“Do you still?” he asks.
“We don’t know you well enough to answer that question yet.”
I shoot Sabrina a look—that was borderline rude—but she merely smiles back.
“Our original clubhouse is gone,” I tell him. “Rightfully so. I’d have a heart attack if I thought Bash was in that treehouse in the condition it was in when we found it.”
“We survived,” Sabrina says. “And Laney wouldn’t have let us go in it if she’d thought it was truly unsafe.”
“Accurate,” Laney agrees.
“Bash doesn’t have a Laney yet. And he won’tbethe Laney of his group.”
There’s no arguing with that.
Especially as Decker’s voice drifts over to us. “Sitto go down the slide, Bash.”
“I a piwate! Piwate no sit!” Bash yells back.
Jonas’s lips curve up and his entire face goes soft as he glances at them.
My stomach, meanwhile, drops to somewhere far, far beneath the mountain we’re sitting on.
“Pirates sit if they want to have ice cream,” Decker says.
Bash stares him down.
Decker stares right back.
I’m about to get up and intervene—Mama always gets to be the bad guy—when Bash plops down onto his butt. “Eye keem!” he yells.
“Pirate sword fight first?” Decker asks.
Bash tumbles off the bottom of the slide, rights himself, and eyes his honorary uncle. “Eye keem.”
“Okay, okay, go ask your mama if you can have ice cream.”
“Mama, eye keem!” Bash yells as his little legs pump at a thousand miles an hour, headed my way.
His hair sticks to his sweaty forehead. His smooth white baby cheeks are tinged with pink. And his diaper is sagging again under his shorts.
It’snap timemore than it’sice cream time.
“Wash your hands first,” I tell him.
He changes direction and charges to Zen. “Hewp wa han?”
“Why am I always your hand washer helper?” Zen asks.
“Wa han?” Bash repeats, waving his hands in their face.
“Are they exceptionally good at washing hands?” Jonas asks me while Zen relents, tosses Bash over their shoulder, and marches into the house.
“They’ve historically been around the most, and they’re way more fun than I am.”
“Unfortunate side effect of being the default parent,” Sabrina adds. “It’s gonna suck for Grey when I’m the fun one.”
“Theo too,” Laney deadpans.
