“Hi, it’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you,” I say, holding my hand out for her. A smile quickly comes across her face, and she limply shakes my hand.
“I feel like I practically know you,” she jokes, her voice rising to what I assume is her normal range.
“I have a habit of talking about you constantly.” Trey kisses my temple and hands me Drew. “Let me get that disk for you, Sara. I know Matt is waiting for you.” He takes the stairs two at a time.
“Matt?” Jessa questions, her voice tremendously softer than two seconds ago.
“My fiancé,” she answers. “He works at the restaurant, so he gave us a ride home.”
“Fiancé, huh?” Jessa calms her temper down. “When are you getting married?”
“Christmas. I’ve always wanted a winter wedding,” she continues.
“This one’s got two weeks,” Sadie divulges, jerking her thumb toward Jessa. “Do me a favor and treat your bridesmaids nicely before your big day.” She playfully cocks her head to Jessa, who gives her a small push on the shoulder.
“Congratulations,” Sara’s voice lowers again. Trey’s steps coming down the stairs can be heard before he appears.
“Here you go, Sara.” He hands her the disk, and she smiles.
“Thanks, Trey, I’ll get it back to you tomorrow,” she tells him turning around and opening the door. She turns around when her hands reaches the knob. “It was nice meeting all of you,” she says, and we all scramble to get the same words out of our own mouths.
“Time for a break, give me this big guy.” Jessa grabs Drew. “I bet you’re hungry,” she says, and Drew nods his head excessively.
“There’s snacks—.”
“I got it covered,” she tells me.
I walk over to the window and find a guy pulling out of the driveway with Sara in the passenger seat. Trey’s arms wrap around my waist and his chin rests on my shoulder. “Jealous?” he kids. Little does he know I was green with jealously, and I actually doubted him. I shut my eyes in regret of my foolish suspicions before turning around.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize.
“I told you, Kailey, I’m yours,” he brushes his lips against mine way too short for my liking.
“You were always talking about her, but I shouldn’t have come to conclusions. It’s just things are...getting worse,” I admit to him.
“I know, we’ll get through it. Let’s just take it one day at a time.” He peers down at me, and I nod in agreement. “So, why are you here?” he asks. “Not that I’m not thrilled to see you,” he adds.
“Long story, but pretty much giving Caden and Jen some much needed time alone.” I nuzzle into his chest, relishing the ocean breeze scent that is Trey.
“Let’s give them the whole night. Sara was telling me she takes Matt’s niece to this Showtime Pizza Palace all the time.”
“Are you nuts? You do know what it is, right?” I raise both eyebrows at him.
“Yeah, they have games and stuff. I’m sure Drew can’t do much, but the girls will love it.” He appears so excited at the idea; I’m not about to tell him the truth.
“Alright, we’ll get the girls from their play date and go,” I agree.
Chapter 14
Trey
We pull up outside the enormous castle-like structure, and I spy parents tugging their screaming kids away from the building. The whole unfolding scene makes me want to speed away as though the building caught on fire. I glance at Kailey from the corner of my eyes and she giggles. “It will be fine,” she assures me and pats my leg.
“I don’t think so,” I say dead serious. These three well-behaved, precious kids we have in the back might just turn out to be like the aliens now tearing away from their parents’ hands and back into the building.
I got to hand it to the redheaded boy with glasses, he’s escaped his dad’s tight grip twice, circling around, making it back inside the doors before his dad could figure out where he had disappeared. I could be looking at a future pro running back with skills like that.
“Out!” Tara screams, and I give Kailey the ‘I told you so look’, but all she does is giggle again. Her amusement goes to show I’ll be one of these poor souls dragging some kid away in a few hours.
I turn off the ignition as the rear sliding doors open. Chloe is already unbuckled and helping Tara out of her car seat contraption. They both jump in my arms and their excitement is contagious, bringing a smile to my face and quickly vanquishing the memory of what I just witnessed. Kailey takes Drew in her arms, and the five of us venture into the unknown. At least for me it’s an abyss I’m not sure we’ll escape out of the same way we went in. Giving the smiling Kailey one last look, I open the door for us, and the noise that blasts out of the energy filled building has me fearful for my life.
The high school student studies Kailey and I before stamping our hands with some form of invisible ink. “Why can’t I see it?” I ask the young girl.
“So you don’t take the wrong kid,” she explains, but I look around the building at the screaming uncontrollable children running around and then back to the three calm ones next to me.
“You don’t have to worry about that,” I inform her.
“It’s more so no one takes one of ours,” Kailey chimes in, and then it all clicks in my head. Of course, one of these parents would want to trade these darlings for one of their devils spawn. Not going to happen, my friend.
Ordering some pizza and buying tokens for an ungodly amount of money, we find our seats. Nestling into a booth, I grab a highchair for Drew, and Kailey gives him some crackers to keep him busy until the food arrives.
“Trey, let’s play,” Chloe says, pulling on my hoodie sleeve.
I look over to Kailey, and she nods. “Go ahead, I’ll let you know when the pizza comes,” she instructs. Her calmness over this place amazes me.
Grabbing the small bucket of tokens, Tara and Chloe file out of the booth after me. I bend down to give Kailey a kiss, and she surprises me when she pulls me down to whisper something in my ear. “Don’t worry about the tickets. You’ll get the top prize tonight.” When I pull back, she winks my way. God, I love her. In those few short words, she’s calmed me down from the panic of this germ infested kid zone.
Chloe takes my hand and leads me over to a basketball game. Taking a token out of the bucket, she inserts it and starts playing. I gotta say, the girls got skills for five. While she’s busy playing that, I get Tara set up on skee ball. Instructing her on how to roll the ball, instead of throwing the ball, is harder than it should be. The fearful employee’s scared shitless face when the ball went flying towards his head, has me biting my lip to hide my laughter. Once she’s got it going, I scoot back over to Chloe, who has found her way over to a driving game.
An older boy is hovering over her while her legs stretch to reach the pedals. She’s a determined little girl that’s for sure, but the game is a bit complicated and probably too advanced for her. Tara runs over. I scoop her up, and we watch Chloe ranking sixteenth out of sixteen, dead last, but she’s happy and loving it. She snags another token and puts it in to play again. Then the boy who’s probably twelve or so decides to speak up.
“She’s too young to be playing,” he spats, and my head turns his way.
“She’s fine, don’t worry, you’ll have your turn,” I assure him, kindly hoping he shuts his mouth.
“It’s a waste. She’s holding everyone up. As her dad, you shouldn’t allow her—,” the smart mouth kid continues.
I place Tara down on the ground, who instantly stands next to Chloe, watching her smash into walls and rocks and whatever other obstacles are in her way. Walking up, so I’m looking down at him, intimidation is key. “Listen, she’s going to play the game, and if she wants to play again, I have a bucket full of tokens. We’ll stay here all night. So go play some other game while you’re waiting,” I say, shooing him away with my hand.