Page 52 of The Quit List
Mindy and Luke have a really nice townhouse in a really nice suburb that looks really normal and nice from the outside.
But then, you open the door and are immediately swept off your feet by both a tornado and a hurricane.
That tornado and hurricane being Sage and Sawyer, my adorable—but very noisy and destructive—niece and nephew.
“Aghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!”
Sawyer is screaming at the top of his lungs when I push open the front door. Behind him, Sage is bashing him over the head with a plastic toy Paw Patrol cell phone that keeps exclaiming “Chase is on the case!” with every blow.
“No, no, no, no, no.” Mindy comes skidding into the hallway in her sock feet. She swoops down to wrangle the cell phone out of Sage’s clutches while simultaneously rubbing Sawyer’s head. “Gentle hands, honey, remember? We don’t hit our brother. Or Mommy. Or anyone.”
Sage laughs like this is the funniest thing in the world.
“Hi, Hol,” Mindy says to me as she scoops up a still-bawling Sawyer and places him on her hip. “Just another fun evening at Casa Donovan. Hope you brought earpl…”
Mindy’s mouth falls open when she spots the huge hunk of man hovering in the doorway behind me. Her eyes light up like a slot machine hitting the jackpot. “Who is this?”
“Mindy, this is my friend Jax. Jax, my sister Mindy… and her mini sociopaths.”
As I say this, I make a gimme motion, and Mindy dutifully plops Sawyer into my arms. I cuddle him close, inhaling that delicious baby scent he still has. At sixteen months, the twins are growing fast, and it makes me want to slow time right down to keep them this tiny and delicious-smelling for longer.
“Nice to meet you, Mindy,” Jax says warmly, extending his hand. “Thank you for having me.”
She takes his hand and pumps it up and down enthusiastically, her eyes still starry. “Holly told me she was bringing a friend, but none of her other friends look anything like you.”
“Shut up, Min.”
“No. Look at this man. Why is he your friend and not something way more exciting?” She says this in a stage whisper he can obviously still hear, and then adds, at equally non-subtle whisper volume, “Don’t you want to climb him like a tree?”
As if.
Hot as he is, I will certainly not be doing any climbing of any kind on Jax. In fact, on the way here, he helpfully suggested that I update the bio on my Spark profile to read “looking for sparks, fireworks, and someone to hold my hand on my next adventure.”
Which, I have to admit, has a less intense, much snappier vibe to it.
“Shut up, Mindy.”
My sister is all brash confidence and zero filter, which is the worst combination to be around for the embarrassment factor.
“Oh, are you gay?” Mindy asks Jax, then looks at me again. “That would explain it, because if I were you, Hol, I’d be all over that like white on rice.”
“You can’t just ask people that,” I say through clenched teeth. “And for the record, no, he’s not. Not that it would matter if he was, because he’s my friend.”
Mindy gives me squinty eyes. “Either way, we will be talking about this later.”
“We brought wine,” Jax cuts in swiftly, proffering a nice bottle of chablis and looking very much like he’s trying not to laugh.
“I love you already,” Mindy tells him as she accepts the bottle, thankfully stopping with her ridiculous Spanish Inquisition into our platonic relationship for the moment. Once you get to know her, you realize she’s got a heart of gold, but she can be a lot to take at first. “Come in, both of you.”
As we move into the foyer, Sage pauses her maniacal cackling for a moment to stare up at Jax with big googly eyes. A little piece of drool spills out the side of her open mouth. A little obvious, but I can’t say I blame her—Jax is hot.
“Up,” she commands him, holding her chubby little arms up like she’s about to begin a miniature sun salutation.
Jax’s eyes pop, his forehead puckering as he looks from Sage, to me, to Mindy, to Sage again. Mindy shrugs. “She really likes men. You can pick her up.”
“Uhh,” Jax says.
“You don’t have to,” I tell him.