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She tapped her chin and then grabbed my hands. “Forget the charity and whatever else that’s making you soft towards them right now. What if we do challenge them? I happen to have a heap of kids that we could use.”
“Use for what?”
“Let me draw it out for you. Verbally. I suck at drawing.” She took the duster from me and talked at me with it. “This is what we’ll do.”
37.
***Memphis***
“MaybeIwon’tdivorceyou after all, Jake. This is the coolest!” I looked around the hidden guard house and watched the main house through several different security monitors. I reached over and patted his arm, full of excitement. “This is going to be great.”
Jake had kindly volunteered to help me and Bea after she’d briefly explained to him what we wanted to do. Turns out, he also thought it would be a good lesson for the guys. They were going to be fathers soon. They had to learn to handle kids. We were really just helping them out.
“Bea better bring the popcorn back like she promised.” Jake propped his feet up on the desk in front of us and nodded towards one of the monitors. “There she goes.”
I squeezed his arm and sat forward, watching closely as Bea banged on the front door of the main house, her four kids in tow. I’d met them earlier and they were all handfuls. I’d raised two rowdy boys, but Bea’s kids made my brothers look angelic. “Oh, my gosh. I’m a mean girl, aren’t I? I’m taking so much joy from what I know is going to be their suffering.”
He laughed. “They have it coming.”
I looked over at him and raised my eyebrows in a silent question. I got the impression that they were friendly. Was there more that I didn’t know?
“No big secrets here, Memphis King. Don’t give me that look. I just think they deserve to eat a little humble pie every so often.” He wagged his eyebrows at me. “Plus, from the sounds I heard coming from this car the other night, I might want to see them suffer a little. It felt like I was listening to my kid sister get spanked and it wasnotpleasant.”
I turned bright red and groaned. “That is mortifying, Jake! Don’t let me know you heard that!”
“I’m pretty sure people in your home state heard it.”
I slapped his arm playfully and then paused. “Aww, you think of me like a little sister?”
He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be weird about it.”
“I’m going to be weird about it.”
He grabbed the top of my head and turned it back towards the monitors. “Don’t look at me, look at the action.”
I felt another sliver of my loneliness chip away and squeezed Jake’s arm as I watched Boone open the door to a harried looking Bea. “What’s she saying?”
He tapped a button and Bea’s frantic voice filled the room.
“I have to go and I need help, Boone. My Uncle Ray tripped over a ladder and we think he’s okay, but the ladder hit Grandma Norma’s boyfriend. Please, just watch them until I can get back.” She passed a carseat to him and then pushed her double stroller at him. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”
The look on Boone’s face made me snort with laughter. He immediately turned his head and shouted Remy’s name, then Wells’. Bea was already back in her car and rushing down the driveway, leaving her four kids in the very shaky hands of the Hawke brothers. We all figured if anything went wrong, we would see it immediately and save the day.
“Shit. Look at Remy’s face!” Jake slapped his knee and hit another button to zoom in.
Remy stared at the kids in horror and started shaking his head while holding his hands up. “No. No fucking way. Get her back here right now.”
Bea came into the guardhouse just as her oldest kid, Sara, opened her mouth and let out a loud F-word. While Remy nearly choked, Bea just laughed. “She knew that word by the time she was two. It was the second word she ever said. Right after shit.”
I wiped tears from my eyes as Remy awkwardly pulled the stroller into the house and Boone put the carseat down next to the other kids. Wells showed up with a towel around his waist and a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. They all just stood back, staring at the kids like they weren’t sure if it was safe to speak or not.
“Wow, hot.” Bea fanned herself and tapped the screen over Wells’ bare chest. “Zoom in on that, Jake.”
“No. I’m not helping you perv on them.” He shook his head and looked at me. “God, you too? You’re drooling.”
On screen Sara turned her head from side to side, looking about, and then she took off running away from her siblings and the guys. Boone shifted like he wanted to chase but stopped himself.
“Are you supposed to chase after them? Or will she just come back on her own?” He made a face and pulled at his shirt collar.
