Vic Vaughn is Vicious

“Do you ride, Viv?” I ask.

“I do. I had a pony. Once.” She narrows her eyes and throws her mom a dirty look. I can only assume this is leftover resentment over the sale of their dairy farm.

“OK. Well, let’s go meet everyone and then you can—”

But Vivi already has her belt unbuckled and is jumping out of the truck before I can finish.

Daisy and I follow as I take in the scene. Two of my nieces are riding. I force myself to remember which ones they are because I’ve learned my lesson, and come up with Rory and Ariel, oldest and… lower middle child.

The screen door bangs open and two more girls come spilling out. Belle and Jasmine. Plus Veronica, holding baby Cindy. I expect the kids to run up to greet me, that’s how it usually goes, but they are all focused on Vivian and take off after her.

I look over at Daisy and find her frowning. “Hey.” I nudge her with my elbow. “You OK?”

“Mmhm.” She shoots me a tight-lipped smile. So fake. “Yep. I’m great.” Then she turns to an approaching Veronica and extends her hand. “Hi. I’m Daisy. Vivi’s mom.”

And then Ronnie takes over, ushering her into the house and talking a mile a minute about whatever it is that moms talk about.

I stand there for a moment, wondering which way to go. With Vivi? Or with Daisy?

Neither group of females has any use for me. And Spencer is at work. But suddenly I realize that Oliver is still on the porch watching me from a long, wooden swing.

“You can sit with me,” he says. “I totally get it.”

Poor Oliver. Five sisters. That’s kinda crazy. I sit down next to him and the swing sways for a moment. “Ya know, when I was your age, I really wanted a sister.”

Oliver side-eyes me. “No way.”

“Yeah. Uncle Vinn and Uncle Vonn were best friends and didn’t need me. But when your mom came along, I couldn’t get enough of her. I loved having a baby sister.”

“Oh. Baby sister,” Oliver says. “Yeah. OK. I like the baby.”

“Ya do?” I can’t help but crack a smile.

“Sure. I like Cindy. But Ariel is always too busy for me. And Belle doesn’t like me.”

“That’s not true.”

I get another side-eye for that comment. “And all Rory wants to talk about is her stupid boyfriend.”

“What about Jasmine?”

“Jasmine only cares about her ponies. I like to swim. Why can’t they love swimming? I’m gonna make Cindy a swimmer. Then we won’t need them.” He crosses his arms and huffs.

“Oliver!”

He and I both look over at the barn. Ariel is the one yelling. “What?” he snaps back.

“It’s swim time!”

“Ohhhh!” He jumps up and takes off down the porch steps like I am not even here.

Five. Sisters.

Yeah, I feel for the little dude.

I go inside with the girls and find Ronnie and Daisy sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee. I sit down on the long bench seat next to Daisy and smile at them. “What’d I miss?”

“Your sister has offered to babysit,” Daisy says quietly.

I study her for a moment. I can tell this is a sore spot with her. But I’m just not sure why. I mean, it’s free. Ronnie loves kids. Vivi is at that low-maintenance stage. And babysitters are fucking expensive. So what is the problem here?

“What’d you say?” I ask.

“I said sure.” Daisy smiles. It’s wide. It’s appropriate, but again, I can sense the tension underneath. “She would love it. I mean…” Daisy pauses. Her smile falters, but only for the smallest of moments, then it’s back. “She loves horses.”

“Oh, then she is gonna love it here!” Ronnie says. “This house is filled with horse-crazy kids.”

“Yeah,” Daisy replies. “She already loves it here. And I see you guys have a pool.”

“Oh, hell yeah. If you have six kids, you gotta have a pool. Hey, this reminds me. We’re having a little get-together next Sunday. You and Vivi will come, won’t you? Then you can meet all my girls.” Ronnie cups a hand to her mouth and whispers, “Grown-up girls,” then winks at Daisy.

“It sounds fun,” Daisy says. Then she pulls out her phone and looks at it. “Well, I have to get back to town. Work.” She shrugs. Another fake smile. “Vivi has all her stuff for the day in her backpack. And she’s got a phone in there. She’s not allergic to anything, so…”

There’s a long moment of awkward silence. Then Ronnie rallies. “OK. Perfect! I’ll have her call you later and report in. And then you can swing by after work and grab her. And it doesn’t even matter what time that is. We have dinner at seven in the summer, so just drop by whenever.”

Daisy gets up from the table. “Thank you so much for this, Ronnie. I really appreciate it.”