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Annoyed, I turned back to the door and leaned to get a look through the open frame. Wes was blocking the view, but the surprise and annoyance in his voice were all too easy to make out.
“What in the hell areyoudoing here?”
“Wesley, my man! We’re here, and we’re ready to get wild and crazy at the lake house, son!”
Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.
Still suffering from some semblance of disbelief, I climbed out of my chair, walked over to the door, and peeked around Wes to get a look for myself.
And there they were—all the faces I never expected to see on the other side. At least not now, without an invitation.
Kline and Georgia were strapped down almost comically with their infant daughter Julia and all the baby gear, and Thatch and Cassie had their one-year-old son Ace, who was thrashing like a gator under his father’s arm.
“What is happening right now?” Wes scrubbed a hand down his face like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “Why are you here? And how in the hell did you even know where the place was?”
“Uncle Brad said we could come out, dude,” Thatch answered like it made complete sense.
“Uh…hold on,” Kline interjected, turning to Thatch. “Why do Wes and Winnie look so shocked that we’re here?”
“I don’t know.” Thatch just shrugged. “Maybe our wires got crossed or some shit.”
“Shits!” Ace shouted at the top of his toddler lungs. “Shits! Shits! Shits!”
Shitis right. My eyes widened and my breath caught in my chest as Cassie’s blue irises flickered with the spirit of the devil. I was pretty freaking sure we were about to witness a gruesome murder if Thatch didn’t find a way to blink himself out of here like a genie.
“I’m sorry, but did your child just say his first word?” Georgia questioned obliviously, excited about the milestone, no matter the circumstances.
“Thatcher, did you just get my baby boy to say the word ‘shit’ for his first word ever?” Cassie breathed like a dragon, her voice rising an octave with each syllable.
Ace grinned like a little maniac, and I grabbed Wes’s arm and forced us both to take a step back.
“Shits! Shits!”
“Oh my fluffing God!” Cassie shrieked so loudly, the hairs on my arm stood on end. “Our son’s first word is fluffing s-h-i-t.Thatcher.I swear, I’m going to castrate you. I don’t care how much of an inconvenience it will be for me.”
Thatch smirked, though I could swear I detected the ripe stench of fear pouring off his gigantic body, and reached out to pat the top of Ace’s head. “Say Da-da, Ace. Say Da-da.”
Mini-Thatch grinned, and two adorable dimples appeared on his cheeks. “Shits!”
In the blink of an eye, Cassie reached out with her free hand and slapped her big husband right in the dick. The sound of contact resonated so much, it cascaded out over the lake and boomeranged back on an echo.
“Ah, fuck, Cass.” Thatch groaned and held himself, lowering his son gently to the ground and dropping to his knees.
“Fuct!” Ace repeated. “Fuct!”
“No, no, no, buddy.” Thatch shook his head, his eyes going wide with impending doom. “Don’t say that, Acer. Say Da-da. Say Ma-ma. But please, if you want me to be alive for your high school graduation, no curse words.”
“He’s a baby, Thatcher,” Cassie chastised. “He doesn’t know the difference. And thanks to you, my son’s first two fluffing words are s-h-i-t and f-u-c-k!”
“Oh God, this is getting worse and worse by the second,” Georgia whispered to Kline. “Did we seriously drive all the way out here just to fill out a police report?”
Kline chuckled, wrapped his arm around Georgia, while still managing to keep baby Julia secure in his arms, and turned away from the shitshow that was Cassie and Thatch to face us again. “I think we might have,” he remarked to his wife’s ear before addressing Wes and me directly. “I take it Thatch didn’t actually talk to you guys, and we were not, in fact, invited to come out here?”
Wes nodded. “The last time I talked to Thatch was the last time I talked to you.”
Remy snickered behind us, and for the first time since this unexpected circus arrived at our door, I remembered he was still there.
Kline glared, turning to look at Thatch, who was still trying to appease Cassie with a charming smile and had managed to stand upright again after the surprise assault.
