“Sure. Depending on my schedule, I’d love to go with you. If it fits.”
This time, I was the
one who arched an eyebrow. “Oh, you know it fits, baby.”
My sister heaved out a breath. “Know what doesn’t fit? Me in this conversation. C’mon, Mike, walk Rhi and I down to the principal’s office.”
“Have you been bad?”
“Married,” I reminded him.
He shrugged innocently.
“No!” Rhiannon declared, knocking over the box of 64 crayons and watching dispassionately as they rolled under desks and tables in every which direction. “Don’t wanna.”
Then she toddled over to me and held up her arms for me to swing her around as I always did if she wasn’t having a breakdown. I did it a few times until we were both dizzy, and by then, Mike and Ivy had gone.
Laughing and out of breath, I set Rhi down and bent to take her little hand. “Wanna have some fun?”
“Fun! Fun!”
My niece was practically a genius, if I did say so myself.
I led her over to the sight words chart we’d hung up in a new spot on the wall. “Remember this? You’re so good with these words, even though they’re for kids so much older than you. You’re my best smart girl, aren’t you?”
She reached up to move a word from one clear pocket to another, making the sentence not make sense. But it didn’t matter, since she was still a toddler and these words were way too advanced for her. “What’s this one?” I pointed to the word for one of her favorite things. “Can you sound it out for me? C-ccc. A-aaa. R-rrr.” I rolled my tongue to say r and she giggled, smacking her hand over her mouth. “Zoom zoom. Like Luna’s bed.”
“Car!”
“Good job. For that feat of magnificence, you get one of my prized possessions. Only the very smartest kids get one of these.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the tiny doll with red pigtails I’d picked up for her at a toy store.
The kid was a fiend for minuscule things, the smaller the better. She was obsessed with the dollhouse Ivy and Rory had put together for her, and this girl should fit at the small kitchen table her amazingly awesome Uncle Caleb had given her last Christmas.
Of course it had been built by her other amazingly awesome uncle August, but that didn’t matter. I’d come up with the idea.
She squealed and grabbed the baby doll, clutching it to her chest. Then she eyed me slyly and pointed at another sight word I’d taught her before. “Sky.”
I laughed. “Yes. Very good.”
She held out her other hand and I laughed harder, ruffling her soft curls. “Dream on, sister. One per day. But I do still have this.” I produced the sucker I’d tried to offer her earlier, and she grabbed it eagerly.
Still grinning, I looked up and realized Luna was watching us as she filled a bin with safety scissors and tape. Her gaze was surprisingly tender.
Instead of her expression filling me with my typical panic—oh, God, she just saw me interacting with a small child, her ovaries must be on high alert!—my grin just widened and my chest grew tighter in a not unpleasant way. I liked Luna seeing me in my element with kids, even if this one was below my typical age range. It proved there was more to my so-called playboy veneer than met the eye.
Besides, a guy only played the field before he met the one—
I choked as that nice warmth in my chest turned into an inferno crawling up my neck. Anytime now, I’d go up like a torch.
Had I grown a vagina? What the hell was happening?
It was this town. I should move far, far away. Turn exclusively to drinking and showering with spring water from Fiji. I couldn’t even trust the Cove water to be safe to wash my dishes.
All it took was a few little drops, and the next thing you knew, you were wondering if Pampers or Huggies provided the most absorbency to protect delicate little tushies.
To my relief, no one saw me incinerating where I stood, since both Rhiannon and Luna had rushed to the window at the sound of manic quacking.
And it was not due to my singlemanhood flying south forever.