Page 20 of Fireworks & Forehead Kisses

“Two. Let me know if you need me to pick you up,” Nadia offered.

“Okay, thanks. And thanks for the ride.” I leaned over and gave my friend a hug before getting out.

I waved as Nadia pulled away, blasting Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” and singing at the top of her lungs. Then I turned, headed up the steps to my sister’s house, and knocked on the door. After a few seconds, Luna answered.

“Hey, Lu Lu.” I ruffled her hair.

“Auntie Lee Lee!” She threw her arms around my waist.

“Is your mama not feeling so good?”

Luna looked up at me as she shook her head back and forth.

“Have you been taking good care of her?”

She nodded up and down as I walked inside and shut the door. “I made her toast!”

“Toast? You are the sweetest helper ever!”

We headed to the kitchen, where Luna proudly displayed two pieces of bread, each with a thick layer of cold butter spread on top of it. I didn’t even have an upset stomach, and the sight made me queasy. “Oh, wow! That’s amazing! Hey, why don’t I put on Inside Out 2?”

“I already watched Trolls.”

Skylar had a one-movie-per-day rule for Luna. I appreciated my niece’s honesty and felt that it should be rewarded. Also, I needed to dispose of this nasty toast without hurting her feelings and check on my sister.

I pretended to wave a magic wand in the air a la fairy godmother inCinderella. “I’m granting an auntie pass.”

The ‘auntie pass’ system was something Skylar and I had come up with so that I could circumvent the rules and be the funaunt without undermining her mom. Technically, I had three auntie passes to hand out every year, but we really didn’t keep count. Luna pretended to reach up and grab the imaginary pass out of the air.

After putting the movie on and making sure my niece was sufficiently engrossed in front of the TV, I wrapped the toast in a paper towel with CIA-level sneakiness before throwing it away to disguise it in case Luna looked in the trash can. Next, I fixed a glass of 7up with ice and a straw, grabbed a sleeve of saltine crackers, then headed upstairs.

I lightly knocked on the open door and entered the room to find Skylar curled up in a fetal position in bed.

“Hey, sickie.” I set the glass down and opened up the sleeve of crackers.

Skylar gingerly propped herself up against the pillows, leaning on her headboard, and took a sip of the drink. She was so pale she would give Casper a run for his money. I placed my hand on her forehead to check for a fever. She didn’t feel warm, so by process of elimination, it had to be a stomach bug or food poisoning.

I split open the package of saltines and handed her a cracker.

She took a bite as she said, “Thanks.”

“I would’ve been here sooner, but my car broke down, and I had to wait for Nadia to come pick me up.”

“Oh no. Your car broke down?” The worry etched on my sister’s features demonstrated that it didn’t matter how old I got or how old she was; she would always feel maternal toward me.

“Yeah.”

“Where were you?”

“I was out on Birch Tree Lane, you know, the place where I thought I had a job but then didn’t. The house that looks exactly like the house inThe Notebook. I took a picture of it this time.”

I pulled out my phone and scrolled through the photos, showing my sister the pics.

“Wow. It does. So what happened to the job?” Skylar asked as she ate another cracker.

“Well, as you know, the grandson fired me, but Stella rehired me.”

“That’s the assistant job, right?”

---