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Huh. That had the potential to turn into a disaster. But I didn’t have to cook. We still had plenty of leftovers from yesterday. I just had to reheat it.
“Only if you help me put on an apron,” I told Annie.
She was obviously feeling very clappy today, because she jumped down from the couch and ran toward the kitchen, clapping loudly. I followed her quickly and took the apron out of the drawer where I stored towels and such. I quickly threw it over me and then lowered myself onto my knees so Annie could tie it at the back.
“I’m happy Uncle Nick is coming to live with us.”
“I’m happy, too, Annie.”
“He always brings pizza.”
I laughed. Nick knew his way to these kids’ hearts.
I wondered how Annie would respond to him being here every evening during our routine and so on. An image flashed in my mind of the four of us cuddled on the couch. I melted at the mere thought.
Don’t get used to it, Allison. This is just to help you out with custody. Then it’ll be you and the twins again, and Nick will go back to his life.
Of course he would. If I had a penthouse, you’d have to drag me out of it for me to leave. I’d never do that voluntarily.
We had garbanzo beans and rice for dinner. It had been one of Nora’s favorites. I felt much closer to her when we had this meal, and I knew the same was true for the twins. I asked them a bit about their daycare, and suddenly Jack was very chatty. He was becoming so much more confident. I loved it. He seemed to be coming out of his shell more and more. Jack loved the new girl the daycare had hired from the morning he first saw her, and I was sure she’d made all the difference in the world to him.
After I put the twins to bed, I finally managed to take off the dress and laid it out on my comforter to admire it. It was truly gorgeous and worthy of a wedding day, fake or not.
I couldn’t believe I was getting married in two days. And yet, I didn’t have any wedding jitters.
***
On Friday evening, I was eating my words because I couldn’t go to sleep at all. I tossed and turned in bed and couldn’t separate one thought from another.
At about one o’clock in the morning, I realized I wasn’t going to sleep at all, so I grabbed my phone. I was debating if I should spend time on social media or watch YouTube tutorials on how to wear my hair. It would have been far too complicated to ask Doreen to come tomorrow morning to watch the twins while I went to a salon, so I’d decided to do it myself. To my surprise, I had a message from Nick.
Nick: Hey, are you sleeping?
He’d sent it an hour ago, so he probably wasn’t awake anymore, but I decided to reply anyway.
Allison: Wide awake.
He called me right away. Swallowing hard, I put the phone to my ear.
“Hi,” I said.
“Why are you whispering? Are the twins with you?”
“Oh, no, sorry. I don’t know.” I sat up on the bed with my back against the headrest.
“I can’t sleep,” Nick said.
I laughed. “Neither can I. We’re both going to be zombies tomorrow.”
“I think adrenaline will kick in as soon as we arrive at city hall.”
“Yeah, that is a distinct possibility.”
I hadn’t spoken much to him since our night together. I knew he was deliberately trying to minimize our contact—which was a good thing, considering that right now, my entire body was full of energy just because I was hearing his voice.
“Ready for tomorrow?”
“Absolutely not, but I’m going to trust a certain sexy CEO that things will work out.”