AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I lift her into my arms and connect the call with both our faces on the screen.
“Hi, Thomas. How are you?”
“Much better now I’m seeing two of my favorite girls…plus you, of course, Summer,” he yells at the last second in case she’s listening.
“She’s not in the room,” I say with a smile, one I’m sure doesn’t quite meet my eyes, but he doesn’t notice.
“Ha, lucky. How are you, princess?” he says, turning his attention to Katie.
“Good. I got—”
“Before you start,” I interrupt, “I’m just going to talk to your uncle, Katie. Can you hold my phone?”
Katie bounces up and down in my arms, reaching for the device. “Yes, we can talk about secret stuff,” she says to Thomas, trying to wink.
I put her down on the floor, and she immediately launches into conversation while I head over to Dylan. I’m midway through another lecture from him when Katie yells “finished” and drops the phone to the floor before walking away.
“Go and grab your phone,” Dylan says, ending his anti-hospital visit rant. “Chances are Thomas is still there and most likely still talking. Katie’s always disappearing on me halfway through a call.”
I bark out a laugh before jogging into the kitchen, and sure enough, Thomas’s smiling face is staring up at me from the tiles.
“Hey, down there.”
“I can see up your skirt,” he jokes.
“I’m wearing pants.”
“And they say these new camera phones are better.”
My lips pull into a smirk and I roll my eyes at his poor attempt at a joke. “Oh, Thomas. I miss you.”
I know we’re not technically family—we’re both just in-laws to each other’s siblings, but he’s always treated me like we are and I love him for it.
“I miss you too, Wifey,” he jokes, and I chuckle at the nickname he gave me when I first took the Kelly name. College Lucy would have been swooning over that, but now he’s more like a brother.Brother… That word now has me cringing as an image of Wes and Greg comes to mind.
“Your dad jokes are on point, Thomas,” I say, needing to get out of my head. “And you’re not even a father.”
“No, but I’m soon to be an uncle again.”
Like the rest of my friends, Thomas treats Katie like she’s his niece. However, with Summer and Dylan’s son soon to be born, he’llofficiallybe an uncle.
“Speaking of being an uncle,” Thomas continues, “Katie sounds like she had a great day.”
“She did, thank you. And thanks for the gift you sent. You didn’t have to do that.”
Thomas laughs. “Of course I didn’t have to. I wanted to. My namesake deserves the world.”
My lips pull into a grin. “That she does.”
“So what’s going on with you and Dylan?”
The grin drops. “What?”
“I could see the two of you in a heated conversation in the background. Katie’s not the best at keeping the phone focused on her face.”
Shit!“It’s nothing.”
“Do I have to kick my brother-in-law’s ass for you?”
