While eating lunch just after noon the next day, Ash heard her text alert noise from her pocket. She extracted her phone and checked it.
'I'll be there in about twenty minutes to drop off Chris.'
'Okay. See you soon.'
While waiting, Ash set about cleaning up and vacuuming. She was just putting away the vacuum when the doorbell rang. She hurriedly put the vacuum off to the side and went to open the door. "Hey, all right?" she asked with a smile.
Ben grinned. "Yeah, you?"
"I'm well, yeah," she said with a nod while stepping to the side to let them in.
"Right. Well this is Hal," he said nodding to the infant in his arms. "And this is Chris," he said tipping his head to the toddler by his leg. He then knelt down and spoke to his son. "Now, Chris. You're going to listen to Ashling, yes?"
Chris nodded.
"And you're going to be good, yes?"
Another nod.
"That's a good lad," Ben said before kissing to top of his son's head, then standing up. "Right. Em, I'll be back in about an hour to collect him. Call if you need to, of course. And--"
Ashling cut him off. "I'm sure we'll be fine. Off you go."
He grinned. "Right. Thanks again."
"Yeah, no worries." She shut the door behind him then turned to Chris. "Right. Cartoons?"
A smile broke out over Chris' face and he nodded. "Yeah!"
Ash smiled and nodded back. "Okay, come on," she said before leading him to the living room. She sat down with him on the couch, and proceeded to flip thru channels until she found some cartoons on the TV.
Shortly thereafter, Ciaran walked into the room, noticed a new person, and went over to sniff him. Chris responded by petting him then looking at Ashling. "What's his name?"
"Ciaran."
Chris nodded. "Does he like to play?"
"He likes fetch, that's for sure."
"Does he have a ball?"
Ciaran's ears perked up at the word 'ball', and he ran off towards Ashling's office, returning shortly thereafter with a tennis ball in his mouth, which he dropped on the floor in front of Chris.
"Can I throw it?"
"If we go outside, you can."
"Okay!" he exclaimed jumping up from his seat. "C'mon, c'mon!" he said excitedly.
Ashling led him and Ciaran outside. "Okay, go ahead, lad."
As she was watching the two play about twenty minutes later, her phone started to vibrate, then ring, in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw that Tom was calling.
"Hiya."
"Hello. How's babysitting?"
"Fine. How's lunch with your parents?"
"Good. Nearly over. They asked about you."
"Oh? "
"About how you're doing. They'd like to meet you."
"I see. And... how do they know about me?"
"You came up. You know, in conversation..."
Ashling smirked, then sat down in a chair. She glanced out to check on Chris and Ciaran, then said, "Do tell."
