The next minute, Danny had teased her for being like a hippo in a china shop, and she’d shot back that she wasn’t the Neanderthal who ran around “aimlessly” with a ball. They’d walked down the steps together.
Juliet still hadn’t figured out that particular relationship.
Esme put her hand on Juliet’s where she had it on the arm of her chair.
Juliet glanced over. “You feeling okay, Boo? Your tummy all right?”
“Yep.” Esme rubbed her stomach. “All systems normal.”
Juliet bit back a laugh, figuring one of her uncles had to have taught her that phrase. “You want to sit with me?” Sometimes, as a child, all she’d wanted was a pair of loving arms around her.
When Esme nodded, she scooped the girl’s small weight over into her lap. Nuzzling her chin on Jake’s baby’s hair, she was not prepared for Esme to say, “Jules, do you like my dad?”
Juliet felt like a deer caught in the headlights. “Sure,” she managed to croak out. “He’s my friend.”
A thoughtful pause before Esme said, “You can kiss him if you like.” It was a solemn statement. “Like Aunt Charlie kisses Uncle Gabe, and Aunt Issie kisses Uncle Sailor, and Grandma kisses Grandpa.”
Juliet was drowning. She thought about sending out smoke signals for help, but Jake was busy completing his work with the attention to detail that made him so spectacular on the field; she was on her own. “Uncle Danny doesn’t get kissed?” she said, clutching at any available straw.
“No, but he’s a kid. Like me and Emmaline. It’s different.”
Danny was no kid, but she could see how he’d occupy a different place in the girls’ minds. The youngest Esera boy, he likely got treated like a kid by his brothers as well as his parents. Never mind that he was six feet, three inches tall and probably around a hundred kilos of pure muscle that exploded into impossible speed on the field.
That made him a couple of inches taller than Jake, but their builds were similar. In fact, the only member of the family taller than Danny was Gabriel. Obviously, given Esme’s declaration, his size made zero difference to how he was treated. Juliet had seen the same immovable pecking order in other large families; Danny would always be the kid brother, even when he was ninety.
“And he’s not a daddy,” Esme added firmly. “Daddies need mummy kisses.” A soft kind of sadness to her. “My mummy is in heaven.”
Eyes hot, Juliet found herself hugging Esme tighter. “I knew your mummy,” she whispered. “We went to school together.”
Esme sat up straight, her eyes bright when she looked back at Juliet’s face. “Really?”
“Yes. She had a smile just like yours, and she wore glasses, and her hair was silky like yours.” It had been blond instead of Esme’s black, but it’d had the same softness and texture. “We used to sit together at lunch and share our food.” The trade had been heavily one-sided, mostly because Calypso always had way more than even she—the infamous devourer of an entire pizza—could eat.
Juliet had accepted the imbalance because their friendship was deep enough that they’d long ago stopped keeping track of favors given and received. “She was really nice, your mum.”
Esme had so many questions, and Juliet answered them all. It wasn’t until Jake had dressed and was walking toward them that she wondered if she’d overstepped her bounds.
Esme piped up with “Daddy, did you know Jules knew Mummy?”
A curve of his lips. “Yep. We all went to school together,” he told his daughter as Juliet shook hands with the ad executive, who still looked a little scared of her.
She was back with Jake and Esme when he said, “Want to know a secret?”
“What?”
“Juliet and I didn’t like each other then.”
“Really?” Eyes rounded, Esme looked from one to the other. “Like Uncle Danny and Catie?”
Jake snorted. “Those two are a whole other story.” He shook his head. “But yeah, a little bit like that.”
“But you like each other now?” A serious question.
“Yes,” Jake said, his eyes meeting Juliet’s. “I really like her now.”
The knots in Juliet’s stomach grew hotter, tighter.
Especially when Esme took one of their hands each and beamed. “Good! I told her she can kiss you!”
As a result of an extra meeting that had to be shoehorned in, it ended up being a long day. Jake was worried about Esme, but she caught a nap during a car ride and was so excited by all the new experiences that she was otherwise up and active, with no indication she was feeling unwell again. She’d crash tonight, sleep like a log, but that’d be good for her.
Still, all three of them were feeling the long day by the time they finally arrived back at their hotel. Running into their suite, Esme collapsed dramatically onto her back on the chaise by the window.
“I’m ex-aus-tid,” she declared, each syllable sounded out.
Juliet, who’d stopped in the doorway to talk to him, sighed. “Tell me about it, Boo. At least you don’t have to deal with mean ladies.”
Esme giggled and popped up into a sitting position. “Can we eat in our room?”
“Room service picnic?” Jake raised an eyebrow at Juliet.
“Sounds like heaven. Give me a few minutes to change into my pajamas. I am not wearing proper clothes again until tomorrow morning.”
Jake appreciated the sweet curves of her ass in that red dress as she walked down the hallway. His wolf whistle was quiet, but she sent him a look over her shoulder that told him she’d heard. The smile flirting with her lips said he wasn’t in too much trouble.
Miming taking a blow to the heart, he staggered back against the doorjamb.
Her laughter lingered in the air after she disappeared into her suite.
Returning to his own, he first helped Esme get into her pj’s too. They’d bought two pairs for this trip, and she wanted the yellow ones with brown dogs on them.
“Look at the doggies, Daddy,” she said slyly as she finished buttoning her top.
Jake was onto her. “We are not getting a dog,” he said for the thousandth time. “I travel too much and your grandparents can’t dog-sit all the time. A dog would be lonely.”
“Grandma and Grandpa stay home more. It could be their dog,” his too-smart kid said. “We could take it for walks and pet it.”
Jake knew full well that she was wearing his parents down on the topic, but he wasn’t about to be a sucker too. “You know dogs poop,” he said, bringing out the big guns. “You wanna clean that up?”
A screwing up of her nose.
He popped into his room to change while she thought that over, leaving his door partially ajar. He was just pulling on a pair of sweatpants when she called out, “I saw Mrs. Dennis use a thing!”
“What thing?” He found a loose tee, was about to pull it on when he remembered the way Juliet had shaped his arms while they’d been in bed together. Throwing the tee aside, he found his white one that was snug on the arms and showed off his biceps. It had been a gift from Catie. Ísa’s sister had become part of the family and, according to her, he needed to flaunt what he had.