I smothered my niece in kisses, letting her hang all over me. “I missedyoutoo.
A dead weight smashed into my back, dislodgingSydney.
“Riley!” she shouted, punching her brother in the leg. “Goaway.”
“Syd, he wants to see me too.Benice.”
Although I could tell she was fuming, I needed to set a firm tone now, or she’d walk all over me later. Besides, Riley, with his big gap-toothed grin, was a sight for sore eyes. I grabbed him and tried to kiss him, but he squirmed away and took off running in the otherdirection.
“Don’t you run away from me,littleboy.”
I gave chase but that only resulted in him running faster as he squealed withlaughter.
“Oh, I’m going to get you at some point, Riley James, and when I do, I’m going to double…no I’m going to triple-kissyou!”
“Nooo,” Riley screamed and hid behind the chair. “Never!”
“Casey, Casey!” Syd’s whole body was hanging from my arm. “Are you going to stay now that Grams is sick?” Her eyes were filled with hope, and my heart broke for her. I hugged heragain.
“Better. Riley? Come here, you’ll want to hear this. I promise not to kiss you if you surrenderinfull.”
My nephew crawled out from his hiding spot but still stayed a cootie-safe distance awayfromme.
“So I’m going to stay with you until you finish schoolnextweek.”
“That’s just what I figured. Then you’re just gonna leave us again,” Syd huffed, sending a pile of papers to the floor in one fellswoop.
“Sydney!” Shocked by her sudden burst of anger, I stood there staring at my niece. This was going to be harder than I’d anticipated. Would Jake be able to handle this? More importantly, would Lassen? “Pickthatup.”
She crossed her arms and adopted the sourest of sourpuss faces. We stood there like that at an impasse for so long that Riley actually came over to pick upthemess.
“Nope. Not you, Riley. I appreciate the effort, but that’s Sydney’s tantrum and she gets to be the one who cleansitup.”
Still no compliance. “Okay, I guess I’ll just take Riley outside and tell himalone.”
“Do it. Riley can’t keep his mouth shut. I’ll know twenty seconds after you tell him, and the paper will still be on theground.”
Luke, who’d apparently been standing in the doorway for our entire hopeless deadlock, joked, “I see you’ve metSydney.”
A long, shrill scream inexplicably originated from somewhere deep within our niece’s body and saturated the room withnegativity.
“Syd, stop screaming.” I tried to grab her but she pivoted and sprang down the hallway to her room. The door slammed shut. Luke and I stared at each other, frozen in place, our ears ringing offthehook.
“Was it something I said?” Luke asked, wisely keeping hisvoicelow.
I rolled my eyesathim.
“She was quite wonderfulforme.”
Luke and I startled, both forgetting Aunt Cheri was at the house babysitting while Mom and Dad were at thehospital.
“A perfect angel, actually. Of course, I was never a permissive mother. My kids always had the bestbehavior.”
“Yeah. They’re awesome. Well, we really appreciate you babysitting,” Luke said, as he grabbed her purse and escorted our aunt to the door. “We’ll see you real soon, Aunt Cheri. Thanksagain.”
Once the door was shut, his eyebrow lifted skeptically, and he said, “Correct me if I’m wrong but she’s the one who raised Doug, the adulterer who broke up three marriages and got his daughter’s third grade teacher fired,right?”
Inodded.
