They hadn’t made plans to see each other again, but Jay wasn’t worried. He had Aaron’s phone number and a warm, bubbly sense of anticipation dancing in his stomach.
He pulled into Layla’s driveway and parked next to his own car. There was no time to hop in and drive away before the front door creaked open and two adorable faces peeked out at him. Hewaved at his nephews and strolled over, bits of sidewalk chalk crunching under his feet.
“Hi, Uncle Jahan,” they said in unison. Simon was a year older than Teddy, but they looked like they could be twins, their faces wearing matching too-innocent grins.
“Hey, kiddos.” Jay squatted in front of them. “What are you up to?”
“Nothing,” they both responded.
Jay wasn’t buying it. “Where’s your mom?”
“Making dinner,” Teddy said.
“You can go talk to her,” Simon added. “In the kitchen.”
“Yes. The kitchen.” Teddy nodded.
The kids were up to something, but Jay enjoyed his role as the fun uncle too much to ask questions. He slowly moved through the house, glancing around for sign of shenanigans. A brief peek into the living room had him breathing a sigh of relief. Judging by the absolute chaos, the boys were building an illicit blanket fort.
Simon and Teddy escorted him to the kitchen, making sure he didn’t stray off the path, and disappeared as soon as he stepped through the doorway. Layla was chopping vegetables, pausing when Jay walked up and greeted her with the customary kiss on the cheek.
“I hope you know there’s trouble afoot in the living room,” he said, lifting an eyebrow.
“They haven’t exactly been able to contain their excitement.” Layla bit back a laugh. “I finished dinner half an hour ago, but I wanted to give them a little more time to be adorable, so I’ve been prepping their lunches for the week. Did you help your friend move?”
Jay hadn’t been forthcoming about his plans when he came by in the morning, aware of the avalanche of questions that wouldfollow, but Layla deserved some honesty for letting him borrow Paul’s truck.
“I helped him do some furniture shopping,” he said, popping a piece of raw cauliflower into his mouth. “It was fun.”
Layla whirled around with a gasp, the knife clutched in her hand. “Fun? Furniture shopping? What is this, invasion of the middle-aged body snatchers?”
“I think you’ll want to take your insults back when a special something gets delivered to your house tomorrow,” Jay teased, carefully prying her fingers open to remove the knife and set it down.
“You bought me something?” Layla’s eyes could not get any wider. “Are you dying? Am I?”
Jay grinned and handed her the truck key, dangling from a keychain with a mini-bottle of hot sauce. He’d been meaning to ask why Paul needed emergency condiments, but it was late, and Jay was ready to call it a night. He could question Paul’s habits another time.
“Thanks for letting me borrow the truck. I filled it up.”
Layla didn’t move, her concerned gaze fixed on Jay. “You’ve been acting weird lately. Do you want to stay for dinner?”
“Nah, I had a late lunch.” He put the key on the counter and stepped up to hug her. “See you at the next family dinner, unless you need some babysitting first.”
“Yeah,” she said slowly, her eyes narrowing on him in suspicion. “We’ll talk soon.”
Before leaving, Jay paused at the door to yell a goodbye to his nephews, getting two muffled exclamations in return.
* * *
He had five missed calls when he left the gym on Sunday—all from Layla. He called back, not even bothering to listen to the voicemails.
She picked up on the first ring.
“I knew something was going on! Thank you for the gorgeous cabinet, by the way. It was exactly what I wanted.Andit came with a large gift basket with a note apologizing for some kind of incident? What happened?”
Jay winced. He hadn’t expected to share that particular tidbit with his sister.
“How about I come by to grab it and tell you in person?”
