I can just imagine the horrified look on his face right now. As dirty as Kingston can be, he wants no part of sex talk when his sister is involved.
Kingston: You are the *devil emoji
“What’s so funny?” Ainsley asks as she sees my amused expression.
I hand her my phone so she can scroll through my convo with Kingston.
“Oh, man, you’re so awesome. I bet he’s literally gagging right now.”
“Probably.” My thumbs fly over the screen as I type my reply.
Me: I’ll make it up to you with a *kiss emoji *tongue emoji *eggplant emoji *OK hand emoji
Kingston: You’re forgiven. And I’ll GLADLY return the favor *tongue emoji *peach emoji
I snort-laugh as I shove the phone back in my pocket.
“Now what?”
My lips twitch. “You don’t want to know.”
Ainsley has the same no-go zone rule when it comes to talking about her sibling’s sex life.
“Ugh.” Ainsley’s face is scrunched like she’s sucking on a yellow Sour Patch Kid. “New subject. Have you decided what you’re doing for your sister’s birthday?”
Belle is turning eight soon. This will be her first birthday without our mom, so I want to make sure it’s extra special.
“Kingston said he’s working on something, but he won’t give me details until he gets confirmation because he doesn’t want to get my hopes up.”
“What kind of confirmation?”
I shrug. “Dunno. I told him I wanted to be involved in the planning because she’s my responsibility, but he said it’s a surprise for me, too. He promised I would be happy with the outcome if he could make it work. He’s never failed to deliver a good time when he makes Sunday plans, so I’m sucking it up. Making the day great for Belle is what’s most important.”
“He loves her, too, you know.” Ainsley smiles.
“Huh?”
“Belle. Kingston loves Belle, too. I’ve never seen him so invested in a kid before. I think it’s partly because she’s an extension of you, but also because he enjoys being around her. His face lights up when he talks about her.”
“He talks about my sister? When? What does he say?”
She nods. “Every time you take her out. If I’m not with you guys, he has to recap the entire day for me. Did you know she FaceTimes him sometimes?”
“What?!”
Ainsley chuckles. “Yep. I think he programmed his number into her iPad as a backup, or whatever if she couldn’t reach you. But she called him one day, and they talked for over an hour. Then, they started making it a semi-regular thing.”
“They did not.”
She makes an X over her heart. “Bible. I was with him in the pool house the first time it happened.”
I shake my head in confusion. “Why am I just now hearing about this? And no offense, but why am I hearing about it from you and not him?”
“Honestly? I think it’s because he’s afraid you’ll think he’s using her to get closer to you.”
I blink a few times, not really knowing how to respond to that. I have thought that more than once, at least in the beginning. Belle doesn’t keep secrets from me, but she obviously kept this to herself, which tells me she cherishes those private conversations with Kingston. She wants a special connection with him because she loves him, too.
“And you don’t think that’s the case?”