Page 69 of Where It All Began
“Watch out,” John warned. “Sometimes he pees after a bath.”
“I peed in da sink,” Jax said, stretching his arms out for the pizza across the kitchen.
“Add disinfect sink to the list,” Mrs. Nordemann called out to Elvira.
The doorbell rang again, and Carter and Beckett opened it on their way downstairs.
“Hi, Unca Mike! Come in!” Beckett said grandly.
“There’s pizza,” Carter told him.
The boys, followed by Michael Cardona who was holding his son and an overnight bag, returned to the kitchen.
“Mom, here’s the pie plate. Found it in Jax’s room,” Carter announced, flinging the empty dish at her.
“Jackson, you ate an entire pie? That was for the bake sale tomorrow.”
“Elvira, add pie to the list,” Mrs. Nordemann said, expertly diapering Jax.
“What list?” John asked, coming up behind Phoebe and wrapping his arms around her as if they were a rock in the midst of a storm.
Michael plopped his son down at the table. “Stay there and have some pizza, Donovan,” he told the little blond boy.
“’kay, daddy!”
Beckett leaned in and put his arm around his friend.
“Can someone tell us what’s happening?” Phoebe asked weakly.
Elvira shoveled the mass of mess away from the door and straightened. She handed Phoebe a set of keys.
“You two are packing a bag and spending the night at my house. There is a bottle of pinot on the counter and a six-pack of Budweiser in the fridge. If any ‘activity’ happens in my bed, you will wash the sheets before you leave.”
Mrs. Nordemann deposited a freshly diapered and dressed Jax at the table where he promptly stole Carter’s slice of pizza.
“Hey! That’s mine! M-O-M!”
“Do not respond to that,” Elvira said, shoving Phoebe and John toward the stairs. “Pretend they do not exist. Jillian and I are cleaning and baking. Michael and I are spending the night. Hazel’s on call, but she’ll be here in the morning.”
“We can’t ask you to do that—” John’s argument was interrupted by Elvira’s shake of her curls.
“This is what we do. Parenthood is a festering nightmare dotted with moments of truly blissful wonderment. This is not one of those moments. This is a time when we can step in and give you a bit of breathing room so you can come back tomorrow with some sanity.”
Phoebe opened her mouth to say thank you, to argue, to tell Elvira she was the most wonderful person in the world. But all that came were more tears.
“Before you feel like a charity case, we do this for everyone. There has never been a couple with kids in Blue Moon who hasn’t needed and deserved a break.”
“Get the hell out of here,” Michael called from the kitchen doorway. “We’ve got this covered.”
“Are we havin’ a sleep over?” Carter’s voice piped up from the kitchen.
“Sure are, bud,” Michael told him.
A chorus of “yays” echoed through the kitchen.
“Cardona,” John began.
“You guys took Donovan overnight last month when we were four seconds away from locking him out of the house and pretending we moved,” Michael said, cutting off any argument.
