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Chuckling, I reached for the door handle. “Thanks, for everything.”
“Rager?” he called out before I got out.
“Yeah?”
“It’s not gonna happen overnight. Believe me. It took months, maybe even years for me to get comfortable again after my accident. It gets easier.”
I hoped he was right. I didn’t want my family suffering from this.
Inside the house, I found Arie making dinner and the kids swimming in the backyard with Rosa. She was on an inflatable unicorn, Tommy and Willie out there with them. Wrapping my arms around Arie, I brought her back to my chest. Pressing my lips to the curve of her neck, I whispered, “I love you.”
She melted into my embrace, her head leaned back against my shoulder. “I love you too.”
I wasn’t sure what changes we needed to make to get through this season, but I knew when I was ready I had the crew to back me.
Twisting around in my arms, Arie leaned into the countertop, her eyes on the backyard. “You need to have a talk with naughty Knox.”
I raised an eyebrow. Last time she said that he’d lit the carpet in the family room on fire with matches he’d found. “Why?”
“He peed on Bristol when she was in the pool. Dropped his swim trunks, whipped it out and peed on her head.”
I wanted to laugh, because it was kinda funny, but I held back. “What’d she say?”
“She called him a bitch.”
“Can’t say I blame her. Do you think he meant to?”
“Oh yeah, he meant to.” Arie laughed. “She wouldn’t let him use the donut floatie. So he peed on her.”
I stepped back, distancing myself and laughed. It was all I could do because I loved that these were our problems now at the moment. Racing took up so much of my head most of the time when we were on the road that it left little room for things like this.
Glancing behind Arie, I noticed she’d been making hamburgers. She passed me the plate. “I’ll finish up in here if you go stick these on the grill and talk to naughty Knox.”
Taking the plate, I leaned in. “Only if you promise to put those lips to work later.”
“Bargaining for sex now, are you?”
I laughed. “I’ll do anything if it gets me lucky.”
“Cook the meat and maybe you’ll get to victory lane tonight,” she told me, winking as she suggestively shook the salad dressing in her hand.
Damn her. I waited a few minutes before I went outside to face the kids, for obvious reasons. Outside, Tommy, Paxton and Rosa were still in the pool trying to teach Pace how to jump off the diving board. His way of jumping was all in, arms flailing and feet kicking and usually ended with him belly flopping.
After putting the burgers on the grill, I found Knox in his time-out chair in the corner having to watch his brothers and sister play. He frowned when he saw me, his scowl earning his nickname. One would think Hudson was our meanest kid, and if I had to compare him and Knox, I’d say Hudson nine times out of ten. But Knox, fuck, that kid knew how to get revenge and mean it. Hence why he peed on his sister’s head.
I sat next to him on the lawn chair and knocked my hand to his knee. “Whatcha in the pits for this time?”
Pouting, he crossed his arms over his bare chest. “Bristol’s mean.”
“Is that why you peed on her?”
He stared at me, as though he couldn’t believe I knew about that and then pointed to Tommy. “He said I could.”
Tommy snorted. “No, I said you could pee outside, not on Bristol.”
Knowing toddlers, I understood where the confusion happened, but it still didn’t mean he should be peeing on people. I scooped him up into my arms, his wet hair soaking my shirt. He smelled like sunscreen and marshmallows. “You gotta be nice to your sister, dude.”
I didn’t have siblings growing up, and probably for a good reason. I was a lot like Hudson and Knox—mean as fuck and didn’t have time for bullshit. He lost interest in swimming and Tommy made his way over to me.