“Are you sure?” Parker looks torn between wanting to finish the work and wanting to give her kids what they’re asking for.
“Positive. You’ve been cooped up working all morning anyway.” Sienna’s smile is innocent, but her eyes are calculating. “A break would do you good.”
Noah and Liam turn their attention to me, twin pairs of sea-glass eyes—so much like their mother’s—looking up at me hopefully.
“Uncle Jace, will you come too?” Liam asks.
“Yeah! You can play baseball with us!” Noah adds. “Uncle Silas taught us how to throw properly but we need someone to catch!”
I glance at Parker, trying to read her expression. Is she okay with this? With me going to the park with her kids, essentially playing dad when we’re trying to keep this relationship quiet?
“If it’s okay with your mom,” I say carefully, “I’d be happy to help out.”
Parker’s expression softens. “Are you sure? You’ve got your own work to do.”
“It can wait.” I stand, setting my tablet aside. “Besides, they’re right. If we stay cooped up much longer, someone’s going to explode. Probably me.”
Sienna’s smirk widens. “See? Perfect. Parker, you should come too. You need a break from staring at spreadsheets.”
“I really should finish?—”
“Mom, please?” Both boys, in unison, with those eyes that are absolutely lethal.
Parker sighs, but she’s smiling. “Okay, okay. Let me change into something more park-appropriate and we’ll go.”
The boys cheer, Jimmy pumps his fist, and Lottie claps her hands from Sienna’s hip.
Ten minutes later, we’re all piled into two cars—Sienna’s SUV with Lottie, Jimmy, and the boys, and my vehicle with Parker riding shotgun.
“You didn’t have to come,” Parker says quietly as I pull out of the driveway, following Sienna.
“I wanted to.” I glance at her. “Is this okay? Me being there with them? I know we’re trying to keep things quiet and?—”
“Jace.” She reaches over, her hand resting on my thigh. “It’s fine. They think you’re Uncle Jace, one of their Uncle Charles’s friends who happens to be around a lot. They’re five. They’re not reading anything into it.”
“And Sienna?”
Parker laughs. “Sienna knows everything and is clearly enjoying watching this play out.”
Well, shit.
The park is relatively empty when we arrive—a Wednesday morning, most kids are in school, most adults are at work. We have the baseball diamond to ourselves, which is perfect.
Sienna produces a bat, a ball, and gloves from her trunk like she planned this all along. Which, knowing Sienna, she probably did.
“Okay, who wants to bat first?” she asks.
“Me! Me!” All three boys—Noah, Liam, and Jimmy—raise their hands.
“How about we do teams?” I suggest. “Boys versus girls?”
“Yeah!” The boys cheer.
Parker looks at me skeptically. “You sure you want to challenge us to baseball? I played softball all through high school.”
“Did you now?” I respond as if I don’t know everything about her.
“County champions, two years running.”
