Marin
“What do you know about babysitting?” my sister asked into the phone that was cradled between my ear and my shoulder as I worked to make Eli an after-school snack. I might not have been able to cook for shit, but making ants on a log didn’t require skill. It was just spreading peanut butter onto a celery stick and sprinkling some raisins on top. If I couldn’t pull that off, I’d failed at life.
“Hey, I’ll have you know, I’m a great babysitter. Just look at your kids. I’ve watched them and they weren’t any worse for the wear.”
“Simply keeping a child alive isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, babe.”
“Says who?”
“Says me,” Tali threw back through the line. “Yes, my children were alive when you babysat, but when they decided to color a mural on the living room wall, you joined in instead of making them stop!”
“Only because your children showed exceptional promise! Matt’s shading and Erika’s creativity were things to be nurtured, not stifled.”
“So what’s your reasoning for drawing a dick then?”
“It was a spaceship!” I scoffed, knowing I was full of shit. I’d said it was a spaceship for the kids’ benefit, but I’d totally drawn a dick in peach crayon on her wall. “Also, it was funny.”
“You’re the worst. You know that?”
“Well, Eli digs me,” I snarked. “And that’s all that matters. I’ve been at this gig for three days now, and not a broken bone or dick in sight.”
Just then, the little toot came skipping around the corner, shouting, “Dick! Dick! Dick,” at the top of his lungs.
Tali cackled in my ear. “Oh, I’d love to be a fly on the wall when you explain that one to Pierce.”
“He obviously must have learned that word at school,” I grumbled, making a mental note to be more careful with what I said around little ears. “I have to go, I have a child to watch, and I intend to do it brilliantly, thank you very much.”
I hung up on her while she was still in the middle of laughing and looked at Eli with a bright, beaming smile. “Hey, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll give you a dollar if you promise not to scream that word when your dad’s around. Deal?”
Okay, so maybe this wasn’t my finest hour, but he was breathing, uninjured, and relatively happy. Cut me some slack.
He looked up at me as pensively as a six-year-old could manage. “Five dollars.”
Oh that little terrorist.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Two.”
“Three,” he countered. Clearly this wasn’t the kid’s first time around the block.
“Fine. Three. But for three dollars, I expect you to forget that word even exists.”
“Deal.”
“Good. Now hop up. I made you a snack.”
He climbed up onto the stool excitedly, only for his smile to fall as soon as he saw what I’d made. “Yuck, is that vegetables?”
I made my eyes comically wide as I pulled up the stool next to him. “What do you mean, yuck? Celery is awesome, Cool Guy Eli!”
His entire face scrunched up into itself. “It is not. It tastes like butt.”
I gave him a dry look and arched a brow. “How do you know what butt tastes like?” That got him, and he sniggered. “But seriously, celery’s like, the best. I eat it every day.” Lie!
He looked at me with wide eyes. “You do?”
“Oh yeah,” I enthused. “You have to eat your veggies if you want to be big and strong. Look at your dad. You think he got like that without vegetables?” I shook my head solemnly. “No way.”
I really hoped Pierce ate vegetables, or else I was blowing smoke for no damn good reason.
“Plus, this celery has peanut butter slathered all over it, so it’s even better.”
He still looked reluctant as he gazed at the ants on a log. “What are those black things?”
“Raisins. Because you have to eat your fruit to be big and strong too,” I added quickly when he looked like he was about to argue. “Come on, bud. I’ll eat it with you.”
I grabbed one of the stalks and held it up, waiting for him to do the same. Then I counted to three and took a big chomp, and just as I’d hoped, he followed suit with an adorable little giggle.
“So? What do you think? I asked as I chewed. “Not so bad, huh?”
“Nah. Guess not.”
It wasn’t a ringing endorsement, but I’d gotten vegetables in the kid with only minimal work. I considered that a serious win. Tali could suck it. For good measure, I took a picture of him eating with my phone and texted it to her, just so she’d have proof of how amazing I was.
Snacks had been consumed and Eli and I were sitting down in front of the television to watch some cartoon that he loved when my cell rang. “You keep watching, sweetie. I’ll be back in just a sec.”
“Okay, Mar-Mar.” I grinned like a fool, loving that I’d gone from Ms. Marin to Mar-Mar in just a matter of days.
Climbing off the couch, I moved into the kitchen where I’d left my phone on the island. I kept one eye on the living room where Eli was as I picked it up, feeling a rush of butterfly wings in my belly at the sight of Pierce’s name on the screen.
It was getting harder and harder to keep telling myself I hated the man. Truth was, I was pretty sure I’d developed a bit of a crush. Which was all kinds of awkward, considering he was the older brother to the spawn of Satan himself—aka my ex-boyfriend. It was a messy situation, and the very last thing I wanted or needed was a mess.
“Hey. How’s it going?”
His husky, velvety voice came through the line and made me shiver. “It’s going. Just preparing for trial next week.”
I knew from the few conversations we’d had since I started watching Eli that he practiced corporate law, but I’d have been lying if I said I had the first clue what he was talking about when he told me about the case he was working on so hard. Something about patents on drilling equipment or something. It went right over my head. All I knew was it took a ton of his time, and he’d be happy once the trial was over and done with so his hours could go back to normal.
“Well that’s good. The sooner the trial starts, the sooner it can end, right?”
His chuckle rasped through the line, the pleasant sound of it making me smile. “Yeah, something like that. I was just calling to see if you’d have a problem staying late with Eli. I was hoping to get out of here at a reasonable time, but from the looks of it, it’ll be at least 9:00 if I’m lucky.
“Yeah, sure. That’s no problem. I’m not on at the club, so do what you have to do.”
“Thanks, Marin. I was also calling for another reason.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” The one word curiously sounded laced with humor. “I wanted to say thanks for getting Eli to eat vegetables. That particular fight’s a serious pain in the ass, so you just did me a solid.”
My back shot straight.
“But maybe try to refrain from teaching my kid any more words that’ll result in me getting a call from his principal? Oh, and if you let him, he’ll negotiate you right out of every bit of cash you have in your wallet, so be mindful of that, yeah?”