Brett's Little Headaches(9)

The pizza arrived and I helped her cut tiny pieces for the boys and get them set up in their booster seats. Again she watched me like a hawk as the boys proceeded to make a mess.

I pretended not to notice and kept up a running conversation with her. I found out she wanted to go back to school full time, but was waiting until the boys were old enough for Pre K and she'd raised enough money to do it.

She wasn't complaining about her life, but I learned by listening to her that the life of a single parent was tough.

I didn't want to bring up the ex in front of the boys, but I was dying to know. The more I listened to her, the more I wanted to know about her life.

She was smart and sassy, and so completely different from everything I was accustomed to. She was real, that’s what it was, that element that I had been trying to put my finger on.

There aren’t many ‘real’ women in my life. More like leeches and rattlesnakes, always out for whatever they can get.

I was growing tired and truth be known, jaded by the whole scene. My life so far had been gold diggers and opportunist. Even women who came from wealthy families were trying to land me because they wanted more.

But it was what they were willing to do, the lengths they were willing to go to that had finally made me want to wash my hands of all of them.

***

Pizza was a hit, if the amount of sauce all over their little faces was any measure, and I knew she didn't want to say anything, but I was pretty sure that it was bath time, so I took the initiative.

I had no qualms about trying to ingratiate myself in her and her sons' lives. In the last half an hour or however long it had taken Chaos and Mayhem to fuck the whole kitchen up with pizza sauce, I’d fallen head over heals in love with all three of them.

I didn’t even whimper at the lost of my freedom, didn’t stop to think about what the fuck I was getting myself into. As far as I’m concerned, I'd already made up my mind, and now all that was left to do, was to get her on board.

"So how do we do this? Do we throw them in a pool or something until they're all cleaned up?"

She looked at me like I was crazy and it was hard keeping the laughter inside, until she caught on that I was messing with her.

“I’m sure they’d love that but there’s no pool.”

“Fine then, why don’t you start on this mess and I’ll get them started in the tub. Or maybe I should just take them outside and hose them off.” I picked Garret up and held him away from me with his sauce covered everything.

Of course if I did it to one I had to do it to the other to avoid a screaming match.

We ended up sharing bath duty, which was pretty simple. She just put them in the tub with some toys and sat there talking to them while we watched, until it was time to wash their hair and their little bodies.

I was the main attraction after that it seemed, each of them found a million things to show me, until they grew a little tired and fussy and it was time to take them out.

Again she grew embarrassed by their behavior, and I wondered who the hell she'd been dealing with that she kept doing that shit.

"Hey how about taking the boys for a spin in my truck? That always used to work on me and my brothers according to mom."

I could see from her face that she was a little skeptical and I had to throttle back.

What a dick; you just met her and her kids, invited yourself to her home, which now come to think of it was a minor miracle that she'd let me in, and now you wanted her to get into your vehicle with you at night. What an ass.

I had a hunch and went with it. "You said your dad usually watched the boys, does he know I'm here?" She blushed and tried to hide behind her hair.

"Smart baby, real smart." By now we were getting the boys into their pajamas and I was amazed at how right this shit felt, being here with them like this.

"Give me your phone, was he the last number you called?" She nodded her head and looked at me skeptically. I pressed redial on the last number in the log and waited while it rang.

A gruff voice came over the phone. "Well child of mine, I see you're still alive so the hottie from the park didn't kill you over pizza."

"Uh, this is the hottie from the park." I thought she would fall through the floor at that.

"Hey son how's it hanging? So you survived the tornadoes two huh!"

"Looks like; listen I just suggested taking them for a spin before bedtime, but I think your daughter is thinking serial killer, so I thought maybe I'd call you and give you the particulars, this way she'd be more comfortable."

"Give her the phone son." I passed the phone to the still embarrassed Laurie.

"Hey dad thanks for embarrassing me." She wouldn’t even look at me, meanwhile my soon to be sons were trying to climb me.