“What are you going to eat with your ketchup?” Jack asked, already getting the spoon and handing it over.
“My spoon.”
Jack looked to April for help.
“Just maybe try to get her to eat something else later?” April scraped the half-chewed bite of sandwich from his plate while Lola ate a spoonful of ketchup.
“We’re here!” Rachel called from the front door. The clomp of her boys’ feet headed in the direction of the kitchen.
“Finish eating and you guys can all go outside and play.” April handed Lola a napkin for the ketchup smudge on her chin.
Brady and Kellan, Rachel’s kids, barely stopped on their way through the kitchen, pausing only long enough to say hello so their mom wouldn’t make them come back. They’d done this dance before and knew she really would make them do it.
“Why are my nephews here?” Jack stopped polishing off his sandwich, a frown marring the line of his lips.
“Because I’m taking their mom to girls’ night and Travis is here.”
Jack’s eyes turned to slits. “Plusthe neighbor kids?”
Well… “Yes?”
Hadn’t Rachel talked to him about this? She’d said he’d given the go-ahead.
“That’s, like, seven kids,” he said to no one in particular.
“You can count. Good job.” Rachel had sauntered in and now patted him on the shoulder.
“I thought we’d have five kids and two adults. That Travis came to help me, not bring more children with him.” Jack’s complexion had gone more than a little pale.
“Are you scared, Jack?” Harmony asked like she was in a long, empty hall in the middle of a horror movie. “You look scared.”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I am.”
“Travis has lots of experience with kids,” April assured. “And Harmony will help you, if you ask her nicely and ply her with candy.”
“We can have candy?” Harmony asked, because apparently she was listening.
April gave her a don’t-interrupt look. “If Jack says yes and agrees to stick around.”
“Jack’s not saying yes to any of this,” Jack said, still clearly freaked.
April wasn’t going to make him babysit if he wasn’t comfortable with it. “It’s okay if we can’t go out—”
“No, it’s not okay. Jack and Travis will be fine,” Rachel assured her.
“Jack’s talking about himself in the third person again,” Harmony said. “Are you sure he’s fine?”
He looked like he might actually pass out. Which was sort of cute, actually. He could face down anyone in the boardroom, but the thought of being in a room full of children scared the pants off him.
But Travis was here, and Harmony wouldn’t let anything really bad happen. Besides, the kids were all good kids.
“What was it you said to me when you convinced me to let you do this?” April asked, pressing her lips together.
“I can totally handle this.” The words fell out of his mouth with the confidence of a half-chewed Lola sandwich.
That was to say—
“Banana!” Lola announced around a mouthful of ketchup.
