London nervously shifted from one foot to the other as she waited to order burrito bowls for Koko and Nina. Miles had inhaled the corn dog she’d bought him from one of the other food court restaurants while standing in line next to her. He’d eaten it from the side, as one ate an ear of corn, instead of from the top like a person from planet Earth.
As they stood here, London tried to think of something to say to her little brother, but it would appear she lost the ability to communicate with children if they weren’t in hospital gowns. Not that it mattered. Miles talked enough for the both of them.
Unlike his sisters, who’d rattled off the litany of items they wanted in their bowls and then headed to the accessories store, Miles hadn’t left London’s side from the moment they arrived at the shopping center. He’d asked her no less than two dozen questions—everything from her favorite color to what kind of mileage she got with her Mini Cooper. The kid really needed to hang out with someone other than his dad.
Maybe if his big sister were around more…
Thing is, she wasn’t supposed to be with Miles today either. London had meant for this to be her outing with Nina so they could discuss the nude selfies, but as she backed out of the driveway at April and Kenneth’s, a minivan pulled up alongside her, and Koko and Miles jumped out. They begged to come along. There would be no nude selfie talk today.
“So, how is baseball going?” London asked, figuring that was at least one thing she knew Miles enjoyed.
He shrugged. “It’s okay. I haven’t hit a home run yet, but Dad said there’s more to life than hitting home runs.”
“He did? Well, that’s true,” London said. And both surprising and refreshing to hear. Maybe Kenneth was starting to mellow out in his old age.
She snorted. Her dad would go apeshit if he heard her refer to him as old.
“Just remember that having fun is the most important thing,” London told him.
“Did you have fun when you played baseball?”
“I never played baseball.”
“Basketball?”
She shook her head.
“Well, what do you do to have fun? And why do you wear your hair that way? And don’t you think you should wear more rings? Dad always buys Mom new rings because he says that girls like them. Why don’t you have a husband?”
“Can I help you?” the girl behind the counter asked.
“Thank God,” London said. She pointed. “Let’s get Nina and Koko’s lunch. And then maybe we can all get ice cream for dessert.”
By the time London finished ordering the burrito bowls, Miles had moved on to questions about cows and milk and why ice cream doesn’t taste like grass if that’s all cows eat. London gave him a bullshit answer because who had the time to explain that process, but it was still better than tackling the husband question.
“Did you two find something you liked?” London asked as Koko and Nina approached.
“Just this.” Koko held up a tie-dyed headband.
Nina rolled her eyes. “She has like fifty thousand headbands already.”
“And you have fifty thousand pairs of earrings,” Koko countered. She grabbed her burrito bowl and sat at the table London indicated. “She bought big hoop earrings that she knows Dad won’t let her wear,” Koko said.
Nina shrugged. “He won’t see them.” She sat across from Koko. “Besides, I didn’t buy them, my big sister did. Thank you, London.”
Great, now she would get accused of buying contraband.
“Just make sure Kenneth doesn’t see them,” London told her.
“Why do you call Dad by his first name?” Miles asked.
“I…uh…”
How could she explain to her younger brother that she’d started calling their dad by his given name to piss him off? It was probably better to just stop doing so in front of Miles.
“I would hear my mom do it all the time, and I guess it just rubbed off,” London lied.
Miles rubbed his hands together, a mischievous grin lighting up his face. “I should call him honey the way Mom does.”
“Please don’t.” London laughed. Between Nina’s earrings and Miles’s new name for Kenneth, she would be lucky if she was ever permitted to take these kids anywhere again. She’d better check Koko’s pockets for cigarettes before they left this mall.
Although she couldn’t see her middle sister doing anything that would get her in trouble. Of the three, Koko reminded London most of herself. If only for her acerbic tongue. The one-liners she hurled at Nina were so good, London had made a mental note so she could use them on Samiah and Taylor.
Why was she just discovering that she liked hanging out with her siblings? Despite Miles and his endless, sometimes inappropriate questions, and Nina with her stank teenage attitude, London had enjoyed herself.
She worked with other people’s children all day long, but when it came to these three, London realized that she’d hardly gotten the chance to know them. She didn’t have to be the much older sister who saw her siblings only on holidays or their birthdays. She could be the sister who carted them to the mall on the weekends, and who FaceTimed during the week to check in on them.
She had to do better when it came to these three.
London pushed her own burrito bowl away as a heavy weight sank to the pit of her stomach. She’d missed so much of their childhood, and now that she’d decided to finally be the big sister she should have been all along, there was the possibility of her leaving Texas for her fellowship. She felt like shit.
“I’ve had a great time today,” London said. “I think we should do it more often. How about each of you getting your own day out with your big sister, where we each do something really special?”
“Can you take me to the BTS concert next month?” Koko asked.
“Uh, sure,” London said.
“It’s sold out,” Nina said with another eye roll.
“Oh. Well, maybe we can stop by the record store and buy their newest CD? Wait, is there a record store in this mall? There used to be one,” London said.
“No one uses CDs anymore,” Nina said.
“I do,” London said. “I prefer to own the music I buy, but we’ll stream BTS and have a dance party,” She looked at Nina. “But I think Nina’s day should be first since she’s the oldest. What do you say we go somewhere next weekend? Just the two of us.”
Nina shrugged. “Sure.”
Oh, she could not wait to get this one alone. They would talk about more than just the nude selfies.
They finished up their lunch and spent another hour walking around the mall. London had to stop herself from checking in with the hospital at least a dozen times, which said more about her than she cared to think about.
When they arrived back at April and Kenneth’s, her stepmom gave London a curious, questioning look. London imperceptibly shook her head. No, they hadn’t discussed the photos.
“I’ll see you next weekend?” she said to Nina. London looked to April. “I’ve promised each of the kids that they’ll get their own special day. I’m going to find something really fun for me and Nina to do next weekend.”
“Oh, that sounds great!” April said. “Yes, you should.”
London hugged the three kids before leaving. She felt only slightly guilty for not asking about Kenneth after his TIA scare, but if there was something wrong, April would have told her. She’d designated the rest of the day her “self-care day,” and talking with her father was the opposite of self-care.
An hour later, London was in her favorite chair adding a few rows to the stroller blanket she’d been crocheting for Samiah’s four-month-old niece, when her phone chimed with a text.
Looking for company?
She grinned. Sorry, not tonight. I’m practicing self-care.
We can practice self-care together.
“Yeah, right.” She knew exactly what kind of self-care he had in mind.
The only self-care I’ve planned for is crocheting and a bubble bath.
Three dots appeared as Drew typed a response. Perfect. You crochet a washcloth and I’ll use it to scrub your back.
London burst out laughing. She switched from the messaging app to the phone and called him.
“I am an excellent back scrubber,” Drew said by way of greeting.
“I have no doubts that you are, but you’re forgetting one thing,” London said. “We are not friends, and you coming over to my house is a bit more…friendly than I’m comfortable with.”
He sighed. “Come on, London. It won’t hurt you to invite an acquaintance into your home, especially one who can give you multiple orgasms.”
A shot of heat rippled through her. London put it on ice.
“Sorry, but it’s the wrong time of the month for orgasms,” she said.
“Well, I can rub your back or do whatever you need me to do,” he said. “Let me come over.” The earnest plea in his voice had her rethinking the hard-and-fast rule she’d set for herself.
London pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, debating the wisdom of taking this next step. Having him over shouldn’t be a big deal, but it felt that way. There was something too intimate about it, too…beyond friendly. It would push them out of hookup-partner territory and into something she wasn’t sure she was ready to explore.
Yes, you are, the voice in her head countered.
Tamping down the butterflies that had taken flight in her belly, London said, “I’ll text you my address.”
She heard Drew’s car pull up twenty minutes later. London set the yarn on the coffee table and fluffed her coils as she made her way to the door. The heat shot through her again at the sight of him. He’d traded in his usual suit for khaki slacks and a wheat-colored sweater that looked so soft London immediately wanted to curl into it.
He held out a bag.
“Dark chocolate and chamomile tea. The woman behind the counter at CVS said both were essential.”
“Dammit, Drew,” London said, taking the bag from him. Did he not understand how hookup partners worked?
“You don’t like dark chocolate?” he asked.
She loved dark chocolate. She didn’t like his being so sweet. It made it that much harder to resist these feelings she’d been trying to resist.
“Get in here,” London said, taking him by the hand. That’s when she noticed that his other hand held a briefcase. “Are you planning on working?” she asked him.
“I figured I could work while you crochet,” he said, his eyes roaming the entryway. “This is nice. Unexpected as hell, but nice.” He pointed to the baroque curio cabinet she’d found at an antiques shop back when she first bought her house. “This doesn’t seem like your style.”
“Well, I guess I’m just full of surprises,” she said.
She led him into the living room and couldn’t deny her own surprise when he opened the briefcase and took out a sheaf of documents. He was serious about working tonight?
Drew looked up at her. “You want me to make you a cup of the tea?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I can do it. Do you…uh…want a cup?”
“Nah, I’m good,” he said, returning to his documents.
She made herself some tea and settled in with her crocheting. London wasn’t sure she was comfortable with just how, well, comfortable this felt. But after a while, she relaxed and allowed herself to enjoy Drew’s quiet companionship. He asked her a question about County’s on-site pharmacy and explained that some hospitals had opted to shutter theirs due to cost, but then he promised not to ask anything else work related.
After an hour had passed and London had finished the interior square of her blanket, she rolled up the yarn and set her project aside.
“You ready for that bubble bath?” Drew asked.
She motioned to his briefcase. “Do you have a change of clothes in there?”
“Why would I need a change of clothes? I’m not getting in the bath with you.”
“Are you not even going to try to get in my pants tonight, Drew Sullivan?”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
“I think I may be offended,” she said.
“That wasn’t my intent.”
She knew what his intent was. He wanted to prove that there was more to what they had going on than just sex. It scared her to think he was right.
Determined to refute that thought, London walked over to where he sat on her couch and climbed onto his lap. Drew’s hands immediately clutched her waist. She crossed her wrists behind his head and went in for a kiss, plunging her tongue inside his warm mouth. The effect on her body was instant, her nipples tightening to sharp points as desire blossomed between her legs. She ground herself against his pelvis, smiling as she felt him growing hard beneath her.
“It won’t work,” Drew spoke against her lips.
“You wanna bet?” London asked.
He gripped her waist tighter, then lifted her off him.
“What the hell, Drew?” she asked as she bounced onto the couch.
He stood and straightened his clothes. It was hard to ignore the telltale bulge that remained behind his zipper.
“I’ll run you a bubble bath, massage your back, and feed you chocolate, but I’m not getting naked.”
London arched a brow. “Who’s being stubborn now?”
“I have my moments,” he said. “Only when warranted.” Drew leaned down and planted the sweetest kiss against her lips. “What’s your answer? Am I running you a bath, or should I get back to work?”
She pointed toward the hallway. “Second door on the right. There’s peony-scented bubble bath underneath the sink.”
He winked and kissed her again, this time on the tip of her nose. “Give me ten minutes.” He picked up the fat pillar candle she kept on her coffee table. “We can use this to create a soothing atmosphere. I hear that helps with cramps too.”
“Drew?” London called. He turned. “I like my water extra hot. Scalding.”
“I expected nothing less from you, she-devil.”
London burst out laughing. Once alone in the living room, she dropped her head back against the couch and sighed up at the ceiling. She would continue to deny it until she turned blue in the face, but one thing was becoming clearer by the second. She was totally falling for her hookup partner.