“No, you’re my sweet little grasshopper.”
Epilogue
Ten years later...
“But, Dad, we’re going to starve!” Cole complained again as he dropped to the ground, doing his best to look like he was dying. Of course, eight-year-old Elizabeth and five-year-old Joshua copied their older brother, dropping to the ground right beside Jason’s feet and doing their best to out pout the other.
Jason chuckled as he added more burgers and chicken to the large stainless-steel grill he’d bought yesterday.
“Don’t you love us, Daddy?” Elizabeth asked, adding just the right amount of lip trembling while Joshua overdid it. Jason sighed, throwing more hot dogs onto the grill. It seemed that he was going to have to work with his youngest son again. An amateur pout like that could mean the difference between Haley feeling sorry for all of them and baking some delicious treats to shut them the hell up or her rolling her eyes and ignoring them.
“I so hungie, Daddy,” Joshua said, using the baby voice that he knew his parents were suckers for.
Jason looked down at his children and did his best not to laugh at their over-exaggerated pouts. They were so damn cute, but that was to be expected since they were his kids. All three of them took after him in height, dark hair, and appetite, but they all had their mother’s beautiful emerald eyes, cute little nose, and the ability to brighten up a room with their smiles.
Pursing his lips in indecision, Jason looked around their large backyard for his little grasshopper. When he didn’t find her among their guests, he stepped back and craned his neck to look through the kitchen’s double-glass sliding doors. He spotted his parents, a few cousins, and uncles, but no little grasshopper.
When he looked back at his kids, he wasn’t too shocked to find them already back on their feet, looking ready to pounce. They knew the drill, after all.
“Take this plate,” he said, grabbing a plate off the large picnic table he’d set up as his workstation, “and go hide. Make sure you share because if I hear any whining, I’m not doing this again.” He threw another cautious look over his shoulder before loading up the plate with three large barbecue chicken legs.
“After you’re done, make sure that you get rid of the evidence and, Cole,” he said, looking over his shoulder at his oldest son, who was licking his lips hungrily, “make sure that your brother and sister remember to wash up this time.”
The last time they’d snuck food at a party, Cole innocently denied eating the double chocolate birthday cake. Haley would have probably bought their story if Elizabeth and Joshua hadn’t been covered from head-to-toe in chocolate frosting. Then again, he wouldn’t have been caught if the kids hadn’t ratted his ass out.
He handed the large plate to Cole. “Pick a better spot this time,” Jason warned his son.
Cole nodded. “Can we have some-”
“Jason Bradford!” his mother said, drawing their attention towards the house. They all swallowed noticeably when they spotted Haley standing next to his mother with her arms crossed over her chest and her cute little brows arched.
“Please tell me that you’re not already sneaking food,” his little grasshopper said on a tired sigh.
“No, of course, not-run kids! Run!” Jason yelled even as Cole took off towards the woods with his brother and sister hot on his heels.
His mother let out a long-suffering sigh as she walked over to the table and picked up the small box of baby wipes and three juice boxes from one of the large coolers and headed after them.
Jason gave Haley the grin that still got him out of parking tickets and earned him unlimited free samples at the grocery store. Haley simply stared at him, pushing her glasses back up her nose with one finger.
“I love you?” Jason said, trying not to laugh as Haley tried to look stern and failed miserably.
“They’re my cupcakes, you greedy bastards!” they heard his father yell from the kitchen.
Haley’s lips twitched as she said, “Between you, the kids, and your father, I don’t think there will be enough food for everyone.”
“But they were starving, my little grasshopper. The poor things were barely able to move from hunger,” Jason said, trying to look innocent as he shifted closer to the grill so that she wouldn’t see the plate of chicken bones that he forgot to hide.
“Those poor things conned Mitch out of the two plates of peanut butter cup bars that Mary brought twenty minutes ago,” Haley informed him, chuckling.
“They what?” he snapped, causing everyone around them to jump. He ignored them as he turned a glare in the direction his children headed. The sense of betrayal hit hard. Not only had they conned the softhearted Mitch out of delicious baked goods that were meant for him, but they’d failed to give him his customary cut of the action, fifty percent.
“Yup,” Haley said, walking past him to grab a cold soda from the cooler. She rolled her eyes when she spotted the chicken bones and perched her cute little ass on the end of the picnic table. “As soon as he walked in and put the baby down, they hit him with ‘I love you, Uncle Mitch’ and hugs and he was a goner.”
Jason’s glare shifted to his best friend, who was lounging in a chair with his wife, Mary, Haley’s best friend, on his lap. Their baby played in the sandbox close by as their two oldest children ran around with the other kids playing tag.
Ten years ago, Mitch would have simply taunted and teased the kids with the baked goods until someone hit him upside the head and made him share, but that had all changed when Haley asked the bastard to do her a favor. Back then, Mary had been a struggling single mom of a newborn and was barely getting by on less than an hour of sleep a night.
As a favor to Haley, and after much manipulation on Haley’s part, Mitch reluctantly volunteered to run some food, formula, and diapers over to Mary’s small apartment. Mary opened the door with messy hair, dried spit-up on her clothes, looking exhausted, holding a screaming baby girl in her arms and Mitch had fallen hard.
