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“How come the mom is too busy?” I flicked my gaze to Maddy and then Seraphina.
Mila didn’t look up as she brushed out her little dog’s hair, “She just owns all the places in the whole world.”
Maddy rolled her eyes and set the doll down. “No, she doesn’t. This is stupid…I don’t even want to play.”
Mila looked up then, her blue eyes suddenly watering out of nowhere.
“You promised you would play!”
Seraphina moved next, tossing her doll to the ground. “It’s lame, Mila. Let’s just watch TV or go sneak into Uncle Cole’s garage again.”
Mila was full-on crying now, and my heart ached for her. I knew what it felt like to be the rejected one in the family, the sibling no one wanted to be around.
“Hey, what if we build a fort?”
All three girls paused and slowly turned toward me.
“A fort?”
I nodded, standing up and walking toward the bed.
“We could use some chairs, and toss blankets over them…put pillows inside…then maybe I can do your hair or your nails?”
Why was I volunteering to brush out Mila’s hair? That was going to take a lot of arm strength and the girl was going to cry for sure. I didn’t want to make her cry.
“Sorry, girls.” Liam suddenly stepped inside the room, and it seemed like all the air left it.
He had ink on his chest, too, from the sneak peek he was offering at his throat.
I swallowed and looked down. Unsure why, but I felt like an intruder in here as he knelt down to get at eye level with his kids.
“It’s time to go. Uncle Cole isn’t feeling well and wants to go to bed early.”
That meant Colson was thinking about Nora and likely going to drink.
“Here, let’s clean up,” Liam said, reaching for the dolls.
“But Dad, Haley was going to build a fort with us,” Mila whined, swiping at her eyes again. Was it weird that I counted it a victory that she finally stopped calling me Makeup Lady?
“Yeah and do our hair…” Seraphina added, while putting the doll she had played with away.
“And nails,” Maddy tagged on at the end as they shuffled the basket of dolls back into the closet.
“Well maybe some other time.” Liam glanced up at me briefly before looking back down at his girls.
What was that look? Did he want me to bail him out of this somehow? I wasn’t really used to being around kids, and I wasn’t sure what parental looks were or how to decode them.
“But when?” Mila pressed, and Liam glanced up at me again. This time his eyes seemed to narrow. Shit, he wanted me to do something…but what?
Fuck it.
“Tomorrow! You guys can come see me if you want… if your dad is okay with it. Nora has a beautiful tea set I’m sure she’ll let us use and maybe we can wear some of my fun sun hats and pretend we’re in London.”
“Yes!” all three girls screamed in unison.
Liam hung his head as if I had done something wrong.
“You guys have school tomorrow, did you forget?”
