Page 17 of All Stars Fall
“Good point.” He laughed and peeled the shirt over his head with record finesse and speed.
I shivered, gaped, and then didn’t know if I was supposed to be outraged or turn away.
I turned away.
“Damn it. Sorry, it’s just been us, I wasn’t thinking, plus the laundry is on the couch—”
“Don’t worry about it.” I felt my face flame as visions of his six pack taunted my mind. “I’ll make sure to fold it when you’re gone.”
“Great.” In a flurry of movements, he had a black band shirt on and was calling upstairs. “Kids, I’m going to the studio, Penelope’s here to hang out with you. Don’t burn the house down and listen to her, all right?”
Silence.
“KIDS!”
“Okay, Dad.”
“Sure.”
“You hid the matches!”
Trevor gave me a panicked look.
“We’ll be fine.” Matches? Burning the house down? What kind of kids burned the house down at age five? Or even thought that attempting it would be a solid life choice? I gave what I hoped was a reassuring smile, or even a non-reassuring one. “Promise!”
“You’re sure.” He eyed me like he wasn’t above chasing me out the door and pinning me to the ground just to make sure I’d stay.
“Yeah.” I waved him off. “Go before they catch the scent of freedom.”
He barked out a laugh. “You’re not wrong.”
“Dad!”
I gave him a wide-eyed look while he nearly tripped over a Lego and made a run for it out the front door.
I felt three sets of eyes watching my back.
Slowly I turned and crossed my arms. “Who wants to make a fort?”
Every set of eyes lit up.
Hours later, while the kids all crashed in their rooms, I realized I’d grossly misjudged my ability to be a good nanny.
They wanted me to play with them the entire time, which I loved, but it also meant breaking up a fight every few minutes over stupid things like skin touching skin, being scared of a monster face that one of the twins kept doing, and my personal favorite.
The book.
That was all Bella said. The book was angry.
And then she said her doll laughed at her under her bed.
I was pretty sure that any sort of paranormal Annabelle activity wasn’t part of the job description, but Malcom finally fessed up to pretending to be her doll.
All in all, it was a busy day.
I’d cleaned the entire kitchen, tossed out old takeout, and noticed that the freezer had a perfectly good beef roast in it.
I defrosted it and added it to a pan with some carrots, potatoes, onions, and some spices. It wasn’t gourmet, but at least the kids would have a nice home-cooked meal, right along with Trevor.
