“No!” Alec instantly replied. “I’m just trying to make a decision.”
“Well, hurry up.”
I began to howl with laughter when Alec fumbled with nerves as he looked for the baby powder. He was jumping back and forth from one foot to the other as if it would help him complete his task quicker.
“Alec!” Nico snapped. “Give me the damn powder! He doesn’t want to lie down anymore. Hurry!”
“Don’t rush me!” Alec shouted as he quickly scanned his eyes over the labels on the baby products.
“Ah-ha!” he whooped. “I found it. This is the one Kane uses on him!”
Nico growled. “Open it and give it here then!”
Alec turned and looked down to the baby powder. He gripped the body of the bottle with one hand and used his other hand to turn the cap.
Don’t squeeze the bottle!
I tried to flag him down and warn him of the impending danger, but it was too late. Alec opened the powder, and the pressure on the body of the bottle from his grip caused white powder to shoot from the top of the bottle directly into his face.
For a second everything stopped and, in slow motion, a cloud of white smoke consumed Alec’s head and upper body, but when I realised what just happened, I admit I wet myself a tiny bit.
I fell against the door frame as my laughter turned to wheezing. I crossed my legs to stop myself from having a full on accident and fanned my face when I felt like it was overheating.
“Are you fucking kidding me!?” Alec shouted, then sputtered as the powder got in his mouth.
“Don’t cuss!” Nico snapped.
Alec rubbed powder out of his eyes then reached out and smacked the back of Nico’s head. “Look at me! Don’t tell me not to fucking cuss!”
Nico bent his leg and tried to kick Alec with a backward strike. “If I didn’t have this baby on this table, I’d kick your ass!”
Oh, God, please.
I was going to have a heart attack from laughing. I watched through blurred eyes as Nico lifted Jax from his changing table and placed him into his playpen so he could take Alec on.
“Stop,” I begged.
“This is not funny, Aideen!” Alec bellowed at me. “I look like Tony from Scarface after he dove head first into a pile of cocaine.”
That was it.
I was done.
I sunk down to the floor and cried with both laughter and pain from the horrendous stitch in my side.
“She’s down!” Alec screeched and rushed over to me.
I sputtered and coughed.
“Is it the baby?” Alec asked in a panic as he kneeled next to me and placed his powdered hands on my stomach.
“No,” I wheezed. “It’s you two. So... funny!”
Alec hissed in disgust. “I thought you were hurt you bitch! Don’t scare me like that again.”
I continued to laugh. “I love you so much.”
Alec rolled his eyes. “Stop professing your love for me. I’m not having sex with you, get over it already.”
I slapped at Alec’s chest and shoulders as tears of laughter streamed down my face.
He was too much.
I lay back on the floor and laughed.
I couldn’t hear anything over my own laughter until footsteps vibrated on the floorboards under me. I opened my eyes and through the blur of my laughing tears I saw my one and only.
“Kane,” I cackled.
He tilted his head as he looked down at me. “Are you okay?” he asked with a smile on his face.
“I’m perfect,” I said and wiped my tear-streaked face.
He shook his head at me. “Babydoll, why are you on the floor crying with laughter? And what’s with all the powder?”
I couldn’t form a sentence to answer his question so I pointed into Jax’s room. Kane turned his head and looked into the room and within seconds his eyes widened. “What... what the ever loving fuck happened in here?”
“They happened!” I howled.
I lifted my head and saw that Alec and Nico were tussling, and they were both covered in the baby powder now, not just Alec. They both stopped and began to stand up when they saw Kane. It was short lived as Alec muttered something to Nico that caused Nico to flip out and jump back on Alec who dropped like a ton of bricks when the weight of Nico’s body pressed down on him.
Kane didn’t move a muscle; he simply shook his head and looked away from his brothers who were rolling around the white powdered floor like toddlers wrestling. His eyes refocused on me and he grinned. “You want a hand up?”
“I don’t think I can stand, I’ve laughed myself into paralysis.”
Kane snickered and reached down where he hooked his hands under my arms and pulled. One second I was on the floor, and the next I was upright and standing next to my love. I leaned against him and put my face in the crook of his neck.
“You just missed the funniest thing I have ever seen in me entire life. I swear, Kane,” I panted. “It was amazin’. It all started with Nico changin’ a nappy, then Alec came in and boom, powder everywhere.”
Kane vibrated with silent laughter as he hooked an arm around my waist to hold me upwards. “What happened to lead to them fighting like kids?”
“Alec cursed when the powder went all over him and Nico called him out on it. Alec hit Nico, Nico hit Alec, then they started rolling around on the floor like they’re doin’ now.”
Kane laughed and stepped away from me and into Jax’s bedroom. He put his foot on Nico’s head and it halted all movement from the pair of wannabe wrestlers.
“I press down and it crushes your faces together, do you want to explain to your girls why you both have busted up faces when you go home?”
Alec wheezed. “I can’t breathe! Get this fat bastard off of me right—”
“It’s muscle!” Nico snapped and yanked on Alec’s hair.
He literally reached up and pulled his brother’s hair.
“Hey, enough!” Kane said on a laugh. “Both of you get up, you aren’t setting a good example for your nephew. He is watching everything you’re both doing right now.”
Nico rolled off Alec and sat upright. He locked eyes with Jax who was lying down in his playpen in the corner of the room with his head turned in the direction of the brothers’ brawl.
“You don’t mind me teaching Uncle Alec a lesson, do you, buddy?” Nico cooed.
Jax screamed with delight at the attention and clapped his hands together making me laugh.
“You little traitor!” Alec coughed as he continued to lie on the floor.
I shook my head. “Are you okay, baby whisperer?”
“No, I was just attacked,” Alec replied and shot daggers at Nico.
“What did you just call him?” Kane asked me as he picked Jax up.
Nico got to his feet and grumbled, “You don’t want to know.”
I smiled and said to Kane, “I’ll tell you later.”
He nodded his head and looked at his brothers, snorting.
“You both look ridiculous.”
Nico grunted. “This wouldn’t have happened if—”
“If you hadn’t rushed me.” Alec cut Nico off.
Nico stepped towards Alec, but Kane moved between them, holding Jax to his chest.
“Stop it.”
Alec rolled his eyes, but focused on the powder on his clothes. Nico did the same and headed out of the room and went straight to the bathroom. Alec went to the kitchen and when I heard the water running I chuckled.
“When you’re both cleaned up, you can get back in here and clean this room.”
Nico said nothing, but Alec complained which only caused Kane to grin.
We walked into the kitchen when the door to our apartment opened again and in walked Ryder, Branna and Bronagh with Keela in tow. We all greeted them, but as soon as Nico entered the kitchen—less powdery—Bronagh focused solely on him.
“You know the way Branna’s co-workers give me a scan every week for free when I pick her up on a Friday?”
Nico nodded his head and continued to wipe the baby powder from his clothes and skin.