I’m out of bed in a second, flying down the hall to the wing of the house where Vince and his family are staying while their home is being renovated. The door is cracked open, so I burst inside, just in time to see Nari, my niece, pop out from behind a couch in her pink pajama dress. I leap back because she frightened me, but she doesn’t seem to realize it.
“What are you doing?” Her small voice asks, big brown eyes blinking up at me.
“What areyoudoing?”
“Looking.” She says with a little shrug like it’s the best comeback she has. I purse my lips and look around at the empty sitting area.
“Where’s your daddy?”
“He’s with mommy.”
“Where’s your mommy?”
“Sleeping.”
I slowly blink at her and glance at the open door to her room, where a projection of flowers is flowing down the walls.
“Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
She thinks for a minute, then looks back at me. “No.” She grins defiantly, clutching a stuffed animal.
“Hm. I think mommy and daddy would think differently.”
“No.” She grins, and I shake my head.
“Come on, Nari.” I hold out my hand, and she takes it after a moment’s reluctance as if she knows I’m right. Together, we walk back to her room, and I lift her into her bed, tucking her in under her flower-covered duvet.
“You’re going to sleep now, right?” I ask as she smiles at me like I’m her favorite relative. I know I’m not. If there was a sibling she’d choose to spend every day with, it would probably be Espie. They’re pretty inseparable these days.
“Maybe.” She sing-songs.
“No, Nari. The correct answer is,Yes, Uncle Tito, I will go to sleep and dream about—”
“Well, look who’s up again.” Vince’s voice comes from the doorway. “What did mama and I tell you about bedtime, Nari?”
She rolls over, faking sleep, and Vince lets out a sigh, crossing the room and crouching down next to me beside the bed.
“Goodnight, Nari. Let’s please stay in bed tonight.” He raises his brows implicitly, and she nods gently as he raises to kiss her on the forehead. She wraps her little arms around his neck, and he whispers something in her ear, making her giggle. I can’t help but smile. It must be nice what he has. But I’m okay not having it. I’m not missing out on much if my siblings keep having kids. Anyway, being a cool uncle is much easier than being a parent anyhow.
Being a parent would require finding a partner, at least for what I’d want out of life, and that means dating. Which I’m fairly shit at. Not that I don’t know how to talk to women or haven’t had a handful of pleasurable encounters with them, but there always seems to be something else I could be doing with my time. I keep hoping the perfect girl might just fall into my lap, like what happened for Vince, but that seems to not be my luck so far.
Vince pats my shoulder as he stands, and I follow him out the door. We walk to the sitting area, and he lights a fire, warming the slightly chilly room. I sit down, and he joins me as the flames crawl up and around the pile of wood in the stone fireplace.
“What’s up?” He asks casually.
“I found her.”
“Her?”
“The person we’re looking for.” I pull out my phone and show him the screen. He squints at it for a moment before taking it from my hands and scrolling through the identification document.
“Says here she takes night shifts at the QA testing company downtown.”
He continues to read, and I watch, hoping he’ll have the same reaction to her that I did. Well, not thesame, I feel oddly jealous, thinking of my brother finding Scout Summers as gorgeous as I do. Which is stupid because I’m interested in her for her mind, not her looks. Certainly not for anything other than convincing her to work for us.
“I’ll go.” He hands me my phone back, and I furrow my brows.
“Go?”