34 Make me a baby brother

Burt

I slowly opened my eyes, listening to Billy speaking in his normal voice and LJ giggling in whispers and telling him not to talk so loud.

"Why?" Billy demanded.

"Because your Daddy will wake up," LJ shushed. "So, tell me, have you decided, is it okay for me to give you a baby brother?"

"Where will you get my baby brother?"

"I will make one with your Mom," LJ said with glee.

I reached over to the counter and grabbed the first thing I could touch - it was a bag of cotton balls - and threw it at LJ's face.

"Ow!" LJ exclaimed and burst out laughing. "Oh look, Billy, we woke up your Daddy."

"Dada!" Billy jumped up and ran to me. I extended my arms out to him and he scrambled up my lap. "Dada, Uncle J said he will make me a baby brother."

I glared at LJ, who was giggling his head off. "I'm sorry, kid, but he can't."

"Why?"

"Because he'll be in the hospital with broken legs."

"Oh, bad choice, dollface," Michelle tut-tutted as she worked on Mark's make up for our video shoot.

Surely enough, Billy asked, "Why?"

"Because he says things he's not supposed to," I explained, hoping that would make an impression.

"Why?"

"Lord almighty," Mark started to laugh, apologizing to Michelle for moving. I heard Jamie chuckle to my left, he was standing in front of the clothes racks, probably discussing with the stylists what he wanted and didn't want to wear.

"Bill, I'm just kidding around, you know," LJ tried to distract the kid. "How about I buy you an Uncle Jamie?"

"I already have an Uncle Jamie," Billy scrambled down my lap and ran to LJ again. "Do your legs hurt? Are they broken? Can a doctor fix you?"

"Uncle J is lucky if broken legs is all he's getting from Dada," Jamie muttered under his breath. I looked at him, but he had on his usual stoic face.

The door opened and Lia, Ned's assistant, stuck her head in and checked out our progress. She looked at my kid and frowned. "Michelle's not staying throughout the shoot, right? X Media is coming to shoot a behind the scenes."

"Don't worry, sweetie, once I'm done with Stevie, I'm off to send the kid to daycare and will be back right away," Michelle replied without taking any attention from Mark's face. I lowered my eyes and didn't comment. I don't like that Michelle has to get rid of Billy for things like these, but she's the first to say that it's work and we're both professional, and anyway, there are more playmates in daycare who are better than LJ and don't say stupid things.

"Steve's not here yet?" Lia looked at her watch. Then the door opened wider and Steve stepped around her to get in.

"Of course I am, where would I be?" He beamed at her. He dropped his bag at the nearest chair and looked around the room, nodding at us as we greeted him.

"Uncle Stevie! Uncle J said he can make me a baby brother!" Billy bounded towards Steve, making everyone in the room burst into laughter, of course, everyone except me.

Lia cleared her throat to call our attention. "Okay, Luke wants to see you all in the first costume soon as you're all done and dressed, to take test shots of the group first," Lia checked off something in the tablet she was holding. "Stylists, stand by please for costume changes."

"Lia, is there food?" LJ asked.

"Of course, but you can't eat yet," she looked annoyed and walked out before he could ask another question.

"She needs to get laid," LJ shook his head and warning bells set off in my mind.

"What's laid?" Billy asked, as I knew he would.

"Potato chips!" He piped up right away. He giggled as he glanced at me and I drew my finger across my neck in warning.

"Do you like potato chips, Billy?" Steve picked Billy up in his arms and walked him around the room.

"Uncle Stevie likes potato chips! And Uncle J likes potato chips! Uncle Mark likes potato chips!" he enumerated, pointing to each uncle accordingly.

"What about Uncle Jamie?" Steve asked, facing Billy in Jamie's direction. Jamie walked past them and wordlessly left the room.

"Uncle Jamie is going to pee pee," Billy announced.

I had to laugh at that with everyone else and Billy frowned at us, wondering why we were laughing. I then caught Steve's face following Jamie as he left the room and saw him sigh before turning to look at Billy again and asked him if he knew whose turn it was at the makeup chair with his mommy.

"You're the last because you didn't wake up early enough because you were busy with the new songs," Billy told him. Steve widened his eyes at him and said, "Wow, you're better at this than Lia! You want to become our new boss, Billy?"

"I _am_ your boss," he nodded. "Dada said so."

"Michelle, can you sell me this one and just make a new one?" Steve said, rubbing the kid's head.

"You'll forget to feed him and he'll eat you in your sleep," I said under my breath, looking at the mirror to see if I smudged my make up while I was napping.

"Uncle Stevie likes potato chips and Billy likes Uncle Stevie!" Billy announced, baring his teeth. He frowned at us again for laughing.

I went to the clothes rack to get my costume. As Sushi handed me my items, Steve appeared by my side. I looked back to see where the kid was and found him using LJ's legs as a highway for his fire truck.

"Mine too, please, thank you Sush," he smiled warmly at Sushi, then lowered his voice so that only I could hear him. "Have you spoken to Jamie today?"

"He played with Billy soon as he arrived, so no," I said. "Is he supposed to tell me something?"

"Ah, no," Steve said, studying the clothes hanging on the rack. "Just making small talk." I had all my clothes, but I stood there, watching him, knowing that it wasn't just small talk. But as soon as he confirmed that he had everything he needed to wear for the first scenes, he just turned around, went back to his seat, and started to change.

I suddenly had a bad feeling about this.