This Can't Be Good

Chapter 53

Two weeks with my mother sounded like a bad idea from the start. Two weeks with my mother and Lexis without Cassadee was an even bigger nightmare than I could have ever expected.

Lexis was all right without her parents the first couple nights. We kept telling her that they were coming back soon, or at least that’s what my mother was telling her. Of course, Lexis is a lot smarter than my mom gave her credit for and discovered, by day three, that mom and dad were not coming back anytime soon.

That weekend we spent most of the time at home, making sure the house was in some kind of order. Cass and Trevor didn’t have enough time to come home and open wedding gifts so Mir and I decided to organize them in neat piles in the corner of the living room where they wouldn’t be too much of a bother. Mom wasn’t too pleased with the site of fifty gifts cluttering the living room so while we were out getting food she took it upon herself to move them all into Lexis’s playroom. Lexis, being three, ended up getting into half of them when my mother was supposed to be watching her. Thankfully she had managed to stay away from anything that could be broken and end up hurting her. My mother blamed Lex before she called Cass to tell her what her daughter had done. She forgot to mention, however that she was the one who moved them all into Lexis’s play area. Mom and Lexis were all ready off to a bad start after that ordeal.

I was dreading school when Monday rolled around. Mom had already managed to upset Lexis in the couple hours she had her under her care and now I was expected to leave her to go to class. After much deliberation and yelling from my mother, I went to school. I spent the whole day checking my phone, waiting for some random number to call me to inform me that my mother had lost my niece, thankfully nothing like that happened.

By lunch I began to relax as Ava gathered around to hear the details of the wedding. Miranda and I did most of the talking while Ava listened intently. The boys weren’t too interest in our conversation and spent most of the time trying to decide who could shovel the most food into their mouths without spitting it out. Typical boys.

When school was finished I headed straight home while the others headed off to the football field for the teams weekly practice. Ava and Mir, having nothing better to do, tagged along. At home I found mom napping on the couch while Lexis played by her side, unsupervised. I quickly wrote my mother a note telling her I was taking Lexis out, not wanting to wake her to deal with her lectures. Once I had all of Lexis’s things I put her into the car and headed off toward school again.

Lexis wasn't a frequent guest at the Mass High football stadium. Most of the games took place in the cold weather so Cass and Trevor only dragged her to the big ones so she wouldn’t get too sick. And even then they stayed up in the bleachers. Needless to say Lexis was thrilled to be on the field with the boys.

Lexis tried to keep up with the boys as they ran back and forth across the field building their stamina. When she realized she couldn’t keep up with them she sat her butt on the grass and clapped her hands like Coach was doing to keep them encouraged. As the practice winded down Parker brought Lexis out on to the field to play catch with her. At first it started out with just the two of them but before long all the boys were in a circle fighting for their turn to play catch with little miss Lexis.

“Who knew all we need was a baby to get the team to practice,” Coach joked from the sidelines.

I chuckled before walking on to the field to get Lexis ready to leave. The boys were not pleased with me taking away their new friend.

“And I thought Parker just had a thing for young girls. Looks like so does the whole football team,” I joked, which got a few chuckles from the team.

“She’s going to be trouble when she’s older,” Max said.

“That’s for damn sure,” I said picking Lexis up off the floor. She wrapped her legs around me before tucking her head into my neck. She must not have taken her nap today. With that I excused myself and headed back toward the house.