Cowboy Logic - B.A. Tortuga Page 0,14
of them charged up the stairs, and he decided they were Darcy and Doug, who were nine and six.
“I can hear you, little turkeys!” They were crazy-making, but dear. He skyped with them all the time, even if he hadn’t seen them in person for a few years.
“Uncle Logic!” Dougie threw himself at Logic first, Darcy two seconds behind.
He grabbed his nephew, spinning him in a wild circle. “What are you doing, you hooligans?”
“We didn’t know you were here! Do you like the garage?”
“Uncle Logic!” Darcy was a very dignified nine, holding up her arms. “Hug me!”
“Hello, beautiful girl. How are you today?” He scooped her up next. “How’s things?”
“Well, the man is gone, which is good.” She nodded, her ponytail bouncing. “He was angry, and he needed to go.”
“Yes, ma’am. And if he comes back, your Uncle Logic will kick his butt.” He had a purpose, goddammit. Protect and serve. Maybe he should build Bailey a protection robot.
“Yay!” She pursed her lips, so much like Bailey. “I didn’t like him, and I could tell Momma didn’t either.”
“Well, he’s gone, okay? And I’m here to visit for a little bit. Isn’t that cool?”
“Are you going to buy us pizza?” Dougie was touching everything, fingers skating over his laptop and his phone.
“Pizza, huh? Do you two monkeys like pizza?” He saved his phone from sticky fingers. The laptop was safe enough closed.
“We do!” Dougie grinned, his teeth all gap-filled. “Momma gets cheese for the babies.”
“I notice you didn’t bring Amanda up with you.”
“Momma says no stairs without her, and Mason is too little too.”
“Yeah. I hear that. Those stairs are intense. Come on. Let’s go down and we’ll talk about pizza with your momma.”
“Okay!” They all but tumbled down in front of him, and he followed after he locked up. No sense letting Morrow or a crony come in and smash things up or hide.
Grinning, he watched them fly into the house screaming, “Pizzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.” Bailey would love him for that, no doubt.
Of course, the baby started wailing at the noise right about then, and little three-year-old Amanda threw her sippy cup of red Kool-Aid.
“Excellent.” Bailey was going to kill him.
“Uncle Logic says he’ll buy pizza.”
“As long as Momma agrees,” he amended.
Bailey shot him a pleading look. “You could take the two oldest to pick it up? They love to go for a ride.”
“I so could. What kind of pizza do we like?” He could look it up on his phone and GPS it.
“Pepperoni for things one and two, cheese for things three and four. Deluxe for us?”
“You got it. Uh, where? Greenville? Domino’s?” He had no idea what was where anymore. Hell, he got almost everything from delivery of some kind at home.
“There’s a Pizza Hut on Wesley.”
“Got it.” He would entertain the kids with… Did Pizza Hut still have jukeboxes? Shit, who knew? If not, they could play I spy or something.
“I’ll call the order in. You just pick it up.”
Amanda ran over, arms up. “Me too? Me too, Momma!”
“Oh, baby, I need you to stay here and keep me company. You know Mason will fall asleep.”
“But Momma! I big too! I go!”
He met her eyes over the top of the kids’ heads and nodded. Shit, he could keep plants alive. Surely he and Darcy could keep Dougie and Amanda alive for half an hour.
“Are you sure?” He thought Bailey would cry. “I’d lay down with the baby.”
“Well then, Mandy is with us!” He high-fived Dougie, who tried not to look put out. Okay, so he and Doug would do boy things later. “Maybe we can get some predinner ice cream…”
“Ooooh.” The kids all bounced, making that noise that made them sound like minions.
“Nothing too big,” Bailey said, her eyes dancing. “Take my SUV. It has the car seats.”
“I promise. Give us half an hour before you call to check up on us.”
“I’ll be sawing logs. I love you so much.”
He laughed, then gathered the troops. “Okay! Hold hands and make a chain. Out to the car.” He left his keys on the hook by the door, then grabbed hers. She had a shiny GMC Yukon, which was about the size of a cruise ship. He was gonna have a ball with it.
“Everybody in. Darcy, my love, show me who goes where?”
“Yes, sir! Is there really going to be ice cream?” she asked, sounding a little awed.
“If everyone is good, absolutely. I need a strawberry shake.”
“Yay! Okay, Amanda goes there. There’s Dougie, and I can sit in just the booster.”