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“Are you serious?” Ted runs outside while I turn off the stove and set the pot aside before I head out back and am immediately under fire. Jadon and Ted prepared an entire arsenal of mud and made themselves a barrier so they could fling mud at me while under the protection of some old delivery boxes.
Who does this?
I scream and laugh and hide behind a tree in the yard. “Jadon! Are you really going to turn on Mommy?” I hear his whispering with Ted before he confirms his four-year-old treacherous ways with a clump of dirt hurled in my direction. “Ted? Areyouso against me now?”
“Yeah, babe. It’s boys versus girls today.”
“Oh? I guess boys sleep in one room tonight while girls sleep in the other room then if we’re going by those rules.” The next thing I hear is Jadon’s screams and laughter while Ted carries him on his shoulder out from behind their little protection barrier. We are all covered in mud, but the smile on Jadon’s face is worth whatever stains on this old shirt of mine.
“Alright, as cute as this is, none of you are coming into this house until you’re all cleaned up,” my dad calls from the sliding glass door.
“Oh hey, Dad. Dinner is ready,” I laugh while rubbing mud off of my face.
His lips form a tight line. “You three hose off, and then let me know when you’re ready. I got some work to finish up for the new guy.”
“Grampa! Uncle Ted and me got my mommy. She’s all dirty now!” Jadon laughs.
“And you did a great job, kiddo! You got your mommy good!”
Jadon beams at having my dad’s approval. Ted walks over with the hose and holds the running water over Jadon while I scrub the dirt off of him and strip him out of his shirt and shorts.
“Hey, can you go change your underwear and get on some clean clothes?”
“Okay, Mommy. Can I play in my room?”
“Sure, I’ll come to get you for dinner in a bit, okay?”
“Okay!” He runs inside to his room.
I turn back to Ted to rinse us off, but he has other plans. I can see it in that smirk. “I don’t know, Al. I think you look good. You’re like my dirty girl or something.”
“Oh, yeah?” I smile and look up at him. He says nothing, and just stares down at me with those deep blue eyes he always has before he tries to get lucky.
Even though we have been together for a year now, I made a conscious decision in the hospital after I had Jadon that I wasn’t having sex again until I was married. Sure, it’s a little crazy, but I refuse to put myself in another delivery ward and raise another child alone.
“Ted, we should really get inside.”
He blinks out of whatever daze he apparently was in and agrees. We hose one another off and he tickles me a bit, but we eventually make it inside.
In the middle of dinner, my dad admired the tacos. It took him a while to get used to my diet, but after two weeks of me secretly feeding him plant-based food, I told him he hadn’t even noticed. He was angry at first, but eventually wore down and stopped complaining about it.
“So Dad,” I clear my throat. “I’m going to be putting Jadon in daycare so he can start interacting with other kids and get a head start for school.”
My dad drops his napkin and looks up at me with a pained expression. “You’re taking him away from me?”
“Of course not, Dad. What I mean is…” I struggle to respond, looking at Jadon, then up at Ted, who is rubbing my thigh under the table for support. “Well, it’s just that he spends too much time around you guys and all the players. He needs to interact with kids his own age and get ready to be in school.”
And never see Lucas-freaking-Kennedy again.
I watch Jadon again, who is in his own world, making a mess on his plate. My dad just sighs and nods his head. “Is it going to be every day, or can I still have him on Mondays and Tuesdays or something? I mean, everybody is so used to having him around at practices and in the training room. He’s part of the team, Allie.”
I don’t want to risk it, but my dad is attached to Jadon and wants to inspire Jadon to be in sports. He really took on the fatherly role when Jadon was born and has done every ‘dad’ thing with him so far. I’m sure if Ted wanted to take things more seriously down the road, and become more of the father figure to Jadon, my dad would not make it a simple transition. I guess I can compromise with him on this while still keeping Jadon away from Lucas.
If Lucas is the assistant, that means he will be in the weight room with the players that need to bulk up while Dad has players running drills on the field, so they won’t be near each other. It could work.
“I guess he can come in the afternoons if that works.”
“Great!”
