Page 6
“You don’t say?”
“Don’t worry. I drank your share.”
Chuckling, I held open the door to the gas station open for Owen. “I’m sure you did.”
“Look, you better get the lead out because the parade is about to start.”
Owen jerked my pant leg frantically. “Daddy, now!”
Fuuuuuuuck. My frantic gaze swung left and right in search of the bathroom. I finally found it in a dark corner in the back. Pulling Owen into my arms, I started jogging to the bathroom. “Yeah, I’m aware the fucking parade is going to start.”
“Then why aren’t you here?”
As I hurried through the aisles, I huffed in frustration. “I had to make another potty break.”
“Again?”
“Yeah, asshole, again. I got a kid with a bladder the size of a nickel apparently.”
At my non-Positive Pottying comment, I threw a quick look at Owen. Thankfully, his attention was trained on all the candy choices we were speeding by. After taking a calming breath, I countered, “Don’t tell me your kids don’t have to make stops,” I countered.
“Macy has this portable potty thing. We just have to pull over on the side of the road, let them unbuckle, and they can piss or take a dump in the car.”
Of course she does, I thought to myself with a grin. If she wasn’t a stay-at-home mom, Macy Tyrell would be running a company. Maybe even the world. Cal would’ve probably tapped out in college hockey if it wasn’t for her.
Just as Owen started wriggling and whining in my arms, we arrived at the bathroom. When I threw open the door, I got slammed in the face with the overwhelming odor of swamp ass and shit.
While I fought the urge to gag, Owen pinched his nose. “No, Daddy, too stinky.”
“It’s okay. Just go peepee real quick.”
Owen shook his head wildly back and forth. “Uh, uh.”
“I don’t know where another gas station is.”
His blue eyes, that were so much like his mother's, widened in horror. “I can’t make peepee so stinky.”
Under normal circumstances, I would’ve found it hilarious that my son had such standards. But I was too stressed out to find any humor at the moment. “Please, Owen. Please peepee for Daddy. Then we can go see the parade and JJ.”
“Want to put JJ on the phone?” Cal suggested.
In the heat of the moment, I’d forgotten I hadn't hung up. “No. I can handle it,” I grumbled.
Since Claudia left, I’d been relentless in needing to handle every single issue on my own. Call it my pride, but I needed to be able to show the world that I could be both mom and dad, and my kid wouldn’t be fucked up because I apparently hadn’t been enough to keep my wife happy.
When Owen’s lip quivered, I resorted to something that made me feel like the worst parent ever: bribery. “Listen, buddy, if you’ll pee-pee, I’ll let you pick out any candy you want.” When he still appeared unconvinced, I really went big. “And you can eat it right now even though we haven’t had lunch yet.”
Owen’s brows shot up into his hairline. “Reawwy?”
“Yep, Really.”
As a firm resolve came over his face, he wriggled against me to let him down. At the sight of him tugging his pants down, a sigh of relief wheezed from my lips. Leaning back against the door, I jerked a hand through my hair.
“Look at Daddy Integrity bribing his kid to piss,” Cal chuckled.
“Fuck you,” I grunted.
Owen threw a chastising look at me over his shoulder. “Daddy!”
