“What?”
“You said they wanted you to be the face of things. I think you’re well aware that being an attractive white guy probably helps.”
“I am notunawareof that fact.”
“That’s all I’m saying.”
“But I’m gonna use my attractive-white-guy powers for good.”
“One of the few.”
“Indeed.”
Her phone buzzes in her bag and she reaches down for it, frowning at the screen.
“Shit.”
“What? Is it Chloe? Do we need to go back?”
“No, no, it’s Erik. He . . . ugh, it’s my fault. I told him I’d babysit the boys tonight and I completely forgot about it, you know with everything.”
The fake engagement, the surprise party, her parents giving her a shit ton of money, her friend breaking up with herboyfriend . . . Yeah . . . the last few days have been complete chaos.
“I’d ask if you can bail, but you’re not going to, are you?”
‘They asked forever ago. It’s for Adam’s law firm. They do this start-of-summer barbecue thing in Santa Barbara and . . .”
“So, two six-month-olds, how hard can it be? We got this.”
“No, you deserve to rest. You’ve been going nonstop and . . .”
“They won’t think it’s weird I didn’t show up with you? Besides, I . . .” he might as well admit it, “literally have nothing better to do.”
“Xavier . . .” She trails off.
“We’ll get there, put the babies to bed, order some food and watch movies. It’ll be fine.”
“You have a lot of experience with babies?”
“Absolutely none, but I have full faith, after meeting him one time, that Erik will have a laminated and bound printout of instructions he wants us to follow while they’re gone and I am very good at following instructions.”
“I’ve noticed,” she says, biting down on her bottom lip, and he can’t help it, he lets out a groan.
“C’mon, boss, that’s unfair.”
She just laughs at him and changes the subject, thank God. “You’re sure you want to come tonight?”
He ignores the double entendre entirely, despite her laughter. “Positive.”
Erik’s instructions aren’t laminated and bound, but they are in a three-ring binder with dividers and sheet protectors.
“I was close,” he mutters to Bianca as Adam shows them, one more time, exactly how to warm up the twins’ bottles in the bottle warmer (insert bottles, press button, wait until the machine beeps, remove bottles).
Bianca’s got one of the boys, Logan, in her arms while Erik is changing the other, Nathan, before they leave.
“They only need one more feed tonight before they go to bed,” Adam says for the third time, “and they’ve been pretty good at sleeping through the night, at least for the last week or so. We just changed them, so they should be good diaper-wise until it’s time for bed.”
Erik takes a deep breath to cut in. “Which is at . . .”
