“Wait, this isn’t actually a football play.” I laughed.
Zack swung open the door. “Hey, what did I say about standing too close to the doorway?”
The kids giggled, shrieked, and took off. From the way the floors rattled, I guessed my fake boyfriend chased after them. Maybe he’d lead them away so I could sneak out.
I peeked out of the basement door, and a little girl screamed.
“What?” I flinched and frowned at the cherubic little girl with wide eyes standing two feet from me.
She couldn’t have been more than four years old. “Are you a monster?” she asked.
“No. I’m Nicole,” I said. Kids were such weirdos.
She pointed at the door. “But monsters live down there.”
Oh, is that what he told them to keep them out of the basement?
I slipped into the hall and closed the door behind me. “Yeah, I fought them off for a while so your cousin could have band practice.”
“Ohhhh.” The little girl’s eyes shone with the reflection of the studs on my jacket. “You’re a warrior princess.”
“Yes.” I liked the sound of that. “What’s your name?”
“May.”
“Hi, May.” I glanced down the hall where my beefcake thundered around. “Did you hide when Zack came out?”
She nodded. “I’m good at hiding.”
“I bet. I do that at my job too, sometimes. We have a kind of labyrinth in the back.”
“Are there monsters there too?” she asked, clasping her hands.
I shrugged and pulled on my jacket. “Andre’s not that bad. But we do have a lot of pretty shoes.”
“Wow.” The little girl let her mouth hang open.
I fought a laugh. A four-year-old thought I was cool.
Zack stomped back into the hallway, holding a squirming kid horizontally under his arm. “Joon, this is Nic.”
“Nicole,” May corrected.
This little kid was already going to bat for me. Hopefully, that meant she’d listen if I told her to do a chore or something.
“Hi Nicole,” the captured cousin repeated dully.
A woman’s voice shot through the walls like an arrow. “Nicole?” Fast footfall preceded a middle-aged woman sliding into the hallway in her socks. She wore linen clothes, almost scrubs. She raised her eyebrows and glanced from me to Zack. “Your Nicole?”
“Mom,” he chided.
Was I his? I grinned. “Hi.”
“Hello, hello, I’m Coral,” she said. She practically pushed Zack aside to hug me.
It didn’t matter that she was shorter, that woman yanked me down for a proper two-pats-on-the-back hug.
“Oh, you’re sharp,” she said but gripped my shoulders without flinching. “Are you sharp? College girl?”
