Worth the Wait(25)

That spoke volumes about the woman who’d grabbed my interest and refused to let go. She was a proud woman who busted her ass for what she had, and it was clear that any extra she found herself with, she used on her children. I didn’t know what happened in her past, but I had no doubt that everything she did, she did with those kids’ best interests at heart. Strong didn’t even begin to properly describe Mackenzie Webster.

I was pulled from my musings by a high-pitched scream followed by a splash. Rushing down the hall, I felt like my heart was about to beat right out of my chest. Fear gripped my lungs in a tight hold, not allowing any air in or out. As I skidded to a halt in the bathroom doorway, what I saw confirmed one thing.

I was so screwed.





“What the hell do you expect us to do?” Trevor asked in astonishment as Luke and Jeremy stood back with their hands over their mouth, trying their hardest not to laugh.

“I don’t know!” I shouted before releasing a string of colorful expletives.

“Uuuuummmm, you said bunches of bad words,” Cameron spoke from his place on top of the toilet. Well, to be accurate, it was more like inside the toilet.

I leaned in and ruffled his hair. “Hey bud, you remember about the buddy code, right?” He gave me an exuberant nod. “Yeah, why don’t we put my bad words under the buddy code, yeah? We won’t tell your mommy that I accidentally cussed, and I’ll work really hard not to do it anymore. Deal?” I reached my hand out and he grabbed on with his little one to give it an enthusiastic shake.

“Deal.”

“Can we gets a cookie for not telling?” Callie asked from beside me.

“You bet!”

“Yay!” both kids cheered like nothing was wrong in the world while, internally, I was freaking the ever-loving hell out.

“Hey, ladybug. Can you go look in the fridge and see if your mommy has any butter?”

Callie looked up at me with bright eyes and said, “Mommy said buttews bad for you. We gots mawgwin.”

That’ll work.

“Margarine’s perfect, sweetie. Will you go get that for me?” She bolted from the bathroom and took off down the hall as I released a breath and turned back to Cameron. “All right, buddy. How’d you even get your foot stuck in the toilet anyway?”

“I was tryin’ to flush myself.”

I stood there, momentarily speechless before asking, “Why would you…you know what? Doesn’t matter. Let’s just try and get you out, okay?”

“Yup.” He popped the “p” and stood casually like he had all the time in the world.

“What are you planning on doing? Greasing him up like a pig?”

I shot a scowl at Jeremy. “What are you even doing here? I don’t remember calling you for help.”

“You didn’t,” he grinned. “You called Trevor. Trevor called Luke. Luke called me. No way in hell I was missing this shit.”

“Dats a bad word,” Cameron scolded.

“Yeah, Jeremy. That’s a bad word. Watch your damn mouth.”

“GOT IT!” Callie screeched about a million decibels higher than necessary as she shot into the bathroom with a tub of Parkay in her hands.

“Thank you, ladybug. Why don’t you take Jeremy here and go show him your tea party set? He was just telling me how much he wanted to have a princess tea party.”

“Yay! Come on, come on, Jewmy!” He scowled at me over his shoulder as Callie pulled him out the door, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to shoot him the finger as I watched him go.

“All right, bud,” I said, turning back to Cameron, still hanging out, one foot stuck in the toilet like it was just any other day. “This is what we’re gonna do. I’m gonna reach in and try to get your foot unstuck while Trevor here gently pulls on your leg.” I turned back to Trevor and narrowed my eyes. “You hear that, Trevor? Gently.”

“Yeah, I think I got it. Remind me real quick, who was it that got a kid’s foot stuck in the toilet while babysitting? Ah! That’s right, that’d be you, d-i-c-k-w-a-d.”

The bastard actually had the nerve to spell it out.

“Yeah, well, I’m still gonna kick your a-s-s when this is over, l-i-m-p-d-i-c-k. Can we just do this, please?”

Popping the top off the margarine, I shoved my hand in and got a huge glob before reaching into the toilet bowl and trying as best I could to coat his ankle so we could finagle him out.

“Okay, Trevor, you pull his leg. Luke, see if you can lift him up. On the count of three. One, two—”

“What’s going on?”

Son of a bitch!





Walking into my apartment after a long day of uncontrollably worrying about both my kids’ and Brett’s welfare, the last thing I expected to see was Jeremy sitting in one of the tiny plastic chairs of Callie’s tea party table, wearing a princess crown on his head as he sipped pretend tea out of a cup with his pinky poking straight up in the air.