Days In (Parrish&Darius #2)

Day 9

I planned lots of camping activities, none of which Parrish liked, therefore Kody didn't like them either. I picked a nice trail where we could hike and smell some flowers; he complained that his allergies were killing him (not true) and that nature itself was trying to kill him (also not true at all).

Board games were one of the few things they both liked and that's because Parrish was teaching Kody how to cheat in all of them. Out of all things, they were bonding over cheating. By our third round of Uno I was more than done with these two cheaters.

"And if you hide the cards like this no one's gonna know how many you have." Parrish demonstrated the action to Kody in slow motion, "now you try."

Kody mimicked Parrish's hands and to my surprise managed to disappear the cards in his hands. He looked back up at Parrish expectantly.

"Good job, midget." That seemed to be exactly what Kody was expecting. Parrish looked so happy about it.

Oh my Selene. I love that they're bonding but does it have to be over cheating?

"Okay, how about we go catch some frogs?" I stood and started picking up the cards, ignoring their protests.

Kody seemed excited at first until Parrish let out a loud groan and the slight smile on his face went down. I really didn't understand his sudden need to please Parrish.

"And don't forget that we still have to set up the tent."

Despite Parrish's apathy to anything outdoorsy I managed to make Kody enjoy the wonders of nature. He loved chasing around the frogs and skipping rocks in the lake. We set up the tent, well, I set up the tent, Kody held the sticks for me and Parrish just watched. Then it was time to bring out the big guns: s'mores.

Not even Parrish could resist the magic of a fire pit burned marshmallow, with chocolate and crackers.

"Ma, can I have another one?" This was Kody licking his sticky chocolate fingers with a mouth covered in more chocolate.

I chuckled and grabbed a baby wipe to clean his baby face, "baby, you ate too much already."

"Papa had as many as me and he's eating more." He pointed at Parrish, who also had his face covered in chocolate and was not paying attention to us.

"Parrish,"

"Huh?" Parrish looked up from the marshmallow he was burning.

He's so cute.

"Your cub is asking if he can have another s'more but I told him that he already had too many." I stared at him biting my lip, trying to hold back a smile.

"Papa had way more than me." Kody chimed in, advocating his case.

Parrish's ears flickered up and down, trying to figure out what was going on and I wanted him to say. I decided to have mercy on him and shake my head.

"Well, the thing is, midget, that I'm bigger than you, that's why I eat more, but you'll get a tummy ache."

Kody still wasn't very convinced but we managed to all be equally unhappy when I forced Parrish to share his s'more with Kody. Making Parrish share food is no small deed. He may not know how to keep a steady diet but he absolutely hates sharing the food he likes.

I'm surprised Kody hasn't picked up on that yet.

Parrish was still sulking about the s'more when we crammed into the tent and Kody fell asleep. "You could've just made him another one," he said.

I glanced at him over Kody's limbless body that was laying between us. Parrish was staring into a space in the ceiling of the tent.

"Don't be such a baby. You ate way too much too, don't think I didn't see you."