Page 20 of Night of the Living Manny
“You got it, kiddo.” Brenden leaped up, and more eggs were produced. Special, perfect Brenden eggs, according to Britt.
For a second it was peaceful, easy. A Saturday morning with the family. Then his fucking phone rang, a number at the lab coming up.
“Goddammit.”
“Daddy!”
He mouthed an apology at Brittany, but he grabbed his phone, snarling once he answered. “What?”
“The numbers are going crazy, boss. Something’s wrong with the simulation.” Emmy sounded panicked, which was silly, since Liam had told all of them the models were totally out of line with what the big brass expected.
“Call in IT,” Liam murmured.
“They’re here. They can’t figure it out. You have to come sign off on restarting the test.” She was freaking right out, her voice actually shaking.
“I can do that remotely, Em. You know how long it’s been since I had a weekend?”
“You know how hard Steven is riding me? He’s in the office today. He’s been in the office every day.”
“God. Well, let me at least try resetting remotely, okay?” Liam had to get into his laptop and look at what kind of wonky numbers and scenarios came up, anyway. No sense running off in all directions until he had to.
“Yeah. Yeah, okay. Fine. Thanks, boss. Seriously. You’re a champ.” Emmy breathed deeply.
“Lord. I’ll get on it.” He hung up and slammed his phone down. “Dammit.”
Britt was staring at him, teary-eyed. “NoMoanafor us today, huh?”
Oh, don’t. I don’t need the fucking guilt.“I’m sorry, Britt. Hopefully this won’t take long, and I’ll be right in my office.”
She nodded, and he saw Moose put his head in Brittany’s lap. Great. The dog was a better dad than he was.
“I have to deal with this. What time will you be home, Susanna?”
“By dinner.” She wouldn’t quite meet his eyes, but her answer was firm.
“Good deal. We’ll go somewhere.” He had to throw them a bone.
“We will?” Pete bounced. “I love going out.”
He chuckled. “I know. Be back in a few.” Liam took his coffee and his breakfast with him.
Fucking work. He just wanted one motherfucking day to be easy. He had kids. A new… well, Brenden was already more than the manny, to get to know.
Hell, just a chance to sit with a beer and watchThe Avengers, or whatever Marvel movie was out now and he wasn’t caught up on….
He powered up his laptop so he could log in to the lab, then called up the simulation software. Liam frowned. Okay, Emmy had a point. What the hell?
These numbers weren’t right. Weren’t even close. The previous models had been a little scary, but these numbers showed a wild mutation. He put on his headphones and dialed in to the lab. He needed to figure this out. No way this worked….
BRENDENcalled Susanna when she wasn’t home by five.
Liam had watchedMoanawith Brittany while working on his smaller travel laptop, monitoring some simulation the mainframe was running at work. Britt had seemed happy, but Peter was starting to rumble about being hungry, and Susanna wasn’t home or answering….
“Has Susanna not answered?” Liam frowned and shot off a text, presumably to Susanna.
“She’s not answering at all, no.” Brenden bit his lower lip. “Do you have Shelly’s mom’s number?”
“Yeah, I’ll call.” Liam was growling now.
