Page 19 of Bossy Baby

“So we were at the grocery store and I was trying to figure out how to get Hayley—”

“Hayley! ItisHayley!” Mitch yelled.

“You said you already knew that.”

“But you didn’t confirm it until now.”

“Anyway, I was trying to figure out how to get Hayley back to my house—”

“You meanaskinghim to your house. Not like kidnapping and just taking him to your house.”

Mac didn’t answer.

“Mac,” Mitch said sternly. “You cannot just nab Hayley and take him home.”

Whatever. Mitch didn’t know everything. “Do you want to hear the story or not?”

“Oh my God! This story has gone on forever,” Mitch complained.

“Because you won’t shut up!” Mac said in frustration.

Mitch giggled and Mac knew that he was now dealing with Mitch in his boy persona. “I’m sorry. Please tell me. And I really do want to know if Hayley is okay.”

“He’s okay. Really. His arm was a clean break. It will hurt, but he’s going to be fine. I’ll make sure of it.”

“So grocery store. You were planning Hayley’s kidnapping.”

He wasn’t really. Not seriously. Grocery stores had cameras. “Out of nowhere, Hayley said I needed to take him on a date. Right then.”

“Wait! Hayley told you that you were going to take him on a date?”

“He’s kind of bossy.” And Mac loved it.

“Sounds like it,” Mitch agreed.

“We left the grocery store and I took him to the deli down the street. Then we walked to the park.”

“That’s a wonderful date.”

“It would have been,” Mac agreed. “But Hayley got excited and started to run. He tripped over a rock. Or more like one of those decorative boulders.” He should call the town council and demand they move those. He didn’t want his boy getting injured again.

Mitch groaned. “Oh no.”

“It was bad,” Mac said. “Lots of blood and his bone was sticking out.”

Mitch gagged.

“I carried him to my car that was in the grocery store parking lot and then drove him to the hospital.” There. That was the story.

“That’s so romantic.”

“It was not romantic,” Mac argued. “My boy bled all over me.”

“But you swept him up and carried him.”

Yeah, he had. Hopefully Hayley remembered that.

“What’s the plan now?” Mitch questioned.

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