year old could under the circumstances. Now his academic mentor Helena has passed away from cancer, and Adam doesn't know what to do. He's shocked, but grateful when a reading of the will determines that he's not only inherited her beloved shi tzus , but also the house, a generous trust for everyone's education, plus three million dollars, some of it earmarked for hiring a nanny.

Hutch has worked as a nanny since he was nineteen, when he took over the care of his neighbors children when both parents were killed in separate missions overseas. He's worked with several families since and feels confident he can handle five children aged four through seventeen.

Hutch's arrival is just what Adam needs and as Hutch begins to turn the big house from Helena's place into their home, Adam and his siblings begin to see Hutch as more than just the nanny.

Can a path of tragedy and sorrow turn the corner to happiness and love?

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A Family of His Own

Will’s a widower with three little girls, including six month old twins, to look after. Most days it’s all Will can do just to get home from his advertising job in time for goodnight kisses, but now his mother-in-law is leaving the country with her new boyfriend and Will needs the help of a professional nanny.

Benji loves being a nanny; looking after other people’s kids is the next best thing to having his own, and as a gay man, he figures it’s as close as he’s going to get. He’s between jobs and is thrilled when he gets the call from Mannies Incorporated to interview with Will's family.

He falls in love with the girls right away, but also finds himself attracted to their father. Benji knows he shouldn’t moon over his boss, especially when Will desperately really needs his services as a nanny, but he can’t help but wonder what it would be like to have a family of his own.

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