Page 51 of The Flirtation
She turned around and looked innocently at us, all wide-eyed. “What?! I can’t control Mr.Bunny.”
“Way past your bedtime, young lady.” Jackie tried to wrestle Mr. Bunny away from Franny. Franny literally growled at her parents, and her eyes may or may not have flashed red (it was late, I was tired). Jackie and Jimmy left the room to get Luke and me somedecaf.
“Luke, this is my niece.Franny.”
“Hullo Franny. I’m Luke. I like your bunny, he’s verylarge.”
She was suddenly the sweetest little angel. “Hi. I love Mr. Bunny. He’s from myaunt.”
“Well done,Avery.”
“I have mymoments.”
Franny stared up at Luke. I put my hand on her shoulder, so I could pick her up and haul her away as soon as she started saying anything remotely mortifying. “Are you my aunt’sfriend?”
“Yes, Iam.”
“Are you herbooooyyyyyfriend?”
“Say good night Franny!” I picked herup.
Luke laughed. “Anyone who is her boyfriend would be verylucky.”
“Do you kiss her in the bushes, likemuah muah muahoooh I love you I love you I loveyou?!”
“Not in the bushes,no.”
“My dad thought Avery only liked girls because shenever—”
I covered her terrible little mouth. “Off to bed you little monster!” I hurried out of the room withher.
When I returned to Jackson’s room, Luke was holding a hair dryer over my nephew’s broken arm, aiming it into the space between the cast and his arm. Jackson’s eyes were wide and happy. It was a weird thing tosee.
“It’s on cool mode,” explained Luke. “The cool air helps with the itchyskin.”
“Brilliant,” I said. “Exactly how experienced are you with brokenbones?”
“Let’s just say I was a rambunctious and energeticchild.”
Luke spent the next half an hour drawing on Jackson’s cast with a Sharpie pen and playing Tic Tac Toe on his cast with him. I basically didn’t even have to be there. When my sister insisted that Jackson go to sleep, he kept asking when he’d see Luke again. I went completely silent and stiff. Jackie wrinkled her forehead at me. Luke said he’d have to check his schedule, but he’d very much like to see all of them again. And then Jackson laughed at the way Luke pronounced “schedule.”
We adults drank decaf in the living room for at least an hour. While the other three were laughing, I stared into my mug. As soon as Jackie went into the kitchen, I followed her. It was almostmidnight.
I wrote Jackie a check for two thousand dollars and put it in her jeans pocket. She immediately took it out and tried to give it back to me. “I don’t want your money,Ave!”
“Please just take it. It’ll cost around twenty five hundred, probably? None of this would have happened if it weren’t forme.”
“Oh my God get over yourself. He’s a seven year old boy, it was just a matter of time before he brokesomething.”
“I have to go home and sleep and then get ready to go to the office. Shit.” She watched me look out the door, over at Luke, who was chatting with Jimmy in the living room. I had no idea what they were talking about, but they were getting along so well. “I need togo.”
“Why are you being so weird withhim?”
“What? I’m not. He’s leaving latertoday.”
“Have you talked about what this is? When are you going to see himagain?”
“I don’t know. On Skype. We’ll be workingtogether.”
