Page 51 of Kissing the Debutant
“Your parents sound wonderful.”
“They are pretty great.” He laughed, feeling relieved by her non-reaction to his father’s blue-collar job. “I was two seconds away from asking you out on a real date tonight before my mom called to ask me to pick up the hellions.”
“Oh, really.” She leaned beside him against the kitchen counter.
“Yeah, so I hope you don’t mind a little babysitting and baking, followed by a family dinner instead.”
“Sounds exciting.” Her eyes sparkled with interest.
“Exciting?” He went to the pantry to sort out the ingredients for cookies. “Not hardly. But I can promise a very loud afternoon with a couple of cute kids and the possibility of a pizza later.”
“I’m an only child, and it’s just been me and my mom since Dad died. I used to dream about what it would be like to have a little brother or sister.”
“You can borrow mine any time you want.” He grabbed the flour, sugar, and baking powder from the pantry and moved to the refrigerator for the butter and jam.
“So you dance, you work a part-time job, you choreograph amazing routines, you’re like Mr. Big Brother,andyou bake?” Lillian hopped onto the counter.
“What can I say, I’m a multi-tasker.” He stood in front of her, surprised when she pulled him closer, pressing her lips to his. Jack rested his hands on her hips, deepening their kiss as his heart rate kicked up a notch. He could get used to Lillian kissing him.
“Ew, gross!” Alexis sing-songed. “Is she your girlfriend?”
Jack stepped back, shaking his head. Part of him wanted to kill his little sister, but she was too cute to murder. “Come show me your homework, squirt. Did you finish everything at Mrs. Patterson’s?”
“I’m five, Jacky. My homework takes no time.” She shoved her backpack on the kitchen table, rooting through her workbook for her assignment. “See.” She held up her homework sheets for him to inspect.
“I don’t know, kiddo. This looks hard.” Jack sat down at the table, pulling her onto his lap. “What’s this picture of a fruit basket about?”
“I have to count the fruit, silly. There’s three ‘nannas, two apples, and four oranges.”
“And this? What’s this doodle over here?” He pointed to a scribble of red crayon.
“That’s a picture for my teacher.” Alexis rolled her eyes.
“You think you’ll get an A+ for this?”
“Yes! Now can we make cookies, Jacky?”
“Jacky has to check Wyatt’s homework first,” Lillian said, sitting in the chair beside him. “Can you come show me your coloring book?”
Alexis slid off Jack’s lap and grabbed her coloring book and her fat crayons and went to Lillian like Jack was yesterday’s news. “I’m working on a unicorn.” She climbed onto Lillian’s lap. “It’s purple and pink with sparkles!”
“Ooh, show me.” Lillian helped her flip through the pages. “I love unicorns.”
“Wyatt!” Jack called down the hall. “Hustle up, soldier!”
Wyatt came running down the hall, tugging his baggy jeans up. “I finished my homework already.” He grabbed his backpack and sorted through his notebook. “I’m in second grade so my homework is a lot harder than Lexi’s.” He placed his math homework on the table, puffing out his chest like only a proud second grader could. That was his little brother, charming his almost-girlfriend.
“This looks tough, bro.” Jack scratched his head as he checked over the simple addition and subtraction. “How do you think you did?”
“I think I did okay.” Wyatt took a step back.
“Okay?” Jack frowned, picking up a pencil to mark the six problems Wyatt missed. “I want you to try these again, and then you can help us make cookies for Dad.”
“Can I do the jam part? That’s my favorite.”
“We’ll wait for you.” Jack winked.
“Okay.” Wyatt’s shoulders fell, and his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
