Page 16 of It Runs in the Family

Intrigued, I called her before I checked any of the other texts.

“Iris,” she said in a tight voice when she answered, sounding like I’d been the one to bother her.

“Hey,” I said, feeling awkward. I should have texted. “You wanted to talk to me?”

“I heard you watched Baby JJ yesterday.”

Oh shit. I knew where this was headed. “How’d you hear that?”

“Rita called me this afternoon and said, ‘Just so you know, Iris watched Baby JJ all day, so that means he’s the favorite.’” She paused, the silence feeling tense. “Is that true?”

“Uh…” I was too tired to be tiptoeing through this conversation. “You know I don’t have favorites.”

“Well, if that’s true, then you’ll have no problem coming over tomorrow afternoon and watching my kids while I run some errands. The way I see it, you owe me hours and hours of babysitting, so we might as well get started.”

I was so dumbfounded it took me a few seconds to figure out what to say. “You want me to babysit?”

“You’re one of the most responsible cousins, so yeah.”

“I thought you said I was a bad influence on your kids since I don’t go to church. That all of us are.”

“I’m taking the older ones with me, so you’ll only have to watch the younger three, and they’re still too young to be damaged by your poor decisions.”

“Which poor decisions are we talkin’ about?” I asked, heading to the fridge and pulling out my creamer. But given the direction this conversation was heading I was tempted to get a beer.

“Your job. Your choice in men. The music you listen to. The obscene clothes you wear. The fact that you drink alcohol. Your coarse language. Your⁠—”

“Yeah. Okay,” I interrupted. “I get your point. Just out of curiosity, do I have any redeeming qualities?”

Trinity was silent for a good five seconds.

“You know what? Don’t hurt yourself thinking so hard. I have plans tomorrow anyway.”

“What are you doing?” she asked curtly.

“Hi, Iris,” I said in a mocking tone. “I haven’t talked to you in ages. How are you doing? What have you been up to? I’d love to catch up.” I took a deep breath and returned to my normal voice. “That is how you start a conversation when you’re asking a huge favor.”

“But you watched JJ,” she snapped.

“I watched one baby for a few hours, not the roster of a preschool for God only knows how long. Maybe get off your holy mountain and treat me like your cousin and not your unpaid babysitter.”

“Does that mean you’re not going to watch my kids?” she asked in a huffy tone.

“No, Trinity, I am not going to watch your kids.”

“I can’t believe this! Why does everyone treat me like garbage?”

“Maybe because you treat us like garbage.” I was so pissed I hung up. Trinity and I had never been close, so I didn’t care what she thought.

I flipped back to my texts and read Rita’s message.

You’ll probably be getting a call from Trinity. Sorry.

Sorry, my ass. I had no doubt she’d rubbed Trinity’s nose in it like she used to shove mud in her face when we’d played by Granny’s creek as kids.

I started to type out, Did you ever get your kid?, but I decided I’d rather ask Hannah. Then again, I’d passed JJ off like a freaking dirty diaper. Better just to leave it alone.

I opened Jimmy’s text next.