“You’re not too busy to order roses you can spare me a minute or two. So, anything new there, have you made any progress?”
“Mom we just met two days ago what do you expect?”
“With you, I thought for sure we’d be heading to the delivery room at least.”
“Very funny mom, but I’ve promised to give Laurie time to get use to the idea of us.”
“How many days did you give her?” Damn, she really does know her kids like she’s been saying all these years.
“I was feeling magnanimous, I gave her two weeks.” She made me grin with her antics.
“Atta boy, so what’s the game plan?” I shared a few of the details with her, kind of like a sounding board I guess; but it was only after I hung up the phone that I realized she’d pumped me for information. Sneak.
The phone rang twenty minutes later and I grinned like an ass when I saw that it was Laurie. “Hello sweetheart.”
“Hi again, they’re beautiful thanks, but you’ve done so much already...”
“Ah-ah-ah, you’re not doing that anymore remember. I’m showing you the kind of life I want to offer you. I understand your fear sweetie, trust me, I do, but I want you to believe that I’m not going to change once I get you into my bed.
Now how about we take the boys out to eat tonight?” Can’t stay on one topic for too long with this one, or she’d beat it to death.
“Uh, I’m not sure that’s such a good idea, we don’t do too much of that, they’re not that good at sitting still for long as you well know.”
“Fine, then have dinner with me at my place, the three of you. It’s either that or a restaurant, lady’s choice.”
“That’s not really much of a choice now is it? I have to go Brett I don’t wanna be late, and thanks again for the flowers.”
“Good then it’s settled, my place, I’ll pick you up at four, that’s when you get the boys right?”
“Yes but...”
“No buts babe, call your dad and tell him where you’ll be. I’m sure he has my address but just in case pass it on.” I gave her my address before hanging up, not giving her any more time to come up with another excuse.
The day couldn’t go by fast enough for me and by the time three o’clock rolled around I was heading for the door.
I couldn’t remember one fucking thing I’d done all day. I think I stopped trying to get anything done when I caught myself doodling like a fucking eight-year old girl.
“You can knock off early Casey, as soon as you’ve finished working on the Scarponi deal.”
“Okay sir, uh, is there an emergency?” She looked at me like she was seeing a stranger for the first time.
“Nope.” I knew why she was asking. In all the years she’s worked for me, I’ve never left the office before her.
I planned to change that in the near future as well. Since the boys were still young, and I was plotting and scheming to get their mother with child as soon as possible, she was going to need all the help she could get.
Daddy was going to have to take a very hands-on approach, so might as well start from now. I can do pretty much everything from home these days anyway, so no loss there.
I rushed home first and got out of my work clothes. Since it was a spur of the moment thing I had to check the cupboards to see what I had that was appropriate for their little palates.
I was stumped so I called the one person I knew would be of help to me.
“Mom, what do you feed three year old boys?” She got a good laugh out of that one and then tried to weasel an invite out of me, which I ignored.
“Okay, since you don’t want your old mom to help you out. You can’t go wrong with mac and cheese.”
“No good, they had pasta yesterday from Luigi’s. I just remembered, they haven’t eaten a vegetable in two days so maybe something healthy?”
“Certainly you can add some vegetables to the meal, but they’re not going to eat just that. Do you have any chicken in the freezer?”
I opened the door and looked. She knew damn well that I did since she put it there. For some reason she doesn’t trust me to take care of myself, so once a month, whether I’ve done the grocery shopping or not, she does one of her own.
“I have boneless breasts in here.”
”Very good, now you’re going to want to bread those and fry them like chicken fingers, kids love that stuff and you can always do something different with yours and Laurie’s. You sure you don’t want me to run over and help you out?”
“No thanks mom you’ll meet them soon enough I promise, love you bye, gotta run.”