Dark Desire

The girls began to argue about which family-friendly movie they wanted to watch first, and my thoughts drifted. Jessi and Trent were off for a charity ball, and I’d been enlisted to watch the girls and baby Harry. I knew the routine. I’d helped with babysitting since the girls were firstborn and had also helped with my other nieces and nephews. Over the last five years, what was a small family of three brothers and a sister had turned into one huge family. I often flew back and forth to watch the children who resulted from my brothers’ unexpected but welcome romances.

The hard men I’d barely known in my younger days had become men with a softness around their hard edges, and I was a spinster. I looked at the bowl in front of me, totally untouched, and imagined a candle on the top of it. The birthday song played in my head, and I had to swipe a tear away. How had all of them forgotten it was my birthday? I hadn’t received a call from my brothers or sisters-in-law. Even Trent and Jessi had forgotten about the event. I’d hoped that one of them would remember that there’d been a surprise element to tonight’s babysitting gig, but no. They’d planned to attend a charity event in downtown Myrtle Beach.