Risking Fate(20)

“How many times do I have to tell you not to tie anything on the dog? How many, Noah?”

The little guy shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry.”

“Do it one more time and you’re goin’ to get it. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir.” Noah went running away from where we could see him. I saw Colt shaking his head and walking back toward the kitchen.

“Damn Cuz, I think I’m even scared to touch your dog.”

“Shut up man. This ain’t the first time he tried that shit. Not only could he seriously hurt her, but he could have hurt himself. He needs to learn to listen.” Colt grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator and passed one to me. He opened his and began drinking it before the refrigerator door shut.

“So what were you going to give him? You have a paddle or do you prefer a stick from a tree?”

Colt cocked his eyebrow. “He was goin’ to get my bare hand on his ass, that’s what he’s goin’ to get. You wait til those boys are born and start causin’ you grief. Don’t be callin’ me whinin’ about it. Your ass can handle that shit yourself.”

He was right, I knew he was. Colt was trying to teach his son what was right and I respected that. Being that all I had was a little girl, it was harder for me to be so stern with her. Honestly, Miranda would probably say that I didn’t know how to be stern with our daughter. She always said I was too easy on her. I just hated to see her sad. I wanted to do whatever it took to make my little girl happy, even if it was bending the rules sometimes.

I wondered if I was going to be different when the boys came. Would I be able to be harder on them, because they were boys? Would I know what to do when they got into trouble?

“I’m really in for it, ain’t I?”

Colt took another drink of his beer. “I reckon you have a lot of learnin’. Noah is my son and I love him more than my own life, but that kid likes to cause mischief. Mom says that I was just like him, I just don’t remember gettin’ into things like that boy does. Sometimes I think he is testin’ my last nerve.”

We sat down at the table and Colt started shuffling up some cards. Our family loved to play cards. “What are we playing for?”

“You already owe me twenty bucks,” Colt teased.

“Bullshit. You bet me, I didn’t bet you, dick. Besides, you knew all along that shit was nasty.”

Colt began laughing again. “If you could have seen your face after that first swig, man that was priceless.”

“It was gross, that’s what is was. Those poor babies don’t even understand. No wonder they cry all the time. Their food tastes like ass.”

He shook his head while he began dealing the cards. I could hear the girls talking in the other room. They probably wouldn’t even come and sit with us. Since they couldn’t drink, they usually spent their time watching romance flicks while Colt and I stayed up and played cards. I knew we weren’t able to stay to play with everyone tomorrow night, so it was just Colt and I. “I say we play for kid duty tomorrow mornin’. If I win then you and Randa need to take the kids over to my moms and get up with them in the mornin’. If you win they can stay here and I will take away the golf cart keys so they can’t ride out to the main house.”

“You got yourself a deal, Cuz.”

We played a game of five hundred rummy, keeping it close the whole time. It went faster with just two people and in no time we were neck and neck and on the determining last hand of the night. The kids had passed out upstairs in the playroom on the bean bag chairs after watching a movie. Savanna and Miranda were sound asleep on the couch, while Colt and I had the baby monitor in the kitchen, listening in case Christian woke up.

I decided I was going to change things up and hold all of my lay down cards in my hand until I could just go out at once. Colt took his time, collecting and laying down the cards as soon as he got them. I had four jacks and two queens in my hand. All I needed to do was pick up one more queen and I won the game. Lucky ass Colt picked up the card he needed first and threw down three aces. He didn’t have a discard, so he was floating until his next turn.

I closed my eyes and drew my last and final card. This had to be a good one or I was out of the game and lugging sleeping bodies back on one golf cart. My card was a queen. I threw down everything I had in my hand and discarded the remaining card.

Colt pounded his hands on the table. We had been drinking for a couple of hours and I could even tell we were being louder than normal. “You prick. That was cheatin’.”

“Bullshit! There is no rule saying you can’t do that.” I reached my hands up in the air and started to stretch, even adding a yawn to my appearance. “I guess I need to take my wife and get her tucked in. We’ll see you guys in the morning. Not too early though. We like to sleep in.” I winked as I stood up.