Page 95 of Lucky Laces
Because Rhodes got drunk enough to share that he had photographic evidence taken by his nanny.
And then King got into his phone.
And so we all got to enjoy the show of our grumpy as fuck teammate wearing bright blue sparkly eye shadow, red lipstick, and blush with tiny, glittery butterfly clips in his hair.
If I’d been interested in anyone else aside from Dee, I would have kissed Rhodes’s nanny—it was that good of a photo cache.
He groans again, mutters, “I took her to a birthday party.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” I say, pushing up and starting my stretches again.
“Its theme was pink.”
I chuckle.“Just pink?”
“Yup.Just an explosion of pink in every corner of the house, all shades from pastel to so fucking bright I was blinded.”He sits up too.“Chloe loved it, decided that when we got home, we needed to paint her room.But was it a pastel color that I could maybe deal with?”
I bite the inside of my cheek so I don’t burst out laughing.“I’m guessing,” I manage to say somewhat neutrally, “that’s a no.”
“No, of course it’s a fuckingno.”He scowls.“She chose the brightest, most assaulting to the eyes pink there was in the paint store.”That scowl deepens.“And worse, she found a color that has fuckingglitterin it.”
Now I lose my battle and start busting up.
And I know I’m not the only one—laughter rings out all around us as the rest of the guys lose it.
“Laugh it up assholes,” he grumbles.“Because it gets worse.”
“How can it possibly get worse?”Rome asks.
“Just wait until your daughter is here,” he says.“And you’ll know.”
King makes a go on gesture, and I’m right there with him—I need to know how its gets worse.
“Chloe decided my room needed a matching wall.”
There’s a moment of silence.
And then…
More laughter.
And chirping.
And plans to plant all sorts of pink, glittery ideas into Chloe’s mind.
Fuck, I love these guys (and I love it more that Pat, Duncan, and Kane aren’t here to kill the vibe).
I spend the next hour working out and then the hour after that, trying some of the techniques I learned at my first appointment with Smitty’s brain-fixing crew, and for the first time in forever, I didn’t end my time studying wanting to launch the tablet and papers against the wall.
I end it, not having learned it all, but having learnedsomething.
And that means the day has been great.
What’s better?
Dee is finally home.
And so I have an idea how to make it even greater.
