“I’ll make sure to call if we get another mouse,” Liv said before raising her brow at me. “Or spider crickets.”
I shook my head. “Oh hell no. Never again. I still have stress dreams about those things.”
Liv’s smile stretched across her face.
“Spider crickets?” Cash asked.
The little boy’s interest was piqued. “Did they jump really, really high?”
“They sure did.” Liv nodded. “They’re crickets that look like spiders, but they jump just like regular crickets.”
“But instead of jumping away from you, they jumpatyou.” I used my hand to mimic a spider jumping onto Cash’s shoulder, and the little boy scrunched his nose.
Cash shuddered.
“So, imagine you’re in the shower and you see a spider on the wall, but when you go to smush it, it jumps at your face.” I emphasized the last part as though I were telling a scary story.
“Ew!” The boy half shrieked, half giggled.
“And Ella here basically made a Hazmat suit out of a bikini, plastic wrap, and a snorkel mask, and she went in there with bug spray and one of those bug bombs.” Liv gripped my arm as we both erupted with laughter from the memory.
“It was so bad we had to rent a hotel room for three days,” I recalled.
“The real question is, do you have any pictures of the Hazmat suit?” Cash’s eyes flickered over to mine.
I cleared my throat. “Thankfully, the only pictures that exist are in Liv’s mind.”
Liv beamed. “But the memories will last a lifetime.”
“Livvie, can I have more juice?” The boy tugged at the hem of Liv’s shirt.
“Of course,” she answered, moving to the fridge with the baby still balanced on her hip. She pulled out a juice box and placed it in the child’s waiting hands before directing her attention back to Cash and me. “You guys want anything?”
Cash shook his head.
“I’m good,” I replied.
“Let’s take your sister in the living room, and you guys can watch somePaw Patrol,” Liv said, and the little boy squealed with excitement.
We followed Liv into the living room and settled on the plush sofa as she turned on the television for the kids, placing the toddler on a blanket beside her brother. Both children fell quiet as the cartoon began playing on the screen. The living room that had once looked like it could be featured in a magazine spread was now scattered with toys and sippy cups. My stomach flip flopped at the realization that this place that had once felt so familiar to me now looked like it belonged to someone else entirely.
“That will give us a solid thirty minutes.” Liv sat in the oversized blue wingback chair with a relieved sigh. “Seriously, thank you so much for coming. I don’t know what I would have done without you guys.”
“Of course, babe,” I said. “Cash was doing some seriousFast and the Furiousdriving on the way over here. Just call him Vin Diesel.”
“Who’s that?” Cash asked.
“Wait.” Liv’s brows knitted together. “Didn’t I call Ella? How did I get both of you?”
Shit. Damn. Fuck.“The stars must have aligned so that we could both be here. The washer overflowed, and Cash came to help me. Bradley Cooper and I were in a state of despair.”
Liv narrowed her eyes at me, and it took everything in me not to squirm beneath her questioning gaze.
“I’d called Ella to check on her because I knew she was probably missing Grace,” Cash explained.
“Right,” I said, “and the washer was vomiting bubbles, and I was having a bit of a meltdown.”
“So, I came over to help,” Cash added with a smile that I think was supposed to be reassuring, but looked more like a child that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
