Page 53 of Manny Included

It was amazing how comfortable Pete was at this, between the kids and the shopping, he just shone.

By the time they were done, he was exhausted, and Pete seemed energized.

They piled the groceries into the back of the van, and he wasn’t surprised at all to see that it was time to go meet Will for lunch.That had taken forever.

“I love this plug-in cooler.It makes things so much easier.We don’t have to stress the milk and meat.”

“Huh.That wouldn’t have even occured to me.”

Pete shrugged and grinned.“Waste not, want not, right?We found it and we just loved it.Tony was very into gadgets.”

“That definitely sounds like my brother.”Not that he hadn’t liked them himself, but Tony had loved them, just loved them.“You know how to get to the Zak’s on Elgin?I mean, I know where Elgin is, just not where the Zak’s is.”

“I do, also, it’s in my phone, just to be sure.”Pete winked at him.“When we get there, I need to take the kids to the toilet and get them taken care of.”

He bit the bullet and offered, “Do you want me to take one of them?”

“No, no, you go ahead and meet with Will.I just think that Merida should try to go potty, and you know that Flynn needs to be changed.There’s just no question.It’s been seven seconds.He needs his butt changed.”

He chuckled.“He does have an active butt.”

Pete’s laughter filled the air.“Once he really starts walking, that baby’s going to be active, full stop.”

“Yeah?Aren’t they all?”It was an incredible dance Pete did to look after all of them.

“Belle was really low key, compared to the other three.She still is.”

“Huh.I guess they’re all different, eh?”

“Totally.The one in question is Flynn, of course, because he’s so young.”

“He seems to have his own personality already, though.”Bay thought he was a hoot.The kid was going to be a jokester for sure; he just loved laughing.

“He’s something else.”Of course, he could tell Pete thought they all were.Four unique and wonderful kids who were something special.Of course, Pete wasn’t wrong.

Pete pointed down the road a bit and he could see the sign for Zak’s.

“You think the city hall parking garage is close enough—it’s only a couple blocks from the restaurant and there’s far more likely to be spots there than on the road.”And, frankly, he didn’t want to have to try to parallel park the minivan.

“Sure.I have the stroller.No problem.”

God, there were so many moving parts to having kids.

He just said, “Cool,” and drove past the restaurant to the underground parking beneath city hall.

“I haven’t been out to lunch like this since…” Pete swallowed hard.“A long time.”

“Yeah?I thought you had days off before… Before.”

“I did, sort of.I mean, I took my vacation when they did, but…” Pete shrugged and slid out of the car.“I’ll get the stroller.”

Damn.Pete had been a parent in all but name.That didn’t seem fair somehow.He knew Tony and Cindy hadn’t been being evil or anything, but if they really looked at it, Pete had given up his whole life to help his brother’s family out.Hell, Pete was giving up a heck of a lot more now, he wasn’t even getting any time off at all.

Bay shook his head and got with the program of getting the kids up to the restaurant.These were thoughts for when they weren’t about to have lunch out with the kids and Will.

ChapterTwelve

Pete wasn’t sure what to do.Everything was weird and hard.