“Tell you what, you don’t repeat that word and after your mom leaves, I will teach you to color outside the lines.” He flashed her a Jack-infused grin before noshing on his sandwich.
Who was this guy? And why was he being so amazing?
There had to be a catch. There was always a catch. Wasn’t there?
Jack was all about business. Why was he being sweet?
But, April supposed, as long as he wasn’t teaching Harmony to use the word “ass,” he could teach her daughter to color in the wrong places. She’d just pick it up on the playground anyway.
“Banana.” Rohan raised his include-me-please hand.
Lola did the same.
“Everyone’s in.” Jack gave high fives all around.
April shook her head and started clearing away the remnants of sandwich making.
“Uh, April, where is time-out?” Jack leaned back to see her. He glanced around the room. “That seems like excellent information for the sitter to have.”
She pointed to the naughty spot in the corner by Mayonnaise’s bed. “One minute per age of life.”
“Wow.” He squinted at her. “Seriously?”
She laughed. “Yeah, Jack. Seriously.”
“But then I’d be in time-out all night.”
She held his stare for a beat. “Then don’t do anything too bad.”
Oh dear, that had sounded kinda dirty. She didn’t mean for it to sound dirty. Just…you know, he needed to behave.
“Can I have some?” Lola asked, eyeballing the sandwich in Jack’s hand.
April opened her mouth to tell him he should probably not do that because—
Lola went right in for it without waiting for permission.
“Lola,” April said with a hiss. “That’s Jack’s.”
Lola took a bite and gave it two solid chews before she opened her jaw and let the residual mess fall back on Jack’s plate. “I no like that kind.”
Jack eyed his sandwich then the plate, then he raised his gaze to meet April’s.
She gave him one of his own shrugs. “Banana.”
“Ketchup please?” Lola asked, extremely politely given that she’d just spit Jack’s sandwich back on his plate.
“Sure.” April grabbed the container and squirted a dollop on Lola’s plate.
“I do it!” Lola grabbed for the ketchup and, with a great deal of reluctance, April let her squirt her own dollop. A dollop that was really more of a mountain. A mountain with a ketchup ski slope that trailed all along April’s counter.
April waited. Not-so-patiently, but understanding that if she chose not to wait patiently, then there would be a battle of wills. And no one wanted a battle of wills before she got her first moms’ night out in ages.
“Where’s my spoon?” Lola asked.
“Dip your sandwich.” April made a circle motion with her fingertip between the sandwich and the pile of ketchup.
“I don’t want my sandwich.” Lola was all big eyes like her sister.
