“Of course,” Josh agreed easily. He’d love to spend a few days with his munchkins.
Claire didn’t seem convinced by his answer. Her head tilted to the side and a wrinkle appeared on her forehead. “Are you sure? You’ve never had all three of them at once. You’re gonna be seriously outnumbered.”
“It’s not a problem. We can go visit Nonna and if it gets to be too much, I’ll call in reinforcements.” The last time he’d babysat it was just the twins, they were three and Claire and Martin went on a babymoon, which Josh had never heard of but apparently was a thing. He’d had them for three days and both Caleb and Audrey had stopped by and helped him out.
“Are you really sure?”
“Yes,” he assured her.
His sister’s face relaxed and she threw her arms around both him and Braydon. “Oh my gosh! I owe you! Big time!”
“It’s no problem, really. We’ll have fun.”
The girls came back into the room, Thor trailing behind them. Bridgette had taken off her scarf and wrapped it around his neck. They’d also found a tiara, which they must have brought in their bags, and had placed it on his head.
“Come on, Princess Thor.” Bethany instructed as the girls ran to the front room and opened the trunk of toys he kept for them. “We have to find you a dress for the ball.”
Princess Thor happily trailed behind the girls, proudly wearing his hot pink scarf and tiara.
Claire looked at him once more, her face etched with concern. “Are you absolutely sure about this?”
“Well, I wasn’t before, but now that I know we’re having a ball how can I say no?” he teased.
Audrey gripped Josh’s jacket as she walked up the steps to his house.
She’d had it for two days. Her plan had been to give it back to him when he came into the coffee shop, but…he hadn’t come in.
The last forty-eight hours had been a roller coaster of emotions. She’d felt embarrassed and stupid and regretted saying anything to Josh about what she wanted one minute; but then the next minute, she’d get irritated and mad that he hadn’t even come in to talk to her about it.
They were friends, first and foremost and she wasn’t going to let him get away with avoiding her. He didn’t want to have sex with her? Fine. But they were at least going to have a conversation and clear the air.
And yes, she was using returning his jacket as an excuse to show up at his house unannounced. But honestly, why did she need an excuse? She didn’t. He’d shown up on her doorstep countless times for movie nights and vice versa.
This was normal behavior for them. Just because she’d said that she wanted him to take her virginity didn’t negate the eight years of friendship they’d shared. Right?
She’d worked herself into a healthy indignation by the time she reached the front door. As she lifted her hand to knock, she heard a high-pitched giggle and her boldness shattered like a glass bottle under a steam roller. There was a woman in there. He was with someone else.
She was turning around when she heard another sound. This time it was clearly a child’s voice. She stepped back up to the door and pressed her ear to it. When she did, she heard what sounded like a stampede of horses.
Was his sister there? Maybe Claire had come to visit with the kids. She knew Josh had been missing them since he hadn’t seen them over the holidays.
Okay, so maybe tonight wasn’t the night for them to have their talk.
She turned to leave and smacked right into Noah Barnes who was wearing a Slice of Heaven ball cap holding a red, insulated delivery bag. Noah was dating Audrey’s soon to be niece, Blake. She’d always liked Noah and was usually happy to see him, but right now she wished he would disappear.
“Hi, Miss Wells!” he said loudly.
And keep his voice down.
“Hey, Noah,” Audrey said weakly feeling embarrassed that he’d caught her with her ear on the door like a creep. She sidestepped him and started toward the stairs. She’d made it down two steps when she heard the doorbell ring and a second later the door opened behind her.
“Audrey?” She heard Josh’s deep voice.
Crap on a cracker. She’d been caught. Twice. First, by Noah who’d seen her eavesdropping and now by Josh who’d seen her trying to sneak away. This is what came of trying to assert herself and take control of her life. And people wondered why she was content being at home with her books and cats.
“Hey!” She turned around and smiled. Noah was taking two pizza boxes out of his bag as she said it. When her gaze lifted, she saw that Josh was holding his nephew on his hip. She never wanted to have kids, her biological clock had never ticked, but she couldn’t deny there was something innately sexy about a man holding a baby.
Josh took the pizzas with his free hand and thanked Noah, who smiled and waved as he hopped down the porch taking two steps at a time leaving Audrey and Josh alone. Well, not totally alone. Braydon was there, too.
She’d thought she was ready to face Josh, but suddenly she felt shy about being here. All of her I-am-woman-hear-me-roar righteous indignation flew right out the window. She just wanted to go home, put sweats on and have a date with Ben, Jerry and a romance novel.
“I was just coming to drop this off.” She lifted her arm, holding his jacket out in front of her and realized that he had his hands full. She looked around the porch. “Um, I can just leave it…”
“Are you hungry?” Josh either didn’t notice or he gracefully ignored Audrey’s awkwardness. Either way, she was grateful.
“I don’t want to intrude.” She knew that Josh didn’t get to see Claire that often and she didn’t want to interlope on their family time. The two of them had only become close since they were both adults.
“I’m babysitting three kids under the age of five. You wouldn’t be intruding. You’d be helping.”
“Oh, okay. Sure.” Audrey nodded and stepped inside and saw that the twins were camped out in front of the TV totally engrossed in the movie Shrek. Thor was sitting between them wearing a beautiful sparkly ballgown and a tiara on his head.
“Actually, Thor has been doing most of the work.” Josh said as he set the pizzas down on the side table.
“I see that.” Audrey grinned.
Josh shifted Braydon on his hip. “Hey girls, do you remember—”
“Audrey! Audrey!” Both girls screamed and ran over to her; Thor was right behind them.
As she hugged both the girls and said hello to Thor, she was actually relieved that tonight had turned out how it had. Maybe what she and Josh needed was just a normal night, hanging out, no pressure.
“Who’s hungry?” Josh asked.
“Me!” Bethany shouted.
“I am!” Bridgette lifted her arm high in the air.
“Go wash your hands and I’ll get your plates.” He told them.
Both girls scrambled out of the room, racing each other to see who could make it to the sink first.
Audrey looked at Josh. “How long do you have them?”
“Two nights.”
“You look tired already,” she grinned.
“I am, but I love it.”
She could tell that he meant that. He’d mentioned to her before that he didn’t want to have kids. At the time she remembered being happy about him saying that because it was a commonality they shared. But seeing how amazing he was with his nieces and nephew she wondered if he really did but he just hadn’t found the right person. If that was the case, then they really didn’t have a future, because as much as she loved kids, she did not want to be a mom.