Sneak Peek

Here is chapter 1 of “Our Legacy”

Enjoy!

 

Chapter One:

“I need a break, or a beer, or a beer and a break,” Jack said as he ran his hand through his hair and frowned. What the hell was in his hair?

“Wasn’t Mike coming over?” Tommy asked Bill. “He’s the only one who can quiet Tessa.”

“What? What does that mean? When did he quiet her?” Jack rocked his baby daughter and prayed she would settle down. She hadn’t let him put her down all morning.

Bill walked in with Josie in one arm and Bee in the other, David toddling after them.

“He said he was coming after he visited his mom,” Bill flinched as Josie grabbed his chest and he hoped she didn’t remove a nipple. Damn her grip.

“Where is Tramp?” Tommy asked as he carried Naomi. “Tramp?” he looked around.

“Tramp!” David screamed and Bee joined him, causing Bill to wince again.

“He’s probably hiding from Bee,” Jack said as he shifted Tessa to his other arm.

“Whatever,” Tommy muttered. “If he’s eating anything he shouldn’t, we’ll know soon enough.”

Bill put both girls down and David sat with them. Tommy put Naomi down and she began to cry so he picked her back up.

“Someone stinks,” Bill said. He looked around and sniffed.

“It’s not mine,” Jack said as he sniffed Tessa.

“I’m good here,” Tommy sniffed Naomi.

Bill looked at the three on the floor and sighed when he saw David had obviously leaked through his diaper.

“Didn’t you actually close his diaper when you changed him?” Bill picked his son up and glared at Tommy.

“No, I thought it would be fun to have him shit all over my house,” Tommy said.

“Shit! Shit!” Bee yelled and David giggled.

“Shit! Shit!” David yelled with her.

The doorbell rang and Tommy went to get it. He came back a minute later with Mike.

“Thank God,” Bill said.

Mike wrinkled his nose when he walked in.

“Someone stinks, we know,” Jack said.

“Shit!”  David said.

Mike grinned.

“Apparently.”

Bill picked up his son and Bee screamed.

“Here,” Jack handed Tessa to Mike. “She won’t stop crying, but I need a break.” He walked to Bee as she tried to run after Bill and David.

Mike took the little girl and smiled at her. She immediately settled down and smiled. He looked at Jack who was stunned.

“What?” Mike asked.

“I can’t take it,” Jack sighed.

“Incoming!” Bill called out and a naked David streaked through the room.

“Seriously?” Jack said as he shielded Bee.

Tommy put Naomi down and saw Tramp finally run into the room in time to throw up something, he couldn’t tell what.

“Nice,” he said as he went to clean it up before Josie played with it.

Mike laughed at the scene around him. He hoped Jade was having a good time. He couldn’t wait to see her again.

****

“I have never felt so relaxed,” Julie said to Stephanie as they sipped mimosas. Brittany was sitting in a mud bath and Jade was getting her hair and makeup done.

“That masseuse was amazing,” Stephanie agreed. “Hands like butter.”

“I’m so glad Jade is getting a little makeover, but I hope she’s okay with it. I don’t want her to think she needed it,” Julie ran her hand through her hair.

“A little pampering is never a bad thing,” Stephanie said and they smiled when Brittany walked in, glowing.

“Well, mud suits you,” Stephanie grinned.

“That was the most amazing feeling,” she said as she sat down. “I wonder what else we could do in mud.”

Julie wrinkled her nose and they laughed.

“I don’t know why you have to always bring up my brother.”

Brittany smiled.

“He’s kind of always on my mind.”

They all looked over as Jade walked in and Stephanie stood up, amazed.

“Look at you!” she walked over to her. “You look absolutely stunning.”

Jade sat down and blushed.

“I haven’t had my hair cut before,” she said. “I mean by someone else. I always just did it myself. It was a little weird having it done, but I like what she did. She gave me some layers, but it’s still long, which I wanted.”

“It looks beautiful,” Brittany smiled at her. “You deserve to be pampered.”

“How do you think the men are doing?” Stephanie asked.

“I’m afraid to call,” Julie grinned. “I suppose we should head back soon.”

Brittany saw Jade looked tired and she hoped it hadn’t been too much for her.

“You doing okay?”

Jade smiled and sat down.

“I’m fine, just a little tired.”

“We should head back soon anyway,” Julie said. “I think we might be needed.”

********

“If I knew what he ate, then I would have a better idea why it was blue,” Tommy said as he tried to clean the brand new carpet where Tramp had puked.

“Well it says that different stains require different cleaning supplies,” Bill said as he searched on the Internet for carpet cleaning solutions.

“I think it’s ink. It looks like ink. Did he eat a pen?”

Tommy sighed. Brittany was going to kill him. The carpet wasn’t three months old.

“I told you I don’t know. He isn’t talking,” he glared at the pooch who wagged his little tail. Tommy began to wipe the stain and he was horrified as it smeared all over. “Who buys white carpet? What the hell were we thinking?” he muttered to himself.

“I need some help in here!” Jack yelled from the other room.

Bill walked in and saw Jack with Josie and Naomi on one side of the room and David and Bee on the other.

“What’s going on?”

“What’s going on is that my daughter is a bully. She attacks anyone who comes near David and she won’t stop staring at his crotch. She is a mean girl like from the movie. She is going to be a pack leader and make all of the other girls cry. She’s going to be pregnant by 13 and in jail at 14. She must be stopped!”

Mike walked into the room with a sleeping Tessa and handed her to Jack.

“Take your daughter and go sit with her. I’ll handle this.”

Jack shook his head and mumbled to himself as he walked out.

Mike sat down on the floor and looked at Bill.

“I got this, you should help Tommy.”

Bill smiled at him and left.

“Alright, so what seems to be the problem?”

“Bee luv David,” Sabrina grinned and crawled to Mike.

“David luv Bee,” David giggled.

“Mimi Red lov yoo!” Naomi yelled and crawled over.

“Mama?” Josie asked in a small voice.

“Okay, so now that we’ve heard from everyone, let’s have a discussion,” Mike walked to the corner of the room and picked up Brittany’s guitar. He walked back to the kids and sat down on the floor with them. They all sat next to each other and watched him as he began to play.

*****

The women arrived home and walked in to see Jack asleep on the couch, Tessa sleeping on his chest. Tommy was on his hands and knees, scrubbing the carpet and Bill was chasing Tramp around the room.

“Ahem,” Julie said and the men looked at them.

“Oh, hey,” Tommy said and he sat on the stain. “We didn’t hear you come in.”

Jack sat up with Tessa and smiled at Stephanie.

“You look rested.”

She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows.

“Where are the rest of the children?”

Bill sighed as Tramp ran away again.

“He won’t drop it,” he said and then looked up at Julie.

“Hey. Tramp ate a pen.”

Brittany looked at him.

“What?”

“He puked ink all over the floor. It won’t come out. This carpet is stupid. How can it be so damn hard to get a stain out of the carpet? Didn’t we get the stain guard?” Tommy sighed.

They all heard the music from the other room and the woman walked to look in and they saw Mike sitting on the floor, Naomi in his lap and David, Josie and Bee all napping on the blanket. He was softly strumming the chords and Naomi was helping him.

Jade had never seen a sweeter picture. She turned and walked back into the family room.

Mike saw them and he smiled.

“Hi. I hope it was okay that I played your guitar. It was kind of an emergency,” he said and Naomi went to walk to Brittany, but fell, so she crawled.

Brittany picked her daughter up and kissed her cheek.

“Of course it’s okay. I didn’t know you played,” she smiled as she sat down.

Mike blushed.

“I mainly write songs, but I’ve always played lots of instruments. I haven’t done it in a while and I guess I never realized how much I missed it.”

“I can totally relate to that. Maybe we can talk more about that?”

Mike smiled.

“That would be great.” He looked and didn’t see Jade.

“How did everything go?”

“She’s in the other room,” Julie teased.

Mike stood up and smiled.

“Thanks.”