Page 8 of His Vengeful Tradwife

"Next time, you might want to wear flats, baby," I laughed affectionately, putting my arm around her as the kids rode the carousel one last time.

She turned to me, her mouth dropping open in surprise. "There's going to be anexttime?"

I chuckled again.

"Well, we don't have to go to the zooeveryweekend! But I'm sure we'll go again. Why?"

"Oh," Amanda said, dropping her eyes a bit. "I was rather thinking that Tallulah was going to take the kids more."

My brows drew together, and I felt my stomach turn over. "What do you mean? These aremykids, too. I want to spend time with them."

"Of course," she hastened to reassure me. "I just thought--well, that Tallulah would have them most of the time and we'd, well, take them to dinner now and again."

I stared at her.

"What are you talking about? I don't want to spend time with my kids only atdinner."

Her brown eyes widened a bit, and she put a hand on my arm. "Oh--of course not. I love howselflessyou are, Maverick. You do so much more than you could ever expect a man in your position to do for your family. That's not what I meant at all. Let's just worry about that when we figure out what the schedule is going to be."

Just then, the ride ended, and I had to hop up on the carousel to take Emmylou out of her secured toddler seat.

What onearthwas Amanda talking about?

I had been looking forward to spending more time with my kids, and hoping she would feel the same way!

Maybe the zoo was just a lot for the first time, I reassured myself. Amanda had no experience with kids. She would get better!

I hoisted baby Emmylou onto my shoulders and we started back to the car But we hadn't gone very far when I started to smell something.

Oh, god, that was definitely shit.

I hastened my pace. We needed to get homenow.

"I'm hungry," Seraphina complained as a foul funk began to invade and cling to my sinuses. "Can we stop at McDonald's?"

"You don't need McDonald's," I said, and Gabriel and Seraphina both began to protest this, but I had bigger worries as I felt something wet slide down the back of my shirt.

Fuck.

I pulled Emmylou off my shoulders and held her in front of me.

She'd had ahugeblowout, all out her diaper and down her legs.

Which meant there would now be shit all over me.

Amanda shrieked. "What thefuck?" she cried. "She's still in diapers?"

"She's only two," I shot back, trying to hold Emmylou at arm's length, as my baby twisted and turned, smearing poop all over thefrontof my shirt too. "It's fine. We'll just get the diaper bag and clean it up."

FUCK.

Amanda and I looked at each other in horror.

"Oh, is that what it's for?" she asked.

"What the fuck did youthinkit was for?" I snapped, trying to keep my voice calm.

Things went even more to shit when we got back to her car. I didn't have wipes, paper towels, anything to clean either Emmylou or me up.

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