Plan B (Best Laid Plans #2) - Jana Aston Page 0,76
the front door. Most surely to find Uncle Jennings so she can ensure he too knows it’s her birthday.
I keep Amelia while Violet heads out to supervise because she smells like baby powder and I sort of miss the baby stage. Well, she’s fifteen months now, so more of a toddler than a baby, but she’s in that adorable chubby stage where she’s beginning to babble a lot and I feel very nostalgic holding her. And possibly wistful?
Amelia stares at me and places her chubby little toddler hand over my mouth. Then she calls me Mum-Mum while frowning. Oh, maybe I can be called Auntie Mummy. It has appeal.
When Jennings comes through the door Amelia pumps her chubby baby legs in excitement as if she didn’t just see him minutes ago. “Dada!”
I hug her closer and take another whiff of her baby scent before she abandons me for the more alluring arms of her mum or dada. “Amelia, did you know that once upon a time your daddy fired me?”
“Good to see you as well, Daisy,” Jennings replies in his dry British way. I know he doesn’t mind my teasing though, as he’s smiling. “Glad to hear that joke never tires with you.”
“You’d think it would get old, yet I really enjoy bringing it up.” I shrug. I give him a hug with my free arm and Amelia nearly has a fit at being within arm’s reach of her dada without being passed to him, but I distract her by bringing her to the kitchen so the guys can get the luggage upstairs and Violet and Jennings can unpack. We still have one of the bedrooms set up as a nursery for whenever Violet and Jennings visit and I keep all their preferred baby items on hand so it makes it easy for them to visit without lugging a bunch of things. I have similar duplicates in Violet’s guest house for our visits to London.
I settle Amelia into a high chair in the kitchen—again, just something I keep on hand for Violet’s visits, since my own two are past that stage—and prep a snack for the kids. Shish-kabobs made up of alternating slices of banana, strawberries and grapes with a couple of marshmallows added to the skewer for the older two, and tiny cut-up pieces of strawberry, banana and grapes directly onto the tray for Amelia. The kids call them berry kabobs because there was a brief time in which they couldn’t quite manage the word ‘shish’ and it was sounding like they were asking for shit kabobs and yeah. Kyle is right, we adapt a lot.
“I love you, Mommy.” Kellan appears at my side, one arm slung around my thigh so he can hug my leg while I prep. His little head is tilted upward and his dimple flashes at me as he smiles and I’d probably give him anything he asked for because he’s the sweetest best boy in the world.
“Can I have jelly with my berry kabob?”
Except that. I’m not sure where this new jelly obsession is but I feel confident that no is the right answer. “You can have jelly tomorrow at breakfast on some toast or an English muffin, okay, buddy?”
He makes a funny face, scrunching up his nose, and I nearly cave but I don’t. And he doesn’t expect me to because I rarely cave once I’ve set the parameters.
“When it’s my birthday, can I have ice cream with jelly on it for snack?” he asks hopefully. I laugh and wipe my hands clean before ruffling his hair. He just had a haircut so it falls neatly between my fingers. His eyes are a darker blue like mine, but otherwise he’s all Kyle. His dimple, the shade of his hair, his nose. All Kyle. I’d be really put out by it since I did all the heavy lifting getting him here, but then Kinsley came along and evened things out in terms of resemblances enough to mollify me.
“Sure, buddy. I think that sounds like a very good plan.”
“What plan?” Kinsley has worked her way back to the kitchen.
“Plan Jelly Ice Cream!” Kellan tells her.
“What’s that mean?” Kinsley narrows her eyes, hands on her tiny hips as she prepares to conduct a full investigation in order to uncover the latest in gossip from her own kitchen.
Kellan takes both their plates to the table and proceeds to explain how they’ll be getting ice cream covered in jelly for a snack on his birthday. Then he attempts