Page 43 of This Heart
Liam waved off any help. “No, please, you guys don’t have to clean up anything. I appreciate you coming and…um…”
“Sleeping during the movie?” I said as I folded my arms over my chest.
“That is our cue to leave,” Harper said as she reached for Declan’s hand.
I wasn’t about to leave Liam with the mess to clean up, so I hung back. After everyone left, Liam shut the door and looked at me with a soft smile. “You stayed back to clean up, didn’t you?”
Shrugging, I replied, “I might have. There was no way I would leave you behind with all of this.”
I reached down and started picking up the popcorn bowls while Liam grabbed the drinks.
“What in the world made you decide one day to add M&M’s and Skittles into your popcorn?”
Laughing, I answered. “Growing up, we used to get to pick one snack that we could eat during movie nights. I loved M&M’s, Nathan was, and still is, a Skittles whore, and Lou loves popcorn. We used to hate it when our parents made us pick only one. So one night I decided we needed to combine them all, and when it turned out to be one snack, our parents couldn’t say no.”
He chuckled. “That’s brilliant.”
I shrugged. “I think once our parents saw it would stop the fighting over movie snack night, they were on board.”
“I bet it was fun growing up with Nate and Lou.”
I nodded. “It was, but we had our moments and knock-down fights. Especially Nathan and me. By the time Lou had come along, she was like a shiny new toy and everyone spoiled her.”
“I think my dad wanted more kids, but my mother was barely able to give him one.”
“Why’s that?”
He shook his head. “She always said it was hard for her. Never really explained.”
“Do you mind if I ask why she didn’t like Hope? I thought after the cancer she would have been a bit kinder, but she was awful to her.”
His face looked so sad. “She never liked Hope from the get-go. She thought we got married too soon, which we had. She also thought Hope was in it just for the money.” He shrugged. “I’m not even sure my mother liked me.”
“Oh, don’t be silly. All mothers love their kids.”
He turned and looked at me and asked, “Do they?”
Surprised, I replied, “Of course they do. Look at how Hope loved Winnie.”
All he did was nod, then focused on the last few dishes to clean. We worked in silence until the last dish was placed in the dishwasher.
Clearing my throat, I let out a breath and faced Liam. “I should get going.”
“Before you leave,” Liam said as he dropped a dishcloth onto the counter, “what did everyone think about Kim?”
Chewing on my lip as I thought about what I was going to say, I simply shrugged. I couldn’t think of a nice way of saying anything about Kim, so I just said, “I’m not sure.”
Liam raised a brow. “You’re not sure or you don’t want to say? I know that little fit she pitched at the end was kind of weird, but she misunderstood why that movie was picked. She thought everyone was making fun of her for being the nanny. I told her again when we walked outside how we picked the movie before she even came to the interview.”
“Yes, I told her the same thing.”
Liam nodded. “Tell me what everyone thought of her. She’s going to be Winnie’s nanny, and most of you will be interacting with her, so I really want to know.”
I exhaled. “She comes off a bit…strong. I think maybe you need to make sure you keep the lines drawn.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, you hired her as your nanny, and I’m not sure having her over for movie night with your friends was the right thing to do.”
