“I meant, I get as much out of our sex life...” He cut off when he seen the smile spread across her face. “Oh. You are so wicked sometimes,” he said, grinning back at her.
“Okay you two. That’s enough of that. Get back to preparing dinner,” Jamie said, walking off with a grin. Jenny seemed to be taking to being married pretty well.
******
Jenny had Mark take the garlic bread out of the oven and toss it in the bread basket to place on the table with everything already sitting there. Everyone else had already made it to the kitchen and was sitting down, when the lights flickered, then went out completely, the house falling completely silent. After a few seconds of the dead silence, Emily started crying. She always slept with a night light and she didn’t like the complete darkness.
Mark picked her up out of her booster seat, digging around in his pocket for his keys. He had a little flashlight on his key ring. When he turned it on and handed her the keys, she immediately started to calm down, wrapping an arm around his neck.
“Thanks, Mark,” Carl sighed. “She really hates the dark. Of course, most three-year-old children don’t like it much.”
“Yeah, and I think you’ve made a new best friend,” Jenny added. “This storm is turning out to be quite a doozy. I don’t think it’s supposed to stop for another two or three hours.”
“Which means the power could be off for at least as long, and most likely longer,” Jamie huffed.
“Well, I’m glad dinner was ready before the power went out,” Alex said with a nod of his head. “I don’t have a problem with eating in the dark, but I sure wouldn’t want to have to eat raw chicken.”
“You can’t eat raw chicken, Moron. It’ll make you sick,” Tony smirked.
The other boy just shrugged, rolling his eyes at him. “Yeah, that’s why I don’t want to eat it raw.”
“Tony, what have I told you about calling people names? Apologize to your brother,” Jamie said, the frown on her face, obvious in her voice, even if the two boys couldn’t see her with the lights off.
“Sorry, Alex,” Tony said, dropping his eyes to the table.
“Whatever,” he grunted, sounding like it really was no skin off his nose. “You’re forgiven. I’m just hungry. Can we eat now?”
“Alex, I swear. All you think about is food,” Carl said with a grin.
“I know something else he thinks about. Or rather someone he thinks about. She has really long blonde hair, and legs that are about a mile long,” Zane added with a smirk. “And big blue eyes, the color of the sky,” he said in a dreamy voice.
“Shut up, Zane,” Alex said, tossing a piece of Garlic bread at him. Alex knew Zane had to have found the portrait he had sketched of Abby. He was going to have to be more careful were he left his art stuff laying around at.
“Wow, I didn’t think anything ever embarrassed you,” Zane said, still smirking at his younger brother.
“I’m not embarrassed,” he grumbled back.
“I may not be able to see your red cheeks, right now,” his brother chortled. “But I can hear it in your voice. I’m a cop, remember? Part of my job is hearing what people don’t say.”
“Okay you two, that’s enough,” Jamie said, glaring at Zane from across the table, hoping her death lasers would work as efficiently with the lights off. Zane was right. Alex didn’t get embarrassed easily. Unless you talked about him liking Abby. She didn’t think his older brother pestering him about it now was going to help him admit his feelings later on. “Hey, Mark, can you get Emily to point that flashlight at the refrigerator. There’s candles on top of it.” Emily didn’t need any more prompting. She turned and aimed the flashlight at the fridge, so her mom could make it across the room without running into anything.
Once all the candles were lit, everyone sat back down, preparing to eat, once again. Until they realized they heard screaming coming from down the hall. Mark realized Zoe hadn’t made it back from the bathroom before the lights went out and jumped up at the same time Carl and Zane did. When they got halfway down the hall, they realized she had to be in the bathroom in the game room. That’s why they had barely heard her.
When they got far enough down the hall, they were no longer getting any light from the windows in the front room, Carl felt down the wall and then the door until he found the doorknob to open it. There was enough light coming in through the windows in the game room for them to make it across the room without running into anything, but when they got to the door, they found she had locked it.
When Zoe heard the door rattle, she started screaming all over again. “Daddy! Mommy!”
“Zoe, calm down, Baby Girl,” Carl said, trying to use a soothing tone. “We’re right here.”
“Daddy, get me out of here,” she yelled back, her voice shaking from the fear.
“Baby Girl, can you unlock the door?”
“I can’t see the door.”
“Zoe, walk toward the sound of my voice. You can do it, Baby Girl.”
“No, Daddy. I’m scared.”
“Okay,” he sighed, turning back to the others. “We have to find the key to open it. You’re going to be fine. Just stay calm, Baby Girl. We’ll get you out of there. Zane, do you know where the key is?”
He nodded his head, then remembering how dark it was in the room, answered, “It’s supposed to be in that bowl on top of the DVD shelf.”
“Well, go see if you can find it?” he grumbled in frustration.
All the sudden Zoe let out a scream and started crying again.
“Zoe, what’s wrong?”
“I couldn’t hear you,” she said, sniffling.
“We’re still here, Baby Girl. We’re not going to leave you. I promise.”
Carl stood there by the door waiting for Zane to return with the key when he heard him utter, “Crap.”
“What, Zane?” he sighed, not sure he wanted to know.
“I knocked the key behind the shelf.”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
“Nope,” he grumbled, throwing his hands in the air. “I really did knock it behind the shelf. Not even I would find that to be a funny joke. Trust me, I want to get her out of there just as much as you do.”
“We’ll have to take the door off the hinges or try to move that shelf out to get to the key. I think taking the door off the hinges in the dark might actually be the easier of the two. I don’t want an avalanche of movies, and that shelf is extremely heavy.”
“I think Mark and I together can probably move it, Dad.”
Once again, Zoe started screaming and crying. Carl ran back to the door. “Baby Girl, we’re still here. We haven’t left you.”
“Wait a minute, Dad. I have an idea on how to keep her calm. I’ll be right back.” Zane walked out in the hall and hollered for his little brother. “Hunter, come here.”
Hunter stuck his head through the swinging doors. “What, Zane?”
“Do you know Zoe’s favorite song?”
“Yeah,” the younger boy answered, giving his brother a confused look. “Why?”
“You need to come here and sing it to her, so she’ll stay calm. If she can’t hear us, she starts freaking out. We’re going to have to take the door off the hinges or move the DVD shelf.”
“No, Zane.”
“Hunter, come and keep her calm,” he said in a cajoling voice. “Nobody’s going to see you. It’s dark. Pretend you’re in the shower.”
Hunter just sighed and started down the hall. “Okay, I’m coming.”
Hunter went over and sat in the floor by the bathroom door and started singing. The second Zoe heard his voice, she stopped crying and started singing with him.
“Okay. Now that we know she’s going to stay calm, do you know if Luke and Mindi brought the tow truck or one of their cars?”
“Dad, I’m pretty sure Mark and I can move that shelf.”
“Without knocking all the movies off?”
“We can try,” he answered with a shrug.<
br />
“Oh whatever,” he said, just wanting to get her out of the bathroom and get back to eating. “It’ll be quicker. Let’s just get her out of there.”
Sure enough, when Zane and Mark went to move the shelf, most of the movies fell off in the floor. But they were able to find the key and let Zoe out, and were all back in the kitchen eating dinner in less than five minutes. Carl had decided they could all pick up the movies later, once the lights were back on.
When they all got back to the kitchen and sat back down, Jenny grinned over at Zoe. “You know Sis, I got locked in the bathroom one time before and couldn’t get out.”
“Really?” the little girl asked, looking up at her with an awed expression.
“Dad had to take the hinges off the door that time.”
“Why?”
“The doorknob had come off, and I couldn’t get it back on from my side well enough to open the door.”
“That was a long time ago. Before you were even born. Jenny was about the same age as Emily is now,” Carl said, thinking back. “Maybe a little older, but not much.”
“We had just bought this house,” Jamie said, starting to reminisce along with him. “We hadn’t started all the remodeling yet.”
“Wasn’t that the same year Zane flooded the kitchen?” Phillip asked with a smirk.
“I didn’t flood the kitchen,” Zane huffed. “You did.”
“Oh, hush. You both flooded the kitchen. And she was still very small, but we had Hannah by the time that happened. I was still pregnant with Mindi when Jenny got locked in the bathroom.”
“Hannah’s still very small,” Zane said with a smirk. “I’m still waiting for her to finish growing up.”
Hannah just stuck her tongue out at him, then turned to ignore him and went back to eating.
“See?” Zane chuckled, motioning toward his younger sister. “She’s still growing up. She stuck her tongue out at me like a five-year-old.”
“Like you don’t stick your tongue out at people,” Jamie said, shaking her head at him.
“Of course, she’s not much bigger than a five-year-old.”
“You know, Zane,” Hannah smirked. “I’ve heard, a person keeps growing until God thinks they’re perfect. It took you a while, didn’t it? Aren’t you like six four.”
“Cute, Sis,” he chuckled, shaking his head at her. “By the way, I know someone who thinks you’re about perfect.”
“Who’s that?”
“Can’t tell you. I’ve been sworn to secrecy,” he said with a wave of his fork and a wink.
She huffed, glaring back at him. “Then why did you bring it up?”
“Wait a minute. They flooded the kitchen?” Mark asked, stifling a laugh, steering the conversation back to Zane and Phillip’s childhood high-jinx. “When did they do that?”
“Yes, and we still had hardwood floors at the time. They ruined the floor. That’s why we have tile floor now,” Jamie said, giving her oldest two children a dirty look.
“How did they do that? And why haven’t I heard this story already?” he chuckled.
“The reason you haven’t heard this story already, is because I’ve tried to forget most of the stuff they’ve pulled over the years. Problem is, their younger siblings seem to be repeating what they done without being told.” This time Jamie looked over at Zoe, remembering last year, when she turned the sprayer from the sink on Luke and Mindi. “At least Zoe didn’t flood the kitchen, but she sure made a mess.”
“Okay, so how did they flood the kitchen?” he asked, trying to hide a grin.
Jamie noticed he was trying not to laugh and ended up scowling at him. “They were trying to give the dog a bath in a large, galvanized steel tub.”
Mark just looked over at Zane trying not to laugh. Being Zane, he just grinned back at him. “The dog was dirty.”
“He was an outside dog,” Jamie said. “Of course, he was dirty. And he was a full-grown Mastiff. The tub wasn’t even big enough to get him in.”
“Have you all ever had a dog that wasn’t a Mastiff?” Mark asked with a thoughtful look on his face, trying to remember.
Jamie shook her head. “No, as a matter-of-fact, we haven’t.”
“Wait a minute. How old would they have been?” he asked, still struggling not to laugh.
“Hannah was born in ninety-three. That would have made them eight and nine,” Jamie said, doing the math in her head.
“Oh, wow. Did they have any hide left?” Mark asked, using one of Jenny’s favorite phrases.
“They almost didn’t. And I’m not done. There’s more.” That just caused him to laugh again. “To fill the tub up, they brought the water hose in from outside. Once they over flowed the tub, they dropped the water hose in the floor and forgot to go turn it off,” Jamie said, giving Zane and Phillip both a really stern look. “Thankfully they had left the door open and the floor was just enough un-level the water was traveling back outside. They managed to only ruin the kitchen floor.”
Now, he was laughing so hard he was holding his stomach. “Oh, you think that’s funny. I’m still not done.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Once they turned the water off and put the dog back outside, I told them to clean up the mess. They thought they were going to be able to move the tub. They dumped it out in the floor before I realized what they were getting ready to do.”
While Mark was still trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard, Phillip asked him, “So, how many children do you plan to have? Are you ready for your own personal brand of chaos?” Mark just shook his head, still unable to speak.
Chapter 12
Saturday, July 20
One of the Townsend family’s favorite pastime’s during the summer months was baseball. Often, during the warmer months, on Saturdays, the whole Townsend clan would assemble at Jamie and Carl’s house for a family game. Today was one of those such Saturdays. They had invited a couple of friends over to join in the game as well and were planning on having a barbecue afterwards.
Jeff Campbell was there, and Hannah had been staring at him for about the last fifteen minutes. She only stopped because she realized how uneven the teams were divided up. With a huff, she walked over and smacked her older brother on the arm. “Hey, can I ask something?” she asked, glaring at him, hands on her hips.
Zane looked down at her, and smirked. “You just did.”
“Very funny. Keep it up, and I’ll take you out at the knees,” Hannah said, picking up a baseball bat to swing through the air like she was aiming at his kneecaps.
He heard Jeff Campbell snicker from his position behind him but just shook his head thinking to himself, you better watch it, Buddy. Once again Zane smirked at her. “Okay, what?”
“Why are all the heavy hitters, with the exception of Dad and Phillip, on your team?”
He gave her an all too innocent look, raising an eyebrow. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Oh, please,” she snorted, smacking him on the arm again. “There’s you, Mark, James, Luke, Jeff, and Jake. Over half of your team is heavy hitters. Don’t play dumb. These teams are severely unbalanced.”
He shrugged, just grinning at her. “I know, but Dad was the one that said the spouses had to play on different teams.”
She sighed, shaking her head, seriously thinking about smacking him in the head with her baseball bat. She didn’t figure it would hurt him too much. His head was made out of concrete, after all. “That doesn’t mean you had to get all the heavy hitters.”
He just chuckled and adjusted his Royal’s baseball cap to better shade his eyes. “Take it up with dad.”
She stuck her tongue out at him and huffed off. Zane could here Jeff behind him, still laughing. Without looking back at him, he said, “Keep it up Jeff, and I’ll tell her you make goo-goo eyes at her every time she turns her back on you. I know you’ve noticed she’s having trouble taking her eyes off you.”
Jeff’s laughter cut off immediately. “You don�
�t play fair.”
“I know. But I’m still trying to figure out why you won’t ask her out. I’m seriously thinking about making life really rough on you until you tell me.”
“Give it your best shot,” the other man said, smirking at him.
He stood there just watching the tiny brunette as she made her way across the make shift baseball field to talk to her dad.
“See what I mean?” he huffed, throwing his hands in the air out of frustration. “You can’t even take your eyes off of her for a second. You’re just as bad as she is.”
He took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly before answering. “I feel it’s safer that way.”
“While I can understand that thought, that’s not it, and I know it.”
He closed his eyes, counting to ten, doing his best not to let his frustration leak out. He’d been over this topic several times already with the man. “Shut up, Zane.”
“Come on, Man. Just tell me why you won’t ask her out. It’s obvious you want to. I know my parents would be glad to see her date someone like you.”
“What do you mean by that?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Someone who’s got his life together. She tends to date guys that need to be fixed.”
“Then I’m probably not her type.”
“I think you’re wrong about that. Why else would she keep staring at you like that?”
Before Jeff could ask him to explain farther, Jamie stepped up behind home plate. She was acting as umpire and hollered for the game to start. Zane’s team was first up to bat. By the end of the fifth inning, it was obvious why Hannah was throwing such a fit. The score was sitting at seven to zero.
When the game stopped for a short break, so everyone could get a drink of water or run to the restroom if needed, she walked over to her aggravating brother with her brow pulled down. With a huff she crossed her arms in front of her and glared up at him. “Oh, this is so much fun. Nothing like playing a game of baseball you know going into, you have no chance of winning.” Hannah’s tone was sarcasm personified and Jeff was laughing so hard, he was bent over. She walked over to him and yanked the bat he was propped on out from under him, causing him to almost fall to the ground on his face. That only made him laugh harder.
Married in Vegas (The Townsends Book 3) Page 13
