Esther, Be Tender With My Love

II - Eight

Maurice walked through the front door wearing a tux that was identical to his brothers'. Following Maurice, Robin and his family appeared by the front door. Spencer and Melissa both shyly waved at me when we made eye contact. It seemed as though they were finally beginning to warm up to me. Hopefully by the end of the night, with the help of Andy, the kids will all take a liking to me.

"How hot do I look right now?" Maurice asked with a smirk as he appeared in front of me.

"Hmm," placing my finger on my chin, I looked up in fake thought. "On a scale of one to ten I'd say a solid 5.4."

Robin laughed at my response while Maurice glared at the both of us.

"Ouch." Maurice said dramatically with his hand over his heart like I'd shot him in the chest. "I guess I'll just leave now."

"Okay okay! I'm sorry! I take it back! You look really hot!!"

"Aww, thank you so much for saying that! That's so sweet of you!" Maurice beamed making me roll my eyes. He reached over and put his arm around my shoulder, giving my cheek a wet kiss.

Eventually, everyone left to go to the premiere. Maurice gave me a hug and another kiss on the cheek before leaving.

As soon as the parents were gone, all the kids went wild. They all lunged for Andy yelling, "UNCLE ANDY!!" I couldn't help but sit back with Ashley in my arms and watch, laughing as Andy was tackled to the ground by his niece and nephews.

"Okay okay! You guys got me! I'm down!" Andy yelled in defeat. The kids slowly got off of their uncle, giggling as he just layed there for a moment.

"Uncle Andy, can we go play outside?" Stephen asked desperately.

"Yeah!" The others squealed in agreement. "Can we please, please, please?"

Andy sighed and looked over at me.

"I don't know..." He began jokingly, "you guys tackled me to the ground. You'd be lucky to even be able to eat dessert tonight after that." He paused, knowing the kids would scream in protest and apologize. "What do you think Esther?" Should we play outside?" All eyes were on me as they patiently waited for my answer.

"Heck yeah we can play outside!" The kids cheered in pure happiness. "And maybe your uncle Andy is just embarrassed because y'all tackled him down." I joked. They laughed and pointed their fingers at Andy.

"Okay, wow... Thank you Es." Andy said, rolling his eyes playfully.

I watched from a lawnchair by the pool as Andy played tag with his niece and nephews. Boy did they play hard. Stephen was the orneriest little kid I'd ever seen. He was super skinny, super fast, and very much a prankster. Even being the athletic person he was, Andy had a bit of a hard time keeping up with Stephen.

Spencer was a different story. While he was athletic and full of energy, I could tell he'd rather be reading or making up his own stories to play pretend to. He reminded me of his father, Robin, in many ways. While they were both super creative and imaginative like that, they both also shared strikingly similar features. It's hard to explain exactly how Spencer looks like his father; there is just something about them that is identical.

Same with Melissa. Something about her resembled her father. Maybe it was the way her hair framed her face. Or maybe it was because she had the signature Gibb nose. Melissa reminded me of Jean Louise "Scout" Finch from to the story To Kill a Mockingbird. She had no female siblings or cousins on her father's side. The only people she really hung out with were her family. She played just as hard as her brother and cousin and always made sure she was included in their boyish antics. She'd rather play football with the boys than be inside playing Barbie dolls with the girls. I guess it's because of the way she was raised.