Page 42 of Situationship
“While I commend the sentiment, other mommies might not. So, here’s how it’s going to go down. Neither of you repeat that word outside of this car and it’s cheesy poofs for breakfast for the rest of the week.”
“Yay!” Poppy cheered, and Teagan heard the sound of cheesy poof bags opening. Then the most wonderfully, amazingly beautiful thing happened. Lily cheered along. It wasn’t a word, it was more of a sound, but it was enough to reassure Teagan that things were going to work out. Right there, in that moment, she was the kind of mom she wanted to be.
Their family might be little but they were fierce.
Bianchi fierce.
Teagan wasn’t good at going with the flow but, as a baker, she knew when the formula failed, it was time to go by feel. This morning’s fiasco was nothing more than a problem to be solved. And she loved solving problems.
First Problem: how to change clothes without leaving the girls alone in the car.
“Mommy needs your help. Lily, can you hand me the gym bag at your feet?”
She’d already slid off her blazer, which was miraculously frosting-free, and had carefully inched her silky tank off without getting more frosting on herself, when her gym bag slid through the two front seats. She rummaged through the bag—the nearly empty bag.
Crap.Her gym clothes were in the laundry room with the other piles of clean clothes ready to be put away. Time for Mac-Gyver mode.
“Poppy, I need the white shirt next to you.”
“I can see that,” a very amused, very sexy voice said from outside the window. She looked up and groaned because there stood Colin, dressed in blue scrubs like a responsible, professional adult. As if his world was in complete control.
He looked down at her bra and grinned.
She challenged that grin with one of her own. “May I help you?”
He looked at her daughters with cheesy poof powder all over their lips, and matching handprints on every piece of clothing, then back to her bra—which was cheesy poof powder–free.
He chuckled but wisely chose not to mention her current state of undress—or the frosting in her hair.
She decided he’d live to tease her another day. Plus, she might need his oven again, and dead he’d be no use to her.
“With the kids or my shirt?”
He casually leaned his forearms against the upper door. “It is hump day, so why don’t we say, ladies’ choice.” Their gazes locked and there went thatsnapcracklepop.
Oh boy.Teagan slid her arms into the shirt. He may have gotten a peek, but she wasn’t ready to give him a full eyeful, so she quickly yanked the micronized shirt over her head, tugging down on the hem. It was like trying to shove her respectable Bs into a training bra.
She was about to put her blazer back on when his comment sank to the pit of her stomach. “Wait. It’s Wednesday?”
“Yes.”
Man, she’d really screwed up. Teagan had been the one responsible for the mix-up, not Harley. Her sister had been in the right and yet, she didn’t gloat. Teagan had just assumed Harley had screwed up again.
“I owe Harley an apology.” Not wanting to exchange small talk with her ex sex-on-a-stick neighbor while busting out of herKIDDIE COVE PRE-Ksausage casing, she folded her arms over her chest.
He shrugged. “It’s Harley—she’ll get over it.”
“But she shouldn’t have to.” She owed her sister more than an apology. As well as the girls. It was pink day because today was a field trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Which also meant that tomorrow was cupcake day.
“Hey, Mommy got it wrong,” she said, looking at her daughters in the rearview mirror. “Itispink shirt day.”
“We know,” Poppy said.
“I really blew it,” she said, quietly trying to pull herself together. To not let the simple mistake rock her newfound confidence. “If today is Wednesday, the bus already left for the aquarium, which means I have to drive the girls to their field trip to meet their class, and I’m dressed like I’m entering a wet T-shirt contest.”
“If they’re looking for a judge, sign me up.” He glanced in the back seat, where the girls were entertaining themselves by feeding cheesy poofs to Garbage Disposal, oblivious to the world around them.
“Did I mention I’m a chaperone?”
