R.L. Mathewson Chronicles

“Please, shoot me,” Haley whispered that reverent prayer as she allowed herself to fall face first on the bed, only to quickly roll over onto her side when the scent of the hotel’s bedspread hit her lungs.

Deciding that it was probably in her best interests to ignore that scent, especially since it was either this or getting back in Zoe’s car and rejoining the rest of the cars turning 95 into a parking lot, she closed her eyes, sighed and prayed for morning to come.

“Did you call Jason?” Zoe asked, flopping down on the bed next to her.

“Yes,” she said, knowing that she was pouting and not really caring.

“Is he upset?”

“Yes, yes he is,” she said, sighing heavily as she opened her eyes and pushed herself up into a sitting position.

“Trevor threatened to pack the kids up and come get us,” Zoe said, giving up on lying down and joined her at the edge of the bed where they lazily swung their short legs.

“Jason threatened to lock me up,” Haley added with a fond smile for her mentally unstable husband.

“This can’t be happening,” Haley mumbled, trying not to panic as she wrestled with one of the twenty-five pound turkeys that was still frozen solid.

Giving up on trying to wrestle the large turkey out of the sink, she washed her hands and sighed. It had been five days since she took the turkey out of the freezer and it should be thawed by now.

Instead, she had two frozen solid turkeys, five pies to finish, about thirty pounds of vegetables to peel and eight Bradfords coming over. Not to mention that she still needed to get started on the traditional Bradford breakfast that should be going on the table in…

She glanced at the clock and felt like crying, two hours.

“Stay,” Necie mumbled with a pout as she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed a kiss against the small of his back, making it difficult for him to leave this bed.

“I can’t, sweetheart,” he said with a chuckle as he caught her hand as it inched closer to the part of him that really didn’t want to leave his wife or this bed, but unfortunately for him, duty called.

“You can,” she said softly, pressing another kiss against his spine as she slowly pulled her hand free, reached between his legs and-

“Don’t panic,” Trevor bit out, struggling to listen to his own advice when all he wanted to do was to run towards the hardware section and grab his boys before-

“Don’t panic about what?” Sebastian asked, drawing his attention to his left where both of his sons stood, frowning.

“Oh, thank god,” Jason said, placing a hand against his chest, looking truly relieved that the boys weren’t behind all that screaming.

Not that he could blame his cousin since Jason had been on the receiving end of the twin’s mischief more times than either one of them could count. For whatever reason, no matter what the twins put Jason through he always forgave the boys. It was probably the reason why Jason had become his best friend over the years. That and they had the same blood type so if the boys ended up doing something that caused them to spend a night in the hospital, again, they’d survive.

“Where’s she going?” Jason asked, trying not to panic nervously as he watched Zoe, smiling hugely as she walked away, leaving them with the boys.

“We’ll be fine,” Trevor said dismissively, already heading towards the mall with one of his sons in hand while he left Jason with-

Oh, shit.

“You set us up!” Sebastian gasped in outrage as he was plucked out of the car and thrown over Trevor’s shoulder.

“I prefer to call it a preemptive strike,” Zoe said proudly, wearing that smug smile of hers that always turned him upside down.

God, he loved this woman, Trevor thought as he absently shifted his son over his shoulder. He ignored the grunt that Sebastian made with the move and shifted his attention to Jonathan, who was still sitting in the car with his arms folded over his chest and a hint of desperation in his eyes as he tried to think of a way out of this, but it was too late and they both knew it.

“Maybe we should use this time to take a shower,” Marybeth said, worrying her bottom lip as she triple-checked the baby monitor to make sure that it was still working.

“They’re fine,” Darrin said, chuckling even as he looked over her shoulder to make sure that the monitor was still working. Once he saw that all three of his beautiful baby girls were sleeping, he took the monitor out of her hands and placed it back on the nightstand, making sure that he had an unobstructed view of the monitor. “Go take a shower.”

“But, what if they need me?” she asked, looking so damn lost and so damn cute that he couldn’t help but smile as he wrapped his arm around her and lead her towards the bathroom door.