Dylan jutted his thumb over at me. “His niece is coming over. I’m sure you have that in your list of things to do for the day.”
Audrey’s eyebrows furrowed as she pulled out her phone and scanned through the email that I sent her. “Actually, I wasn’t informed.”
She was looking at me and I shrugged. “I meant for you to just do the groceries and help me make something for Violet before we pick her up from the airport.”
“And at what time would that be?”
I smiled cheekily. “She arrives at 7PM.”
Audrey blinked. “I get off at 6.”
“Well, you can let me borrow your car and I’ll pick up my niece from the airport.” I said it so casually and calmly that it took Audrey a minute to comprehend what I just said.
Then, she let out a humourless laugh and pushed past me. “If you think I’d be fine with you borrowing my car for the night to pick up your niece, you’re delusional.”
“It’s not like I’m going to crash it!”
She turned to face me, her eyebrows raised and the amusement clear in her eyes. “If there’s anything your brother is meant to be worried about, it’s your driving skills, Julian, not the kind of vehicle you drive.”
I scoffed and the boys let out an amused chortle. Carlos cleared his throat. “If I were you, I won’t take offense on that, Jules, because she actually does have a point. You’re not exactly the safest driver on the planet.”
Audrey looked victorious after Carlos’ statement as she called for Julio and my little dog came bounding to her in an instant. They didn’t have the best relationship at first but I think Julio grew on Audrey or it may have been the other way around. She picked him up and cuddled him up close, kissing the top of his head and I felt my eyes soften at the sight.
Beside me, José cleared his throat. “So umm, Jules, when you said that we were meant to be on our best behaviour while Violet’s here, does that mean we can’t have parties or just you know, invite friends over and hang out?”
José’s friends outside our circle were a little bit on the wilder side and he liked throwing parties every other week. I didn’t mind because that meant having girls to have one-night stands and rather preferred that since I wasn’t too keen on the dating game. But having an eight-year-old kid in the house meant that we had to alter our lifestyle a bit.
“Yes, José, it means exactly that.”
He let out a nervous chuckle and ran a hand through his hair, looking up at me slightly worried. “So umm, I kind of already had an entire party planned for tomorrow night and invited a bunch of people over.”
I gritted my teeth in annoyance. “I’m sure you could find a different venue.”
“Jules, I already paid for a bunch of stuff. They’ll be sending it all tomorrow morning. Look, I’m sure Violet would love to stay in a hotel near Disneyland or…or…,” His eyes fell on Audrey who was playing with Julio, throwing his toy and then letting him run back to her so she could throw it again, “or she could stay with Audrey just for one night.”
Audrey perked up at the mention of her name. “What did you just say?”
José rushed to her side and then placed a hand on her shoulder. “Aud, Violet’s such a nice kid and I’m sure you’ll fall in love with her the moment you meet her and think of it as having a girl’s night with her-,”
“Now you want me to babysit Julian’s niece?”
He looked apologetic. “Just for one night, Aud. Violet’s such a cool kid and I swear to you, it wouldn’t feel like you’re babysitting. It’ll be like a sleepover!”
I cleared my throat and then José turned to look at me. “Vi’s staying here and you’re going to think of something to move your party. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll be coming with you to the vet and then we can head to the supermarket together.”
Audrey stood up and eyed me wearily. I think that the whole reason why we’d managed to last a week was that we hadn’t usually in the same room together. I always had Audrey run errands for me and I’d basically holed myself up in my room writing songs for almost the entire week. Besides, the last time we were alone together, it didn’t really end in a good note.
“Why?”
“I need to get new sheets for my bed and more pillows for Violet,” I said, sounding nonchalant as I began to head back upstairs for a shower.
“Oh wait, hold up,” Audrey called out and I stopped in the middle of the stairs to look at her. “Your niece is eight years old but new sheets and more pillows? You’re being a little extra here, Julian.”
I let out a short laugh and shook my head. “Oh, you don’t know the extent of what I’ll do for my niece and nephews, Audrey. Milo always told us to make sure that we treat the little girls like queens.”
“Why?” she asked and I could hear the curiosity in her voice.
“So she’ll know her worth,” I replied quietly and I knew that Audrey would react to that and bring out what I’d done to Amber and other girls that I have dated when we were still in college.
I waited for what she would say and then she let out a small chuckle, looked down for a moment and then fixed her steady brown eyes back on me. “Maybe you should get a 101 lesson from your brother. It just might make you a better man.”
10
Audrey
Julian was going a little too extra about everything that he needed to get for his niece and to be honest, it was amusing to watch no matter how annoyed I was by his existence. Ever since he came to my house and brought me cinnamon cookies, I followed Amber’s advice and gave him the benefit of doubt. It didn’t mean that we were on good terms and we still argued 99% of the time but the job was a lot more tolerable now on my part.
“Julian, we’re feeding a little girl, we’re not having a feeding program!” I exclaimed as he continued to toss baking ingredients into our cart, everything that wasn’t included in the list that he had programmed to send me this morning. Aside from the baking goods, we also bought so many candies earlier at a shop that I swear almost reached five hundred dollars had I not stopped him from splurging. “And I don’t think her parents will be happy by the amount of sweets you’re going to feed their daughter for five days.”
He made a face but continued strolling through the supermarket with purpose. “I don’t think Megan would be pissed at me. She used to be very lenient with Vi on sweets when she was still just her nanny.”
His statement surprised me and he noticed that I paused so he turned back to look at me curiously. “Your brother’s wife…she was your niece’s nanny first?”
Julian cracked a smile, a half-smirk or a crooked smile, that seemed to make the girls go crazy about him but was ineffective with me. “Yes, she was. Violet’s mom died in an accident and when Milo had to move to Chicago, he couldn’t bring Violet’s original nanny so he hired a new one who was Megan and she moved with them to Chicago, they fell in love and got married. It wasn’t as easy as I make it out to be but that’s just basically the summary.”