Page 27 of I Need You Tonight
I laughed shortly. “I think the goal of most kids is to humiliate their older brother or sister. It’s in their genes.”
Bree’s gaze dropped to my legs and she studied them, a slight furrow between her eyebrows. “What’s in the jeans? Can I see it?”
Deciding this was a pointless conversation to have with a four-year-old, I switched topics. “Did you guys come to help us remove the wallpaper?” I gestured to the torn paper scattered around the room.
“No, my sister—” Bree began, but she didn’t get very far, as Amy’s hand shot out and covered her mouth. The little girl wriggled free and glared at her, lower lip sticking out. “Daddy told you not to do that.”
“Well, stop embarrassing me,” Amy said through clenched teeth.
Still pouting, Bree crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re so bossy.”
I placed my hand next to my mouth and stage-whispered, “Big sisters are supposed to be bossy. Just like you’re supposed to embarrass her.” I winked at Bree, and her pout transformed into a huge grin.
I pushed myself up to a standing position. “So, what can we do you for?” I asked Amy, knowing that she was the reason they were here.
“Er…I came to see if you would sign this picture for me.” She held up an interview with the band in a recent issue ofRolling Stone. She had already been around yesterday, when I signed her Pushing Limits concert T-shirt.
With a smile, I took the pen from her and walked over to the kitchen table to sign the article.
“Nice picture,” Nicole said, examining it. “Who’s that?” She pointed at the guy with wavy light brown hair.
“Nolan, our lead singer.” Then I indicated the dark-haired guy next to him. “That’s Jared, our guitarist.” My finger shifted to the other dark-haired guy. We were all tall, but Kirk towered over the rest of us by a good two inches. Handy when you were playing hockey, I guess. “And this is Kirk, our bassist.”
“So this must be Aaron,” she said, pointing at the blond man at the edge of the group.
“That’s right,” I said, impressed she’d remembered his name from our conversation earlier.
Amy must have had a thing for him as well, because she let out a dreamy sigh.
Bree peered up at her and giggled. “She loves him,” she singsonged. “She told her friend she wants to have his babies.”
Amy’s eyes bulged as if she had downed a bottle of hot sauce, and I choked back a laugh. She wasn’t the first girl to announce that she planned to have one of the guys’ babies, but she was definitely the youngest I’d heard it from. Given that none of us were into jailbait, the chance of her becoming pregnant with Aaron’s baby was a big fat zero.
“Okay,” Amy said, drawing out the word. “It’s time for your nap.” She tugged on her sister’s hand, attempting to pull her toward the door.
“I’m a big girl,” the little girl huffed. “Big girls don’t nap.”
“They do now,” Amy muttered under her breath.
“Bye,” I called out, doing my best not to laugh at the pair as Amy led the reluctant Bree from the kitchen. But at least now Nicole and I could get back to work.
While Nicole was escorting the girls to the front door, the need for some fun bubbled up inside me, like a Jacuzzi turned on full speed after you dumped in too much bubble bath. Tearing ancient wallpaper off the wall didn’t exactly make it onto any ten-fun-things-to-do-this-weekend lists. At least not without a little help.
Some girls would get prissy at what I was about to do. But if there was one thing I’d learned about Nicole in the last two days, it was that underneath the workaholic exterior was a girl who loved to have fun as much as I did.
I grabbed the empty water mister I’d seen under the sink and filled it with water. I hid it in the corner where Nicole wouldn’t see it, then got to work, filling the bucket with hot water.
Nicole entered the room as I was turning off the tap. I set the bucket on the floor near where she was working and filled the second one. We wetted the walls with sponges and carefully scraped the wallpaper paste off the walls. In the background, her favorite country singer sang about falling in love with his best friend. Much like what had happened with Nolan when it came to Hailey.
Nicole’s hips swayed back and forth as she sang softly to the lyrics, focused intently on the wall while removing a patch of glue that still remained. She had a sweet voice and for a second I watched her, mesmerized, before I slowly backed up to where I’d hidden the water mister. I picked it up, set it to stream, then squirted her from behind, soaking the back of her tank top.
She shrieked and spun around. “Oh, you think so, do you?” Laughing, she hurled her wet sponge at me.
I ducked out of the way, but not fast or far enough to avoid water splashing me. The sponge hit the wall near me with a splat and fell to the floor.
Nicole lunged for it but wasn’t fast enough. As I reached down to snatch it up, she wrapped her arms around my waist and tried to pull me away from the sponge. For someone so small compared to me, she was surprisingly strong. She tugged me back a step. But my foot slipped on the water that had spilled at some point, and I went down—pulling Nicole with me.
I landed on my ass. “Oof!”
