Page 77 of A Whirlwind of Color (The Light to My Darkness 2)

I glanced at Scarlett. Porter was carrying her now. He gave me a sympathetic smile.

That just made me more nervous. Was that sympathy because he knew I was about to experience James’ wrath? Or because he thought I was a terrible mom? Probably both. Here goes nothing.

As soon as we were inside, Porter set Scarlett down and disappeared back out the door.

I was probably supposed to yell something like, “Honey, I’m home!” But James wasn’t my honey. Besides, I was hoping to sneak Scarlett upstairs and wrassle her into a pair of pants before James saw us.

“Let’s go change,” I said to Scarlett and held out my hand.

She held on to the paper towel skirt for dear life.

“Melissa, can you help me get her upstairs?” I asked.

“James is going to find out one way or the other. Scarlett still doesn’t feel well.” She tussled Scarlett’s hair.

Traitor.

“Daddy!” Scarlett yelled.

They were all a bunch of traitors. Damn it!

James walked into the foyer. He pushed his hair off his forehead, like he was trying to look more presentable. As if he ever looked un-presentable.

“I didn’t expect you back so soon…” his voice trailed off when he looked down at Scarlett. “Pumpkin, what happened?”

Scarlett immediately let go of her paper towel skirt, sending it to the floor, and ran over to James. Her little naked butt was the biggest traitor of all.

“What happened to your pants?” James asked as he lifted her into his arms.

“She fed me a bad snack.” The little traitor pointed directly at me.

“It was just a tiny accident,” Melissa said. “We didn’t make it to the bathroom in time. No big deal.”

Thank you, Melissa.

“My tummy hurts,” Scarlett said.

Was she trying to get me in trouble?

“She gave me fibey snacks. And they made my tummy hurt.”

James looked up at me. “What is she talking about?”

This time Melissa didn’t come to my rescue. I was on my own. “I grabbed the wrong fruit gummies. She wanted a snack and I only had the fiber ones. Apparently those aren’t for kids. But I had no way of knowing that, James. I seriously thought it would be okay, or else I wouldn’t have fed them to her.”

“It doesn’t matter.” But the way he said it didn’t make me believe him. His tone screamed, "It matters a lot, you incompetent idiot." He adjusted Scarlett onto his hip. “Let’s go get you cleaned up, pumpkin.”

/> I sighed as they left the foyer.

“So that went well,” Melissa said. “He didn’t even seem that mad.”

“Are you kidding? He was so pissed.”

“Really? He said it didn’t matter.” She shrugged.

She couldn’t tell that he was mad? Maybe I knew him better than I thought. Or maybe I’m remembering. I shook the thought away. If I was remembering, I’d know what to do around Scarlett. I’d be a good mom. I clearly wasn’t remembering anything.

“So, I’m supposed to meet Josh for dinner in a bit. I thought I’d leave you to get better acquainted with your family tonight.”

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