If Eric, the guy who was about as observant as snow in a landslide, noticed that Brantley and I had… a thing… then I really needed to sort this out.
Soon.
***
Ellie gasped, clapping her hands against her cheeks, her mouth wide open. “It’s ‘mazin’!”
“It’s…a floor, Ellie,” I said, bringing her back down to Earth. “Just a floor.”
“I know, but I can put my wug on it!”
“Not quite yet. I’m not ready for you to do that.”
“Why not?” She jutted out her bottom lip and put her hands on her hips.
I knelt down so I was at her level. Gently, I tugged her hands from her hips and poked her lower lip, making her giggle instead. “Because I have a list of things to do. I have some shelves to put up, your curtains need to go up, plus I have to build all your furniture and hang pictures. If you put your rug in there now, it’ll get all dusty.”
“Oh.” She tilted her head to the side. “That’s okay, I suppose. Is Eli’s fwoor done, too?”
Eli looked at me expectantly.
“Almost. You wanna see it so far?”
He nodded and took hold of my hand. I led him toward the door, opened it, and let him take a look at his three-quarter-done-floor. If Eric’s employee hadn’t taken an hour to get here, it would have been done. Even with all three of us working on it, we hadn’t quite managed to get it done.
Eric promised to show up at eight-thirty the next day to do it, and I was taking him at his word.
“Wow,” Eli breathed, ever the child of few words.
“You like it?” I asked him, bending down.
He nodded enthusiastically, his default way of answering in the affirmative.
I smiled and ruffled his hair.
“Kids? Dinner’s ready!” Brantley called from downstairs.
Ellie sniffed the air. “I smell pizza!”
That was all it took. Both of them went running down the stairs at a speed that made me cringe and almost tell them to slow down. I shut both their doors with a shake of my head and followed them down—at a normal speed.
I poked my head in the kitchen and waved. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Ellie looked at me with horror. “Don’t you want pizza?”
I smiled. “I’m good. It’s time for me to go home now.” And at least I wasn’t covered in paint today.
Brantley set two plates with a big slice each down in front of the twins. “You can stay. There’s plenty.”
I’d heard that before. “And how much, exactly, is plenty?”
“He bought one for you, too!” Ellie shouted.
“Ellie! Hush!”
“No, you didn’t,” I said to him. “He didn’t?” I asked Ellie.
Eyes wide, she nodded slowly, reaching for her juice box.
I glared at Brantley.
“I didn’t buy it for you,” he started. “There was an offer, so I took advantage of it.”
“Oh, am I not worth full price?”
“Don’t even go there.” He shook his head. “I’m not falling for that.”
I smirked.
“So? Stay? Or do you have other plans?” His voice took on an edge I’d never heard before, and my eyebrows twitched together in a frown.
“Other plans? No. I was going to watch Friends re-runs without pants on. I’d hardly call that a plan.”
“Can I watch TV widdout pants, Daddy?” Eli asked.
“You never wear pants.” Ellie rolled her eyes, poking the hot cheese on her pizza.
“Neither do you,” Brantley pointed out. “Are you or are you both not pantsless right now?”
On cue, they both looked down at their legs.
“No pants,” they said at the same time.
“Right. So, this conversation is pointless.”
Imagine that. A pointless conversation with a four-year-old. What a novelty.
“Pweeease had some pizza,” Ellie asked, pulling some of the stringy cheese off the pizza. She placed it on her tongue. “Pwease.”
I glanced at Eli who gave me a shy smile. “Fine. But I’m going home after, and there’s nothing you can say to make me change my mind. You got that?”
They both nodded, sipping juice at the same time.
Seriously. So weird.
Brantley handed me a plate and opened a pepperoni pizza with a grin.
I side-eyed him, gave him back the plate, and grabbed the box.
He laughed.
My stomach flipped.
I was an idiot. Again.
Chapter Twenty
“I don’t understand. How am I losing at Snap to a four-year-old?” I looked at Brantley.
“It’s one of life’s greatest mysteries,” he said, frowning at his own pile of ‘won’ cards.
My plans to leave after dinner had been thwarted by eyes bigger than my belly, swiftly followed up with two pairs of puppy dog eyes and a beg that if I stay to play games they’ll never ask again.
Right. I believed that like I believed it’d snow in Rock Bay this winter. On the SoCal coast, that was about as likely as what the twins were promising me.
“I don’t get it,” I said, staring at the cards in my hand. “How can I lose at Snap?”
Ellie and Eli giggled.