Page 14 of All Stars Fall
“A bit,” I lied. Son of a bitch, I was going to get rid of every last Lego in that house. “Just… give me a minute.”
“Your face is red,” she pointed out with a grin, damn her and those dimples. “Are you saying crap in your head?”
I had told her crap was a bad word that adults said when they were angry and that if she was reallyreallyangry, she could use it like her brothers.
Yes, the answer is yes; it has backfired one hundred percent.
“Boys!” I called downstairs while Malcom and Eric chased each other around the island in the kitchen. “Get the pancake mix out!”
They grumbled.
More things were thrown.
Chaos. I lived in absolute chaos.
Exhausted, even though my day was just starting, I carried Bella down the stairs and started in on the pancakes, all the while staring at the clock with relief. Five hours. In five hours, the new nanny would be here.
Fingers crossed the twins didn’t set her on fire.
And maybe she’d braid Bella’s hair again.
My gut clenched.
I’d felt like a complete idiot staring at the pretty barista with my jaw hanging to the floor. She’d wrangled in my kids faster than I did. They reacted to her in a way I hadn’t seen in a really long time.
It had been such a relief that for a minute all I could do was stare. She had flawless, makeup-free skin, and her hair was in this adorable ponytail poking out of a Met’s hat. I couldn’t tell if she was in her early twenties or late. Maybe all the Botox I’d been exposed to in LA was messing with my head. I hated guessing ages because I was almost always wrong. Look at the ex.
“Dad?” Eric interrupted my thoughts.
“Yeah, buddy?” I snapped out of it and grabbed a mixing bowl.
“You’re smiling awful big over pancakes.”
Little shit. I stared him down and winked. “That’s because I’m adding chocolate chips!”
“Hooray!” Bella squealed in delight while Malcom and Eric gave each other high fives then grabbed their iPads and sat at the breakfast bar.
Coffee.
Would it be wrong to train my children how to make me coffee so that I at least had a cup waiting when I woke up to multiple screams, tears, and flying objects?
I heaved a sigh. It would probably have seven Legos and a booger.
At this point, I would take it all and say God bless you every one.
I grabbed a pod for the Keurig, yawned, and made myself a cup while Bella tried mixing the batter. She had more outside the bowl than inside, but she liked to stir.
She started helping cook when she was two.
And couldn’t say stir to save her life, which only meant I stared at her like an idiot until she grabbed a spoon. “Sway sway sway!”
That was her word for stir.
It was a conundrum.
At least she was helpful while her brothers literally watched other children play with toys on YouTube.
Something was very wrong with people in this world if that was a thing. I watched one episode of a guy singing Best Friend Best Friend while opening candy and nearly called the police.
