She might be right. I had to send Lillian to the store because we needed more flour and sugar. Maybe the counter being covered in cookies is enough.
Camdyn sighs, climbing down from the chair and staring at her sister and then me. “I need to take a bath. My armpits stinkin’.”
I watch her take off down the hall. “Do you need any help?”
“Nope.” She flips her hand behind her. “I gots it.”
I smile, a laugh leaving my lips as I remove the apron wrapped around my waist. I never want to leave this house. I’m dreading it. These girls are my people. People I can really be myself around. And that includes Lillian, who just walked through the door.
“I got the essentials.” Lillian sets a wine bottle on the counter and then a case of beer for Barron. She eyes the cookies on the counter. “You made enough for an army.”
I place the lid back on the jar of marshmallow cream and quickly realize the cat had been licking it. There are black hairs on the outside. “Ew, Vader.”
Lillian and I both look over at where Sev is sitting with the cat, using Barron’s brush to comb his hair. Lillian laughs. “Don’t tell him.”
“I won’t.”
Uncorking the wine, she glances over her shoulder at Sev. “So, now that the girls are distracted, what the fuck happened yesterday? Morgan said Tara showed up here.”
I hadn’t had time to tell Lillian everything that happened with Tara showing up and then the sex against the counter. Not that I need to tell her the sex part. I hear the water running in the bathroom and wonder if I should leave Camdyn alone in there. She’s five. She can take a bath by herself, right?
You can leave Camdyn unattended for a few minutes. Sev, not a chance. Turn your back on her, and she’s trying to rip the wings off a bee to get its stinger. True story. How bees survive in these winters is beyond me, but she found one. That has nothing to do with what’s going on around me though, amongst a Christmas cookie explosion.
“Hello?” Lillian pours herself a glass of wine and snaps her fingers in my face. “What happened?”
My eyes drift to Sev, unsure if she can hear us. Not that she would care what we’re talking about, but she’s currently taking all the Christmas ornaments off the tree. This happens daily and it drives Barron crazy because he’s constantly stepping on them. “Yeah, she showed up and outed me in front of Barron.”
Lillian’s eyes widen, mid-sip. She swallows the wine. “Seriously?”
“Yep.” I busy myself with putting away the cookie-making supplies, afraid if I don’t have something to do, the calm façade I’ve been trying to maintain will fade. I’m scared of what happens next. After Christmas. He asked me to stay for Christmas, but then what? Do I leave?
“What did he say?”
I shrug. “Not much, really. He asked if it was true, and then we fucked on the kitchen island.”
Lillian’s jaw drops, and then her eyes land on the island she’s currently sitting at. “Did you sanitize it?”
“Yes. Did you sanitize Jace’s Jeep?”
A grins forms as she takes another sip of her wine. “Nope. So, like, he wasn’t mad?”
I think about the angry sex and his lack of words that night. “He was mad all right, but I don’t know. It’s awkward, and I don’t know what to say. Besides I’m sorry for not telling him. And I feel like the world biggest asshole.”
She’s finished with her wine now, so she pours herself another. I’m jealous she’s drinking, so I get out the whiskey, and before we know it, we’re day drinking. Twenty minutes later, as I’m spilling all my deepest secrets to her and Sev, who does not care about anything we’re saying, I realize the water is still running in the bathroom. I listen and hear splashing and giggles.
I jump up from the stool, trip over the cat, and face plant into the coffee table. Thinking I knocked myself out, I recover enough to crawl down the hallway. I now completely understand why Barron installed a drain in their bathroom.
There, amongst every—now soaked—towel they have, Camdyn is having a pool party with her Barbies. Sev comes around the corner, buck-ass naked. “I wanna takes a bath.”
Before I know it, they’re both in there, and Sev has turned the water bright red with the food coloring from the cookies. “We swims in blood!” she announces.
Camdyn looks horrified. I have to admit, I’m a little freaked out too.
I look to Lillian. “Do you think that’s going to stain their skin?”
Camdyn holds up her pink hand. “Yes.”
“At least they’re red for Christmas.” Lillian wraps her arm around my shoulder as we stand in the doorway. “We make excellent babysitters.”
I stare at the wet towels on the floor, my cheek feeling like it’s about to explode from my fall. “He’s going to kill me.”
“Well, it sounds to me like he can’t be mad at you.” She smooshes our faces together. “Barron just fucks his anger out.”
I wince at the pain of our cheeks touching, and she pulls back. “Ouch.”
“You’re gonna wanna get some ice on that.”
Shit.
When Barron and Morgan return that night, they’re not only met with kids that have pink skin, but us kinda drunk, and me with a black eye.
Morgan whistles, staring at my face. “Watcha y’all been up to in here?”
“I tripped,” I manage to say, my eyes darting to Barron, who’s watching me closely.
“Why dis cat stick it butthole in my face?” Sev asks, sitting on the countertop in her Christmas pajamas. She tips her head to the side, petting down Vader’s back. “I not wanna see yous butthole.”
“Sev.” Barron groans, setting his thermos on the counter, his eyes locked on mine. “Stop saying butthole.”
“Butthole,” she whispers, glaring at her dad.
He walks past her to me and stands in front of me. “What happened?”
“I left Camdyn in the tub, she flooded it, I freaked out and ran. Bam. Black eye.” I point to the whiskey behind him, my eyes widening with the lack of oxygen to my brain by word vomit. “And full disclosure. I drank while watching your kids, and they took a bath in red food coloring. That’s why they’re pink. And I baked too many cookies. You’re out of eggs. And… toilet paper. Sev had an accident.”
“My butthole’s clean,” Sev says, finding any way to use the word again.
It takes him a second to comprehend all that. His eyebrows rise, and then a light chuckle rolls through him. “Okay then.”
Hey, at least we’ve got honesty now. And I have my first black eye.
Merry Christmas.
I wish I had an answer.
BARRON
Getting your kids to sleep on Christmas Eve is nearly impossible. I contemplate drugging them. Briefly. Morgan and I were never overly excited about Christmas, but between Kacy and my aunt Tilly, the girls have never been so excited to have Santa come.
Sev’s standing in front of me, using my knees for support as she jumps around like a lunatic.
Praying Sev doesn’t slip and headbutt my dick, I glare at Kacy, who’s sitting next to me on the couch, cheeks red, smile plastered to her face. “How many cookies did they have?”