Worth the Wait(45)
“Yeah. Is Mommy sleeping?”
“She sure is, bud, but I’m always here to help you out.”
And I knew he spoke the truth.
“Will you make me into a burrito again?” Cameron asked, their voices growing quieter as the made their way into the kitchen.
“Any time, bud. All you gotta do is ask.”
The last thought I had before sleep claimed me was, God, that man. He made it impossible not to love him.
What the hell happened to the sweet, angelic little rugrats that I’d come to know and love over the past few months? Gone were the toddlers who looked up at me with loving smiles and bright hazel eyes. In their place were demented soldiers of Satan, hell bent on annihilating all of humanity.
And no, I didn’t feel I was being dramatic in the slightest!
“I don’t wanna go to daycare!” Callie shouted, flinging herself onto the floor in a tantrum that would have given that little bitch from Willy Wonka a run for her money.
“Ladybug,” I coaxed. “You have to go to daycare. Mommy and I will be at work all day. There isn’t anyone here to stay with you.” I didn’t know why I tried reasoning with her. I was ill equipped to say the least. I needed a goddamned hostage negotiator.
“I’ll stay by myself,” she pouted from the floor, arms crossed over her tiny chest as she stared up at the ceiling.
“What if I stop and buy donuts on the way to school, huh? If you get dressed, I promise to get you and bub a donut.”
“For the love of God,” Kenzie grumbled as she rushed into the kitchen, pouring a bowl of cereal with one hand and trying to button the last few buttons on her blouse with the other.
“Cameron Michael!” she shouted. “If you don’t get your little behind out of that bed this minute, I’m cancelling the Fall Festival! You have to the count of three. One! Two!”
Before she got to three, Cameron came running down the hall and skidded to a halt in the kitchen. His hair stuck up in every direction, eyes still heavy with sleep as he plopped his butt at the table and started in on the cereal Kenzie set in front of him.
She spun around and gave her daughter, still sprawled out on the floor, the stink eye. Hell, even I had to cringe at Kenzie’s glare.
“Callie Anne. Get your butt off that floor and finish your breakfast. You’re two seconds away from losing the Fall Festival and Halloween. Don’t test me, little girl.”
Bottom lip still poking out, Callie climbed from the floor, parked her rear end in the chair, and finished breakfast as I watched on in wonder at how Kenzie took seconds to get a handle on a situation I’d been drowning in for the past half hour.
“You can’t bargain, baby,” she said, planting a kiss on my parted lips as I stood in awe of her. “They’ll eat you alive if they sense the slightest weakness.”
Kenzie puttered around the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of coffee and adding half a bottle of creamer to it as I kept my eyes firmly planted on the twins, just waiting for one of their heads to start spinning around on their shoulders. The house had gone from chaotic to serene in sixty seconds. I didn’t trust it.
“Gotta tell you, beauty,” I whispered to her. “I’m a little scared right now.”
Kenzie reached up and patted my cheek sympathetically. “Never let them smell your fear, honey. They’ll tear you apart.”
She turned casually to the kids and started barking out orders like a drill sergeant. “Clothes, shoes, teeth and hair brushed. You have ten minutes. Go, go, go!”
“What just happened?” I asked as Cameron and Callie scampered from the kitchen to get dressed. “You’ve been living here for two weeks and they’ve never acted like this.”
“Welcome to parenthood,” Kenzie replied casually as she took a sip of her coffee. “I tried warning you that it wasn’t always sunshine and roses. You sure you want to deal with this? These mornings will be pretty frequent now they’re comfortable with you.”
Reaching over, I snagged her coffee cup and sat it on the counter before wrapping her arms around my waist and pulling her body firmly against mine.
“Hell yeah, I still want to deal with this. I’m in it for the long haul; I’ve told you that. I just need an instruction manual or something to deal with mornings like this.”
Standing on her tiptoes, she gave me a little peck and smiled against my lips. “You’re kind of amazing. You know that?”
“I’ve been told a time or a thousand,” I answered with a sarcastic grin.
Kenzie let out a laugh, “And so humble.”
“What can I say, I’m a catch.”