Chapter 57
“I will be back soon,” I say immediately.
“No, it’s fine. I got someone in to cover you. I figured you were concussed, but Zoe isn’t answering, and I am on tonight, and mom has hurt her knee again, so she can’t watch both girls. Can you and Valen please, please, come to get Casey for the night?”
“What do you mean Zoe isn’t answering? Did you knock on the door?”
Macey cleared her throat before speaking in a hushed voice. “I did, but I don’t think she could hear me over all the showering sounds coming from the house,” she hisses. I snort. Who would have thought?
“They are like damn rabbits. I have been up there twice now, and I swear my ears are bleeding. Anyone would think we are running a brothel with the noises leaving your apartment.”
“What’s a brothel, Aunty Macey?” I hear Casey asking in the background.
“Ah, a place where people get foot massages,” Macey answers awkwardly. Valen chuckles but turns the car around, hearing
her.
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“Yep, we are on our way now. Meet us out the front,” I tell her.
“Thank God, but you need to talk to her.”
“Why do I have to talk to her? You’re the eldest?” I say.
“Because I can’t say anything after what you saw the other day and don’t say you didn’t tell Zoe. I know you did, and you’re the only one not getting la.. foot messages around here,” Macey corrects herself.
“Ah no, you talk to her.”
“I will rock, paper, scissors you for it.”
“Fine deal, but don’t cry when I win, like I always do.”
Valen raises an eyebrow at me and shakes his head. I say goodbye and hang up the phone.
“Are you two seriously going to fight over who is giving Zoe the sex talk?”
“Yes, unless you want to do it?” I ask hopefully.
I
“Not a chance. Wait, what do I get for it if I do?” Valen asks, and I fold my arms. I was not making any more deals with the devil, and I know he would pick his words wisely if I did, so I couldn’t get out of it. We pull up out the front, and Macey is
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waiting out front with a bag for Casey.
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“I chucked some of Taylor’s spare clothes in it for her, and school was canceled. I just got the notification because of a COVID case.”
I sigh and nod. Damn pandemic.
Macey buckles Casey in, before stopping at my window and holding her fist out. I roll my eyes, and we quickly play rock, paper, scissors while Valen laughs at us. Macey fist–pumps the air when her scissors cut my paper.
“No!” I cry.
“Sucker, I finally beat you,” she says, doing a victory dance and shaking her ass at me. I shake my head in defeat.
“I expect a total reenactment of the cringy–ness of that talk and proper behavior in our hotel,” Macey says triumphantly.
“Fine, but you get the next awkward talk.”
“No, way, the last talk still haunts me when I had to explain to both you girls the importance of pap smears.”
“You could have just told us you didn’t have to diagrams and or reenact on our dining room table. I haven’t looked at the table the same, and you owe me a desk,” I tell her.
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“If I have to give you girls awkward talks, I will be thorough. Valarie always said get your facts straight, and I did that,” Macey says.
“We were mortified,” I laugh, remembering.
“Valarie thought it was pretty funny, even helped me do the diagram,” Macey laughs. I chuckle.
“Damn, she sounds like a cool old lady,” Valen says, and both Macey and I freeze, forgetting entirely about Valen and how casually we spoke of his mother.
“She was. She was a marvelous woman,” Macey says with a sad smile. I nod before saying goodbye.
“Love you, Casey,” Macey calls. Casey waves.
“Love you too,” Casey retorts, blowing her a kiss. Valen drives out and back onto the highway, and Casey leans forward in
her seat.
“Look, Uncle Valen, I brought Trolls. Aunty Macey said I could because it is your favorite,” she says, holding up the DVD to show him.
“Uncle Valen?” I ask her.
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“Hmm, Aunty Macey said he was your boyfriend and would marry you one day.”
“Did she now?” I ask, raising my eyebrow.
“Yep, so that makes him my uncle, but if he is my uncle, how will I marry Valarian? Wouldn’t that make him my cousin? Though Taylor said she is and that I would have to marry Uncle Fester from the Addams family, I told her na ah, I am,” Casey says. I snicker, catching Valen’s smile as he looks out the window.
“My boy is a lady’s man.” I smack his thigh, and he grabs my hand before I can pull it away. He kisses the back of it when he lifts it to his lips, before keeping hold of it on his lap.
“So can we watch Trolls when we get to your place?” Casey asks hopefully.
“Yes, we can watch it on repeat, if you like,” I say.
“Yay, Valarian is going to be so excited about our sleepover.”
“Casey, you live with Valarian. Every night is a sleepover,” I
chuckle.
“Oh, right? I guess it is,” she says, bouncing happily in the back of the car.
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The drive is short, and I am looking forward to lying down. Yawning, I step out of the elevator and followed Valen to his apartment. He unlocked the door, and the first thing I could smell was pancakes. My brows furrowed, and I followed Valen in with Casey, who ran ahead.
“Ah, not trolls,” I heard Valarian whine.
“Oh, where did you come from, little one?” I heard Kalen’s voice. Casey pointed to us down the hall, and Kalen walked over and looked at us. “I’m Casey, and I came with them,”
“Oh, you’re back. We were making pancakes,” Kalen says, before rushing back to the kitchen as he plates up.
“Pancakes and ice cream for dinner, dad, really?” asks Valen disapprovingly.
“You never complained when you were a kid,” Kalen says.
“Want some? I made heaps,” he says, pulling a huge tray off the stove. Valen shakes his head.
“Why not, pancakes for dinner, it is then,” Valen laughs.
Kalen is dressed in a suit with a white apron on and chef hat. He looks like an alien standing in the kitchen.
“And some for Miss Casey,” Kalen says, handing her a plate.
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Both kids race excitedly toward the table with their plates. Right then, Kalen shocks me as I walk to the sink, wanting to get a glass of water.
He actually hugs me and pegs me on the cheek, while I freeze up, stiff as a statue. “Everly dear, so happy to see you again,” he chirps. I look at Valen, who shrugs and tries to steal a pancake from the tray. His father smacks his hand with the spatula.
“Let me plate it up the way you used to like,” he scolds, and I chuckle while Valen seems to pout before stealing one. “You rotten little sod,” Kalen barks at him.
