The Twins' Mom [Taylor Swift x Joe Alwyn AU]

i

This was not good. As a former heartthrob, singer and one of the sought after actor of the world, Joe Alwyn was of the world's beloved celebrity. His career had never been anything but an asset.

Until today.

He looked out the conference window in the New York Office of his attorney, where he had been sitting for almost past ninety-minutes hands wedged inside the pockets of his jeans, watching the late afternoon traffic starting to build up along New York.

The early June sun reflected with a blinding intensity off the windows of the building across the street and the sidewalks were clogged with people going about their daily routine.

Businessman catching cabs, street children running back and forth, vendors selling everything beside the streets, and lastly commuters walking with a haste.

Three weeks ago he'd be one of them, walking through life oblivious to quickly how his world could be turned completely upside down.

One senses less accident robbed him of the family he had. Now his brother, Patrick, and sister-in-law, Ashley, were dead, and his twin infant nieces were orphans.

He clenched his fist fighting back the anger and injustice of it, when what he wanted to do was slam through the tinted glass.

He still has his nieces, he reminded himself. Though they have been adopted, Patrick and Ashley couldn't loved them more like their own flesh and blood.

Now they were Joe's responsibility and he was determined to do right by them, give them the sort of life his brother wanted them to have.

He owed Patrick.

"So what do you think of the last one?" Robert Dudley, his attorney, asked him.

He sat at the conference table sorting through the applications and taking notes of the nanny candidates they had seen the afternoon.

Joe turned to him, unable to mask his frustration."I wouldn't trust her to watch a hamster."

Like the three other women they had interviewed that day, the latest applicant had been more interested in his celebrity status than talking about the twins. He'd met her type a million times before.

In her short skirt and low cut blouse, she was looking to land herself a famous husband.

Though in the past he would have enjoyed the attention and, yeah, he would have probably taken advantage of it, now he found it annoying.

He wasn't seen as the guardian of two precious girls who lost their parents, but as a piece of meat. He'd lost his brother two weeks ago and not a single nanny candidate offer their condolences.

After two days and a dozen equally unproductive interviews, he was beginning to think he would never find the right nanny.

His housekeeper, who had been grudgingly helping him with the twins and was about twenty years past her child-rearing prime, had threatened to quit if he didn't find someone else to care for them.

"I'm really sorry," Robert said. "I guess we should have anticipated this happening."

Maybe Joe should have taken Robert's advice and used a Agency. He just didn't feel that a bunch of strangers would be qualified to choose the person who would be best to care for the twins.

"I think you're going to like this next one." Robert told him.

"Is she qualified?"

"Overqualified, actually." He handed Joe the file. "You could say I'm saving the best for last."

Taylor Swift, twenty-four. She had graduated from college with a degree in nursing, and it listed her current occupation a pediatric nurse. Joe blinked, then looked at Robert. "Is this right?"

He smiled and nodded,"I was surprised, too."

She was single and childless with a clean record. On paper she looked perfect. Although in his experience, if something too good to be true, it usually was. "what's the catch?"

Robert shrugged. "Maybe there isn't one. She's waiting in the lobby. You ready to meet her?"

"Let's do it," he said, feeling hopeful for the first time since this whole mess started. Maybe this one would be good as she sounded.

Using the intercom, Robert asked the receptionist, "Would you sent Miss Swift in please?"

A minute later the door opened and a woman walked in.

Immediately Joe could see that she was different from the others. She was dressed in scrubs- dark blue pants and white top with adventure time characters all over it and comfortable looking shoes.

Not typical attire for a job interview but a decided improvement over the clingy, revealing choice of her predecessors. She was not the average height for a American, average build... very unremarkable. But her face, that was anything but average.

Her eyes were dark brown they looked black, the so called dolled eyes. Her mouth was a bit small, lips a bit full and sensual, and though she didn't wear a stitch of makeup, she didn't need any. Her black hair was long and glossy and pulled back in a slightly lopsided ponytail.

One thing was clear, this woman was no groupie.

"Miss Swift," Robert said, rising to shake her hand. "I'm Robert Dudley, and this is Joe Alwyn."

Joe gave her a nod but stayed put in his place by the window.

"I apologized for the scrubs," she said in a voice that was on the husky side. "I came straight from work."

"It's not a problem," Robert assured her, gesturing to a chair. "Please, have a seat."

She sat, placing her purse, a non-designer bag that had seen better days on the table beside her and folded her hands in her lap.

Joe stood silently observing as Robert launched into the litany of questions he'd asked every candidate.

She dutifully answered every one of them, darting glances Joe's was every so often but keeping her attention to Robert. The others had asked Joe question, tried to engage him in conversation.

But from Miss Swift there was no starry-eyed gazing, no flirting or innuendo. No smoldering smiles and suggestions that she would do anything for the job. In fact she avoided his gaze, as if his presence made her nervous.