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universe did any of this make sense?
    It didn’t—none of it, he thought. His arms tightened protectively around the baby. He was the last person on earth who should be responsible for these kids; but since he was, he’d make damn sure they were cared for—and safe. As safe as he could make them.
    Which means I have to rearrange my life.
    He was a man who’d avoided the responsibilities of a wife and family until now. He enjoyed the freedom of being single and hadn’t planned to change his status anytime soon; but now that surrogate fatherhood had been thrust on him, he would make the most of it.
    While Charlene bathed Jessie and Jackie, Nick considered his schedule at work and the logistics of fitting three babies and a nanny into his house and life. He was still considering the thorny subject when the triplets were asleep in their cribs and he had said good-night to Charlene before disappearing into the far bedroom. He lay awake, staring at the ceiling above his own bed while he formulated a plan.
    He’d just drifted off to sleep when one of the babies cried. By the time he staggered into the room next door, all three of them were awake and crying. Charlene stood at one of the cribs, lifting the sobbing little girl into her arms.
    “I’ll take Jessie into your room to change her diaper and try to get her back to sleep. I think she’s running a bit of a fever—probably because of the ear infection. Can you deal with the other two?”
    “Sure,” Nick mumbled. Charlene disappeared into her room. He patted the nearest baby on the back but she only cried louder. “Damn,” he muttered. “Now what do I do?”
    He picked her up and she burrowed her face into his shoulder, her wails undiminished. Feeling totally clueless, Nick jiggled her up and down, but the sobbing continued unabated. Willing to try anything, he grabbed her abandoned blanket from the crib mattress and handed it to her. She snatched it and clutched it in one hand, sucking on her thumb. She still cried but the sound diminished because her mouth was closed.
    Which left him with the baby still standing in her crib, tears streaming down her face, her cries deafening.
    Nick’s head began to pound. He leaned over and snagged the abandoned blanket, caught the little girl with one arm and lifted her to a seat on his hip. Then he lowered the two onto the empty bed, his back against the headboard. He managed to juggle both babies until he could cradle each of them against his chest, their security blankets clutched tightly in their hands. The first baby he’d picked up was crying with less volume, but the second one still made enough noise to wake the dead.
    Vaguely remembering a comment his mother had made about singing her boys to sleep when they were little, Nick sang the only tune that came to mind. Bob Seger may not have intended his classic, “Rock And Roll Never Forgets” as a lullaby, but the lyrics seemed to strike a chord with the babies.
    The loud sobs slowly abated. Nick felt the solid little bodies relax and gradually sink against his own. When the girls were limp and no longer crying, he tilted his head back to peer cautiously at them.
    They were sound asleep.
    Thank God. He eyed the cribs, trying to figure out how to lower each of the babies into their bed without waking one or both of them.
    He drew a blank.
    “Aw, hell,” he muttered. He managed to shift one of the little girls onto the bed beside him before sliding lower in the bed until he lay flat. Then he grabbed a pillow, shoved it under his head and pulled the spread up over his legs and hips. “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”
    The sheets were still warm from Charlene’s body, and the scent of her perfume clung to the pillow, teasing his nostrils. He gritted his teeth and tried not to think about lying in her bed as he slid into sleep.
    Nick woke the following morning with a kink in his neck and the sound of gleeful chortles accompanying thumps on his head from a tiny