Page 58 of The Cinnamon Bun Book Store

‘It was an emergency!’ she protested and he only now realized the girls were huddled under what looked like a Bluey blanket. The pattern cast a blue tint to the girls’ faces.

‘Is everything alright?’

Cece’s face scrunched up like she was trying not to cry and Ivy put a comforting arm around her. Noah’s heart rate ratched up.

‘Girls, what’s going on?’

‘Mommy’s having another baby!’ Cece wailed. ‘And I don’t want one!’

Ivy nodded. ‘Babies cry all the time and they poop in their pants,’ she said with the deep wisdom that comes with being six.

At the mention of poop, Cece started giggling again and Noah felt like he was losing his mind.

‘Hey, wait a minute!’ Ivy pointed at the screen. ‘That’s not your house! Where are you, Uncle Noah?’

The girls’ inability to stay on topic was giving him whiplash like usual, but he hadn’t been prepared this morning. He hadn’t even had any damn coffee.

He glanced up and found Hazel slipping from the bed like she needed to hide in her own home. Which he hated. But he never introduced the women he ... slept with to his family. And certainly not his little nieces. What would he even say?

‘I’m at a friend’s house,’ he said.

‘Did you have a sleepover?’ Cece asked. ‘Mom says I can’t have one until I’m older. Only with Ivy.’ She rolled her eyes.

‘That’s probably a good idea.’ He actually had no idea what age was appropriate for sleepovers but he knew his oldest sister was crazy protective of Cece. And now his sister was having another baby. Was he even supposed to know? It stung that no one had told him, not that he would admit it.

Ivy’s eyes widened, her little face craning away from him. ‘Uh-oh. We gotta go...’

The blanket was snatched from their heads and both girls started screaming bloody murder.

‘Give it.’ His sister’s voice brokered no room for argument.

‘Bye, Uncle Noah!’ the girls called as Kristen’s face came into view.

‘Hey, sorry about that.’

‘Hey, Kris.’

Her eyebrows raised as she took in his surroundings but she didn’t ask where he was.

‘Hope the girls didn’t interrupt anything.’

‘No, not really.’

‘You don’t always have to answer for them.’

Noah frowned. ‘I like to.’ His nieces were the one part of his family that didn’t feel complicated. His love for them and theirs for him was simple and unconditional. He’d always answer the phone when they called.

Kristen nodded, studying him like big sisters do. What she was looking for he didn’t ever know, but he always felt like he came up short. Noah, the little brother, the flaky, high-school drop out, the perptetual screw up.

‘Are you coming home for the holidays this year?’

Noah looked up from his phone. Hazel was gone. And this was the last conversation he wanted to have in the middle of her bedroom. He hadn’t been home for the holidays in years and didn’t have any intention of going this year, either.

Hazel had called him a good uncle. She didn’t know that he’d only seen his nieces in person a grand total of three times.

He swallowed hard, the memory of their little bodies crashing into him in delighted hugs the last time he’d been home bringing unwanted emotions to the forefront.

‘Not sure.’