Page 52 of The Kiss Keeper
“How are we going to do this?” Natalie asked, biting back a grin.
He had to admit that this was pretty damn hilarious.
He pulled his gaze from her ass and looked past her at the dangling shoestrings, several branches up. “You get to him first, since you’re part chimpanzee, and then I can carry him down on my back.”
“Okay, let’s hope this works—commence Operation No Tree Pee,” she said, then worked her way up, limb by limb.
It didn’t take them long to get to the boy.
“Are you ready, Toby? I’m going to carry you down,” he said.
“What if I pee?” the child squealed, clenching every muscle in his little body.
Good question. The last thing he wanted was to be covered in piss.
“See that bush,” he said, pointing toward the ground. “Once we get down, we’ll race over, and you can pee there.”
“Okay,” the boy replied, scrunching up his face.
Natalie climbed onto Toby’s branch and took his hand. “You can make it, honey. I know you can.”
“Are you going to go fast, Uncle Jake?”
“Like a tree ninja, dude,” he replied, not sure what a tree ninja was, but it sounded a hell of a lot cooler than a potty porter.
The boy cracked a smile then grimaced. “If I laugh, I’ll pee.”
“No funny business,” Natalie ordered, clearly holding back a grin.
He bit back a smile of his own. “Got it. Commencing Operation No Tree Pee.”
Natalie’s eyes sparkled as she shook her head, swallowing back a laugh. “All right, Toby, I’m going to help you get down to Jake.”
The boy released the tree trunk and, with Natalie’s help, lowered himself down.
“Climb onto my back,” he said, helping the boy get into place.
He started the decent as the children below began chanting.
“Hold it! Hold it! Hold it!”
“I can’t hold it!” Toby yelled.
Jake quickened his pace. “You’ve got to hold it, Toby!”
“I’m trying, but it’s like a giant lake is inside of me.”
Jake glanced down. They were so close. “Ten seconds, Toby. You’ve got this.”
He climbed down the tree, navigating the branches and trying like hell not to bounce too much.
“I can’t hold it,” the boy wailed.
“Five seconds,” he called, nearly at the bottom. “Count it down, Toby!”
“Five,” the boy yelled along with the other children.
He cleared the last branch and carefully lowered himself and the child to the ground.
