Page 145 of Borrowing My Bestie's Brothers

“You can have a break if we stay with Auntie Jamie,” Ava insisted, then turned back to me. “Pleeease…”

“For goodness sakes, Ava—” Amber said, looking around for support, but of course, Steve was nowhere to be found.

“We’ve got this,” I said, then glanced at the guys for confirmation. Brock nodded slowly while Hunter dropped down to the girls’ level.

“You want to look after your nieces, Jamie?” he said in that chipper tone adults used with kids. “But I don’t see any little girls, just a couple of monkeys!” The girls giggled, then pressed their faces into my legs due to shyness, but Hunter had them in the palm of his hand shortly afterwards. Hopping around and making monkey noises was the way to a child’s heart apparently.

“Do you even like children?” Amber asked, looking down her nose at me.

“Do you?” I said that before I’d really thought about it, flushing at how rude I was being.

“You’ll be in the same shoes one day,” she said in a deadly calm voice. “You think you’re shit hot with your three sexy boyfriends, but one day you’ll be knee deep in nappies and baby shit and wondering how you got there.”

Right.

I knew that would never happen to me. The implant in my arm wasn’t going anywhere, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t help someone out who was struggling with that.

“So let me look after the girls today,” I told Amber. “You can sit with Steve and kick back and relax. I’ll check if Nadia’s OK with it.”

My sister-in-law stared at me; her gaze completely flat before she sighed.

“Fine, but you won’t be able to have a late one. They need to be in bed by seven.”

“We can put them down in one of our spare rooms,” Brock said.

“Ava can’t eat seafood, despite thinking otherwise, not unless you want to be holding her hair back as she vomits all night. Bella’s not as bad with eggs, but they don’t sit well with her.”

“We won’t have any time for stinky seafood or eggs, will we, girls?” Hunter said, pretending to be a monkey pushing food into his mouth. “We’ll have chocolate cake for dinner!”

“Chocolate cake!” the girls cried.

“God, they’ll be hyper all night, then sick,” Amber said, but then shrugged. “I’ll pick them up tomorrow.”

“We’ve got this,” Hayden said, holding out a hand for Bella.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“I’m Uncle Hayden.”

“Hay Bale,” Hunter added, the girls cackling in response.

“That’s Uncle Brock.”

“Rock,” Hunter corrected.

“And this is Uncle C…” Hayden’s voice trailed away as he stared at his twin. “Uncle Monkey.”

“Can you do horsey rides, Uncle Monkey?” The girls rushed Hunter, climbing onto his back, forcing him to grip them tight. He made a show of groaning under their weight, even though I knew he could lift far more with ease. “No horsey rides, only monkey rides!”

He galloped away, leaving just the adults present.

“So I’m to go back to the hotel on my own?” That was the first time I’d ever heard a waver in my mother’s voice.

“You were bloody lucky you were allowed to attend the wedding at all with the way you’ve been carrying on,” Dad grumbled, appearing by my shoulder.

Their divorce was well and truly in progress. Dad had moved out and left her the house, but I was willing to bet it was awfully empty now. Mum blinked and blinked, the only indication of what she was feeling, and I knew what it was. She was trying to hold back tears, which should’ve torn something inside me, but it didn’t.

I was surprised that I didn’t grieve for the loss of my mother, but even when I searched within, I found nothing but relief there. I was free, that was what rushed to the surface, not loss. It took a while, but I worked out that the grieving process had been happening for a long time. I was a wild child when I was a kid, bucking and fighting her need for control, but when I declared a ceasefire as an adult, that was her time to lay down her weapons too.

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