This is Chapter 16 re posted because I must have done something funny last time since a big chunk was missing… sorry!
Disclaimer still stands!
"Hey." Abby said sheepishly, smiling back at him. "Sorry I'm a little early."
"Come in, come in, don't worry about it." Jasper said to her ushering her inside, "Mealia, Abby's here." He yelled.
"Hi." Amelia said making her way out of the kitchen towards them.
"Tell her it's tidy, she's been cleaning ever since she got home." Jasper said not very subtly.
Amelia shook her head, looking angrily at Jasper as Abby smiled.
"We did finger paintings too." Lauren reminded him reaching up for his hand.
The doorbell rang again and Jasper pulled the door.
"Hey" He said again, as the person he was expecting arrived.
"Hi." The man standing at the door grinned at him, diverting his gaze quickly to Amelia. "Mealie." He smiled sheepishly, the little pyjama clad girl on his hip slithering down, running to Lauren.
"I'm gonna stay here while Daddy's away." She announced excitedly to Lauren.
"Imogen, we have to ask Amelia first." He said still grinning hopefully at Amelia.
"Abby this is Nick, Nick this is Amelia's sister Abby." Jasper gave brief introductions.
"Hi, nice to meet you." Nick said extending his hand.
"Hi." Abby replied shaking his hand, checking out the tall figure on the doorstep, with his dark green eyes and ruffled hair.
"Meals, can she stay here, Claire went to Aspen this morning, she forgot that she'd agreed to look after her." Nick said a frowned encouraging smile on his face.
"Nick." Amelia said a pained expression on her face.
"Please Meals, I'll pick them up from school for a week, whenever you want, or I'll do the school run for two weeks, or…" Nick begged, trying to persuade her.
"Nick, you know I don't mind her staying, it's just that…" Amelia started again, knowing that the girls individually were a challenge, but combined they were a whole different story.
"Please." Nick begged.
"Mommy, please." Lauren implored tugging at her mother.
"I'll be really good." Imogen added by way of reassurance as she to tugged at Amelia's pant leg.
"Ok, ok, fine, is that her stuff?" Amelia relented, pointing at the bag on his shoulder
"Cheers, I owe you one, yeah everything's in here." Nick smiled, dumping the bag on the floor.
"You owe me more than one." Amelia laughed her eyebrows raised.
"We've got to go or we'll miss the flight." Jasper interrupted.
"Nick can you remind Daddy to by me my present?" Lauren said, as ever focused on the important part of the whole trip as she and her companion darted back towards them. The four pairs of eyes looked down on her smiling slightly.
"Me too Dad." The other little girl chipped in.
"I'm not sure you should get any presents after what you two pulled at school today." Nick said mock seriously, obviously trying not to laugh, looking from Lauren to his daughter.
"What happened at school today?" Amelia said frowning, looking from Nick to the girls and back having heard noting about this situation, Jasper obviously hadn't either as he too looked at Nick. Lauren was rubbing the wooden floor with her bare foot, tracing patterns on it with her toe, refusing to meet her mother's eye, Imogen was looking guiltily down as well. "Lauren." Amelia asked in a warning voice. Still she hung her head guiltily, and Amelia looked back at Nick for an answer.
"Imogen and Lauren papier-mâchéd some kid to a climbing frame in the yard, I got a pretty angry phone call from the principle, she wasn't happy, have you not checked your messages." Nick said as Jasper and he both tried not to laugh, as did Abby, Amelia rolled her eyes, she'd been dealing with stuff like this a lot recently, she was still struggling not to find it funny, it was the kind of thing she herself had done a lot of in college.
"He said we could do it, we asked him first." Imogen explained in their defense.
"We're going to talk about this later." Amelia assured them in her best angry Mom voice.
"But Mom we asked first." Lauren implored.
"That's not the point Lauren." Jasper confirmed.
"We've got to go." Nick continued hoisting Jasper's bag onto his shoulder. "Jesus what have you got in here, rocks?" He added leaning against the weight of the bag.
"That and Chicago's entire condom supply." He grinned evilly at Amelia.
"Get out of here before I tell you, you can't go." Amelia said looking at the pair of them, cheesy grins and all.
"They're all for him, I'm gonna pair him off this weekend." Jasper explained beaming at Amelia
"In that case we'd better run." Nick said to Jasper. "It was nice to meet you Abby." He said turning towards her, she smiled a 'you to' at him.
"Bye trouble, be good for your Mom, and at school." Jasper said ruffling Lauren's hair, moving over towards Amelia. "I'll call you when we get there." He said kissing her softly.
"No you won't, remember to call Birdie though, if she finds out you guys were in town and didn't go to the bar she'll fly out here and beat you to death with a beer pump." She smiled her eyes twinkling. "Have a good time."
"Imm, be good, I don't want to hear anything bad when I get back." Nick said bending down to his daughter, raising his eyebrows, smiling at her. "I'll see you on Tuesday." He kissed her reassuringly. "Meals is in charge." He added.
"Bye Daddy." Imogen smiled.
"Come on lover boy. " Nick laughed as Jasper kissed Amelia again and he headed down the path towards the car.
"Bye, be good Lauren." Jasper called over his shoulder as he followed.
"You to Immo." Nick yelled.
"Don't forget the presents." Lauren yelled as Amelia pushed the door closed.
As ever please review!