Page 4 of Nothing to This (Nothing to… #8)

Chores waited for no one. With her schedule full at work, early morning was the best time to get things done. After her workout, she did a load of laundry. A second tumbled in the dryer while she updated her accounts spreadsheets.

Breakfast took no time at all to rustle up, though it lacked the required diners. The trio in Sky’s bed stayed sleeping even after she turned up the radio and set the table.

The scent of bacon drifting down the hallway to the bedroom did its job and roused the first sign of life.

Kye appeared, bleary-eyed, yawning. “Momma,” he mumbled.

Her gorgeous boy was always cuddly when he was sleepy. Going over to scoop him up, she tucked his face against her neck and returned to the kitchen to tidy up. Murmuring the words of a song she’d sung to them since they were babies, Sky’s shrieking laughter interrupted the chorus.

Turning around, JD emerged from the end of the hallway holding Sky on his back with one arm while he tickled her.

Kye lifted his head and wriggled from her arms; Sky leaped from her father’s. The pair raced each other to the table, trying to get first pick of the food she’d laid out.

JD scrubbed both hands back and forth through his hair. “You didn’t wake me,” he said, his voice gruff. “Is my jacket around?”

“Yes,” she said and nodded toward the hooks by the front door.

He went over to dip his hands in each of the pockets. She carried juice in a pitcher to the table. Both kids drank from their cups and were disappointed to taste milk.

“I want juice,” Kye said.

“The juice is for Daddy,” she said and put a hand on the back of the same chair JD had sat in last night. “Join us for breakfast, Daddy.”

Jacket in hand, he returned to them. “My phone isn’t here.”

“That’s what happens in a house with four-year-olds,” she said. “Things go walkabout.”

Narrowing his eyes, he wasn’t buying the innocent explanation. “Except the kids were with me.”

She bent over the table to pick up his plate, filling it with bacon and pancakes. “Your children eat breakfast like it’s the only meal they get in a day. If you don’t eat fast, you don’t eat.”

“Daddy, do you like bacon?” Sky asked.

After putting JD’s plate down at his place, she went around to help Sky cut her pancakes with the little one’s plastic flatware.

“I hope so,” Rylee said. “Or Kye will have a sore tummy from all the leftovers he’ll have to eat.” She glanced up at JD. “Kye’s addicted to bacon. That’s why we limit his exposure.”

“I get bacon ‘cause Daddy’s here,” Kye said, picking up a piece of bacon with his fingers.

“Yes, you do,” she said and went around her daughter to get to her son. “Use your knife and fork, baby.”

Whether he’d heard or was too preoccupied, JD didn’t respond to the table conversation.

Something else bothered him. “My phone, Ry?”

Hmm, being out of contact with the world brought out his prickly side. Interesting to know.

“No alarm went off,” she said, continuing her mommy duties. She wasn’t going to drop everything for him when the kids needed help. “If I’d heard it make a noise, I would have woken you.”

“The hotel calls my room to wake me up, that’s my alarm. I should’ve been up hours ago.”

After cutting up Kye’s food and putting his fork in his hand, she licked her fingers.

JD sat at the head of the table.

“Well, this isn’t a hotel, JD.”

“Grama wakes Daddy ups,” Sky said. “Like momma wakeses me.”

JD picked up Sky’s little hand and bowed to kiss it. “Daddy’s not staying with Grama.”

That piqued her curiosity… and her concern.

“Why not?” she asked, pouring juice for JD. “She didn’t say anything about a falling out.”

Examining the spread for the first time, JD got interested.

“It’s nothing that dramatic. I just haven’t gotten around to looking at apartments yet and she only has two bedrooms. Usually, I sleep in the den when I’m there with the kids.

I keep saying I’ll buy her a new place, but she doesn’t like to move. ”

“I know that, and she likes her neighbors too. Your mom has a community around her that she loves,” she said, trying to figure out the situation. Why would he want to look at apartments if he wasn’t buying one for his mom? “Why would…? Wait, does that mean you’re staying?”

Sky cheered. “Yay! Daddy, live with us!”

“Daddy, stay here!” Kye exclaimed, sitting up fast.

“Oh no, honey,” she said. “I meant in the city, not in our apartment.” Wouldn’t that be a hilarious recipe for disaster? “Daddy doesn’t want to stay here.”

Except… interest lit his expression. “It’s not a bad idea.”

“JD,” she objected, filled with dread.

But he didn’t get it, or at least he played dumb. “What? You have an extra bedroom, and I can pay my way. It will just be for a few weeks ‘til I find a permanent base… I can help with the kids.”

As he smiled at their excited faces, she stood stunned.

Was this really happening? In front of their kids and…

She and JD had a one-night stand, not a relationship.

They’d never lived together. As of yesterday, they didn’t even have to look at each other at all.

Now he was suggesting exposure therapy or something?

Not a good idea.

“Daddy can have my unicorn pillow,” Sky said, moving her plate to push some of her bacon onto her father’s.

Judging by the angle of his fork, JD intended to push it back.

With a quiet cough, she drew his attention to her shaking head.

Sky said she liked bacon because Kye loved it so much.

Their daughter admired her brother more than she let on.

But the little one wasn’t actually that wild about it, she preferred the pancakes.

Her son was busy shoveling bacon into his mouth. “Daddy can share my room.”

“Daddy can have his own room,” she said.

Shit, did that sound like…?

“Great!” Had she just invited him to stay? “I’ll have the hotel send over my things later,” he said and picked up a piece of bacon. “You guys want to go to the movies today?”

“Yeah!”

“You want to spend the day with them?” she asked. “I’ll have to call the daycare and—”

“Oh no, I can’t take them myself. I can have an assistant…” Glaring, she spun to stalk to the kitchen. Breathe through the irritation, count to ten before reacting with outrage. Didn’t matter, he’d got the message. “What?”

“They don’t want to spend the day with a random assistant. They want to spend the day with their father.”

“I have to work,” he said. “Daddy has to bring home the bacon.”

“I love bacon,” Kye said. “Daddy like bacon?”

“He does,” JD said.

“Mommy brings home bacon too,” she said, packing their daycare snacks and drinks.

“Mommy doesn’t have to. Daddy offered ten times as much child support as she accepted.”

Oh, he was hitting all the wrong markers. “Mommy enjoys working,” she said. They were heading into passive aggressive territory.

“And Daddy has to work on buying himself an apartment before he drives Mommy mad… Maybe you could use that extra money to speed up the sale.”

“You want to come apartment hunting with me?”

“I do!” Sky exclaimed. “Can I have a bedroom?”

“Of course, Little Sproutette,” he said. “You can have your own living room too. Your own pool, anything you want.”

Sky pushed some pancake into her mouth, too much pancake. Didn’t slow their lovely down though. “Can I have a unicorn?”

She laughed and finished packing the snacks. “See, this is why we don’t spoil our babies,” she said. “Grama wouldn’t appreciate you segregating them. If you give them their own suites, you’ll never see them, and they need supervision.”

“We’ll get somewhere open plan,” he said. “Right, guys? And Grama will come stay when you’re over.”

God forbid he be alone with his babies. Despite the irritation, what she felt wasn’t anger, it was closer to pity.

He’d never fully embrace how incredible their children were as individuals if he didn’t immerse himself in quality time with them.

Although, she had to admit, last night was a good start.

Kye reached for more bacon.

She flipped around and held up a hand. “Ah, ah! Kye!”

JD intercepted the dish to pull it from Kye’s reach. “I think you’ve had enough, buddy.”

“It’s time to wash up,” she said, carrying the daycare bag over to hang it on the hook by the front door. “Mommy will clean up breakfast. Show Daddy where your bathroom is and he’ll help you.”

Sky took his hand to tug him from the table.

“Daddy doesn’t know how to—”

“They’ll show you,” she said to what might have been mild panic. “Don’t let them drown or get scalded. Just be an adult, JD.” The trio disappeared down the hall. “Everyone, brush your teeth!”

Hoping they’d get along okay, the extra half hour she’d allowed should be enough, even if JD took his time with them.

It would be a baptism of fire, but she wasn’t Grama and wouldn’t swoop in to save him.

Unless she smelled smoke or saw blood, she was staying out of there.

If he wanted to move in and be Daddy for a while, that was exactly what she’d expect of him.

***

Forty minutes went by and still she waited for them to emerge.

What were they doing in there? Something that wrought lots of movement and hilarity.

The bathroom door had opened a while ago and she’d thought they were done and ready.

Before she’d got there, little footsteps disappeared back into the room and the door closed again.

Checking her watch, worry rose. Time was getting tighter by the second.

Against her better judgment, and despite her aversion, she headed to the end of the hallway and opened the kids’ bathroom door.

What the…? Water spilled every which way, including onto the floor near where Kye sat sticking foam letters to the tile. Sky was the one in the tub, swimming and sloshing around. JD, on his knees and shirtless, leaned against the side of the tub, his arms in the water up to his elbows.

His shirt was in a sopping heap in the corner. Even from her distance away, it was obvious his pants were wet. Not that she really needed to see to know, their daughter was adventurous in water.

Hmm, wow. She cleared the laugh from her throat with a cough. Restraining her amusement should get her a damn Oscar. Her babies were incredible.

Opening the closet just outside the bathroom, she grabbed some towels.

“Okay, fun’s over,” she said, crossing to Kye to pick him off the floor before going around JD to pull the plug.

Sky screamed and lunged up to throw herself at her daddy.

Setting Kye on his feet, she dried him off. “Quickest way to get Sky out of the tub is to pull the plug. She thinks she’s going to be sucked down.”

JD was behind her, so she only saw his shadow move when he stood up. “Daddy won’t let anything happen to his mermaid.”

Smiling, she wrapped her boy in a dry towel. “Go put on the clothes I laid on your bed, baby,” she said, kissing Kye and turning him around. “Come here, Sky.”

JD put Sky down to be dried off. Once her daughter’s skin was drip free, Sky’s hair got a towel dry.

Only one towel remained. She started to hand it off to JD, except one look at him shirtless had her pulling it back.

A smile crept onto her lips. “Wow, you’re ripped,” she said, surprised by the definition in his torso. Touching his pec, she drew a finger to his sternum and down. “Were you always this ripped?”

“I own a fitness company,” he said. “I get all sorts of equipment for free… Working out clears my mind.”

She stopped examining his torso to meet his eye, her finger motionless. “Defined, delicious, finessed.”

One corner of his mouth rose. “Excuse me?”

Casting off the memory, her hand dropped. “Nothing.”

Sky took her hand in both of hers. “Daddy helped to wash my hair.”

“Yeah, and it’s damn near impossible to wash a girl’s hair in the tub. Who knew how tough it was to get shampoo out?”

She shouldn’t be tickled that their daughter had taken advantage of the rookie but couldn’t help it.

“When I said wash up, I meant hands and faces, and they have to brush their teeth.”

“You meant…”

“They knew that,” she said. “Your children are master manipulators and your daughter wishes she was a mermaid. Put the pieces together. They played you. Much as I’d love to mock you for a while, I’m going to be late for work and now I have to dry my daughter’s hair.

” Guiding Sky, she paused at the sink and was almost afraid to ask, “Why is my toothbrush in here?”

“Kye got it for Daddy.”

Leading her daughter out, she called over her shoulder. “If you’re moving in, bring your own toothbrush. Go help your boy get dressed.”

***

Drying Sky’s hair took longer than hoped, but the process was always prolonged when her daughter was excited.

Both of them were ready. She’d put the wet towels in the machine, and still there was no sign of the boys. In Kye’s room, they found them on the bed playing a SpongeBob computer game… badly from the looks of it.

At least Kye was dressed; that was something. JD, on the other hand, had Kye’s covers over his lap.

“Come on, we’ve got to go, baby,” she said.

Kye looked up at his father who did a double take. “I think she’s talking to you, buddy.”

“Daddy has no clothes.”

Damn, JD’s wet clothes, right.

“I’d have called someone, except I don’t have a phone.”

“Hold on,” she said, intending to leave the room. “Kids, give Daddy a kiss and say bye. I want you ready to walk out in two minutes.”

Rushing to her bedroom closet, she snagged a couple of things and returned to Kye’s room.

“Time to go, Mommy,” Sky said, grabbing her brother to pull him along.

Rylee stepped aside to let the kids out into the hall to race to the front door.

“Here,” she said, tossing the clothes to JD.

“What’s this?” he asked, picking up the shirt.

“It’ll do until you get back to your hotel.”

“Why do you have guys’ clothes? Who do they belong to?”

“My boyfriend,” she said. “He won’t mind.” She turned away only to turn back. “Oh, and your charged phone is in the kitchen drawer under the coffee machine. There are spare keys for the apartment in there too. Have a good day.”

Running behind would leave her frazzled for the rest of the day. Yet, she felt sort of lighter as she and the twins headed out into the world.

An unexpected new chapter? Yes. Where would it lead?