“That's cause Mama's the best!” Emma said. She abandoned the game and crawled into my lap, giving me a big hug that I just had to return.
“Hey sweetie,” I said down to her. “Want to go see if Janice needs help in the kitchen?”
“Okay!” Emma cried, and then she was off, racing towards the kitchen. I was sure she would be in the way more than she would actually be helpful, but I knew Janice wouldn't mind. And my curiosity was killing me. I needed to know what card Andrew had up his sleeve. It was strange for him to be so suddenly cheerful.
Andrew laughed and started to pick up the game. “That was fun,” he said.
“Yeah, it was,” I agreed slowly, still wondering what the catch was. But whatever he was thinking, whatever he was planning, it wasn't forthcoming just yet. “How was work today?” I finally asked, when the silence became unbearable.
“It was work,” Andrew said, shrugging his shoulders. “Busy. It's my first day back after being gone for all of last week, so of course there was plenty to talk about with a million different people.”
“Sounds interesting,” I said lamely, even though it sounded like nothing of the sort.
Andrew hummed. “I snuck away for lunch with my sister, though.”
“Oh, really?” I asked. “How did that go?”
I practically buzzed with nervousness, waiting to hear about lunch with his sister. From the casual way that he had brought it up, I could tell that this whole game-playing thing stemmed from that. But I didn't know what she could have said to him to make him change so drastically.
He had been avoiding me when he had left for the office that morning, and now he was being positively friendly towards me. He was still a bit stiff, maybe, but the fact that he had played the game with us definitely scored him some brownie points in my book.
For the first time, I could see the hint of some
thing beneath the stern businessman that he usually projected.
“I told Katherine about you and Emma,” Andrew said, drawing me back to our current conversation. “I figured I owed it to her to let her know that she was an aunt.” He cleared his throat. “To be honest, I wasn't planning on telling her, but she could tell that I was stressed out about something, and she also seemed to know that it wasn't just work things, so eventually, I had no choice but to fess up. We haven't set a date for her to meet Emma, but I was hoping that that could happen. At some point.”
I frowned, trying to sort out how I felt about that little bombshell. “Emma doesn't even know that you're her father yet,” I pointed out.
I felt irrationally disappointed to find out that his playing the game with us that night really was just because he wanted to sweeten me up for something. And furthermore, as much as I wanted to like this sister of his, if she was anything like her brother, the last thing that I needed was two cold Goldwrights hanging around Emma.
Then again, it was still a nice evening, all things considered. Maybe I should just be happy with that, and stop, as Misty had told me, looking for trouble where there was none. Anyway, Emma was his daughter, too, and Katherine's niece, just as Andrew had reminded me. It wouldn't be fair for me to say that Emma couldn't meet her aunt, no matter what my personal feelings were on the matter.
That was why we were there, in Andrew's house. It was all for Emma's sake. I had to do what was best for her, and giving her the biggest, most loving family that I could muster was what was best for her.
I nodded at Andrew, but before I could respond verbally, Emma came back out into the living room, dragging her feet and her head hanging down. “Janice said I had to come say goodnight,” she said, pouting cutely.
“That Janice,” Andrew said, his grin a mile wide as he shook his head. He held open his arms to the girl, and Emma rushed at him, flinging herself at him. He caught her easily, holding her close and peppering her face with noisy kisses. “Good night,” he told her eventually.
She couldn't stop giggling for almost a full minute. “Good night,” she finally managed to say. She solemnly came over to me. “Mama, are you sure I have to go to bed now?” she asked. “Big girls get to stay up later.”
“That they do,” I agreed, just as solemnly. “How about this? If you're a good girl all week, maybe you can stay up late one night this weekend. We'll watch a movie and have some popcorn. How does that sound?”
“Yay!” Emma said delightedly, clapping her hands together. She gave me a big kiss and then waited for me to pick her up.
I carried her upstairs to our room so that I could put her down in her crib. To my surprise, Andrew followed after me.
“This big girl is almost too big for a crib, isn't she?” he asked.
Emma nodded her head, but as soon as she saw her crib, I could tell that she started to get sleepy. I hid a smile as I lay her down and tucked her in.
“Can I have a bedtime story, Mr. Goldwright?” Emma asked sleepily.
Andrew gave me a worried look but then took a step forwards. “Uh, sure,” he said. “Once upon a time, there was a little girl. She was a princess. There was a little princess. And she had a pet penguin...”
Fortunately, Andrew had only made it a couple paragraphs into whatever strange story he was telling before Emma was soundly asleep, snoring softly, her breathing heavy.
I smiled at her and put a hand on Andrew's shoulder, steering him out of the room, flicking the lights off as we went.