Chapter 34
Chapter thirty-four
Emma
Hockey players and kiddie slides.
Most of the party guests have left by now, and all that remains are our close friends and family. We still have the place fully reserved for another hour, so we’re letting Dante and Gracie run freely as we pick up and take down the decorations.
Gracie is still too small to go up in the bigger structures, so she’s been having a blast in the toddler zone and ball pit with my dad and Amanda. Dante, on the other hand, appears to be some super monkey that climbs everywhere he can. He’s been making Silas run around all over the place.
Actually, that’s not entirely true. Once the place cleared out, the boys decided it was their turn to have fun and are now going through every module they can like they aren’t full-grown men. Using the excuse that they all need to follow Dante to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself.
“So when are we expecting our next grandchild, doll?” Andrew, Greyson’s dad, asks when I start cleaning around the table he and his wife are stationed at.
Nancy slaps him in the chest. “Leave the poor girl alone. She already has a little girl and a grown man who thinks he’s a baby to take care of. She doesn’t need another one right away.” She nods her head toward Greyson, who’s coming down a tubed slide that looks to be a really tight squeeze.
“Oh please, Nance. Those two go at it like rabbits, a broken condom is bound to happen. Why do you think he calls her Bunny?” Andrew retorts.
“Oh God, that is not why he calls me that!” I gasp as a blush takes over my cheeks.
“Sure, sure. And you call our son what again? Wolf, right? You know, I wasn’t born yesterday? I know a thing or two about role-play. In fact, Nancy and I often venture into that kink.”
“That’s enough, Andrew!” She slaps him in the back of the head this time while he laughs.
“And that’s my cue to go!” I say at the same time with wide eyes, shaking my head with a giggle as I turn around.
Andrew is something else. Whatever he thinks, he says. Don’t get me wrong, I love jumping into his jokes, but even for me they can get a little too uncomfortable at times. I wonder what it was like for Grey and Aubrey growing up. Must have been something worth seeing.
I find Ronnie sitting by herself looking out at the guys. She’s been quiet ever since the whole Noah and Gabe thing, which isn’t like her at all. “You okay, babe?”
She looks up at me and forces a smile. “Yup, all good. I just hate when men think they can take whatever they want without asking.” She grinds her teeth like there’s more meaning hiding behind her words.
Sometimes I question what Ronnie’s story is.
She never talks about her past and changes the subject every time we ask.
“I know Gabe and Noah are a lot to handle and can be pretty inappropriate at times. But they really are good guys deep down. I’m sure if you put your foot down and told them to back off for real, they would.” I place my hand on her bicep, giving a light squeeze.
She sighs and looks down at the phone in her hands. “Yeah, I know.”
“Minnie…” We both look up to the playground in search of Silas’s strange voice.
Ronnie and I walk over to the rest of the girls as Cecilia looks around for her husband with a worried expression. “Honey?”
“Minnie!” he shouts louder, sounding distraught.
Cecilia gets up from her seat and walks closer to the modules, panic flaring to life in her eyes as she looks frantically around for her son and husband. “Silas? Where are you? Where’s Dante?”
Suddenly a little dark-haired boy comes out from the bottom of a circular tubed slide. Cecilia rushes over, kneeling before him and pressing his head into her chest as she kisses his crown. “Oh, my baby. You had me worried there for a second. Where’s your daddy? Silas, honey?”
“I think… I think I’m stuck,” he finally says in defeat after a few seconds.
Cecilia bends at the bottom of the slide, trying to look up. It’s one of those big ones that loops around multiple times, so depending on where he’s stuck, we won’t be able to see him. A normal adult-sized human would fit no problem, but Silas is anything but normal-sized.
At six foot four and widely built, he definitely never should have gone down that slide. Actually, come to think of it, that’s the same one Grey came down from earlier. The one I wasn’t sure he’d make it out of.
“Are you serious right now?! I freaking told you that you were too big for the playground! And what did you tell me? You said that it would be fine, that they were built for parents to follow their children. You’re right, they are, but not when their parent looks like BIGFOOT! ” she shouts up the slide.
Behind us, Andrew, my father, and Silas’s father bellow with laughter, folding in half as they slap their knees or each other’s backs.
The rest of us have gathered around the front of the slide as well.
Noah and Gabe are at the top looking into it, but neither dares to go in while Clay and Greyson stand beside me.
“Can you wiggle your way out?” Clay calls out to Silas.
We hear a series of grunts and bumps as he tries to free himself, only to end with a loud, frustrated sigh. “Nope. Definitely stuck. My shoulders touch from side to side, and my feet have nothing to grip on to help push me back up.”
“I’m gonna climb up and see if I can pull him out,” Grey says from my side.
He takes a step forward, but I grab onto his wrist, stopping him. “No, Wolf. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He turns to face me with a tender smile, cupping my face with his free hand. “I’ll be fine. I went down it earlier.” He pecks my lips as I release his wrist, chewing away at my lip as I watch him climb up the slide.
An employee walks up to me with a concerned look at that exact moment. “Is everything okay?” When I look at her, I notice several other employees joining our circle to see what’s going on.
“I’m not sure, one of the guys is stuck in the slide. Another just went up to try and drag him out.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh… should we call the fire department?”
“Umm… Let’s just see if this works before we bring in the big guns,” I tell her with a tight smile, praying we won’t have to resort to extreme measures.
A few moments later, Greyson’s voice resonates through the tube. “I see him! I’ve got him.” We hear shuffling and bumps against the hard plastic, then the sounds stop altogether. “Fuck!”
I get to the bottom of the slide, looking up but seeing nothing. “Wolf? What’s wrong?” I call out with worry.
“My pants are stuck on something, and I can’t reach back with my hand to get it undone. Fucking hell!” I’ll let this swearing slide for the moment.
“Great! Now we have two grown men stuck in a kiddy slide,” Cecilia whines with her head thrown back, clearly exasperated.
I look over at Clay, who watches with amusement while his wife giggles against his chest. He turns to me and shrugs. “What? I’m not stupid enough to go up there as well.”
I turn back to the employee with an apologetic smile. “I think you can call the fire department now.” She nods, pulling out her phone and walking away to get farther from the noise.
“Better get your checkbook ready, Sy,” Gabe calls out from the top while cracking up.
“Ugh! Why is it that everywhere we go, we end up making big donations because Silas always causes problems?!” Cecilia growls with anger.
“Because despite their grown size and abilities, they are still children,” Mira informs us, with Nancy nodding in agreement.
“Jesus, this is too funny. Please tell me someone is filming this? I’m going to use it as blackmail on my son,” John guffaws loudly.
“Hell, why didn’t I think of that? I want it, too!” Andrew adds at his side, still laughing.
“I am!” my father answers John’s question with a chuckle.
“Seriously, Daddy?!” I groan at the same time as Nancy says, “Andrew!” and Mira gasps, “John!”
“Oh, shit…” Sy suddenly says in a hushed tone, but his voice travels to the bottom of the slide.
“What?” Grey asks.
“I gotta let one out, man.”
“Don’t you fucking dare, Hayes!”
“I don’t know if I can hold it in…”
“Bro! I don’t care. You hold that shit in!
I swear to fucking God, if you let it out, I’m going to murder you!
I don’t care if we’re stuck in here, I’ll find a way!
The minute help gets us out of here with their electric saw, I’m gonna take it and chop you up into a million little pieces.
Then I’m gonna buy a dog and feed you to him! ” Greyson angrily threatens Silas.
“Yeah! That’s my boy!” Andrew shouts at them.
“ANDREW! God damn it!” Nancy glares at him. “Lord, help me, I’m about to murder you!”
He keeps his eyes on his wife, leaning slowly toward John and my father, and says, “Well, at least now we know where the murdering gene comes from.”
Everyone breaks out into a fit of laughter, the situation quickly getting out of hand. It goes on for a while until a distinctive farting sound echoes loudly through the room.
“Oh, fuck! I’m sorry, it just slipped!” Silas says quickly.
“YOU’RE A DEAD MAN, HAYES!”
“Eww, Silas! Jesus Christ,” Cecilia whines, scrunching up her nose and backing away from the slide with Dante.
“I didn’t do it on purpose! I couldn’t—ow! Shit! Stop! Ow! What are you doing!? OWWW! Ford, stop!”
There’s banging and smacking happening within the tube as they clearly fight each other despite their tight environment. “FUCK! You just kicked me in the face!” Grey shouts.
“You wouldn’t stop hitting me!”
“That’s it! Bunny!? How you feeling about a dog?”
I giggle with a hand to my lips and shrug even though he can’t see me. “I’m okay with that.”
“Good.” It goes silent, and no movement can be heard from inside the tube until Greyson’s wicked laugh filters its way through. “My name is Greyson Ford. You farted in my face. Prepare to die.” And then the hitting sounds resume as Silas begs him to stop.
“I’m never letting them live down this moment,” Morgan giggles.
I shake my head and chuckle. “Never.”