“Dar still asleep?”
She shook her head. “Watching something on TV in my bed.”
“I knew you needed that new TV in there for something.”
“It wasn’t necessary.”
“Well, you could’ve let me put it in her room like I wanted ...”
“King, you can’t just walk into her life and spoil her,” she whispered over the rim of her mug.
“Why? She’s my princess.”
“Gah,” Jules said, pretending to bang her forehead into the wall.
“Dar?” I called out when I was near the door.
“Drew, in here!”
“Get your bum out here. Your mom and I are taking you to Albert’s.”
“Woo-hoo!” Darla came stampeding out of the bedroom, wearing hot-pink pajama bottoms and a Rocky Brook T-shirt.
“Nice shirt. Let’s go play later, yeah? I want to work on your serve.”
“I don’t like the serve. It gets boring.”
“Gotta be able to serve, superstar, to beat the big boys.”
“’Kay.”
“Let’s go, Jules. Put on some yoga pants and slap on your big-girl panties. Time to come clean.”
She gave me the stink eye, and yeah, I knew I was being bossy.
Fuck it. I was too energized to care.
It took fifteen minutes for those two to reappear. Jules was freshly showered, her hair slicked back into a low ponytail, and wearing an oversized gray off-the-shoulder sweatshirt and leggings.
Darla, my wild child, was in floral leggings and an electric-purple T-shirt, her hair a holy mess all around her face.
“You look gorgeous, both of you. Let’s go. I’m starving.”
When we got outside, I lifted Darla on my shoulders.
“You’re all sticky, Drew.”
“I was too excited to change after the gym.”
“Excited for what?”
“You’ll know soon enough.”
This set her off, and she demanded the whole way to Albert’s, “Tell me!”
With a fresh coffee in front of her, Jules blew on Darla’s hot cocoa and cut her bagel with cream cheese into quarters. Neither was necessary, but I assumed Jules needed to keep herself busy.
I nodded at Jules and took a sip of my coffee.
