Mannies Incorporated by Michael, Sean (phonics books .TXT) 📗

He got two full waffles, bacon, eggs. Oh, thank God.

"This looks really good." It did.

"Thanks."

He couldn't help but notice that Slayde never sat to eat. His plate was on the counter, a bite going in as he worked, helping with syrup, wiping sticky fingers, refilling sippy cups.

"So, what's the plan for today?" If he asked for the whole day's plan he couldn't get in Slayde's way, right?

"It's Wednesday. Wednesday is library day and I promised we could eat lunch at the park. Then someone told me they wanted macaroni and cheese for supper."

He looked at the kids. "It wasn't me." He gave Christian a wink.

"No. Me," answered Christian. "With hot dogs in it."

Oh, gag.

"Isn't that nice." Maybe Slayde would let him order them something for the grown-ups.

Christian nodded, grinned. "Macamaronis and hot dogs! Yay!"

The girls cheered. "Yay!"

He chuckled and glanced at Slayde. Slayde grinned, grabbed a cup of coffee, hiding a smirk. Slayde could go ahead and smirk, Drake had plans to not have to deal with macamaronis. Of course, Slayde was a grown man who had been having to eat nothing but kid food for four weeks, five? He'd bet the man would love something spicy, rich.

He could find an Indian place, or Mexican. Go pick it up if they didn't deliver and have it appear at eight-thirty.

"Would you like to come to the library with us? To our picnic?"

"Sure thing. I'm good at reading."

"Would you be willing to take Christian to his reading group so I can take the girls to toddler read along?"

"Sure, just you and me, that'd be great, won't it, Chris?"

Chris nodded, munching his bacon, then added as soon as he'd swallowed, "My name is Christian."

"Right. Okay. Christian." He'd remember. "Bacon's my favorite, though the waffles are pretty damn good."

Christian looked at him, eyes wide. "You said a cuss."

"I did?"

"Uh-huh. You have to do pushups."

"Pushups?" Was Christian for real?

Slayde nodded. "That's Momma's rule. Ten pushups per curse word."

Ten pushups per curse word? Seriously? He chuckled. "I know my sister -- she's done a lot of pushups, I bet."

"You know it. Way more than me."

Christian looked at him. "Give me ten."

Laughing, he dropped to the ground. "You're going to count, right?"

"Uh-huh." Christian watched and counted as Drake popped out ten.

"How's that?" he asked Christian, grinning. He could do push-ups in his sleep.

"Good. You can have the rest of your breakfast."

"All right." He hopped up and sat at the table again, digging into the rest of his waffles. "These really are great." He looked over at Slayde to smile his thanks.

"Thanks." Slayde ate as he cleaned, looking over at Maggie. "Three more bites and you can get up."

God, didn't the man ever take a break? It was like he was OCD, married to this schedule of his and the kids'.

"'kay, Uncle Slayde."

Jenny was smearing syrup over her high chair.

"Hey, kiddo, that's not paper or colors." Drake grabbed some paper towel and began cleaning her hands. Wow, he'd beaten Slayde to something.

"Colors?"

"If you want to draw you should use paper and crayons or something, not highchairs and syrup, Jen."

"Colors!"

"Maggie, one more bite. Jenny, no yelling. Christian, are you done eating?" Slayde swapped out high chair trays, handing him a clean one. "Crayons and paper are in that drawer. No coloring for the other two until they're done."

"Yes, sir." He winked and found the crayons and the paper, put them on the clean tray -- Slayde had extra high chair trays for fuck's sake. "There you go, kiddo."

"T'ank you." She looked so serious. "I draw picture for sister."

"Yeah? A picture for Maggie? What are you going to draw for her?"

"Mommy."

"Oh…" He smiled at her. "That's great."

She started scribbling, Christian took his plate to Slayde, and Maggie started crying.

"Hey, what's wrong, Mags?"

She looked at him and started crying harder and Slayde looked at her, eyebrow raised. "Margaret Elise, either tell me what's wrong or stop. It's library day."

The little girl stuck her tongue out, a little blood on it. Oh, ow.

"Oh, you bit your tongue." Drake got up and went to the freezer, grabbed an ice cube. "Here, put this on your tongue, honey."

She looked at Slayde, who nodded. "Uncle Drake loves you, kiddo. Try it."

"Trust me, it works." He took another piece of ice and put it into his mouth to prove that it wasn't poison or anything.

Maggie sucked on the ice, lips pursing. God, she looked like her momma. He watched for a minute, just watched.

Christian wandered off, Jenny colored, and Maggie sucked the ice. Then she stopped crying.

He grinned. He'd done that. Him. She almost -- almost -- grinned back.

Slayde took her plate. "Would you like to draw now, Maggie?"

Drake went over and grabbed a couple pieces of paper and gave her some of the crayons from Jenny's tray.

"MINE!"

"Jennifer!" Slayde's voice cut across the kitchen. "Not appropriate."

"Do they have their own or are they meant to share?" Look at him, asking before assuming anything.

"They are supposed to share. Jenny is having issues with this idea."

"Ah. Better get used to it, kiddo."

"MINE COLOR!" God, she could scream.

"Jennifer. That's two. One more and you go upstairs."

Maggie watched with huge dark eyes.

Drake shook his head. "Maggie's happy to share with you, Jenny. Sharing is good." He grabbed another piece of paper and one of the crayons still on her table. "I'm going to draw, too."

The scream split the air and Slayde headed over, picked her up and carried her upstairs, throwing a fit.

Maggie looked at him. "You coloring?"

Christian's voice floated in. "Babies are stupid. Maggie, come play pirates with me?"

"I am, but if you'd rather go play pirates with Christian, I'll understand." He wasn't going to push it, but if he could get her to warm up to him a little…

"The baby's mad."

Slayde came back downstairs, set a timer on the counter, then got back to cleaning the kitchen.

"Yeah. She doesn't know how to share yet, does she?"

"No. She's a baby." Maggie went back to coloring, at least until Christian came in.

"Maggie! Play pirates!"

She sighed, dark eyes rolling at