Page 48 of Nothing to This

“Daddy!”Sky screeched.

“Daddy’s playing with me!”Kye said.“You can’t talk to him!”

“Hey, don’t fight,” JD said.“You know the rules, you shout, and I send you to your own bedrooms.”

Sky whined.“But Daddy, you didn’t tell Mommy she could—”

“Mommy won’t fit in bed with us.”

“We can squish,” Kye said, then squealed and bounced on JD, moving them all with the motion.Kye pushed his back against his mother’s for extra traction.“Sky!”

She’d just put a tie in the end of Sky’s hair when Kye called to her.

“Oh, boy,” JD said when Sky jumped up.

Their daughter ran around to sit on her father’s chest, blocking his view and pushing on his thumb with both hands, holding it down so Kye could pin it.

Spinning on her butt, putting her back to the TV, she crossed her legs and watched her children overtake their father.Two tiny people, who spent large portions of their life whining at each other, could take down the great Jamison Dawes when they worked together.

Kye screamed.“I win!”

“My turn!”Sky called.

Both kids bounced on JD with such exuberance, she worried they might hurt him.

“Guys, be careful with Daddy,” she said, snagging her son to pull him back into her lap.

“Have to help Sky,” Kye said, wriggling away from her grip to help his sister triumph over their father.

The kids’ laughter reached new exuberance when JD roared and grabbed them both, tossing them onto their backs in a tickle trap, drawing them back if they tried to escape.

“Mommy!”Sky called through her laughing.“Mommy!Save us!”

“Mommy!”

“She can’t save you now,” JD roared like a comic book villain.

She laughed.“Oh yeah?”

Seemed he’d forgotten his vulnerability in only wearing boxer-briefs and a tee-shirt.With her nails, she caught the hair on the back of his thigh and gave it a tug.

“Ow,” he said, slapping a hand to the injury and twisting to scowl at her.“That hurt.”

“Try getting a wax,” she said, bobbing her brows.

“Mommy,” Sky screeched, struggling to get up.

Kye climbed up onto his daddy’s back.

JD caught Sky.The little one laughed and screamed simultaneously.Dragging his daughter back under him, he tickled her some more while Kye tried to sit up and balance on his father’s back like he was playing horsey.

When using the same weapon, plucking the hair on his leg, she didn’t expect JD to rear up.One of his arms coiled around to balance Kye on his back for as long as it took him to twist and bring the other arm around her waist to swing her around in front of him.

He took her so completely off guard that she fell fast and had to brace so as not to land on Sky.Shit, he swiped her body beneath his, and she curled on her side, sheltering her daughter who was rapt in hysterical laughter.

“Mommy, save me!”Sky screeched.

JD came down over them again on all fours; she guessed Kye was still on his back.With her legs now between his, she pushed Sky under her body, using her weight to keep JD away from the little one.Widening her legs between his, she wouldn’t let JD close his knees, and helped Sky wriggle downwards, creating an escape tunnel between her own thighs.