I turned around to find Reed leaning against the wall, staring back at me.
“Yeah… Don’t feel like you need to hang around. I will completely understand if you’re ready to haul ass out of here.”
He shook his head. “I’m not leaving.”
“You’re not?” I couldn’t hide the surprise from my voice. I could hide the flutter of excitement in my belly, though. I’d heard the secret was to bury it with ten pounds of junk food.
“Emma put the Minions movie on, and Henry just pulled out a stack of bingo cards from his backpack. Things are about to get exciting,” Reed pseudoexplained.
“Are you being serious?” I searched his eyes for the but in his statement. Reed was a wild card. He could turn even the simplest statements into a lie.
He grinned. “Actually, yeah, I am.”
Reed was choosing to spend his Saturday night babysitting my sister’s kids with me.
I refused to read too much into it.
I wouldn’t think about how amazingly sweet it was that he was now helping Emma get comfortable on the couch with a blanket. Or that he was letting Lucy climb all over him like he was an actual jungle gym. Or that my mind was whispering, He’s perfect.
I wouldn’t think about any of those things.
Nope.
I wouldn’t.
“Come on, Aunt Lola! It’s time for bingo!” Henry shouted and started jumping on the couch like a banshee.
“Wait…before we play bingo, did your parents feed you dinner?”
Or maybe I should’ve asked, how much sugar did your parents feed you for dinner? The Reynolds kids were so hyped, even Louie had resorted to hiding out inside his neon sand castle.
“Nope.” Emma and Henry responded in unison, but Lucy said, “Yes.”
Lucy was the Reynolds kids’ version of a human lie detector.
I raised an eyebrow, and Henry sighed. “Lucy! You weren’t supposed to tell her that!”
“Ugh! Lucy!”
She just shrugged, not the least bit intimidated by her brother and sister.
I looked at a pouty Henry and Emma. “Are you guys actually hungry?”
“I am!” Henry exclaimed and Emma nodded.
“Do you want me to order a pizza?”
“Yes!” all three agreed.
“Okay. Pizza it is,” I said.
“And chocolate chip cookies!” Lucy added with a smile. “Please, please order the pizza from Golden Gate Pizza. They have the best chocolate chip cookies, Aunt Lola!”
The fact that Annie’s kids had a preferred pizza delivery place solidified the fact that I wasn’t the only Sexton sister who wasn’t skilled in the art of cooking.
I glanced at Reed, who was now sitting on the couch beside Lucy and watching the opening credits of the Minions movie. “Pizza and cookies sound good to you?”
He grinned. “Sounds perfect.”
There was that word again.
Perfect.
One Minions movie, an entire large pepperoni pizza, and a half-dozen chocolate chip cookies later, everyone had full bellies, and the kids were starting their third round of bingo.
“Stop cheating, Henry,” Emma said and threw one of her bingo markers at him.
“I’m not cheating, Em,” he responded and glared in his sister’s direction.
“You are cheating! You keep winning. You have to be cheating,” Emma refuted and threw another cardboard marker in his direction.
“All right…All right…that’s enough. Emma, your brother isn’t cheating, so stop throwing your markers at him,” I announced with a frustrated sigh. “If you guys can’t get along, then we can’t play any more games.”
The sigh actually had nothing to do with them fighting. Siblings fought; it was a certainty of life. My frustration stemmed from the fact that I was secretly jealous I had to be the one to call the numbers. I fucking loved playing bingo.
“Stop fighting!” Lucy chimed in. “I want to keep playing.”
“We’ll be good, Aunt Lola. Promise,” Emma added with the sugary-sweet smile she unleashed when she was desperately trying to get what she wanted.
“Fine,” I said and got ready to call out the numbers for bingo game number three.
My eyes met Reed’s, and he smirked like he was in on a secret I wasn’t privy to. I tilted my head to the side and mouthed, “What?”
“Call out the numbers, Aunt Lola!” Henry urged, and I pulled a number from the bowl.
“B-15.”
“Yes!” Lucy exclaimed with a fist pump, and Henry and Emma groaned their frustrations.
Before I could call out the next number, my phone pinged with a text notification, and I grabbed it off the coffee table.
Reed: Having fun?