After Goldie's tearful departure, Jeff was left with three crying babies to contend with.

"Godie no bye-bye," Jemma wept, pointing at the door.

"Goldie, Goldie," Genie called miserably.

And Pippa just wailed from where she sat, clutching her stuffed monkey.

"Come on, darlings, Dada is still here," Jeff tried, sitting with the girls and pulling out one of their favorite books.

"Dadada? Dada book?" Jemma was the first to turn, seemingly willing to be distracted from Goldie's tragic departure.

"Yes, Jemma, Daddy has a book," Jeff encouraged, patting his lap.

Jemma shuffled over, still sniffling, and within minutes all three were in his lap, getting comfortable for yet another reading of Mars Needs Moms.

This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, because when he got to the part where the mom gives her helmet to her son and breathes the poisonous gas to save him, the part that Goldie usually read, the girls looked around, realizing all over again that she was gone.

"Goldie book," Genie demanded, looking around. "Goldie wead book."

"Godie bye-bye," Pippa reminded her, and the three little faces began to crumble into desolation and tears once more.

"No, no, darlings, Daddy can read that part as well," Jeff tried to reassure them. He hastened to put words to act and gamely read about how the aliens needed driving to ballet and soccer practice, all the things moms do and have done since time immemorial.

"No! No Dada wead! Goldie wead!" Genie commanded. She put a little hand up to his mouth, as if to force the words back.

Jeff put the book back and instead tried to entertain them with their toys. This worked marginally well to pass the time, and helped Jeff not to think about what had happened.

Goldie had betrayed him, lied to him.

He pushed the thought away. Right now he had to take care of his daughters. Through his own actions, he'd become their solitary caregiver once more, and he needed to keep his wits about him.

"Okay, girls, bath time," Jeff said finally, trying to keep the relief out of his voice. Bed time was in sight. He realized as the words left his mouth that he had to somehow corral all three up the stairs, no easy feat when they were cranky and had been crying.

He first tried to just hold two little hands and get the third to follow, but when he turned around, Genie merely looked at him and continued "reading" her baby animals book.

"Genie, come on, petal, please."

This time Genie didn't even look up. Meanwhile, Jemma and Pippa had begun climbing the stairs on their own, and were nearly half way up, pulling on Jeff's hands as they went.

Jeff finally picked up the two who were on the stairs and went back for Genie, gathering her up as best he could so he was holding all three.

He hadn't done this in quite a while, and realized that they'd grown quite a bit. He very nearly couldn't do it, simply based on their size alone. If any of them had been wriggling, he definitely wouldn't have been able to do it.

"Dada hold Genie," Genie said amiably, as though she hadn't been ignoring him moments before.

"Dada hold Gemma," Gemma added, patting his shoulder.

"Dadda hold Pippa," Pippa finished, smiling at her father.

"Yes, Daddy is holding all three of you, and if you'll cooperate, we can get you all in the bath, yeah?" Jeff muttered, staggering up the stairs under their collective weight.

"Bath, bath, bath!" Gemma shouted with joy, nearly taking Jeff's ear off.

He somehow got all three girls undressed and in the tub, where they more or less got bathed, maybe some more than others.

He pulled the plug and carefully lifted the first slippery baby out, giving her a cursory towel-dry before reaching for the next. He lifted the second baby and discovered to his horror that the first out had disappeared down the hall.

He quickly scooped his last daughter out, grabbed up number two, and got out to the hallway just in time to see his first daughter, tiny bottom pink from the bath, running into their nursery.

"Thank the baby Jesus." At least it was the right room.

He took a second to register that he was holding Genie and Jemma, and Pippa had been the runner as he entered the bedroom, where Pippa was already very busy pulling all of her clean pajamas out of her dresser drawer.

"Pippa 'jamas," she announced proudly, standing in the middle of the pile of PJs.

Suddenly the two in his arms started squirming to get down, and Jemma, whom he hadn't had time to dry as he snatched her out of the tub, was so slippery he nearly dropped her.

"Genie 'jamas," Genie demanded.

"Jemma 'jamas," Jemma parroted.

"Daddy's going crazy," Jeff murmured, putting a hand to his face.

"Daddy go?" Genie echoed, stopping pulling her pajamas out of her dresser to regard her father. "No Daddy go," she begged, chin beginning to quiver.

"No, no, Daddy's not going anywhere," Jeff assured her. He decided to divide and conquer, and closed the door as a precaution before approaching Pippa, who logically had to be the driest, since she'd been out the longest.

He got her diapered and dressed right on the floor instead of on her changing table, and this was enough of a novelty for her that she was quiet and compliant, smiling up at her father.

"Pippa 'jamas," she told him. "Pippa bunny wabbit 'jamas."

"Yes, you're wearing your bunny rabbit pajamas," Jeff agreed with a nod.

Next, he tackled Genie, who was now busy stuffing all of her unfolded pajamas back in the drawer. Jeff was glad he'd taken the precaution of bolting all of their furniture to the wall so there was no danger of her pulling her dresser down on herself.

"Come on, Genie, let's get dressed," Jeff encouraged, holding up her yellow PJs.

"Genie dwessed," she agreed as she came to her father. He got her buttoned up and grabbed Jemma, who was by now completely dry, to get her dressed as well.

Usually either he or Goldie would've pulled out a book by now and started getting them settled down for sleep, but now their nursery was a mess and all three babies were wound up and wide awake.

"Come on, lovelies, let's read and sleep, okay?" Jeff implored, sitting on the sofa and patting the spaces next to him. But they were having too much fun, and merely kept pulling clothes out of their dressers and making a big pile of them in the middle of the room.

The girls finally seemed to tire of their rambunctious free play time, and one by one they crawled to Jeff, snuggling and burrowing into him, pink and lovely from their baths.

"Sweep time," Genie said, her voice drowsy.

"Yes, my sweet, sweep time," Jeff echoed, though they weren't supposed to repeat baby talk back.

All three finally fell asleep, and Jeff carried them, one by one, to their cribs.

Five minutes later he was downstairs with a double scotch, staring into space with exhaustion.

His phone pinged with a text, and Jeff lunged for it, not willing to admit who he hoped it was. He'd told Goldie via text about his intent to get an annulment, and he was shocked she was already willing to talk to him.

I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd drop by? You free?

It was Kylie McFaddon.

Sure, just having a drink, come on up.

After he let her in, and got her a drink, she asked without preamble, "You're married? Did I get that information right?"

Jeff noticed that, while he was wearing ripped jeans and a sweatshirt with spit up on it, Kylie looked like she'd come from a photo shoot. Hell, maybe she had.

Kylie looked at him as she took a sip of her drink, the question in her eyes.

Jeff nodded tiredly. "Yeah. It was small, just family, in Kent, over the holidays."

"I'm hurt you didn't tell me, Jeff." Kylie looked around. "Speaking of which, where's your bride?"

Jeff thought quickly. He knew that anything he told her would wind up online and out in the world in five minutes flat.

"Book club," he said briefly. "It's what amounts to a social life for us parents these days, you know?"

Kylie nodded, buying his lie. She set her drink aside and looked at Jeff, lips pursed. "So you love her? You're in love with her? This isn't just for convenience, because of your daughters?"

Jeff shook his head. "I'm in love with her," he repeated. "I've been in love with her for quite a while."

He was in love with her.

Even after everything she'd done, he, Jeffrey Ormonde, was in love with Goldie Sorensen.

The realization hit him between the eyes like a freight train.

But how could he forgive what she'd done? Plotted behind his back to betray him, lied to his face over and over?

In front of him, Kylie stared, naked hurt in her eyes.

"You couldn't love me, no matter what, could you?" Kylie's voice was soft. "I'm not saying I was happy when Maggie died, but I did let myself hope, you know?"

"I'm sorry, Kylie, there was never anything between us, there never could be?"

"Why?" Her one word question was asked with sorrow.

"Because you don't love my girls."

Kylie sat back, digesting this information. She finally nodded. "This is true," she said. "I could've tried, though, I would've, for you."

"Then it doesn't mean anything, don't you see?"

Jeff was getting a headache. He needed to think.

Kylie finished her drink and rose, elegant legs stretching for miles in her boots.

"Well, I guess I owe you a wedding present," she said with an attempt at a smile.

Jeff shook his head. "No, not at all."

He saw her out and put in a movie, which he stared at until it was over and it was time for bed.

He wondered what Goldie was doing.