Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Sorry, Mom,” my nine-year-old said. He didn’t mean it. He would do it again. But parenting was about choosing your battles. I was willing to lose the one with the shoes if it meant I won the one about him making sure he brought cups and bowls out of his room before they started to grow green and fuzzy shit on them.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” I said, turning to kick them in the general direction of the shoe cubbies where each of the kids had spots to place their shoes.
“Mama, your shoes,” my six-year-old said, giving me a disapproving head shake.
“What about you?” I asked, looking at our three-year-old who looked like he was about to stick Miko’s cell phone in his mouth. “Got anything to say?”
“Cheese.”
“Yes, bubba, I got your cheese sticks,” I said. His holy meltdown about being out of them was the reason I’d dragged my round, pregnant ass out of the apartment when all I really wanted to do was sit with my feet up and have one of the cats make biscuits on my leg while I ate Twizzlers.
“Where is…”
“Okay. I think I fixed it. So don’t tell Mom,” Chuck was saying as he came down the hall.
“Don’t tell Mom what?” I asked, shooting small eyes at him.
“Busted,” Chuck said, getting giggles out of the younger two kids. “Well, we, uh, might have broken the remote,” he said, waving it at me.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?” I asked, rolling my eyes at his terrible tape job.
“I was hoping you might blame the cats.”
After a not-so-subtle shove out of the apartment the week after the whole diamond situation was handled, Chuck had gone back upstate. To pack his shit before making the move to the city permanently.
He quickly became a fixture in our lives. One I tolerated more and more because the guy had gotten surprisingly good at cooking. And it was far too easy for me to get sick of figuring out what to feed a bunch of ravenous boys day in and day out.
“What are you making?” I asked, taking a deep breath as I reached into one of the bags for the cheese sticks and handed it to my toddler.
“Spaghetti and meatballs. They voted,” he said, waving at the kids. “They also vetoed a side of broccoli. Or spinach in the sauce.”
“Of course they did. They treat vegetables the way vampires treat garlic. Where’s Miko?”
We were happy for the kids to have an uncle in Chuck, who had no real family of his own, but we generally chose not to leave him alone with the kids. He was too gullible. And our kids were far too manipulative.
“Right here,” Miko said, coming out from the bedroom to lift the bags from my hands. “No, no more cheese,” he said when the toddler whined. “Dinner is almost ready, little man.”
Our son pouted but didn’t throw another fit, thankfully.
“Did you get your cherry plastic?” he asked.
“Strawberry,” I said, following him so I could pull the bag of Twizzlers out of the bag. “Went with the big one. This baby won’t be denied,” I said, patting my belly that felt close to bursting as Miko quickly put the food away.
“On that topic, come here,” he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me with him back down the hallway toward the bedroom. “Lil dropped by while you were gone,” he told me.
“Damn. I missed her again? I feel like I haven’t seen her in ages.”
I couldn’t blame the kids; Lil had a real knack for them. She loved when we all hung out together. It was really just my swollen ankles, aching back, and pea-sized bladder that kept me from socializing much these days.
“She was actually just dropping off something special,” he told me, pulling me to sit up on the bed with him and reaching to rub my throbbing feet. “Open it up.”
He nodded toward my nightstand where one of Lil’s personalized jewelry boxes sat.
She still did her old work here and there. But a few years back, she’d actually started her own jewelry line. The unique designs had gone a bit viral, leading to a thriving career that included a small line in a very big box store chain.
I didn’t wear much jewelry.
Lil knew that more than anyone.
Unless…
“Is this the gender reveal?” I asked.
For each of our kids, Lil had been the one in charge of telling us what we were having. By creating intricate, beautiful little pendants that would each eventually go onto a necklace for me to wear.
So far, that necklace of mine featured an emerald, sapphire, and a black diamond. Boy colors for boy children.
“Yep. She said she was sorry it took her so long this time. Open it.”
My stomach tightened, wondering if my instincts were right here.
This pregnancy had been very different from the others. I was carrying differently. I’d been much sicker, much more exhausted, and craving things I never had before. Like chocolate. Bars, cakes, milk; you name it, if it was chocolate, I was shoving it in my mouth.