“Bagaaah,” Parker replied.
Jayne grinned. What a cheeky little scamp Parker was.
“You guys probably want us out of your hair, huh?” Jayne stretched his neck until Gwynn and Alex entered his peripheral vision. “It looks like Matthew’s wiped himself out looking after everyone, and I know I’m here later than I said I’d be. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
Alex shrugged. “Gage already asked if we’d be okay with a late pickup, so it’s not such a huge deal.”
“He’s elected to host next week’s Single Dad Babysitting Ring, by the way,” Gwynn added. “You can verify the details in the chat, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the same as this week’s setup—drop-off Friday night around seven, pickup individually arranged.”
“Awesome. Thanks.” Jayne kissed Parker’s forehead, then wiggled around until he was looking at Shep. “Your race almost done? It’s about time we got out of here.”
“In a second,” Shep replied, voice strained. It seemed to Jayne that he wasn’t losing to Bo on purpose. “Just… gotta…”
Shep’s tiger car was knocked off the track by Bo’s supersized gorilla cruiser. Bo cackled, and Shep hissed out a sound through his teeth that sounded, had he given it syllables, like it would have been vulgar. While Shep struggled to recover, the doorbell rang. Penelope set her controller down and looked in the direction of the noise.
“I’ll get it,” Alex said. “It’s probably Gage’s brother.”
“Dada?” Penelope asked sweetly.
“Not quite,” Gwynn replied. “Your uncle is coming to pick you up today. Your dad will be home a little later this afternoon.”
Gage, who Jayne knew as TD, was the youngest of the Single Dads, and the funnest of any of them—except for maybe Knot—to tease. His naivety was as endearing as it was frustrating, and there were times when Jayne was sure it had to be an act. There was no way anyone who’d given birth to two children could be so clueless. Still, TD’s optimism and bright-as-sunshine personality helped keep the Single Dad chat the lighthearted place that it was.
He’d never talked about a brother before.
Jayne fished his phone from his pocket and balanced it on Parker’s back. Parker laughed and kicked his legs, but otherwise stayed still.
GlitterDoctor: @TeenDad2, just so you know for your own personal satisfaction, your son is beating my brother at a racing game. If you would’ve gotten your butt out of bed and come to pick him up yourself, you would have seen it happen in real time. It’s a thing of glory.
xVerity: I’m not sure that TD is at home, Glit. He hasn’t been online all of last night and this morning.
GlitterDoctor: The slacker
KnotMyProblem: Pretty sure he said he wasn’t going to be back until late this afternoon—something about an anniversary with his douchebag
xVerity: Knot, be nice.
KnotMyProblem: I can’t help that his fiance is a douchebag. I call it like I see it, and the way I see it, that douchebag is a real doucher
xVerity: You’re welcome to your opinions, but let’s try to keep things friendly here for all of us, all right? Calling TD’s fiancé “a real doucher” isn’t conducive to a friendly environment.
KnotMyProblem: Do I have to go stand in the corner now?
xVerity: Yes.
xVerity: For ten whole minutes.
Jayne set his phone on the floor, adjusted Parker, and sat up slowly. What little he knew of TD’s fiancé was shaded by Knot’s point of view—the man was an asshat who’d knocked TD up when they were kids, left him behind to go to university abroad, and then had come back home years later and started drama. Knot, as far as Jayne could tell, had a thing for TD. The Single Dads didn’t like to talk about it—likely for good reason—but it bothered Jayne that he didn’t know the entire truth.
Unlike some people, his head wasn’t stuck so far up his ass that he only considered one side of a story. For as grumbly as Knot was about the incident, no doubt TD had a different perspective, and Jayne refused to draw conclusions until all the facts were revealed.
The music on the television changed. Bo cheered. Shep hissed. “Shi… ugar.”
“I won!” Bo exclaimed. He set the controller down and jumped to his feet. “Yay!”
“You’re pretty good, kid,” Shep admitted. “Keep it up and you’ll have a legendary career in competitive major league gaming—or at least Twitch streaming. I mean, maybe both, if you’re charismatic enough.”
“I’m charimmatic!” Bo agreed.
