“Sure.” I should ask her if her homework is done and make her do it before TV and sugar, but right now I need her tucked away at the back of the house so Alex can leave.
She pauses and looks at me again. I feel like she wants to say something, but she doesn’t. She heads into the kitchen. As soon as she’s out of view I rush back to my room and swing open the door. I motion for Alex to come and he does. He’s got his boots on now and his jacket in his hand. His shirt is on inside out and backward. We both tiptoe down the stairs and into the front hall. I watch him reach for the front door, opening it but pausing to look back at me. That pained, suffering look is on his face again—the one that makes me believe he tortures himself with his own thoughts.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers.
“So am I,” I reply because there’s so much more I want to say but it’s not the time now. Maybe it never will be.
He bends down and kisses me quickly then disappears out the door, leaving nothing but cold night air in his wake. I sigh, lock the door and turn around to find Mackenzie standing at the end of the hall holding a half-eaten cupcake and a glass of milk, staring at me with a knowing look in her eyes.
“Called it!” she announces and then disappears into the living room.
Chapter 20
Brie
My front door opens and I glance over to see Len walk in, her arms loaded with grocery bags. There’s a bunch of balloons tied to her wrist too. She went overboard, clearly, and that’s why I love her. I smile. “You’re too much.”
She grins. “She’s probably never had balloons. Every kid should have balloons at least once in her life.”
“True.”
“I’m the coolest aunt in the world,” Len proclaims. “It’s a role I’ve always wanted to play and now that I have my chance I’m not giving it up.”
I watch her as she walks toward me and into the kitchen, the balloons banging against the chandelier in the hall and the opening to the kitchen. She drops the grocery bags on my tiny kitchen table. “Premade party platters and almost every chip flavor in the store. Oh and guac. Every party is better with guac.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” I start to unpack the groceries as she begins to untie the balloons from her wrist. “So I got her a fifty-dollar gift card to Sephora because what teenage girl—or hell grown woman for that matter—doesn’t love that place? And also the cutest loungewear I’ve ever seen. Oh and a poster of a Banksy piece because she said loved his work. You better let her hang it on her bedroom wall. With thumbtacks. Don’t be like my mom and insist on the gummy glue stuff that always falls off. Let the kid be a kid and put holes in your walls.”
“She can use tacks, I promise. And that’s a very generous gift,” I can’t help but mention.
“I told you I’m going for the best aunt in the universe. Also the craziest and the funnest,” Len explains. “And yes I know ‘funnest’ isn’t a word.”
I smile. Len suddenly stops and lets the balloons rise to the ceiling. She looks me dead in the eye and I freeze with a tub of guacamole in my hand. “You’re keeping her, right?”
“I don’t know,” is my answer because I don’t. Having Mackenzie here has been a lot of work in some ways and no work at all in others. And I like her. A lot. I kind of adore her actually.
“You’ve always said you wanted to foster,” Len reminds me. “She’s a good kid. Her rough edges are totally buffable. She likes you. You’re financially and emotionally stable. You should keep her.”
“‘Buffable’?” I have to chuckle at her choice of word. “I’m definitely considering asking her if she wants to stay. But it’s up to her. The judge may let her move into Daphne’s House and what independent kid is going to pick living with a boring spinster over getting their freedom?”
“You’re not a spinster! You’re dating a hot, rich professional athlete,” Len exclaims dramatically. “She’ll say yes because the two of you are the foster parent jackpot and Mac’s not stupid. She knows it.”
“She doesn’t get both of us. Legally, she just gets me. And I think she likes him more,” I kid, but it’s kind of true. I don’t blame her. Alex saved her.
“Well, he’ll be around if she sticks with you,” Len says. “And she gets me. And Helena and Baxter, who are the coolest foster grandparents a kid could ask for. They make up for any lameness she might think you have.”
I full on burst out laughing at her now. “Thanks for that.”
“What are best friends for?” she coos back. “Now can we get back to your sexy boyfriend? How are things going?”
“Good.” It’s only been a couple of days since Mac caught us, but he’s hung out here with us both nights. Even though she knows and doesn’t seem bothered, I suggested he still not spend the night yet and he agreed. I haven’t brought up anything about our childhood, but I’ve wanted to. “We’re still in the getting-to-know-you phase, I guess. And it could take a while because Alex is kind of private.”
“Yeah well I’m betting you’re not exactly an open book.” Len jumps for the dangling balloon strings to pull them down from the ceiling. “Have you told him about your past?”
“I’ve told him most of it, yeah.” I go back to unpacking the groceries.
“Did you tell him your stance on kids? You know, the biological kind?”
I shake my head. “It hasn’t come up. We’ve only been together for like a millisecond.”
