Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“We could always try it out later and you can compare.” I raised my brows suggestively.
“Actually, that sounds wonderful. You know, I got the all clear yesterday before work.” She smiled.
“The all clear for what, mama?” Cat asked.
Winter turned beat red and averted her face. “Nothing.”
Laughing, I blew raspberries into Cat’s neck making her shriek, interrupting the feast that Adam was having. He started to cry in between ravenous sucks, so I stopped and let him have his meal uninterrupted.
“Alright, Cat, let’s go get dressed. Daddy’s got some work to do. You get to stay with Uncle Tai today. Sound fun?” I asked as I stood and stretched.
I made sure to make it extra-long when I caught Winter’s eyes on me. She was watching the muscles in my stomach play.
“Yes!” She squealed.
“All right, go grab some clothes,” I didn’t get the words out before she was gone in a flash.
Tai loved her more than life itself. When Catori was born, it was as if the life came back into him with each breath she took. Ever since then, he’d doted on her. He even moved here and joined the KFD all because he couldn’t bear to not see her for long periods of time.
“What time do you have to pick up the bounce house?” Winter asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Ten maybe? What does it matter, the party doesn’t start until three.”
“Get it as soon as possible. The kids aren’t the only ones that want to play with it.” She laughed.
That was true enough. The adults were looking forward to it just as much as the kids. We’d gotten it for Cat’s third birthday as well, adding water to it, which made it more like a slip and slide than a bounce house.
The extra fee was worth it. Apparently, we didn’t read the fine print when we rented it saying that water wasn’t allowed on it.
Who knew soap wasn’t either? Five grown men, soap, and a bounce house wasn’t a good combination.
“Yeah, I’ll get it early,” I said with a bright smile.
“Y’all aren’t going to reenact the WWF again, are you?” She asked suspiciously.
“We’ll see.”
***
Winter
“What are we shopping for?” Ember asked from beside me.
We were at Brookshire’s getting a few last minute snacks for Cat’s fourth birthday party. Really, we’d just run out of beer due to the fact that the so called ‘men,’ who acted more like adolescent boys, had been playing on the bounce house for eight hours straight. At least this time we’d thought ahead and rented two. One for the adults and one for the children.
“I don’t know. Beer and chips was what Jack told me before he shoved eighty bucks in my hand. They were wet, too.”
“Last year Gabe ended the night with a broken toe.” Ember laughed.
“Jack was sore as hell the next morning. He didn’t even want to get on the thing again.” I laughed as I remembered his moaning and groaning he was doing as he got out of bed that morning.
“As long as they don’t get the soap out again, this should go better. I’ll tell you one thing though. I’m sure as hell not going near that thing again.” She said.
I stopped as two teenagers stopped in the middle of the aisle cracking up about a display for condoms.
“Pick a lane, asshole!” Cat said from the front of the buggy.
My eyes squeezed tightly shut as I went through all the things I was going to do tonight to torture Jack. The boys, of course, thought it was funny. I didn’t in the least.
“I swear to God, I am going to kick his ass.” I said to Ember who was doing her upmost best not to laugh.
“That’s okay. Yesterday Cora told me she was going to fuck my face up.” Ember said, with a glare in Cora’s direction.
My mouth dropped open. “Jesus, who would’ve said that around her?”
“Gabe, of course. Stupid Call of Duty game. They get on there, and there are so many insults flying around that I can’t even stand to be in the same room. Then he bought these headphones because I complained about the noise, and it only makes him scream all the louder without realizing it.” She huffed.
We left the store ten minutes and two hundred dollars later. When we arrived back home, it was most obvious that the men weren’t good babysitters. Cheyenne, Payton, and Blaine were all outside watching the kids jump when they should have been sleeping.
Payton and Cheyenne because they worked the night shift last night, and Blaine because she was about eleven months pregnant and was ready to pop any second. Add to the fact that it was over one hundred degrees out here, and that didn’t make for a happy pregnant woman.
Taking the milkshake I got her from the cup holder, I walked over to her and handed it over. “Thank you,” She said as she fell upon it. “The boys got a tad distracted.”
“I can see that. They’re such little shits,” I said as I slipped my shoes off my feet.
“What’re you doing?” Payton asked warily. “You’re not going to get in there, are you?”
“Will you watch Adam for a few minutes?” I ignored her question.
“Yeah,” she answered hesitantly.
“I’ll be back.” I said in my best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice.
Her snickers followed me as I made my way to the bounce house. Really, it was more like a massive thing. Calling it a bounce house just wouldn’t do it justice. There was the flat bounce house part attached, but there was also a slide, and further beyond the slide it went into an obstacle course.
The men were spread out playing with dodge ball. As one would come down the slide, the others would try to peg the slider with the ball. The slider was trying to catch the ball and launch it at someone as hard as he could.
I was happy to see there was no soap, yet, but with the amount of beer and alcohol we bought, it would only be a matter of time.