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"Dani, you have to learn something about men," Lori says. "During any party prep, a woman will be running around like a chicken with its head cut off, doing things that actually matter, and a man will choose that very moment to conquer the least important thing on his honey-do list from the entire last year."
"Exactly," my mother agrees with a firm nod. "I’d be scrubbing bathrooms and Clayton would decide that is when he needs to go through old boxes in the attic or leaf blow the woods behind the house. The woods, for goodness’ sake. Where leaves actually belong."
That is true, my father did do that right before my sister Teresa’s graduation party, but I also feel the need to defend at least myself and my neighbor, if not the whole of my gender.
"Maybe that’s a generation thing because Mark and I are in the kitchen while you ladies are all sitting there sipping lemonade," I point out.
"Yeah," Mark says. "Exactly. And Crew is watching the kid."
"Nathan is the same age as Mark," Dani says. "I don’t think you can call it a generational thing."
I grin at her. "Nor does Nathan ever do anything he can pay someone to do." This is purely him working out his sense of helplessness over the pregnancy and impatience for the baby’s arrival.
Mark is now chopping onions and his eyes are red and tearing up.
"Babe, are you crying?" Marissa asks, standing up and coming over to him, trying to hold back a grin. "That’s so cute."
"Yes, because I’m devastated by how little you appreciate me."
Mark’s sense of humor always amuses me. Marissa is giving him a kiss on the cheek now and grabbing a grape to pop into her husband’s mouth. I’m about to comment when the back door opens. Crew has Gracie in his arms.
"Nate is flooding the backyard," he says. "Like, legitimately flooding it. Take monkey girl here so I can run upstairs and let him know this is not the time to do whatever idiotic thing he’s doing."
"Here, I’ll take her," Luna says, holding her arms out for Gracie.
Gracie leaps into the air with no fear that she won’t be caught. Fortunately, Luna manages to wrangle her into her arms before setting her down on the floor. The three-year-old runs over to her parents. "Cheese!" she demands.
Lori laughs. "A girl after my own heart."
I set my knife down and decide to follow Crew upstairs. I don’t think Crew knows Nathan is draining the hot tub and I have a feeling he isn’t going to be thrilled about it.
"Where the hell is the couch?" Crew asks as we go through the living room to the stairs.
I eye the gaping hole in our front room. "He said it’s a suffocation hazard for the baby. It got hauled away an hour ago. I guess he has new sofas on order."
"That’s some bullshit right there," Crew says. "He’s not the only one who lives here. And seriously, that needed to happen today?"
He’s not wrong.
Crew loved that couch. It was his choice to have a giant sofa that allowed all four of us to lounge on it at the same time. I get where Nathan is coming from—the sections of the sofa could slide apart and a child could get wedged down between them, but he’s going a little overboard at this point.
Crew pauses to eye the baby gate that was also just installed. "How does this open?"
"There’s a latch."
He tries to open it but fails. He decides to just vault over it and takes the steps two at a time.
I reach out and click it open before ascending the first step behind him.
Dani is now behind me, Romeo sleeping her arms, but I pause and lean down to give her a kiss. "Go relax, sweetheart. We’ll be back in a minute."
"I don’t want them to butt heads," she says, biting her bottom lip.
That makes me grin. "Too late for that. They thrive on butting heads. It’s their entertainment. Seriously, stay with our guests."
Dani nods. "Okay." She gives me a smile. "Isn’t Romeo beautiful?"
"Not as beautiful as you, Cookie."
