He pushes the stroller and sighs, but I see the corner of his mouth tip up. “I’m glad one of us is excited.”
Since we don’t have a car seat base, we are forced to walk fifteen blocks with the stroller while carrying ten large shopping bags stuffed to the top. My arms are killing me.
“My arms are gonna fall off. I can feel them going numb,” I cry as we reach the halfway point.
He looks me up and down, then rolls his eyes. We both seem to know how to get on each other’s nerves.
“Here,” he says as he stops. “Give me your bags. Just push the stroller.”
“What? You’re not going to carry all of these,” I argue.
“Dammit, Jessie. Do you want me to help or not? You can’t complain about carrying themandnot carrying them.”
“Fine.” I extend my arms and let him start to peel them off of me, exposing the red marks underneath each handle. “Be my guest.”
Once he has all of them covering his arms, I grab the stroller and begin to push. Eli is still awake as her eyes look all around her, probably trying to figure out the noises of the city.
“Hi, baby girl.” I smile down at her. “Are you excited to meet your cousin?” Despite knowing she has no idea what I’m talking about, I continue to talk to her. “You’re going to love her. I bet you two become the best of friends. Just like me and your auntie.”
We finally get to their building and take the elevator up to the top floor. Walker seems slightly agitated as he pounds on the door. The door swings open seconds later.
Eva is holding Addie, who is snuggled up into her mama’s neck. Her smile fades as she looks between me and Walker, then down at the stroller.
“Ummm, hi,” she stutters as her eyes continue to bounce between us and Eli. “Come in.”
The second she closes the door behind us, Walker drops the bags to the ground and rubs his arms, which are no doubt hurting.
Roman walks into the foyer and gives Walker a hug. “Hey, man. Thanks for coming.” He glances at me, doing a double take. “Oh, hey, Jessie. I didn’t realize Eva had called you too.”
I bite my bottom lip, suddenly feeling extremely awkward. Why isn’t Walker saying anything?
Roman’s head crooks to the left. “Are you babysitting?” he asks casually as he notices the stroller.
I look over at Walker, who is standing frozen, like a statue. “Umm, kind of. I have babysat this little one before.”
Roman seems completely unfazed. He clearly has no idea what’s going on. Eva, however, knows there’s something up.
“What’s going on? What are you and Jessie doing together, and since when do you babysit? And what in the world are all these bags for?”
Walker pulls at his neck. “Uh, I think we should maybe sit down. I have a lot to explain.”
“Did I miss something?” Roman asks.
I try not to smile as Eva huffs and rolls her eyes at him.
“Wouldn’t be the first time. Come on in.”
She turns around and walks into the family room with Addie still asleep on her chest. She takes a seat and absentmindedly rubs soothing circles on Addie’s back. Walker takes Eli’s car seat out of the stroller, and I follow him slowly into the family room.
Silence falls upon the room as we all sit on different ends of the sectional sofa. I peer into the car seat and notice that Eli is starting to make weird faces and scrunch her body. She’s about to lose it. Walker had better spill it before Eli freaks out.
“So”—Roman claps his hands together—“is this where you tell us that you two have finally pulled your heads out of your asses and gotten together?”
“Roman!” Eva scolds. “I can’t believe you said that. And be serious. They hate each other. Jessie literally can barely be in the same room as him.”
Roman laughs loudly while Eva looks over at us.
“Right?”
