Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 77663 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77663 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
She pushed it out of the way, and I almost expected her brothers to come running out. Then I realized there was no noise coming from inside, so I figured they must not be in there, but just in case, I opened the door to check.
One had a saw and was doing who knew what with it, and the other one put his hand behind his back. “Storm, what’re you holding there?” He lifted his hand to show me the hand file he was hiding. “Get out, both of you.”
The three of them exchanged a look which I did not trust but what can they do? I outweigh them by a lot. But that spooky shit they do, where it looks like they’re talking to each other without opening their mouths, puts me on edge.
“Come on, let’s go see what your mother and brother are doing.” I carried her while her two accomplices toddled along beside me, getting into every damn thing. The poor gardener is ready to quit every other day in the spring because my kids are always trying to color coordinate his shit, with my daughter leading the charge.
Their thing this year is birds, for some reason. Their aunt claims she wants to be a vet and has been reading things about animals to them when she Facetimes them at night from her off-campus condo, and all of a sudden, they’re experts.
My sister is still being a pain in the ass even though she’s a thousand miles away at school. Now, she goes through her niece and nephews to torment me. The triplets, Blaze, Storm, and Skye, just turned four. Their brother Raiden is barely eleven months younger and he’s a complete mama’s boy.
The little shit is always up under my wife, but at least he doesn’t give me any trouble. While his siblings are catching frogs to torture, he’s in the kitchen under his mother’s feet.
That’s where I thought they were now, but I looked over towards the gazebo and saw her in there in that hammock that I forbid her from getting in. She was pushing the baby’s rocker swing with her foot, had a book to her nose, and a plate of something or other on her pregnant stomach.
The kids ran over to her, and I almost had a heart attack when they pulled on the death trap she was lying in. “Where’s your dad?” She tried sneaking out of the hammock while she looked around to see where I was.
“You got caught again.” She almost jumped out of her skin when my voice came from the opposite side of where she was looking. That guilty, impish smile always gets me in the gut. I leaned over and fought my kids to get close to their mother so I could put my hand on their two brothers.
I know that they’re boys because, like with Raiden, I haven’t been sick one day. Their mother, on the other hand, was sick for both his pregnancy and now the twins. As bad as that shit was, it was worst watching her go through it knowing what it felt like.
But she likes having babies, and I like putting them in her, so what’re you gonna do? I know she’s going for another girl because I heard her complaining that her house is overrun by males, but I’ve been conspiring with the Doc to see how I can go about killing off my female sperm.
She laughed and called me an idiot, but I’d pay any amount of money not to have another daughter. The nightmares I have about my kid can’t be sustained. I know if I have another one like her, it’ll shorten my lifespan.
It's not that she’s a bad kid. It’s just that she has this way about her, this attitude that seems way beyond her years. She doesn’t argue like her brothers, and she walks away if she doesn’t like what you’re saying.
If either of us tried to discipline her, she’d lecture us to death while explaining in her way just why she wasn’t the one in the wrong. She’s got my fucking sons trained to do her bidding and hide up her shit.
She rolls her eyes at me when I piss her off and freezes me out until I’m willing to give her whatever the hell it is that she wants. Can you imagine if there was another one like her? I’d walk into the Rockies and never come back.
AMANDA
Oh dammit. I thought for sure I’d hear him coming and get out of the hammock before he caught me. Now, I’ll have to sit through one of his lectures because, apparently, when I’m pregnant, the only thing I’m allowed to do without him is breathe.
No amount of assurance from me, our family, friends, or even the doctor can get him to see the light. Quite frankly, I think my first pregnancy was the easiest because he was too sick in the mornings to ride my butt.