Jealous Jagger

INFO [chapter 1 starts right after the info]

The Sweet Caroline series consists of many books. All books can be read as stand-alones, but they work best as a series. At the start of each book, I always tell my readers which book would be wise to read first to understand the past of the characters.

The series can be split into two separate series: the first generation & the next generation. The next generation is about character that were kids in the books about the first generation.

FIRST GENERATION: 1. Sweet Caroline // 2. Slutty Shaughna // 3. Eager Annabel // 4. Feisty Francesca // 5. Twisted Thomas // 6. Chef Quiroz // 7. Caring Christopher

NEXT GENERATION: 1. Blooming Rose // 2. Jealous Jagger // 3. Needy Nia // 4. Guarded Marcus // 5. Charming Creed // 6. Thompson Twins

***

You can read this as a stand-alone story, but if you’re going to read my other stories as well, you might want to start with “Sweet Caroline”.

The main character of “Jealous Jagger” is Jagger Pillar, the adoptive son of Christopher and Abigail (the main characters in the book “Caring Christopher”). Jagger is a teenager in “Caring Christopher”, and he went through a lot in that book. He lost his mother, didn’t feel wanted by anyone after his aunt kicked him out, and he fell in love with a girl who had a really rough life. When his girlfriend Celeste got pregnant and decided to give the baby up for adoption, it hit him hard. Jagger ended up marrying Celeste at a young age, but in the epilogue of “Caring Christopher” it was clear that their relationship wasn’t what it was supposed to be. This story starts after Celeste and Jagger got divorced, and Jagger is trying to find some kind of happiness after his whole life collapsed around him.

I do recommend reading “Caring Christopher” and “Blooming Rose” before reading “Jealous Jagger”, but it can be read as a stand-alone.

***

BLURB

Jagger is a 25-year-old divorcé and college dropout. When he starts a job as a live-in nanny for his mom’s best friends, he runs into someone from his childhood. The girl sure grew up into a sexy young woman. Problem is she’s got a boyfriend, she’s too young for him, and he doesn’t want to betray the people who took him when his life was at its lowest point ever. Staying away from her might be the hardest thing he’s ever had to do.

Jagger is broken, tired, fed up with his life. He married his high school sweetheart Celeste, stuck by her through everything, but ended up divorcing her anyway. Since he never finished college and has no clue what he wants to do with his life, he’s lost. He’s back to living in his parents’ house, until his mother gets him a job. Her best friend Caroline and her husband Nathan have a house filled with kids, and they need some help. Enter Jagger. He moves in with them and becomes the live-in nanny.

Jagger has only just settled into his new life with the Storm family when Nathan’s oldest daughter comes home from college for the summer. Rose Storm was a loud, annoying little girl when Jagger last saw her, and while she’s still loud and annoying, she’s certainly not a little girl anymore. She’s sexy, funny, and weird in all the best ways. Jagger wants her more than anything, but he knows he can’t have her. She’s got a boyfriend, and on top of that, Nathan Storm is the kind of father you do not want to mess with.

Besides, Jagger doesn’t think Rose should be dating at all. She’s obviously got her own demons to fight, and he’s not sure she’s doing all that great, no matter how hard she tries to convince everyone that she is. Not that Jagger is one to judge – he’s in dark place himself, and in no state to be the kind of man she deserves.

Life at the Storm house has always been messy, but with Jagger and Rose tiptoeing around each other and Nathan and Caroline getting into huge arguments all the time, it’s never been so tense in the big family home. Jagger is torn. Should he stay and take care of the kids like he promised, or should he run away from his intense attraction to Rose? She’s only here for the summer, so he’s sure he can manage to keep his dick in check until she needs to get back to college. How hard can it be?

***

#1 Male nanny

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” I look at my mother with a disgruntled expression, hoping that this is a sick joke. No way she’s expecting me to do this.

“You great with kids,” Mom insists, nodding at my youngest siblings playing in the corner. “You’ve got that magic touch that makes babies stop crying. Caroline could really use you.”

Sure. Caroline could use me. Mom is trying real hard to make it seem like I’ll be doing Aunt Caroline and Uncle Nate a favor, but we all know what this is. Mom’s friends are taking pity on me. Everyone who looks at me these days has the same look in their eyes. I fucking hate it.

Poor Jagger. Did you hear? He got divorced at 25. His ex-wife is an alcoholic, and he lost his job. He’s back living with his parents. Poor kid.

“Look, Jag,” Mom says, putting a hand on my arm. Her green eyes look so much like mine, which is weird, since she’s not even really my mother. I was adopted by Abby and Christopher after my mother died of cancer when I was 16, and they’ve been my parents in every sense of the word since I first arrived on their doorstep. “Let’s cut the crap,” Abby says, giving me her patented Mom-look. “You’re not doing well. You hardly sleep, all you do is work out and babysit the kids, and that’s just not right. You lost your job two months ago, you lost your apartment in the divorce, and you’ve been back in your old room for too long now. It’s time for a change.”

She’s right, and I know it, but I hate that I need help. I’ve spent so much time taking care of other people that it’s second nature to me. My ex-wife Celeste was the focus point of my life for years, and now that we’re over, I don’t know what to do with myself. Taking care of my siblings and the foster kids that are in and out of this house all the time is all I’ve got to take my mind off my sorry little life. I have nothing left to be happy about. I’m pathetic.

“Do they even really need me?” I ask my mother, who is sipping her coffee while she looks at me with concern in her eyes. I hate that she worries about me. She’s got a house full of kids, including two foster kids who were abused by their own parents, yet it’s me she’s worried about the most. That’s fucked up.

“Caroline is pregnant again,” Mom says, shaking her head. “Kid number five, and that’s not even counting Nate’s kid.”

“Five?” I repeat. Holy shit, that’s a lot of kids. I try to remember them all, but I’m drawing a blank. I know Caroline’s husband had a child with his ex-wife, a dark-haired foul-mouthed girl named Rose, who annoyed the shit out of me back when I was a teenager. Whenever all the kids were thrown together at birthdays, I always ended up having to separate her and my younger brothers, because they could never just play together without getting into shouting matches. I know Aunt Caroline and Uncle Nate quite well, even call them family even though they’re not related to my parents, but I haven’t spent a lot of time with the little kids, since I was already 16 when my parents adopted me. I moved out at 18, and now I’m back at 25.

Oh God, I’m such a failure.

“Their youngest kid is the one in Caroline’s belly, obviously,” Mom says with a little smile. “Then there’s Violet, she’s only 1. Next is Ivy, who’s 5, and then there is 8-year-old Ash, and Daisy will be turning 10 soon. And, of course, Nathan’s daughter Rose, who is… 19, I think.”

“Didn’t Uncle Nate get a vasectomy last year?” I ask, remembering my father talking to him about it over the phone a few times, and Uncle Aston making rude jokes about how Nate’s dick was going to shrivel up and die.

Mom laughs and shakes her head. “Yeah… that’s the thing. Caroline didn’t want any kids after the first three, but Nathan didn’t want a vasectomy, which is how they accidentally ended up with Violet. After she was born, Caroline tried to get him to finally take the procedure. Right when he agreed to do it, they found out she was pregnant with yet another kid. Let’s just say she’s not all that happy about this pregnancy, since she was just getting ready to go back to working fulltime.”

“Oh fuck,” I breathe. “So they’ll have five kids soon, six counting Rose who’s in college, and Caroline doesn’t even want that many kids?”

“Yeah, hence why Nathan wants to get a live-in nanny to help her out, because erm…” Mom looks down at the table, tearing up a little. “She’s not doing all that well. I try to go over there and call her as often as I can, but there is only so much I can do when I live three hours away. Caroline doesn’t want a nanny, she thinks it means she’s failed as a mother, and she hates Nathan even suggested it.”

“Then why do you want me to be their nanny?” I ask, not getting this story at all. “Will she even allow me to live in their house and take care of her kids?”

“Well…” Mom looks up and a sly look crosses over her face. “You need a break. We all know you do. You need a job, a chance of scenery, something to take your mind off Celeste. You need to have something to do while you figure out what to do with your life. And Caroline needs a nanny, whether she wants to admit it or not. So if she thinks she’s helping you out by letting you move in, she will feel useful instead of like a failure.”

I roll my eyes at her, but can’t keep a smile off my face. “So you’re trying to make me feel like I’ll be doing Aunt Car a favor, and you’re making her believe she’s doing me a favor.”

“Hey, both of those things are true!” Mom laughs, her green eyes sparkling. “How about you just try it? If it’s not for you, you can come back here and mope around like a sad puppy again.”

“Fine,” I grunt, mostly because I know she won’t drop this. Besides, I hate that she’s worried about me, and I don’t want to be a burden on her and Dad. I like Aunt Caroline and Uncle Nate, and if I’d truly be helping them through a rough patch… Yeah, I could do that. I’m good with kids, after all, which is exactly why my divorce hurts so much. I wanted to be a father by now, but Celeste doesn’t want kids. Not after what happened with her first pregnancy. That’s not why we broke up, because I’d never leave her over that, but it did put yet another strain on our marriage. Her excessive drinking was the biggest issue, obviously, and I pray to God she’s doing alright without me.

“You’ll do it?” Mom squeals and gets up to hug me. “Oh, Jagger, you won’t regret it. Being a live-in nanny is great.” She grins and gestures around the room at all the kids playing in every corner of the room. “It got me all of this, after all.”

Mom’s and Dad’s love story is one you usually only read about in cheese romance novels. He was a single foster dad, she was the nanny, and they fell madly in love. They’ve been married for years now, and they adopted me, my younger brothers Davy and Yoah, and a cute little girl named Alana. They’ve also got one biological kid, Adele. There are always at least two foster kids living with them as well, who move on once their families get their act together or they’re ready to be adopted by another family.

Dad is lucky to have Abby in his life, and vice versa. They’re both such lovely people, with big hearts and kind souls. If they hadn’t taken me in at 16, I would probably be in jail by now. Or dead. I’d have ended up like my biological father for sure. I was doing a great job at breaking the law before they straightened me out.

“I’m gonna call Nathan,” Mom says, grabbing her phone and smiling down at my baby-sister Adele, who has wrapped herself around Mom’s leg like a cute little monkey. “You’re not going to regret this, Jag,” she tells me, walking off with Adele tagging along, making it hard for her to walk properly.

I’m not so sure about that. I already sort of regret saying yes, but I know Mom is right. Hanging around here isn’t doing me any good. Mom doesn’t need my help with the kids anyway, even though I’ve been telling myself I’m helping out. She runs a tight ship around here, and although Dad is a surgeon with a busy schedule, he tries to be around as much as he can, never too tired to play with his kids. They don’t need me, and apparently Aunt Caroline does.

I guess that means I’m a nanny now. A male live-in nanny.

Fuck me, my life is not turning out the way I thought it would. Not at all.