TWO
Rip
I wasn’t a kid person.
Not that it should come as a shock to anyone when they took a look at me, but something about my niece and nephew holding their stuffed animals close, their faces so peaceful as the glow from the unicorn night-light danced across the ceiling, hit me right in the gut.
I leaned against the doorway and smiled as Ben yawned and then flopped onto his stomach, his Star Wars pajama pants hiked up his skinny legs and his brown hair a tangled mess that I knew I’d have to fix before preschool in the morning.
Viera, his younger sister, refused to sleep in her room, which meant Ben had a tiny space on the far side of the double since she refused to sleep vertically.
I yawned behind my hand and closed the door, leaving it open an inch in case either of them needed us.
For a brief second, I thought about grabbing a pillow and blanket and just guarding the door like the paranoid uncle I was, but Monica had given me the don’t-spoil-them look. She knew it was only a matter of time before I snuck into their room, built a tent, and let them sleep in it for the next week while their parents were in Mexico.
With a sigh, I started down the hall to my assigned guest room next door just in time to see a grumpy-looking Colby sway her way up the stairs.
“Tired?” I asked.
Everything about her bothered me, mainly because she was this force of nature that refused to follow any rules but her own.
Rules kept people safe.
“Yes,” she hissed, her eyes narrowing into tiny slits until she looked behind me at the cracked door. Her face softened. “Let me guess, Viera’s barely giving poor Ben any bed space.”
I gave her a small smile like a temporary white flag—the only safe space for us was where the kids were concerned. “She’s a bed hog just like her mom.”
“Ugh!” Colby laughed. “Don’t remind me, I had to room with her in college. The woman doesn’t understand the meaning of shared space.”
I chuckled.
And then we were back to the silence.
And the staring.
And the awkwardness where words should fill the air but all we could do was stand there staring at each other.
“I was just gonna…,” I said finally, pointing to my room.
“Yeah, yeah,” she said quickly. “Same. I just wanted to wash off the lovely shrimp bath I took—”
“Mommy!” Ben screamed. “Mommy! Mommy!”
I jogged back to their room, tripping over stuffed animals and Legos in an effort to get to Ben before he woke his sister, and Colby was right behind me.
“Buddy.” I held out my arms.
He leaped into them, sobbing. “I miss Mommy!”
“Oh, Ben.” Colby rubbed his back while he clung to me, his skinny arms tight around my neck. “They’re going to go to the ocean, and tonight they’re at a fancy hotel eating chocolate!”
“Chocolate?” His sniffles stopped. “Does that mean we get chocolate too? To be fair?”
I laughed as little Viera just slept right through it all. “What do you think, Colby? Do we get chocolate?”
Colby’s grin was so wide, so spontaneous, that I almost had to look away. When she smiled like that I forgot all the reasons she annoyed me. “Hmmm, how about if you sleep really good tonight, Uncle Rip and I will make you guys Nutella pancakes in the morning?”
“Really?” His eyes widened as he looked between us. “You mean it?”