Page 69 of When in December

“Go.” I waved her toward her car as I turned around and headed for the cabin, where the other two kids had already hurtled inside.

With a short whistle behind my teeth, Oz was rushing toward me too.

Inside, the only positive was that the kids no longer had their shoes on as they fought over who was sitting where on the couch.And Gavin proved his screeches could ring to new heights. I swiped a hand down my face.

Oz looked up at me, sensing my unease.

I shook my head at him. “Don’t look at me.”

The kids might’ve been wild animals the way they ran rampant through the cabin. Gavin had a collision with one wall that made more of an impression on him than it did on the wall. Thank God. I couldn’t imagine what the homemaker would do if she came in and saw a dent.

Not that she should come in today.

She really shouldn’t come into the house today. Not with this mess or whatever else was bound to happen.

The two kids were watching some kind of video on the tablet Liana had pulled out from her duffel bag. Here I thought, with all the money and nannying, my sister would’ve raised polite, posh children, the kind you saw in expensive clothing ads.

Instead, I was dialing the last recent number on my phone in warning.

Poppy picked up on the second ring. “Hello? Aaron?”

Who else would it be? “You don’t have to bother with coming to the house today.”

There was a pause.

“I’m working today,” the homemaker countered. It wasn’t a question.

Why did she have to be so stubborn?

I put a hand to my head. “I know. I know you are.”

“What’s the problem?”

“You’re not going to get anything done here,” I told her.

“Why?”

I huffed. “Look. My sister dropped her kids here unexpectedly because her husband had some kind of family emergency. I have to take care of them. They’re a wreck. At this point, the place is going to be a wreck. I have no idea what I’m going to do with them, so might as well wait until I can clean up the damage.”

“Damage?” Poppy didn’t sound convinced. If anything, for some reason, she sounded … amused.

“Stay home. I’ll call you in the morning. Then, you can get back to work and stay on schedule. Right now, I need to figure out what I’m going to do with two kids that I barely know.”

“I’m not a kid!” Liana called out, hearing me talking on the phone.

I moved further into the kitchen, which looked bright and clean now that all the cabinets had knobs and empty spaces were filled with shiny appliances.

“Are you asking me for a favor, Aaron?” she asked.

Not Mr. Hayes. Somewhere in the past week, her professional pleasantries had faded, and I liked it more than I should’ve.

Aaron.

“No. I’m telling you to stay home. Do whatever you do when you’re not here,” I insisted. “Take the day off. Get a manicure. It’s fine. Everything will get done, but today, I have to deal with what is here. I’m sorry to let ya down, but this is what it is. Bye.”

“Aaron—”

I hung up the phone.

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