They really did watch too much sports.
“That’s real? Like not just a Hollywood thing?” Indy turned to his tall kid who might actually be in college but I’d lost track of who went with what story. No one actually looked like their age and they all looked way too much alike for me to remember shit. “We’ll talk about that later.”
Oh.
Okay, Rhodes and I would come back to that at the next barbecue when I could figure out the kid’s name and how old he was. Just looking like some kind of linebacker didn’t give me enough information.
“You guys are going to go home. When I see Rhodes, I’ll let him know you were worried about him but I cleared things up. You will tell your mother he’s not getting married to anyone right now but that I have first dibs.”
That might’ve actually been the strangest thing I’d said in a long time, but the fact that it didn’t give me heartburn told me a lot.
“If you guys want to come over… call and we’ll figure out a time to do another barbecue.” There were just too many of them to do anything inside without better planning… and better locks. “We could also meet up at the bar if you want.”
Maybe?
It was just down the street from a few good first date spots like a fancy shopping center and a farmers’ market. I’d just never thought to take a guy there because on those kinds of dates we usually did other stuff. I’d never dated abuy a new purse and get flowers at the farmers marketkind of guy.
Hell, even with Rhodes he’d rather go to a toy store and then McDonalds.
Hmm… a sparkly backpack would be cute, though.
When was his birthday?
No.
Stay on track, moron.
Heads bobbed as what I said finally made it through their thick skulls.
“Now, go do something fun or whatever you told your wives you’d be doing so you don’t have to lie.” The way all the men winced said lies had been involved. “Where do they think you are?”
Matt grinned. “Go-carts. We stopped by to ask Uncle Rhodes if he wanted to come.”
Not a bad plan… the kid must’ve come up with it.
“Have fun with the go-carts. Don’t run into each other.” There was definitely a longer list of things I should’ve told them, but I didn’t want to accidentally end up being invited. “Talk to you guys later.”
Shutting the door before they could say anything else, I quickly threw the deadbolt just in case and walked away from the door as loud as I could.
I was really hating that I hadn’t installed a doorbell cam yet and made a mental note to fix that as soon as possible. It was too quiet for several long moments before I heard their voices booming from the front yard as the chaos seemed to move away from the house.
Hiding by the stairs, I gave them about a minute before going back to the window in the dining room. It had the best curtains to hide behind and gave me a view of the yard. “Perfect.”
They’d actually gotten into their cars.
Three different vehicles because there had to be at least ten of them.
Which kids had stayed home?
Hadn’t there been more of them last week?
When they’d driven off, I let out a relieved sigh and headed up to find Rhodes. He’d been very quiet while they were trying to invade, but I wasn’t sure if that meant I owed him a reward or a punishment. He was mischievous enough that it could go either way, so I was prepared for anything as I got to my bedroom.
“The castle is safe. I defended it from the horde.” The invaders were weird but we’d made it through the wave without incident. “They were just checking on the castle inhabitants.”
Kind of.
Giggles coming from the other side of the door said he’d found something more interesting to do than worry about the horde. “Thank you, Daddy.”
