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In the kitchen, I looked through the pantry for something that might tempt her, but all I found were some packs of ramen and a few cans of beef stew. Shaking my head at how pathetic the cabinets were stocked, I called in an order to Aggie’s and got ready to pick it up. Mom and Aunt Flick had been on me about them bringing over food, but I’d kept putting them off, saying I was too busy.
Half an hour later, I walked into Aggie’s, only to find my sister standing at the counter with Finn toddling around at her feet.
Seeing me, my nephew screamed and threw himself against my legs. Laughing, I bent to pick him up. There were some features the kid shared with his dad, but for the most part, Finn looked like Lexa, which meant he looked a lot more like me than he did Ben.
Lifting him high, I blew raspberries on his stomach, making him giggle and cling to my head until I lowered him. Keeping him in one arm, I turned to face my sister. She stood there waiting for her food, grinning at me and her son.
“Perfect timing,” she said. “I was just picking up dinner.”
“Me too.” I shifted Finn in my arms. “Ben working late tonight?”
“Nah, he will probably beat me home. I was going to call you later. I ordered River a present for her graduation, and it’s supposed to be in by Friday. But it’s being delivered to the store and not my house. Do you think you could pick it up at the mall for me Friday evening? Ben will be working late then, and I hate driving all that way alone with Finn.”
“No problem.” I was taking Delaney to the mall Friday anyway, so it wasn’t going to be out of the way for me. Not that I told my sister that. If she found out about my girl, she would go running to Mom. Those two never kept secrets from each other, which was sweet, but also a pain in the ass when I needed Lexa to keep her mouth shut about shit.
“Great. Thanks, baby brother.” She kissed my cheek then took her son from my arms as the waitress brought out a bag of to-go boxes.
I waited until she was out the door before paying the girl for my own food order. But instead of her going into the back to grab my stuff, Kingston brought it out. “You must be starving if you ordered this much food,” my cousin said with a sly grin as he handed over the two bags. “Either that, or you got company.”
“I’m hungry,” I said with a shrug. “You make sure there were extra tomatoes and pickles on that burger?”
He nodded, but his brows went up. “Yeah, but since when do you eat anything but cheese and meat on your burger?”
“Since now,” I growled, grabbing the bags. “See ya, man.”
By the time I plated our food and carried it into our bedroom, she was already waking up. Seeing me with dinner, she sat up with a bright smile on her face that could have lit up the room all on its own.
“Hungry, treasure?” She nodded, and I placed the plate on her lap. She loved Aggie’s cheeseburgers, and she seemed to have a thing for tomatoes and pickles on them. To me, vegetables made a burger not worth eating, but she gobbled that shit
up and licked her lips when she was done.
I watched her tongue swipe over that full lower lip and knew it was going to be a long night.
Putting our plates on the nightstand, I pulled her onto my lap, all too happy to get zero sleep if it meant I got to gorge on her for dessert.
13
Delaney
I couldn’t help staring wide-eyed as we walked hand in hand. The last time I’d been in a mall was right before my parents had taken me on our last family vacation. Mom and I had gone shopping for the trip while Dad was at work. Even though I was an only child, Mom never let me feel lonely. We had girls’ days several times a month when we went shopping, got our nails done, or just went to a movie together.
But it had been over eight years since I last was around so many people outside of school. If I needed clothes, Marta would buy them for me and then hang them in my closet while I was in class. But unless I absolutely had to have something for school or I outgrew something, new clothes had been a luxury I was rarely given.
“Where to first?” Max asked as we stood in front of the mall directory on the first floor. “I have to stop at this store before we leave to grab something Lexa ordered for our cousin River, but other than that, we can go anywhere you want.”
A few of the stores listed on the directory I knew, but a good portion of them were new to me. Biting my lip, I shrugged, feeling embarrassed that I had no idea what kind of merchandise most of the stores even sold.
Max brushed the backs of his fingers over my cheek before signing, “How about we just walk around first, and if anything catches your eye, we can go in and have a look?”
I nodded, and he took my hand. The first stop we made was at the pretzel shop, where he grabbed two cinnamon-sugar pretzels and a large soft drink for us to share. I devoured mine as we took the escalator to the top floor.
The shops all had pretty things in their windows, but they looked expensive and I didn’t want to take advantage of Max when he’d already been so generous with me. But as we started on the second floor, Max began to get cranky because I hadn’t stopped at any of the stores yet.
“What about this place?” he asked outside a store that had several dresses and other summer outfits on their mannequins in the front window. “That dress would look hot on you, baby. And you need something pretty to wear to the wedding tomorrow.”
I frowned up at him. “What wedding?” I signed in a rush, my heart already pounding against my ribs with nervousness.
He shrugged like he hadn’t just dropped a huge bomb in my lap. “My cousin is getting married after her graduation tomorrow. It’s a big surprise for her that her boyfriend is throwing together with her parents.”
