Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
The waitress came over to take our orders. It was the same lady that had taken over Kadyn’s shift all those years ago, only now instead of the gaunt down on her luck young girl we’d first met, she was a happy, smiling woman who looked more sure of herself. “We’ll all have sundaes Marie thanks.” She exchanged a little small talk before leaving again. A few people came over to say hi to the girls but I’m pretty sure most of them were there to gloat at the fact that my brother and I looked like two asses.
“So you boys are on sentry duty again, what is it this time?”
“Shopping.”
“Well at least there’s no nail polish this time, you’re making progress.” The old shit was fighting hard not to laugh but I had something to fix him. “Stan, remember your last play party with the girls?” I could already see him changing color.
“We’ve got tape dude.” Josh was only too happy to fill him in on that score.
Just then we heard sirens blaring as two cruisers raced by outside. “That’s not a sound you hear everyday in Sea Crest.” I put it out of my mind, I’m sure if it was anything exciting Michael would tell us about it at dinner. Since Carrie had the baby three years ago he’s been a regular at the dinner table. I guess since he missed out on his daughter’s upbringing he was trying to make up for it with his granddaughter. Not to be outdone Stan was usually right there beside him and mom was finally getting the full house she’d always wanted.
Simone had gone back home because of her job and she had a life there but she came up as often as possible and whenever I had the time I took my girls down to see her; then there was FaceTime almost every night. I’m not gonna mention Carrie’s mom because quite frankly she’s not part of our family and we never do.
I watched my little girl as she ate her ice cream and unlike most dads I’m sure, I was secretly hoping she’d spill something. It’s the strangest damn thing, but the kid doesn’t spill. After five minutes of watching the careful way both girls ate their treats without spilling a drop I turned to my brother. “They’re like Stepford wives in training bro.”
“Let’s hope this next batch is boys, between the stress of worrying about their safety until they’re fifty and dealing with their near perfect personalities I’m about to lose my sh…” he cut himself off when four little eyes snapped in his direction. We’ve tried researching the phenomena but all I can come up with so far is that children today are more advanced than their peers. I know for a fact that Kadyn and Carrie didn’t take any kind of medication while they were pregnant, so we were kinda hard pressed as to why our girls were the way they are.
The spook factor was a bit worrisome and no matter how much their mothers claimed we were over reacting there was just no way it was normal for two three year olds to hold adult conversations and ask the questions these two did. Josh had come up with the idea of a video diary, which was now up to hundreds of hours.
Our phones buzzed on the table twenty minutes later. I checked mine with a frown because the message on the screen didn’t make any sense. “What’s yours say?”
“Come and get your wife.” Mine did too.
“It’s from Michael what could he mean…oh crap the sirens. Come on girls we have to go.” There were no tears of no, we want to finish, nothing. They just wiped their little mouths and placed the napkins neatly beside the bowls of half eaten ice cream that would’ve taken any other kid in the universe five minutes to destroy.
“Ready daddy.”
“Ready daddy.”
Four little arms lifted up for us to take them. I don’t know about Joshua but every time my little girl looks up at me like that, so trusting, and with all that love shining in her eyes for me, I melt a little more inside. I smelt her little neck as I lifted her from her seat and sat her on my hip. We dropped some money on the table for a tip and said a hasty goodbye as we headed out to go see what our women were up to.
The last time we’d got a call like this had been well before the girls were born and Kadyn and Carrie had been caught drag racing. Since then things had been pretty quiet, motherhood seemed to calm them down so who knew what they’d been up to this time. They were both big as whales so I’m pretty sure that they weren’t getting behind the wheel to do something stupid. This second pregnancy had convinced me that they’d planned the first. How else could you explain two women coming up pregnant close together twice? They weren’t talking but we’d made up our minds that that’s exactly what was going on.