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“Girl, where did you get those taste buds from?”
Nova shrugged, opting to get a double scoop of the incongruous flavors. Rory was easy to please with a baby scoop of chocolate. I always got ice cream with them. My mom had been obsessed with her figure, and while she would take us out for treats, she had made it pretty obvious she couldn’t possibly consume them along with us.
I wasn’t going to let my best girls grow up with that mentality. I ordered myself a scoop of raspberry ripple with sprinkles, and the three of us sat in the corner of the little parlor to eat our treats together.
“How was your weekend?”
Nova shrugged and poked at her ice cream.
“Does that mean there was nothing to report or you’re not ready to talk about it yet?”
“Daddy had a girl over. He barely talked to us the whole time and I had to feed Rory breakfast because he stayed in bed with her until noon.” My anger must’ve shown on my face because she added, “Are you going to tell Mommy?”
“I have to. She would want to know that your dad’s not taking care of you.”
Nova stared at her treat for a moment before her hazel eyes focused on me. “Mommy and Daddy are still married, aren’t they?”
“Technically, yes.”
“Is this new lady going to be part of their pack?”
“I have no idea what your dad has planned, Supernova. I wouldn’t worry about it right now.”
Fucking Rodney.
Of course he would have the fucking audacity to flaunt some woman in front of his daughters while he was still married to my sister.
With a couple more bites of ice cream, I got Nova chatting about all of the gossip from school. The lives of twelve-year-olds were surprisingly dramatic.
When ice cream was finished, I took them to the park, pushing Rory in the baby swing while Nova did her very best to turn the swings into a 360-degree ordeal. I had done the same at her age, but seeing her fly and then crash-land into the sand had my stomach leaping up to my throat every single time. She popped up with a laugh, completely fine, but it didn’t prevent the heart-stopping moment of anxiety. Stella would feed me to the wolves if I brought back one of her kids broken.
“Hey, Auntie?”
“Yeah?”
“Could we pick up some strawberry shortcake for dessert tonight?” Nova asked.
“You bet your butt we can.”
Once the novelty of the swings had finally worn off, I gathered up the girls. We picked up some cake from the grocery store and made our way back to their house. It smelled absolutely delicious when we walked through the door. Stella definitely had a pot roast going.
My sister appeared a moment later, dropping to her knees to hug both of her daughters. “Hello, my sweet babies. Did you have fun with Auntie?”
Nova snorted. “Have I ever said no to that question?”
“I gotta check,” defended Stella. “She could stop being fun one day.”
“Psh!” I kicked her lovingly on the butt as I passed her and headed into the kitchen. “Not possible. Best auntie for life! Now where’s my Beany Boy?”
Beans howled from behind the baby gate that kept him from leaping to freedom every single time the door opened. He was standing on his hind legs, making adorable whining noises at me until I cupped his face in both hands. Beans loved a good face rub. You had to be extra vigorous until he got play-bitey, and then he would flop onto his back for belly scratches. We had a routine.
“Beans!” Rory pressed herself against the baby gate and Beans did his very best to lick all over her face. She shrieked with laughter as he cleaned her cheeks. “Good boy!”
Stella took down the baby gate so the dog Rodney had forced on her could properly greet the girls. Beans was a good dog, but holy hell were beagles high energy, and Stella didn’t have the time for that. Rodney had shown up with the dog and gotten the girls all excited right after Stella had kicked him out. She hadn’t had the heart to refuse to let them keep the dog. Nova was pretty good about walking him after dinner, but Stella had someone that came by in the morning to tire out that bundle of fur.
Nova disappeared up to her room after giving Beans his kisses. She’d hit that half-and-half phase where sometimes she was the sweet-as-pie little girl we’d known her whole life and sometimes the brooding took over. Honestly, Stella was lucky it had taken this long. I’d been a raging ball of hormones and fury at Nova’s age. So long as she was still down for auntie time, I wasn’t going to say a word. Bedrooms were sanctuaries and Nova loved hers. The mountain of plushes we’d been acquiring for her over the years still lived on her bed, and I wondered often if she would grow up to be an omega like me. Both of her parents were betas, but genetics were weird. Rory didn’t like anything touching her while she slept except for her stuffed pig, Hammy.
“Supernova!” I called up the stairs. “You hanging in your room til dinner?”
