LOVE BACK; jra ✓

022 | he's my best friend

"Do you want to pour this one in?" Adalyn spoke softly, a smile on her face as she handed a bag of cake mix to her niece and pushing the bowl a little closer to her.

Eliana grabbed the bag and poured it into the bowl with a little help from Adalyn so half the mix didn't end up on the counter top. "And these next?" the little one asked holding an egg in each hand while looking at her aunt.

"Yes princess, but can aunty do them?" she asked, receiving a nod and being handed the eggs.

She hit one egg against the corner of the bowl then cracked it open, the other one still in Eliana's hand as she watched how to break it. And with perfect timing their was a knock at the front door.

"Just stay there, okay? I'll be five seconds," Adalyn told the girl before walking over to the door. Opening it for Jack and giving him a smile, "hey"

"Hey," he responded, giving her a quick side hug.

"Come in, we're just make making a cake and.." she glanced over to where her niece was sat on the kitchen island, letting out a sigh once she noticed her. "And Ellie just cracked an egg all over the table.."

"Sounds like fun," Jack said with a small laugh, following her over to the kitchen after shutting the door behind himself.

"Addie.." Eliana looked up at her with a frown as she held her hands out which had egg and the shell all over them. "I wanted to do it."

"That's okay," she grabbed some paper towels and wiped down her hands. Then some more for the table. "Let's wash your hands."

Adalyn moved the little girls over away her the mess and closer to the sink. Turning it on and putting soap on her hands as she help her wash them. Jack watched over with a small smile on his face from how Adalyn acts with her.

"Ells, do you remember Jack?" she asked while drying off both their hands.

"And Lav?"

"No, just Jack today. Lav's.."

"Lav's with her Mom," Jack finished her sentence and came a bit closer to the two girls, after noticing that she seemed stuck on what to say.

"Why you here if she with her?" Eliana slightly titled her head at the boy.

"Princess," Adalyn get her attention, thinking about how to word her response. "Sometimes- do you remember Harvey? And how you don't see him anymore?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"Okay, so sometimes people just don't work well together and it's better and healthier if they separate. That's what happened with Harvey and I, and it can also happen with parents sometimes."

"But Jack still gets to see Lavender, and Lavender still gets to see her Mom," she continued to explained. "It just works better for Jack and Lavender's Mom to be just friends and not live together. Does that make sense?"

She nodded. Adalyn placed a soft kiss on the little one's forehead before turning around to grab another egg from the fridge so they could finish making the cake.

"What are you two making a cake for?" Jack asked so the silence in the room didn't get too awkward.

"Lucas's birthday," Eliana responded with a grin across her face, saying one to many s's on the end of the boy's name. "He gonna come for dinner and then have chocolate cake."

"There you go," Adalyn said with a small laugh as she chucked the egg shell in the trash. "Smart little girl."

"Is that tonight?"