AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“YOU HAVE TOhelp me,” I said to Sara the second I walked into the house. I tossed my gym bag on the floor just inside the door and put my purse and coat in the hall closet.
“Do I, now?” my sister-in-law said, sarcasm dripping from every pore of her being as she held out Cassidy toward me. “I have to help you?” She scowled to add further emphasis when I raised a brow in question, then she inclined her head toward everything around her. She was standing in the middle of the living room, surrounded by what appeared to be a flour explosion, a mess I had completely missed in my panic. Connor was nowhere in sight, which likely meant he was the cause of her current catastrophe. That little boy caused more mayhem than all the Allstate commercials combined, and he could cause his damage in the blink of an eye. And he usually giggled about the destruction afterward, too, the little stinker.
I took my niece without hesitation. Playing with Cassidy while Sara cleaned sounded a heck of a lot better than trying to figure out how to remove all that flour, and besides, I could never get enough baby time. But I regretted my decision almost as soon as the squirming, gurgling girl was in my arms. She stunk to high hell. I scrunched up my nose, in a vain attempt to prevent the smell from making its way into my senses.
Sara rolled her eyes at my response. “Cassidy needs to be changed, and as you can see, I’m in the middle of cleaning up World War III.”
Diaper duty wasn’t a foreign concept for me, but it wasn’t exactly my favorite way to interact with Cassidy. Granted, changing diapers was still better than cleaning up Connor’s latest art project. Two minutes, tops, and I’d be done with the nastiness. Sara would probably be busy for another hour or more. Quickly weighing the two options, I carried Cassidy upstairs and took care of her own form of tiny, but disgusting, explosion.
Connor came in around the time I was fastening the new diaper in place. “Is Mommy mad?” he asked tentatively. White powder covered him from head to toe. What the heck had he done, roll in the stuff?
I gave him my best effort at a stern look. “She’s trying to clean up a bunch of flour in the living room. Do you know how flour got all over the place? Flour is supposed to stay in the kitchen.”
He shrugged with an I-don’t-know expression, his lips turning down dramatically. “I think Cassidy did it.”
“Hmm,” I said, tugging the little girl’s ruffled pants back into place. “I wonder how she’s so clean, then.”
“You just cleaned her up!”
“All I did was change her diaper, buddy. And if Cassidy did it, how come you’re the one who’s covered in flour?”
“She throwed it on me!” he said, as adamant as ever.
I picked up Cassidy and put her over my shoulder. Almost immediately, she grabbed a fistful of my hair and started chewing on it. Note to self: always keep my hair pulled into a ponytail around her. Too late this time.
“You know,” I said slowly, facing Connor fully, “you should think long and hard about what you’re going to say to Mommy when she asks you about the flour. Because you don’t want to tell her a lie. Lying is bad.” I should know, since I’d flat out lied to Cam not so long ago.
“I was just trying to help her make some damn cookies,” he said, tossing his hands in the air. Bits of flour dust floated all around him in a cloud, and he sneezed, which only kicked up a new dust cloud.
I had to bite down on my tongue not to laugh. “I’d suggest you not use that word when your daddy asks you about it later.”
His eyes went wide. “Don’t tell Daddy! Please, CayCay.”
“Oh, Daddy’s gonna find out,” Sara said from the doorway, Roomba in hand, causing her son to spin around in a panic. “The only question is if you’re going to tell him or if I will.”
The next thing I knew, Connor raced over to me and threw both arms around my thigh, covering me in his flour.
“I think maybe you should tell Daddy,” I suggested.
“But I’m not asposed to help in the kitchen.”
“No,” his mother said dryly. “You’re not. At least not without adult supervision. Never mind the fact that you weren’t even in the kitchen.”
“Can I bake cookies with CayCay?” he asked, attempting to redirect the conversation.
“I don’t know if your aunt will want to bake cookies with you after this,” Sara said.
“We can,” I said. Connor gave me a white-faced grin, and I ruffled his hair to dust some of the flour out of it. “After you tell Daddy what you did,” I added. “And in the meantime, how about we put you in the tub?”
Sara winked at me while Connor was otherwise occupied pouting, and then she headed back downstairs to continue Operation De-Flour the House. I got Connor in the tub. Cassidy wanted to climb in with him so badly she nearly pulled herself over the side of the bath still fully clothed, so I stripped her down and tossed her in, too. Giving her a bath wouldn’t hurt anything. By the time I had them both clean, dried, and dressed, Sara had finished the bulk of the cleanup.
She turned on a Disney movie for the kids and flopped down on the couch, brushing hair and sweat off her brow. I was a bit more careful in taking a seat on Cam’s recliner, not trusting I wouldn’t end up covered in white. Then she raised her brows. “So? I have to help you?”
Right. The kids had been a fantastic distraction, but there wasn’t a chance in hell Sara would let things go so easily.
“I think I screwed up,” I said.
“What? Coming here? I thought you and Anthony were sure to be a great fit.”
