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“World’s best, eh? I can’t pass that up.”
“I’m glad. Do you want to follow me?”
“I have to stop at the office and check in with my brothers. Give me your address and I’ll meet you there in an hour.”
She gave him the address, which he entered into his iPhone, and then he gave her his cell phone number and took hers. “So we can get in touch with each other if we need to.”
He kissed her and then helped her into her car. She watched in the rearview mirror as she drove away. He stood there until she turned the corner.
She tried not to second-guess inviting him over. Marcia should be at the office and Riley usually had soccer in the afternoons.
But when she walked in the door, the first thing she heard was the sound of kids’ voices and she knew that Riley was home.
“Aunt Jen. We won our game!” he said, running into the foyer to see her. “Lori brought us back here to have cupcakes and Coke.”
“Great idea. Best way to celebrate,” Jen said, even though that much sugar would make her nephew bounce off the walls.
Jen followed Riley down the hall into the kitchen where his nanny Lori and her son Edward were both sitting at the table. “I didn’t know you were going to be home.”
“It’s okay. Do you need to head out? I can watch Riley until Marcia gets home.”
“Actually, yes, I do.”
“Then you can go if you need to,” Jen said.
“Not yet, though,” Riley said. “Edward and I are going to trade Silly Bandz.”
“Go do that, but make it quick,” Lori said.
“I thought you’d be home when I stopped by,” Lori said once the boys were out of the room.
“I had a date,” Jen said.
“A date? Good for you, girl. You spend too much time working and staying home.”
Jen didn’t know about that but she nodded. Edward and Riley ran back into the room before she had a chance to comment. The boys were busy chatting about the Bandz they’d exchanged.
“Come on, Edward, let’s go.”
Riley was disappointed to see his friend leave but got over it quickly. He was talking a mile a minute about the game and his game-winning goal. She listened to him and reminded herself that having her nephew in her life was one of the best things she experienced.
“What did you do today?” he asked.
She waggled her eyebrows at him. “I went out on a yacht.”
“You did?”
“Yes. Want to see some pictures?”
“You bet,” he said.
Jen showed him the photos she took and when she got to the one of her and Nate, Riley asked who he was.
“That’s Nate. He’s my friend that owns the yacht.”
“Do you think I can go out on his boat?”
“I don’t know, Riley, I will ask him.”
“Thanks, Aunt Jen. Do you want to play Mario Kart?”
“Not right now,” she said. “Why don’t you have a game while I make some lunch? Nate is going to come over and join us.”
Riley went into the living room and she soon heard the sounds of his Wii game powering up. She turned on the radio and looked around the kitchen. It was a nice area with a butcher-block island, stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. She’d moved in here when she’d first come back to Miami after being kicked off the competitive dancing tour.
Marcia had invited her to make this her home and together they had shaped this house up nicely. There was a photo of the three of them in Little Italy eating at Ferrara’s bakery when they had visited New York last summer so Riley could see where his grandmother had grown up. The refrigerator was decorated with Riley’s latest art projects and in the corner was a glass door that led out into the Florida room.
Beyond that was the backyard with a soccer net and a water feature that Jen had done herself after taking a Saturday morning class at the local hardware store.
She liked this place, but she’d never really intended it to be her home. She’d always assumed she’d be going back on tour and this place would be a base of operations.
But now, this might be it. And if it wasn’t, she’d have to find her own place. Maybe something close by so she could still see Riley and her sister and help them out when they needed it.
She sat down at the breakfast bar realizing she had no idea what she wanted. This was a major crisis. The future was wide open and as of this moment, she had no idea what to fill it with.
She reached for the phone to call Nate and cancel, realizing that she didn’t want him to come to this home. She didn’t want to show him her life and see in his eyes that this wasn’t what he wanted. Did she really need further proof that they weren’t after the same things?
