Page 231 of The Sidekick

“Then why are we doing this?” Max asks in confusion.

“So I can take pictures for Shade and send them to him when he’s ready.” South takes pictures of mayhem all the time. I’m taking a page from her book and doing the same. Shade will laugh about this, I’m sure of it.

Asher nods in agreement. “Our son deserves this.”

I lean my head on his shoulder to giggle weakly.

But all of the devious fun has been sucked out of it. It’s not even sneaky. They’re gone and no one will catch us. Andi gave me the code for the doors.All of the pizzazz is gone.

Until there was Max.

He delights in the entire thing. As soon as the door opens he is a nonstop whirlwind of energy. He has all the bathrooms taken care of before I finish getting everything out of the bags.

“Jesus, guys, get into it,” he demands and slams his hands on his hips as he takes in our dour expressions.

“Max,” Trevor sighs in frustration. “Read the fucking room babe.”

“I’m dyslexic,” he returns sharply. “There are cameras all over the place and we are going to make Shade a god damn movie out of this. Get into it!”

I glance up at the cameras and blink. He’s right. I don’t need photos. We can make a freaking movie!

“Ok,” I chew my lip and bounce on my toes.

“Yeah!” Max reaches for my hand and yanks me into an awkward tango dance across the living room that has me giggling. The difference in our size has never been more apparent as we trip over each other until I’m laughing out loud.

After that we each make our own special sign for Shade.

Asher’s is flipping off every camera as he passes them.

“I need to come back here with a banner that says camp was great, mom,” he tells me softly, making a laugh snort out of me.

Trevor glares up until he gets to the clown pictures. Once he sets eyes on them an unholy grin takes over as he finds drawers to put them in.

I dance while I hang the frames going up the staircase with the a-holes in various dorky poses that make them look like idiots. Max goes along behind me with a marker to add some finishing touches.

“Which room is the twin’s?” Max asks as he reaches the top of the stairs.

“I don’t know,” I grimace. “I don’t want to either.”

“Good enough,” Max grins and starts going into every room.

“Babe?” Trevor calls from the base of the stairs. I glance down to find Asher next to him.

I shrug helplessly.

He only spends a minute in each bedroom but the smugly satisfied look on his face makes me wary.

“What did you do?” Asher asks with a raised brow.

“Put muscle warmer on their toys and toothbrushes.”

“Huh?” I give him a baffled look.

“Jesus, let’s go,” Trevor shakes his head and starts for the door.

“Nope, we’ve got the shrimp and we need to make sure the air conditioner doesn’t come on,” Max replies in a giddy tone.

“I’m going to the truck,” Trevor returns and waves over his shoulder.

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