“Well, I’m her boyfriend, sir, not her friend. I hope any boyfriend of Clover’s isn’t a boyfriend of yours. No offense,” Erick said. Clover laughed. No one else did.
Tough crowd.
Erick was relieved to hear car doors opening and closing. Hopefully the house would be full of kids soon and he could focus on them. He was good with kids. Kids loved him. Even better, kids weren’t passive-aggressive and they usually laughed at his corny jokes.
Clover opened the door to greet Hunter and Lisa.
“Could you live anywhere more remote?” Hunter said as soon as he stepped across the threshold. “I hope that gravel didn’t get in my undercarriage.”
Something’s in your undercarriage, Erick wisely did not say aloud.
“Gravel has never hurt my car,” Clover said as she hugged Lisa, a pretty petite brunette. Another woman had accompanied them, a blonde just like Clover but taller and with shorter hair.
“Hey, sis,” the woman said, stepping into Clover’s arms for a hug. “Good to see you. You look great.”
“Thanks. You, too.” Clover turned to Erick and smiled. “This is Hunter, Lisa and Kelly, my sister. This is Erick, my boyfriend.”
“Great to meet you all,” Erick said, shaking hands with the women first and then with Hunter. Hunter was a big man, looked like a former football player, and when he shook Erick’s hand he gripped it to the point of pain. Okay, then. Erick knew guys like this all too well. White collar suit with a need to prove his manhood since he worked behind a desk. Fine. Erick could handle that.
“Where are all the kids? Are they coming with Mike?” Clover asked. “Mike is Kelly’s husband,” she explained to Erick.
“Oh, did we forget to tell you?” Kelly asked. “My four are with Mike at his parents’ house today.”
“And our girls are with my sister,” Lisa said. “Paige gets so
carsick, you know.”
Erick was grateful that Lisa at least had the decency to look guilty about not bringing her daughters to their aunt’s house. Her sister? Not so much.
“I thought they were all coming,” Clover said, looking wounded. He could see the hurt in her eyes, hear it in the crack in her voice. “I made them the brownies they love and we have stuff for s’mores.”
“I can’t believe we forgot to tell you,” Kelly said. “That’s my fault. Anyway, you don’t have kids, Clo. Your house isn’t childproofed. I didn’t think you’d have anything for them to do.”
“Erick brought stuff to teach them how to make their own bird feeders,” Clover said. “We had planned for them to come. I really wanted to see them.”
“Aww...that’s so sweet of you,” Kelly said. “But you’ll see them at Christmas.”
“I was planning on spending Christmas with Erick and his daughter.”
“Oh,” Kelly said, looking the slightest bit sheepish—for once. “I hadn’t thought of that. Well, you’ll see them eventually. Lots of pics online in the photo album. Hey, Mom. How are you?”
“Happy to have all my kids under one roof,” Val said, embracing Hunter and Kelly and smiling. “All my babies back together.”
“You sent me fifteen text messages in the past two days and you couldn’t have told me in one of those messages that you weren’t bringing the kids?” Clover asked. Kelly pulled away from her mother’s embrace.
“I just forgot, I swear,” Kelly said. “I didn’t think you’d care.”
“Why on earth would I not care?”
“Well, you’re not really a kid person,” Kelly said.
“I love my nieces and nephews. You know that.”
“Loving them and wanting them in your house full of breakable objects and poisonous plants are two very different things,” she said.
“The only toxic plants are up in my bedroom,” Clover said. “I don’t care if they break stuff. Nothing here is really valuable.”
“We’ll bring them next time, I promise,” Kelly said. “I just got so excited to meet your boyfriend I forgot to tell you. So what do you do, Erick?”