Page 73 of The Single Dad's Guide to Recreation

Owen follows her, chest out. “You’re like, half an inch taller than me.”

“Like two inches you mean. I thought you were the math wiz.”

“I am. And you need glasses.” He straightens. “Right, Aunt Avery?”

I hold up my hands. “Not getting involved. But I do have a favor to ask.”

“What do we get for it?” Owen asks.

Riley hip checks him before flopping into a chair. “Shut up, Shorty. You don’t get paid for a favor.”

“Not even candy?” he asks hopefully before sitting down next to her.

“Don’t tell your dad.” I pull a box out of my bottom drawer and we each take a piece of locally made fudge.

“So what’s the fav?” Riley asks between licking her fingers. It’s like she speaks in texts these days.

“Weelll,” I begin, moving papers around until I find a legal pad. “I’m wondering if you two think there’d be a demand in your peer group for after school jobs?”

“Definitely,” Owen says at the same time that Riley asks, “Like, what kind of jobs?”

“Working with elementary school kids.”

Twin sets of eyes widen slightly, then twin heads whip to face each other. Some sort of twin mind meld happens for a few moments before they turn back to me.

Owen says, “Well, it depends.”

“Yeah,” Riley says. “We’d have to have a noncompete clause in our contract.”

“A what now?”

Riley crosses her legs and leans back in her chair. “It’s not easy working with teens’ schedules.”

Owen shrugs. “That’s why we created the app.”

“App? What app?”

Riley kicks her brother. “Owen.”

“What? I thought we were?—”

“Yeah, but not like every detai?—”

“It’s Aunt Avery.” Owen points at me. “She’s too old to figure shit like this out.”

“Owen. Language,” I say before adding with a shudder, “I’m too old? For what?”

After another silent exchange, Owen makes ayou do itgesture at Riley. She sighs and sets her elbows on her knees. “Owen and me have a babysitting business. Parents and teens subscribe to our app, and we match them for gigs.”

I knew my friends’ kids were smart, but this is next level. “How long has this been going on?”

“Um…” Riley looks at Owen, like she can see the timeline in his face. “We started babysitting when we were twelve after taking that class your mom offered. Then we got so popular we started farming out the jobs to other people. Then Owen made the app a couple months ago.”

“But your mom always says you’re too busy to babysit.”

“We’re too busy running a business to babysit for free for her friends,” Riley clarifies.

“Anyway,” Owen adds. “Riley would rather manage people than actually babysit.”

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