AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Michael!” he called up the stairs.
No answer.
Kermit, the ancient yellow lab, slunk past, quickstepping it toward the kitchen and back door.
“Oh, no,” Lucas muttered, glancing back at Charlotte. “Is that dog pee?”
The little girl slowly nodded. “I stepped in it. Gwoss.”
Chris came in holding a large plastic storage bag filled with ice, sank into the recliner and propped his ankle up, plunking the ice down on his bare foot and grabbing the remote control. “Looks like Kermit the Dog peed again.”
Lucas closed his eyes and counted, throwing in a Hail Mary and the Serenity prayer for good measure. When he opened his eyes, the things he couldn’t change were still there. Dog pee, three-year-old, and a ten-year-old watching… Game of Thrones?
Yep. Boobs.
“Hey, turn that to a kids channel or something,” he said, giving Chris the same eyeball job his father had given him when he snuck off to watch movies with men blowing each other apart while saving a big-busted, scantily clad hooker with a good heart.
“But everybody watches GOT.”
“You’re barely ten. Turn the channel. Now.” Lucas skirted the pond of pee courtesy of the family dog and looked down at his niece who balanced on one foot.
“It gotted on me,” she said by way of explanation.
“It’s nearly time for your bath, so we’ll take one early, okay?”
“’Kay. Can I have fwooty-ohs for supper?” she asked allowing him to lift her over the huge puddle of urine. She didn’t even shudder at his touch, but she didn’t hold on to him either. Maybe they were making progress. “You weally ain’t a monster, are you?”
Lucas shook his head. “No. I’m your uncle. Your daddy’s older brother. I’m just big.”
Her blue eyes didn’t blink.
“You’re little. Does that make you a fairy?”
The little girl smiled and something near the rock that was his heart stirred. Felt like gas but not as sharp. “Like Tinkerbell?”
“Who’s Tinkerbell?”
The little girl relaxed against him as he climbed the stairs. “You don’t know who Tinkerbell is?”
Music blasted from Michael’s closed door. Lucas stopped and knocked but got no response, so he kept moving toward the kids’ bathroom. Courtney had obviously taken pains to make it bright and kid like, but the boys seemed to care little, tossing their socks, undies, and wet towels on the floor and leaving streaks of toothpaste in the sink.
“Here. I’m going to start your bath water then I’ll get Michael to help you while I clean up the mess Kermit made.”
Charlotte balanced on one foot, holding aloft a tiny foot with chipped pink polish on her little toenails. “’kay.”
Lucas banged on Michael’s door.
No answer. Of course.
“Michael!” Lucas shouted.
Lucas raised his fist to pound on the door once more, but it jerked open.
Music battered him, and an angry thirteen-year-old with sullen brown eyes met him. “What?”
Lucas lowered his fist because the kid’s eyes darted to it, and there was a haunted look in them. “I need you to bathe your sister.”
“That’s not my job. I did my homework and took out the trash. Plus, I already wiped her and put her pants on.”
