“Yeah, they have games and stuff. I’m sure Drew can’t do much, but the girls will love it.” He appears so excited at the idea; I’m not about to tell him the truth.

“Alright, we’ll get the girls from their play date and go,” I agree.

Chapter 14

Trey

We pull up outside the enormous castle-like structure, and I spy parents tugging their screaming kids away from the building. The whole unfolding scene makes me want to speed away as though the building caught on fire. I glance at Kailey from the corner of my eyes and she giggles. “It will be fine,” she assures me and pats my leg.

“I don’t think so,” I say dead serious. These three well-behaved, precious kids we have in the back might just turn out to be like the aliens now tearing away from their parents’ hands and back into the building.

I got to hand it to the redheaded boy with glasses, he’s escaped his dad’s tight grip twice, circling around, making it back inside the doors before his dad could figure out where he had disappeared. I could be looking at a future pro running back with skills like that.

“Out!” Tara screams, and I give Kailey the ‘I told you so look’, but all she does is giggle again. Her amusement goes to show I’ll be one of these poor souls dragging some kid away in a few hours.

I turn off the ignition as the rear sliding doors open. Chloe is already unbuckled and helping Tara out of her car seat contraption. They both jump in my arms and their excitement is contagious, bringing a smile to my face and quickly vanquishing the memory of what I just witnessed. Kailey takes Drew in her arms, and the five of us venture into the unknown. At least for me it’s an abyss I’m not sure we’ll escape out of the same way we went in. Giving the smiling Kailey one last look, I open the door for us, and the noise that blasts out of the energy filled building has me fearful for my life.

The high school student studies Kailey and I before stamping our hands with some form of invisible ink. “Why can’t I see it?” I ask the young girl.

“So you don’t take the wrong kid,” she explains, but I look around the building at the screaming uncontrollable children running around and then back to the three calm ones next to me.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” I inform her.

“It’s more so no one takes one of ours,” Kailey chimes in, and then it all clicks in my head. Of course, one of these parents would want to trade these darlings for one of their devils spawn. Not going to happen, my friend.

Ordering some pizza and buying tokens for an ungodly amount of money, we find our seats. Nestling into a booth, I grab a highchair for Drew, and Kailey gives him some crackers to keep him busy until the food arrives.

“Trey, let’s play,” Chloe says, pulling on my hoodie sleeve.

I look over to Kailey, and she nods. “Go ahead, I’ll let you know when the pizza comes,” she instructs. Her calmness over this place amazes me.

Grabbing the small bucket of tokens, Tara and Chloe file out of the booth after me. I bend down to give Kailey a kiss, and she surprises me when she pulls me down to whisper something in my ear. “Don’t worry about the tickets. You’ll get the top prize tonight.” When I pull back, she winks my way. God, I love her. In those few short words, she’s calmed me down from the panic of this germ infested kid zone.

Chloe takes my hand and leads me over to a basketball game. Taking a token out of the bucket, she inserts it and starts playing. I gotta say, the girls got skills for five. While she’s busy playing that, I get Tara set up on skee ball. Instructing her on how to roll the ball, instead of throwing the ball, is harder than it should be. The fearful employee’s scared shitless face when the ball went flying towards his head, has me biting my lip to hide my laughter. Once she’s got it going, I scoot back over to Chloe, who has found her way over to a driving game.

An older boy is hovering over her while her legs stretch to reach the pedals. She’s a determined little girl that’s for sure, but the game is a bit complicated and probably too advanced for her. Tara runs over. I scoop her up, and we watch Chloe ranking sixteenth out of sixteen, dead last, but she’s happy and loving it. She snags another token and puts it in to play again. Then the boy who’s probably twelve or so decides to speak up.

“She’s too young to be playing,” he spats, and my head turns his way.

“She’s fine, don’t worry, you’ll have your turn,” I assure him, kindly hoping he shuts his mouth.

“It’s a waste. She’s holding everyone up. As her dad, you shouldn’t allow her—,” the smart mouth kid continues.

I place Tara down on the ground, who instantly stands next to Chloe, watching her smash into walls and rocks and whatever other obstacles are in her way. Walking up, so I’m looking down at him, intimidation is key. “Listen, she’s going to play the game, and if she wants to play again, I have a bucket full of tokens. We’ll stay here all night. So go play some other game while you’re waiting,” I say, shooing him away with my hand.

“Trey!” Kailey appears with Drew in her arms, but I don’t change my stance, waiting for the kid to disappear.

“Whatever, Trey, why don’t you listen to your baby mamma,” he sneers.

A chuckle escapes me from the balls of this kid. God, he reminds me of myself a little bit.

“Nah, I think the little girl wants to play again, maybe even her sister,” I casually shrug my shoulders and turn around toward the girls, who are now staring at the scene unfolding in front of them. Their big eyes darting between me and the punk. “Chloe, you want another token?” I hand her one, but she shakes her head.

“No, I’m done,” she says, hopping off the chair and walking toward another game.

I stand there in disbelief that she’s not even staying out of the pure will to make this kids life hell. Kailey giggles behind me, and I shake my head in disbelief while the now smug kid makes the move for the seat. I’m half tempted to squeeze in before him, shoving my token in first. Then my Zen counterpart comes along side of me. “Come on, baby daddy. The pizza’s ready,” she swings her arm through mine, laughing the whole time. Even Drew’s bottom two teeth are sticking out in amusement to the little showdown.

The girls and I eat the pizza, while Kailey nibbles on hers and feeds Drew small pieces. Once I finish, I instruct her to eat while I handle Drew. Playing a little game of zoom zoom airplane, landing small pieces of pizza on his tongue while he laughs in delight, we end with a few games of peek-a-boo. Chloe and Tara grow restless, so we give them some tokens and let them venture out to the games around us.

Watching Kailey keep her eyes on them and what’s happening around us, tells me mother’s instinct aren’t something that automatically comes after you push the kid out. Sometimes it’s just brought on. She’s not only these three kids’ aunt, she’s their second mother. Jen could never be replaced, but Kailey’s a great substitute.

Kailey and Drew finish and the three of us join Chloe and Tara. Watching the excitement in all their faces makes coming to this insane rave like atmosphere for children halfway okay. Kailey and I do a little competition on the basketball game ourselves, and I find out where Chloe gets her nothing but net shot. Except neither have anything on me. I beat out Kailey not once, but twice. It rolls off her back no problem, another reason I love her, she’s as laid back as me.

Then out of nowhere, Tara starts whining for a token. When I tell her we’re out, she throws herself onto the floor, screaming. Shit, they must pump something into the vents to make the kids go bat crazy. This is foreign behavior for Tara. I bend down to her level to attempt to rationalize with her, mistake one. Tears stream down her face, and I’m about to buy another crap load of tokens when Kailey says, “Time to go. Pick her up. She’s just tired. She’ll fall asleep on the way home.” How the fuck does she know that?