Page 27 of Come Fly With Me

It was just after he noticed the rat eating the pizza he’d brushed off his face that Jasper passed out.

* * *

Flynn waiteduntil ten o’clock the next day before calling his brother. Harry wasn’t a morning person.

“Yo,” Harry said when he answered. “I’ve figured out a way to make the Death Star invulnerable.”

Used to Harry’s geeky ways, Flynn just said, “Should you be working on the side of the Empire?”

“Good point.” Harry sighed. “What’s up?”

“Remember when you said you owed me one?” Flynn gazed out the kitchen window, just in time to see his kids chase the ostriches around the garden. “Wait a minute.” He pushed open the window. “When they start chasing back, you’ll be sorry. Their bite is agony.”

His kids stopped and stared at him before carrying on after the birds. Oh well, guess they would learn the hard way.

“Ostriches or chickens?” Harry asked in his ear.

“You’ve been pecked by a chicken, and was it agony?” There were days when he wondered if his brother’s genius IQ was just a myth.

“Ostriches then,” Harry said. “And I don’t remember telling you I owed you one.”

“You definitely did. I wrote the date down. It was the seventh of December.”

“Oh, when you picked up that laptop from Glasgow for me?”

“That’s it. And you said, ‘thanks, Bro, I owe you one’. Well, now I’m collecting. I need you to babysit Claire’s kids for the weekend of their anniversary.”

There was silence. In the backyard, the game had changed, and the ostriches were now chasing his kids.

“Are you joking?” Harry sounded incredulous. “You think watching Claire’s kids equals you picking up a laptop?”

No, he didn’t, but a man had to work with what he had. “You didn’t specify the parameters of what you meant when you said it. You just said, ‘I owe you one.’ One what? One whatever I need. And I need you to babysit Claire’s kids.”

“Back up a sec.” Harry sounded confused. “Why are you calling in a favor to get me to watch someone else’s kids? I mean, I love Claire; she’s family. But this doesn’t sound like you. What’s going on?”

“Can’t I just do a favor for my cousin?”

Movement beyond the paddock caught Flynn’s eye. Matt was walking toward the house, dragging the goat on a rope behind him. Where was the leash he’d given him last night? Oh crap, the damn goat probably ate it.

“No, you can’t. What’s going on?”

“Well, at the moment, the ostriches are chasing the kids, and Matt just brought the goat home, so it’s only a matter of minutes before the goat spots everyone running and joins in. Then all hell is going to break loose. She still hasn’t forgiven the kids for painting her pink. Plus, she really doesn’t get on with the ostriches.”

“Does she get on with anyone?” Harry groaned. “You’re distracting me from the issue. Why am I watching Claire’s kids?”

Not ‘Why should I?’ but ‘Why am I?’ Yeah, Harry would do it. Of course, his wife would go mental when she found out. But there were no take backs in the Donaldson clan, and Magenta knew that when she married Harry. A deal was a deal.

“Because it’s their anniversary. Thanks for doing this. It means a lot to them. You can consider the one you owe me redeemed. Got to go. Goat’s in the garden.” Throwing the phone on the counter as he passed, Flynn barreled through the doors and out into the garden. “Stop!” he shouted at the goat, who froze in place on her way to ram an ostrich. “Kids, in the house now.” They ran for the house, followed by the ostriches, who didn’t respond well to Flynn’s command voice.

Once the kids were inside, Flynn chased the ostriches back into their paddock and locked the gate—making a mental note to buy a lock his kids couldn’t pick. Then he turned to his cousin.

“What the hell? We had a deal.” The goat assumed his tone change meant she was off the hook, so she bounced over to him and licked his knees under his shorts.

Matt limped over to them, keeping his distance from the goat. “Jena left her favorite shoes on the porch. Esmerelda ate through her leash and then ate the shoes. When I chased her away, she turned on me and rammed me. I hate that goat.” He gave the animal a look of pure disgust.

All Esmerelda did was lean into Flynn, who absently ran his fingers through her shaggy coat.

“You’re a bloody wimp,” he told his cousin. “You didn’t even last twelve hours.”