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“Uncle Owen!” There is a shriek just inside the kitchen entrance. “You’re eating her face right off!”
I jolt, releasing Annie.
Alice is watching and wailing… and I pray I haven’t scarred the girl for life. In my haste, Annie slips right into the tub of warm water behind her.
“Alice?” I say as Annie yips behind me. I take hold of her waist and lift her from the sink, helping her to the ground. “What are you—”
“Alice Jasmine. Did you knock? I told you to knock before—” Coco pauses mid-sentence, her eyes drifting from Alice’s horrified expression to a wet Annie and a disheveled me.
“He was eating her!” Alice bellows.
“No,” Annie says with a quick head shake.
“I wasn’t.” I swallow and pull in a breath through my nostrils. “I wasn’t eating her, Alice.”
Coco’s eyes flutter closed, and she adjusts Lula on her hip. “I’m so sorry, Owen. I thought your date was tomorrow night, and I thought we’d help with—” She crams her eyes closed, then peeks them open. “Annie, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! We’re going. We’re going!”
“Somebody better start explaining things down here,” Alice says. She stomps her foot and crosses her arms over her pink glittery T-shirt.
“Ah, we were kissing, Alice. I was kissing her.”
“I have never seen Daddy kiss Mama that way. You are doing it wrong, man.”
My heart is pounding, and I’m trying to decide how to respond to that when Annie beside me bursts with a bubble of laughter.
She slaps a hand over her mouth. “I’m going to go change,” she says, moving her wet backside past Coco, Alice, and Lulabelle. We hear her jog up the wooden staircase as she goes to scour my room for something dry to wear.
“Owen.” Coco sighs. “I cannot apologize enough! I really thought—”
“It’s fine.” My eyes drop to Alice. At least, I think it’s fine.
“You, young lady, must remember to knock before entering,” Coco scolds.
“You don’t knock,” Alice says with a mic-drop one-shoulder shrug. And she isn’t wrong. Coco and my brothers rarely knock before they enter my house. Before tonight, it never once bothered me.
“You’re right. But I did tell you to. And we will start knocking. Immediately.”
Alice sighs. “I don’t know. I think we got here just in time. Annie might have been meat for the wolves!”
My seven-year-old niece is making me second-guess my kissing skills.
“Alice.” Coco moans. “Come on, we’re going.”
“But I wanna say goodbye to Annie.”
Lula holds a chubby little fist my way, giving me a little wave or possibly telling me she’d like to stay too.Oof, those girls are hard to say no to.
“If she—” I start, but I’m secretly grateful when Coco gives me a look to shut me up.
“Let’s go see Uncle Miles.”
“Yes!” Alice pumps her fist. “M&Ms!”
I walk over to the trio, ready to walk them to the door. Coco gives me a side hug, and Lula latches onto my shirt collar.
“Come on, sweetie.” Coco hushes the babe. But Lula fusses, and like a sucker, I take the baby at her command.
“I’m sorry, Owen.”
