30 | Stinging Sweetness.

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Jared traveled to his sister's place with Darnell during the holiday, and her family welcomed them with open arms

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Jared traveled to his sister's place with Darnell during the holiday, and her family welcomed them with open arms. Universities usually closed earlier than most high schools and middle schools, so Batya had come to pick them up from the airport after she had picked her kids up from school, and Jared and Darnell met her husband later that evening when he got back from work. It had been a little awkward for Batya to explain who these new uncles they had never heard of before came from, but the kids adjusted to their presence, easing up to Jared and Darnell — well, mostly to Darnell.

Jared had never been great with children, but thankfully his sister's kids weren't too young. She had her two boys who were twins and had blond hair, which they had inherited from their dad. They were mostly on her phone or outside with the other kids in the neighborhood. And there was her eight-year-old daughter that had her dark hair like her, and she hung around Darnell a lot more than she tagged around Jared for pocket change. Maybe it was because Darnell was younger and 'prettier' than him like she put it. No hard feeling, however. Jared liked catching up with his sister.

It was currently around four P.M. on a Saturday evening and Darnell had been dragged to — Adha — the young girl's room to play around with her toys and look at the books she had. Jared was sitting by the kitchen island as his sister worked on prepping the ingredients to make dinner. Her husband worked long hours as a lawyer, and she had more flexible hours working in communications — mostly ad campaigns and the like — so she had more than enough time to prepare food that took a lot of time to make.

Their house was a compact duplex in a quiet neighborhood. It seemed kid-friendly, judging from the number of kids that rung the bell during the past few days Jared and Darnell had been there. They always asked for Batya's kids. Batya's boys were out playing soccer in a nearby field as they spoke.

"I'm sorry about Adha," Batya said, rolling her eyes and making Jared laugh as they heard the little girl yelling over Darnell's voice. Whatever game they were playing was noisy.

"What's there to be sorry about?" Jared shrugged watching his sister transfer a pot from the stove burner to the counter. Batya removed the mittens she was wearing before walking over and pulling out the seat beside her brother.

"She's keeping you away from your boyfriend," she said, taking a seat before folding her hands and resting her elbows on the marble surface of the island. Jared gave her a small smile, shrugging again. That was true. Adha had sort of monopolized Darnell. She came to their room most nights to ask Darnell to come and sleep with her in hers. Jared wouldn't lie and say it wasn't annoying at times, but he did like that Darnell was getting along with his niece.

"It's alright, I have him for the rest of whenever," Jared muttered, bringing the glass of juice he had poured for himself half an hour ago to his lips. His sister brought her hand to his cup, weaning it from his hand before taking her sip herself. Jared chuckled, making his sister raise a brow at him. His mother used to do that — taking food from her kids halfway into them eating it. Speaking of her, Jared was going to meet her next week at the retirement home she had been staying in for the past three or so years.

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