Page 95 of The Lucky List
“Look at that turd in your toilet.” Bella says, standing in the doorway behind me. “No fair, it doesn’t even stink in here.”
“That’s a weird thing to be jealous of,” I say.
“Wait till they’re teenagers. Teenage poops are terrifying.”
“Moreso than adult poops?” I ask, walking over to the sink to wash my hands.
“Yes, and don’t ask me why. It’s probably all the puberty hormones or something. Want me to flush it?” she asks, walking over to the toilet to examine its contents.
“Well, I’m not saving it!”
“Isaac used to save them to show me the ones he was proud of. Now they’re massive. And scary. And I wish he’d stop showing them to me. Back then they were all little, tinypoops in funny shapes. Is it weird that I kind of miss those days?”
“Yes. Yes, it is.”
“Why are boys so gross?” she laughs, flushing the toilet.
“I dunno. Do they ever learn to flush their turds?”
“No, they do not.”
——————
Later that night, Bella takes the boys home with her, giving me and Mike a much-needed night alone.
“Are you sure you want to stay in? The boys will be gone for the whole night. We could go out? Have a meal with no interruptions? Come home and bend me over the couch?” I wiggle my eyebrows at him and love the way his cheeks blush in response.
“Oh, I will be bending you over several pieces of furniture tonight. But I’m keen to stay here.”
I give him a knowing look. “You miss the boys, don’t you? They can be exhausting, but as soon as they’re gone or asleep and the house is quiet, you miss the chaos they bring.”
“Yeah, what’s up with that?” He rubs his shoulder against mine as we sit on the couch.
“One minute you’re fishing a scorpion out of a toddler’s mouth, questioning your decision to have kids because you’re terrified of bugs and these tiny humans keep forcing you to touch them. The next minute, you’re lonely because they’ve been asleep for thirty minutes so you decide to sneak into their room while they’re sleeping because they’re just so cute, but then you wake one up and they stay up for three more hours.”
“Those are oddly specific examples.”
“They are.” I sigh wistfully leaning into him.
“Can you show me more pictures of them as babies? Or videos? I feel like a broken record asking again, but I could stare at them all night.”
He continues rambling on, getting more and more animated as he talks, slowly inching forward in the same way Levi does when he’s excited about something.
I lean away to look at him. “Is this really how you want to spend our last official date together?”
“This doesn’t count.”
I scoff, dropping my jaw in faux indignation. “Doesn’t count? Mr. ‘I’m counting the time I babysit the kids as a date?’”
“The rules clearly stated that I would get a date when we checked an item off your list. There is still technically one item remaining.”
“Close enough.” I say, holding up my hand to admire the beautiful emerald ring again.
“Once I get to call you my wife, I’m going to take you out on a real date. Outside of this house. Kid-free. We will eat fancy food neither of us has to cook, and we will sleep in a bed we don’t have to make. Don’t get me wrong, I love our family dates with the boys, but I want to take you somewhere nice and make you come so many times you lose count.”
“I think that’s just called a honeymoon.”
He leans in, his lips ghosting the shell of my ear. “Sounds like I’m not the only one getting spanked tonight, Lucky.” Then he sits back against the couch like he didn’t just whisper filthy promises in my ear. “What’s one of your favorite memories of the boys?”
