Page 129 of Healed

“Well, I’m free if you need a hand. Aren’t I, Axe-man?” I asked, booping his nose.

“Oh, you don’t have to, I—”

“Heather,” I interrupted with a laugh. “I’m not offering. I’m telling. How hard can it be?”

Fucking hard.

That’s how hard it can be.

Two hours later, I was covered in paint—including a nice handprint on my ass, courtesy of Trex, who hadn’t quite mastered walking yet and figured my body was as good a walking stick as any.

The shy little girl I had met the other night in the form of Kourtney had exploded into a full-blown, hyperactive child. She wanted to skip, she wanted a story, she wanted to play hide and seek—which meant we lost Axel for fifteen minutes. That little sucker knew how to hide.

Which made sense, I suppose. He would have been doing lockdown drills since he was a newborn.

Trex and Axel had a fight over one of the toy motorbikes, the twin boys had eaten one of the peanut cookies, which led to Heather having to monitor them both for allergies—neither of them had it, luckily enough.

Someone—somewhere and somehow—had found the glitter pots, and it had taken precisely one second for it to be thrown everywhere. Including my hair, my mouth, and every inch of my stress-induced sweaty skin.

It had all come to a head when Axel had tried to pour milk in the fish tank and Heather had demanded everyone settle down for a story time.

“Do you regret this?” she asked as the kids attempted to tidy up.

I laughed. “No, not at all,” I said sarcastically. “This is exactly how I envisioned my day going.”

We both looked down at my clothes, covered in food, paint, glitter, and a lovely helping of dried snot.

“I appreciate the help all the same. You can get going if you want. I know the men are due back soon.”

“No, it’s okay. It doesn’t look like Axel is going to settle,” I said, nodding at the toddler who was spinning in circles. “How about you do the story with the rest of them, maybe get Kourtney to help you so she feels special and grown-up, and I’ll keep the live wire occupied?”

“I could kiss you.”

“Look at me, Heather. I’d dread to think what you’d catch,” I laughed. And then, without another word, I rolled my sleeves up and wandered over, crouching beside a still spinning Axel.

“What are you up to, trouble?”

He looked up at me with the same cheeky grin his father wore whenever he’d done something questionable.

Funnily enough, it was also the same grin Vienna had. It must be a club trademark.

“Dig-ger.”

He proudly held up a yellow toy excavator.

“I can see that. But diggers don’t usually spin up in the air like that. They go on the ground, see?” I said, picking up another toy and mimicking the movement.

He immediately rammed the digger into my shin.

“So you chose war,” I said with a nod. “I can respect that. How about we take your digger to the park instead?” His eyes lit up with interest, and I knew I had almost hooked him. “Maybe your digger might like a turn on the slide? Or you could even sit him in the swings, and I could push you both?”

Ding, ding, ding.

He immediately rushed towards the door, yelling “Park!” as loudly as he could.

“Heather,” I called over, rushing after him. “I’m going to take him to the park!”

She waved in acknowledgement, holding the big book alongside Kourtney, and I smiled softly at the sight of them before spinning and following Axel out the doors, the rest of my afternoon booked with a date in the park.