Page 167 of Manhattan Bossholes

Hailey tilted her head, her little lips puckering. “But Uncle Aiden says you’re good at everything.”

My furious blush returned. “Did he now?”

“Yep!” Hailey said.

My stomach fluttered. What else had Aiden been saying about me? I patted the seat next to me, and Hailey scrambled into it while I tucked my phone away. “So, what are we thinking?” I asked. “One braid or two?”

“Two,” Hailey said. “I have two elastics.”

“You definitely do. I guess two only makes sense.”

“Yep!” she said again, kicking her feet.

I combed my fingers through her hair gently, separating it into two halves. This wasn’t going to be perfect, but I was hoping Hailey wasn’t picky enough to care. “So, do you see Uncle Aiden a lot?”

“Hmm…yeah sometimes,” she said. “Here at Daddy’s work. At Nana Dee’s house. Sometimes we go to the park.”

“Wow,” I said, weaving three pieces of silky hair back and forth. “That’s fun.”

“Uh-huh. And we went to Uncle Trent’s birthday party, and we had cake.”

“No way!” I said. “Cake? What kind?”

“A red one.”

“Red velvet?”

“Yep.”

“And was Uncle Aiden there?”

Hailey nodded as I twisted the first elastic around the end of her tiny braid. “He had cake too.”

I shifted her around on her stool so I could tackle the other side. “And did Uncle Aiden…talk about me?”

Hailey nodded again, accidentally tugging her hair out of my hands. “Daddy said he saw sparks, and everybody laughed at Uncle Aiden.”

Hmm…Had Dominic been talking about sparks flying between Aiden and me?

“Then his face got all red.”

“Uncle Aiden’s?” I asked, getting the second elastic around the end of her other braid.

“Yeah.” She touched her cheeks and tilted her head. “Like this.”

“Oh, I see.” I poked her belly, and she giggled. Hailey apparently had excellent hearing and zero filter. She was a good little informant.

“Sometimes Uncle Aiden takes me for ice cream.”

“That’s so nice of him.”

She nodded, but it was less enthusiastic than before. “Daddy asks him to. So he can have grown-up talks with Mommy.”

“Grown-up talks are important,” I said diplomatically. It was crazy how much children picked up on, even as hard as Dominic was working to keep Hailey’s world as normal as possible.

“But why do grown-up talks have so much yelling? Daddy always tells me big girls are supposed to use their inside voices. But those are their outside voices.”

I sighed, hugging her close. “You know, I think you’re right.” I tapped her nose with my fingertip. “But as long as you remember to use your inside voice, that’s what matters. Right?”