Frowning, she blew out a breath that ruffled a dark curl curtaining her green eyes. “Five!”
“You sure?”
“I’m five. Years. Old. Today’s my birthday.” A wave behind her head referenced the gathering of people on site to celebrate this important milestone.
“Cool, cool. So I’m guessing four, I mean, five-year-olds are probably too old for presents, right?”
A vigorous back-and-forth of her head. “No.”
“But you must have gotten so many, too many to even be bothered with mine.” I gave her a squeeze. “I’ll just give it to another little girl. Mabel would probably like it.”
“No! She wouldn’t!” Tilly usually adored Mabel, my teammate Lars Nyquist’s toddler daughter, but apparently there were limits to any bestie friendship.
I placed her down and she stood before me, hands on hips, her expression radiating “don’t fuck with me” vibes.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a small mesh bag and handed it to her. Her shamrock-melted eyes lit up as she pulled on the drawstring and withdrew the gift, a friendship bracelet with letter beads.
I squatted down to meet her on her level. “Can you read what’s on there?”
She examined it closely, her cute button nose twitching with the effort. “T-I-L—that’s my name!”
“Yup. And there’s more. J-A-S-O-N, that’s me, and a heart. Know what that says?”
“Jason loves Tilly!”
“He sure does. I figured you’re getting a million gifts, but maybe you’d like something special for you and me.”
She hugged me, and I closed my eyes and smelled her hair. Fuck Everly for making me feel I wasn’t good enough for this.
She drew back. “Should be Tilly loves Jason.”
“Why can’t it be both?” I turned the bracelet around. “It’s just a different way of looking at it.” I helped her put it on. “But also …” I pulled out another one from my jeans pocket and put it on my wrist. I’d had fun making them. I didn’t even try to palm the task off on my cleaning lady.
“Samesies!” She screeched. “Daddy! Look what Uncle Jason got me.”
Taking his eye off the grill for a quick second, Theo said, “Cool. He also put some money in your college fund, though I told him not to bother because everyone’s doing that.”
“We’re saying no to money gifts now?”
Uncaring of the size of her college fund, Tilly ran off to show everyone her bracelet. For a few precious moments, I was the prince of presents.
My brother looked on indulgently, then turned to me. “Now use your uncle-sized influence to bring Hatch home.”
“He needs to be a sad boy for a while. We’ve all been there.”
Theo sighed. “But not usually with the woman who jilted a teammate.”
“You Kershaws don’t make it easy.”
My brother snorted. “Like you’re not one of us. Plenty of woman trouble in your life, but not a lot of attention to finding the one.”
The one. I didn’t think about that too often, or at least not since Everly. Not that she was up on that pedestal. Realpolitik was what they called it when world leaders didn’t let ideology get in the way of practical decision-making. That was me, when it came to relationships, a practitioner of Real Relationships. The child of divorced parents, who saw love and women with a clear, non-rosy gaze.
While I’d witnessed plenty of successful marriages, my parents’ go around the carousel was not inspiring. But then I saw Theo and Elle and their boisterous brood, and something inside me keened with want. My nephews and nieces were the best, and while childless people joked about how great it was to give them back after a babysitting gig, I never did. I loved kids; I just didn’t appreciate the hoops I would have had to jump through to get one.
Tilly was running around, showing everyone her bracelet. Most people were nodding absently or ruffling her hair before returning to their conversations, but one person bent down to take a closer look. The professor herself.
Maybe she was checking my spelling.
