Chapter Twelve
Xander
“And then we baked another pecan pie. I’m even better than I was at the baking competition at school,” Bella exclaimed proudly. She’d chosen baking in the talent competition, and because she and Scarlett practiced thoroughly, she’d won. But my niece was a lot like me—she liked to be the very best at whatever she did. It was no wonder that she kept practicing even after the competition was over.
“Good for you. And pecan pie is still your favorite, huh?” I asked her.
She nodded vehemently. Bella had powdered sugar all over her mouth, chin, and even her cheeks. She’d always eaten beignets like this, literally with her whole face. “Yes, but beignets do come in a very close second. Or maybe they’re first and pecan pie is second,” she said, frowning at the beignet as if it was a hard decision. “But I want to try other pies as well, like apple pie. Maybe even cherry.”
“You want to become a baker?”
“No. I just like spending time with Scarlett. I like how she explains everything, and she never gets mad at me like Mommy.”
All right, I’d been mistaken. I thought she wanted to perfect her skills even more, but it turned out that she did it simply because it was an activity she enjoyed doing with Scarlett.
“Your dad says you haven’t been to your mom’s in a while,” I said carefully.
No one in the family truly liked Sarah. We’d all given her a fair shot in the beginning, and I personally didn’t have anything against her. Only after my brother Chad revealed that she’d been cheating did I completely change my opinion about her. That opinion only worsened when she started to show less and less interest in her daughter. But we all had an unspoken agreement to never badmouth her in front of Bella. I was simply trying to gauge if my impression from what Chad was relaying to the family was the right one.
“Mom travels a lot these days.”
I would never understand how the woman had so little desire to see her own flesh and blood.
“But I don’t care,” she continued. “I like staying home on weekends. Scarlett has lots of time because she doesn’t work brunch, so we do a lot together. We even started reading Harry Potter to my sister. Dad always pretends that he’s got work to do when we go to the reading room.”
I burst out laughing. “Yes, he told me that.”
“But we caught on to him. It’s okay, though. I like being with Scarlett. She’s really nice to me. I wonder if she’d like to be my mommy officially.”
I nearly dropped my beignet. This was a very delicate topic. I cleared my throat. “You would like that,” I stated more than asked.
“Yes, she’s amazing. And I don’t think Mommy would mind.” She didn’t seem upset about it.
“Have you spoken to your dad about it?” I asked.
“No.” She looked at me with big eyes. Putting down her beignet, she laced her fingers together in front of her. I immediately realized she was trying to copy Isabeau. She had the same serious expression too. Though with her face still covered with powdered sugar, it was hard for me not to laugh, but I was doing my best.
“Do you think that’s a good idea, Uncle Xander? Tell me the truth. You don’t pull punches.” Sometimes she spoke like a miniature adult, and it was hard to believe she was only ten.
“I think your dad would be happy to hear what you’ve got to say, and I’m sure Scarlett would too.”
“But what if she decides that she doesn’t want to be my mommy? What do we do then? What if she leaves? What if she moves to another house just with Simone?”
Jesus. I felt her words like a punch to the gut.
I moved my chair closer to hers and reached out to her cheeks, clearing off the sugar with a napkin. “That won’t happen, Bella. I promise.”
“How can you promise?”
She was right. How could I? This wasn’t my life. I had no business going around making promises. I also didn’t know how to explain to her that some adults were dependable, unlike her own mother. I’d seen Scarlett with Bella. She cared about the little girl as much as we did. She was attached to her.
“You’re right. It’s not my place to promise that. It’s something only your dad and Scarlett can do. But from what I’ve observed, I don’t think Scarlett will move anywhere else. She won’t leave you.”
“Okay, I believe you,” Bella said easily. And just like that, she went back to her beignet, her cheeks quickly covered in powdered sugar once more.
I took another bite of my own beignet, and then Bella shocked the hell out of me by asking, “Uncle Xander, did you ever think about asking a lady friend to live with you?”
I looked up at her and stammered, “N-No.”
“Why not? It’s awesome. Daddy’s so much happier since Scarlett is with us. He smiles a lot more. You could use some smiling. You really don’t smile a lot.”
If she was going to call me a Grinch, too, or a grump, like some sexy candymaker I knew...
Bella pushed her plate away, looking at me with that serious expression again. She truly reminded me of Isabeau a bit. “Uncle Xander, you’ve never lived with a lady friend?”
“No.” I was amazed that I was having this conversation with my niece.
“Then how can you know you don’t like it?”
“Kiddo, sometimes you don’t have to try out a thing to know you wouldn’t like it.”
“But that makes no sense! I always used to say, ‘I don’t like broccoli,’ but I tasted it once, and it was awesome! But it was green and butt-ugly, and I always thought, ‘I won’t like it.’”
“It’s not really the same thing.”
“How so?”
I had to choose my words carefully. I didn’t want to shut down the conversation and tell her it was none of her business or that it was adult stuff. It wasn’t my style. I always took her questions seriously and tried to break them down into responses she could understand. But this time, it was more difficult than usual.
“Sometimes you have an inkling of the things you like. After you’ve spent a lot of time living by yourself like me, you get used to life being that way.”
“Just because you get used to something doesn’t mean something else can’t be good,” Bella said, and for a second, I almost forgot that she wasn’t a teenager but still a kid. Where did she get this wisdom?
“That’s true. But when some things involve a big change, you have to consider it very carefully before making said change.”
“But you’ve considered it forever. You’re old.”
I winked at her. “And proud of it. The older I get, the more I know what I like.”
“You always say that you don’t like the Christmas season because everyone goes gaga. But you were happy at the open house with the eggnog and with Bailey. She’s so awesome, don’t you think? And her pralines are the best. The. Best! Scarlett says we can make some, but they won’t be as good as hers. But we’re going to try anyway.”
I sure as shit couldn’t give myself away in front of my niece. I couldn’t lie to her, but she didn’t need to know everything that was going on in my life. She wouldn’t be able to wrap her mind around it. Hell, I could barely do that. So I did the next best thing, and changed the topic. I asked her about her favorite Harry Potter book, and she lit up, immediately talking about book 3.
After finishing the beignets, I took her home. I spotted Chad’s car in front of the house, which meant he and Scarlett were back from their date already. If not, I would’ve spent the time with Bella until they returned.
“Great timing,” my brother said as we stepped inside. He was carrying Simone on his shoulder. Apparently, she was such a great sleeper that they even took her on their dates.
Scarlett was right next to him, smiling at Bella. “You still have some powdered sugar here and here.” She pointed to the corners of her mouth.
“I’m going to clean up upstairs,” Bella replied.
“Sure. And then it’s time for you to go to bed,” Chad said.
I always wondered how that was even possible after a rush of sugar, but it was none of my business. As I’d told Bella, I was single and planned to stay that way.
But for the first time in my life, it sounded hollow to me.
After Bella went upstairs, Chad put his arm around Scarlett’s waist. “Was she okay?”
“Of course. My niece is always okay,” I said with a wink. I debated telling him about our conversation, but even though she hadn’t specifically told me, I knew it was in confidence. She wouldn’t want me to blab about it. “We had a good catch-up.”
“What exactly did you have to catch up about?” Chad asked.
“Yeah, you two just caught up with things at the open house,” Scarlett added.
“Bella and I never run out of things to talk about,” I said in a conclusive tone. “And I am not spilling the beans. Everything I talk about with Bella stays between the two of us.”
“See, that’s why she likes him so much. He never blabs.”
I frowned. “Who does?”
Chad started to laugh. “That, brother, is something I won’t tell you. I do need my sources, after all.”
Right. Having a kid was clearly complicated. You wanted to give them the leeway but also wanted to know if they needed help or were in trouble. But Bella wasn’t in trouble, so I felt completely at ease with my decision not to share anything with them. “Have a good evening, you two.”
After I left their house and climbed into my car, I glanced at my phone.
I’d fought the impulse to text Bailey the whole evening. But now, I was alone and wanted to know how she was doing. Was she thinking about me as often as I was about her?
Xander: Home yet? My beignet date was a success. I just dropped Bella off at home, happy and smiling.
She didn’t reply, so I simply drove off. But on the way home, my phone lit up and I checked it.
Bailey: No, I’m still at the confectionery. We had a strong wind, and a branch fell from the tree right on top of the storage room.! It’s all a mess.
I instantly called her.
“Are you okay?” I asked as soon as she picked up. I couldn’t stand anything happening to her. My thoughts spiraled out of control just thinking about it. But she’d texted me and answered her phone. I took both those things as a good sign.
“Yes.”
“You weren’t hurt?”
“No, neither me nor anyone from the crew, thank goodness. We all heard a loud crack, so we got out of the building just in time.”
“Did you call the firemen?”
“Yes, they were here an hour ago. They’ve removed the branch. We’re just trying to see what we can salvage from all the boxes that were inside.” Her voice was trembling. “There’s also a lot of debris, so we need to clean that up first.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked her, starting to feel irrationally angry.
“Why would I?” she replied defensively.
It was a good question.
“I could’ve hired a team to help you.”
“There was no time, Xander. And anyway, my team is here. Listen, I have to go.”
“Sure.”
She hung up the next second.
Instead of driving home, I turned, heading in the direction of the confectionery. She had mentioned that her team was there, but clearly they were in over their heads. Without hesitating, I called Beckett.
“Hey, brother,” I greeted him.
“I gather your date with our favorite niece is over?”
“Yep.”
“Want to hang out, go to one of Julian’s bars?”
“No, listen. And before you interrupt me, let me finish what I have to say. There was an incident at the confectionery. A tree fell or something. Anyway, they need help cleaning up and seeing what part of the inventory can still be used. I’m going there to help. I haven’t been able to assess the situation myself yet, but I think they need all hands on deck. Do you have time to spare?”
“Man, that was a long-ass way to just say, ‘Can you come and lend us your muscle?’”
“Whatever. Can you?”
“Sure, why not? I don’t have anything else to do. All for dear Bailey, huh?”
I growled. “Beckett, don’t start.”
“Oh, come on, man. You mauled that poor woman in our parents’ kitchen. I thought some alien had snatched your body and replaced it, because that is definitely not like you.”
“I know,” I replied.
“Oh, okay, you do know. I figured you didn’t even realize you were acting out of character—which, by the way, is a good thing, okay? So, keep doing it.”
“Duly noted. Maybe Anthony has time too.”
“You think there’s that much damage?”
“Again, the more of us there are, the faster we’ll finish.”
“Sure. We should call Zachary there too. He’s always good at these types of things.”
“Good idea. Can you check if both have time?”
“But see, that would put me in a conundrum because then they’d ask, ‘Why the hell are you even doing this?’ And without your permission,” he said very sardonically, “I can’t tell them about the eggnog incident.”
“Beckett, you’re getting on my last nerve,” I gritted out.
“Yeah, I had the feeling that I was on thin ice already. Sure, count on me. I’ll ask them if they have time and tell them to direct any questions to you. How about that?”
“That’s perfect,” I replied, knowing full well that both Zachary and Anthony would instantly put two and two together. But at this point, I didn’t really care. What did it matter if they did? Why should I hide? Hell, maybe they could even chip in with advice—although Julian and Chad were probably the best at this dating thing.