33. Chapter 33
“You’re totally cheating! Quit giving each other signals,” Valerie said, pushing Andrea’s shoulder.
Andrea laughed and leaned into her wife. “No one’s cheating, love.” Even as she kissed her, she winked at Levi.
From her spot on the floor where she was bouncing Addy up and down, Melanie laughed. “Don’t let them lie to you, Valerie. They looked at your cards when you went to the bathroom.”
“I told you!” Valerie yelled and threw her cards on the table.
Levi laughed and looked over at her. “Really, cupcake?”
“Really.”
Andrea gathered all the cards and shuffled again. “Fine, but if we’re going to play for real, I need a drink. Anyone else?”
“Yes, please,” Levi said, standing up to go with her to the kitchen.
“Aunt Mellie, look!” Avrie said.
She leaned over to see better. “Wow, that’s really good. I think you can color better than me.”
Avrie giggled and ducked her head as she flipped to another page in her coloring book. Addy teetered then fell on her butt. She got right back up and waddled her way over to jump on Avrie. Her sister laughed and looked at Melanie. “Addy’s silly!”
“She is silly, huh?” Melanie said, standing up and walking over to the table where Val was sitting. The girls were wrestling around now, Avrie crawling on her knees to chase her sister as she tried to get away, squealing in delight. They were too cute.
“I can’t believe they’re still awake,” Val said, looking at the clock. “Usually they’re passed out by now.’
“Who could sleep when they have Aunt Mellie to play with?” Levi said with a laugh, setting a glass down for her before kissing her cheek. Judging by the smell, it was vodka cranberry. He was holding a beer.
“Right, they get tired of playing with me,” Valerie said with an eye roll. “Mommy is only fun for so long.”
“It’s good that they have each other to play with,” Melanie said, still watching them laugh because Addy had ‘tackled’ Avrie.
“‘Drea?”
“Coming. Just a second,” Andrea called from the kitchen.
Levi sat and shuffled the cards. “New game. Hold ‘em, twos are wild.”
“No cheating this time!”
Melanie laughed at Valerie who was giving him a glare.
“On my honor,” he promised, holding a hand over his heart.
Andrea came around the corner, a glass of whiskey in one hand and a bowl in the other. She put the bowl down in front of Valerie with a wink. “My apology to you.”
“Well,” Val said, looking down at the ice cream. “I forgive you just this once.”
They all chuckled as Andrea took her seat. She looked over at the girls and smiled before catching Melanie’s eye.
Melanie smiled back and gave her a small nod. This was exactly what she had needed. “Ok, dealer. No funny business,” she said and kicked Levi under the table.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” he said, tossing their cards out around the table.
Behind them, she heard Avrie talking quietly and glanced back to see what had caused the change in tempo. Addy was in her lap now and Avrie was ‘reading’ to her from a book. When she turned back to the table, Val said, “She’s had that memorized since she was two. It’s her favorite.”
“I have a feeling we’re going to have to turn one of the rooms in this house into a library,” Andrea said, taking a sip. “But I hope she never loses her love for being read to or trying to read on her own.”
Melanie smiled while sorting her cards. “I was a bookworm too, but according to my mom, Berkland doesn’t—well they didn’t back then anyway—have a good children’s library.”
“We’ve noticed,” Valerie said. She took a bite of her ice cream and looked at Andrea. Whatever that look was, it was one that definitely read as ‘told you.’
“Who wants cards?” Levi asked.
They went around exchanging out their cards and waiting for him to flip the ones in the middle. But her mind was still on the books.
“What if DeLaney built a children’s library?” she asked, not fully thinking it through before the words left her mouth. “I mean you said you needed to turn one of your rooms here into a library, but there’s a lot of people who can’t do that. It would be a total tax write off too.”
Andrea smirked and looked at Val, “Did you plan this?”
“What? No!”
“Plan what?” Levi asked, looking between them.
“Mommy,” Avrie said in that strange kid whisper that’s never actually a whisper.
They all looked over. Addy was asleep in Avrie’s lap. “Guess I spoke too soon about them staying up late. One second, baby.” She looked at Levi, “Flip the last card that way you can’t cheat while I go move her.”
He laughed and did as he was told.
Melanie folded. Valerie smiled and pushed more of her chips in the pot. Andrea did too, but Levi folded.
“Straight,” Valerie said.
“I can testify that you aren’t, love,” Andrea joked and laughed after they did. Val stuck out her tongue. “But you win. Three of a kind.”
“See I can win if you don’t cheat! Don’t deal, I’ll be right back.”
Andrea got up too. After Valerie grabbed Addy, she helped Avrie up. “Go say good night to Uncle Levi and Aunt Melanie.”
“I’m not sleepy yet.”
“You look sleepy, and the sooner you go to bed, the sooner we can have pancakes in the morning, right?”
Avrie nodded and reluctantly came to give them hugs.
“Night, Rie Rie,” Levi said, kissing her head. He was the only one who called her that and she loved it.
When it was her turn, Melanie scooped her up and spun her around. “Good night, munchkin.”
“Wuv you, Aunt Mellie.”
She smiled and kissed her cheek. “I love you too.”
“Come on, Doodlebug,” Andrea said, taking her from Melanie. “I’ll be back in five.”
“Take your time.”
Levi patted his lap. After she sat, she kissed him. “Thanks for coming over here. How’s your head?”
“It doesn’t hurt at all.” He kissed her again, rubbing her thigh. “I’m glad to see you smiling again.”
“Yeah, I know I’ve been a mess, but going with Andrea to see and understand what happened helped.” Not to mention the heart to heart and pep talk that she had received. He didn’t need to know about all of that though. “Being here tonight feels good.”
“Good.” He took a swig of his beer and looked around. “This weekend we should get out of the house. Maybe we can go stay at Andrea’s cabin or something. I think a change of scenery would be nice.”
She nodded and leaned her head against his. “I’d like that.”
“Then that’s the plan.”
“You know what else I’d like?”
“Tell me.”
“To see you chasing our own kids around like you were the girls tonight.”
He pulled back to look in her eyes, searching back and forth. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. You’re going to be a great father.” She kissed him again softly. “It might take a while for the birth control to get out of my system, but we should try. They’ll have Avrie and Addy to grow up with. Some of my cousins are still little…”
“Mel—”
She covered his lips with her fingers. “Andrea said something to me tonight. Things happen. That’s life. But we have to keep pushing forward. Nothing changes until people like us make it change. So, let’s push forward.”
“I’m with you, every step of the way,” he said with a big smile on his face.
“Good.” She kissed him until she heard a door close in the hallway. “Now, I’m going to kick your butt in poker.”
“Don’t count on it,” Andrea said, coming around the corner, holding Valerie’s hand. “Queen of poker is my title.”
“Self-proclaimed,” Val mumbled.
Melanie laughed and moved around to her chair. “We can’t let you have all the titles, Boss.” She looked at Levi. “Let’s do this.”
“Let’s,” he said, still smiling way too big.