“He’s adorable, but when he throws up, he’s all yours. When he poops, he’s all yours, too. When he needs money for college, or–”
“Yeah, I get it: you like being the cool aunt.”
“Yes, as well as the one who gets to hand him back to you when he starts crying.”
“Oh, but I thought he liked you better than me… Why would he cry with you holding him?” Aggie joked.
“HJ, in the kitchen for breakfast,” Henry told his namesake.
“Can I have cereal?” Junior asked his father as he followed him into the kitchen.
“You can have a seat, and I’ll get you some cereal.”
“The one with the marshmallows,” Junior requested.
“Hey, Larissa,” Henry greeted as he got a box of cereal that definitely didn’t have marshmallows in it and put it on the table.
“Dad, this is the kind you eat. It’s gross.”
“And it’s for me,” Henry said and then set the box for his son on the table.
“Hey, Henry,” Larissa replied. “Thanks for letting me crash on your couch last night.”
“No problem,” he said and went to get the milk out of the fridge. “Is he in a better mood?”
Henry nodded toward Nathan.
“Of course, he is – his favorite aunt is holding him,” Larissa said and kissed Nathan’s cheek, causing him to giggle.
“He’s fine,” Aggie added and rolled her eyes at Larissa. “What do you have planned today? Wait, let me guess: more Harlow drama, followed by book stuff, and you’ll end the day with not telling Harlow how you feel and going to sleep alone in your bed without the woman you love.”
“You’re a jerk,” Larissa said.
“What’s a jerk?” Junior asked.
“Jerk,” Nathan repeated after his brother.
“Oh, you’ll pay for that,” Aggie told her with a laugh.
“At least, I didn’t sayasshole,” Larissa teased.
“Asshole,” Nathan repeated and giggled.
“Okay. Aunt Issa is leaving now.” Aggie took Nathan back from Larissa and added, “Stop avoiding her and tell her how youfeel. From now on, you can only sleep on my couch in the event of a real emergency, not because you can’t talk to Harlow.”
“Tough love, huh?” Henry said as he poured milk into Junior’s bowl.
“Apparently,” Larissa replied.
“Asshole,” Nathan said again and laughed.
Larissa couldn’tnotlaugh at that.
???
When she got home, she noticed that Harlow’s car was not in the driveway. Larissa had given her the second garage door opener, but Harlow never really used that. She always walked in through the front door, explaining that she’d been told people shouldn’t use the garage door to enter and leave the house all the time if they weren’t taking their car out or parking it because it could make the garage door mechanism not last as long, and she didn’t want to contribute to the depreciation of Larissa’s garage door when she wasn’t parking her car in there. Larissa had laughed at that and had told her to use it anyway, but when she opened the garage door this time, Harlow’s car wasn’t parked in there, either. She wasn’t expecting it to be, but even so, she still felt a tinge of disappointment that Harlow wasn’t home. It was early, but Harlow must have left for work already.
Larissa showered and changed out of the clothes she’d borrowed from her sister to sleep in and found her school stuff. She had another interview that night and needed to get some work done on campus after her shift at the bookstore.
