Beth grinned at me and leaned into her brother. She planted a big smack of a kiss on his cheek.
“Blech!” He jumped awake, rubbing at his cheek.
I almost peed my pants laughing at the comical, exaggerated expression of disgust on his face.
“I’m telling Dad when he gets home!” with that he jumped off his stool to go get his school bag.
As I walked around the island I held my hand out to Beth and she gave me a high five.
“So is it true Will, Bray, Sophia and Jarrod are staying tonight?” she said as we followed Luke out of the kitchen and into the hall.
We set about putting on our boots and coats. “Not for the whole night. But for most of it, yes. You okay with that?”
“I am!” Luke shouted, grinning.
He would be. Ellie’s son Will was only a year younger than him and the two of them were best buds. “Shocker.” I winked at him and he giggled.
“It’s fine.” Beth grumbled as we stepped outside and I locked up. “As long as I don’t get left with the babies.”
“Yeah.” I just stopped myself from rolling my eyes. “Because it would be responsible of me to leave my nine year old to look after a six month old.”
“I could do it,” she said, contrary. “I just don’t want to.”
“You are so my child,” I muttered as we headed to our Range Rover. We bought a car and a parking permit when I was pregnant with Beth. It was just one thing that had changed as Braden and I became parents. We could no longer rely on public transportation to get us around the city. It was too inconvenient when you had kids and most of our friends had discovered the same thing as we all grew into parenthood.
“I’ll help with Jarrod though,” Beth said as I pulled away and started driving down Dublin Street toward their primary school.
“And why Jarrod and not Bray and Sophia?”
“Because they’re toddlers now. They can handle life themselves. Jarrod’s just a wee baby.”
I grinned at her reasoning but decided not to correct her. “Okay, then we have a deal. You’ll help out with Jarrod tonight.”
“Yeah, but only until my bedtime.”
“Gotcha. But you know Jarrod’s bedtime is before yours.”
I glanced out of the corner of my eye and saw her frown. “Does that mean I’m looking after him until his bedtime then?”
“Nappies and all.”
“Ugh.” She stuck out her tongue like a frog. “No thanks. I’ll take Sophia.”
“I thought you might say that. But it’s okay.” I gave her a quick grin. “We’ll just give Nappy Jarrod to your dad.”
They giggled at my conniving and nodded in agreement.
***
No matter how many times I stared into the mirror there was no way to change the image reflected back at me.
I grimaced.
It was probably just as well that it was my and Braden’s turn to babysit this Valentine’s Day. It was hard to feel sexy when I was six months pregnant.
“Little Ellie.” I patted my stomach, talking to my unborn daughter, something I did a lot. “You’re killing my mojo and all my best moves. Bad timing little fetus, bad timing.” It was possible I was a little inappropriate with the sharing sometimes, but I was counting on the kid not remembering any of our one-sided conversations during her time in my womb.
“What’s bad timing?” Braden sauntered out of our bathroom, a towel wrapped around his hips. He’d just returned from the gym.