"They frighten me as well," Trevor admitted even as pride filled him. His kids were f**king brilliant, devious, and entertaining as hell.
He took another sip of his beer as he watched his children walk towards them, shooting nervous glances over their shoulders every few feet to see if Jared or any of their cousins had realized they'd been duped. They hadn't.
Jason sighed heavily as he grabbed an ice cold root beer and walked over to his grandmother-in-law just as the feisty old woman tried to steal an abandoned beer off the table. Without a word he grabbed the beer out of the woman's hand and replaced it with the root beer, earning a tiny little glare that Trevor wasn't buying for one minute. Everyone knew the old woman had a soft spot for Jason.
He watched as his four children stopped less than five feet away from them as they kept the large platter of cupcakes between them.
"You can have one each," Sebastian said firmly as the children eyed them.
Trevor and Jason shared a look and snorted out a laugh before they looked back at the children.
"We get eighty percent of the haul," Jason informed them.
"That's not fair!" Jessica said, crossing her arms over her chest as she tried to glare up at her favorite Uncle. When that failed she let her bottom lip and chin tremble as her eyes filled up with unshed tears.
Jason rolled his eyes. "How many times do I have to tell you, Jessie? Don't start with a glare, go with a hurt look and never try it on another Bradford when food is involved," he explained patiently.
Just as quickly as they came the tears were gone and she was frowning. "I forgot."
"It's okay. You'll learn," Trevor said, knowing she would probably have it mastered by Christmas. "Now," he said, gesturing for them to bring the cupcakes closer, "give us our eighty percent."
Johnnie and Sebastian frowned. "But that's twenty cupcakes, leaving us with five cupcakes," Sebastian pointed out.
"And there's four of us," Johnnie added. "That's not fair. How about a forty-sixty split? That will give you five a piece and fifteen for us."
"How about we get a hundred percent and we won't tell your cousins that you ate them all?" Trevor suggested, trying not to laugh at Jason's expression. Even though the man knew the kids had their mother's talent with numbers and were freakishly brilliant it still caught him off guard when the kids showed off their skills.
Granted it had freaked him out a bit the first time he realized how smart his kids were, but that probably had more to do with their elaborate escape from their nursery and finding his two and a half year old sons calmly snacking away on cookies as they sat on top of the refrigerator at two in the morning.
Both sets of twins shared a look and nodded before they turned their attention back to them. Trevor knew that look and didn't like it one bit. They were up to something.
"Here," Sebastian and Johnnie said, handing the platter over to him and before they could stop them all four children somehow managed to grab three cupcakes each and were making a run for it.
"Uncle Jared, daddy stole your cupcakes!" his children announced, making him and Jason suck in a startled gasp.
"Those little traitors," Jason gasped.
"Yup," Trevor said, placing the tray of cupcakes on the table and snatching one up as he watched Jared and Jason's three kids descend on them. Jason grabbed one as well and Trevor considered selling out his cousin and his best friend, but then decided he'd rather save his energy to hunt down his little wife and cuddle with her on one of the lounge chairs while they watched their kids torment the rest of the family.
"Those are our cupcakes, you bastards," Jared snapped, glaring at them as he grabbed the tray of cupcakes and marched off with Jason's kids running after him before they could make a lunge for the cupcakes.
"You still want to take the kids for two weeks?" Trevor asked, not too surprised when Jason snatched the cupcake out of his hand and finished it off in one large bite.
"Hell yeah," Jason said, sounding like he meant it, which he knew he did. Jason was one hell of a family man and really loved having the kids over since they kept him entertained.
"Thanks," Trevor said, grabbing an ice cold Coke for his wife who was slowly making her way towards him with Haley by her side.
"Not a problem. Have you told her yet?" Jason asked, grabbing a soda for Haley.
"About the cruise?" he asked. When Jason nodded he shook his head. "I want this to be a surprise."
"You don't think she knows you've planned a second honeymoon?" Jason asked, throwing his grandmother-in-law a look of warning as the woman tried to roll over to the beer cooler. She simply huffed and gestured for Mitch, who was currently snuggling with his wife a few feet away, to push her back in the shade. After giving his wife one last kiss he did just that and then was right back with his wife. Ten years ago Trevor would have made fun of the love sick bastard, but now he understood all too well what it was like to be utterly devoted to a woman.
"She doesn't have a clue," he said, smiling when his wife leaned down to give Brad's three year old daughter a hug and a kiss.
"You realize you're going to have to watch my kids next month so that I can take Haley away, don't you? After she finds out about this little romantic trip of yours she's going to twist my arm into taking her to a tropical island," Jason pointed out as he flipped a few burgers.
Trevor chuckled. "Like she really has to twist your arm into taking her someplace where she'll probably lounge around in a bikini all day."
"Good point," Jason said, chuckling.
"What's so funny?" Haley asked as she slid her arms around Jason.
"Nothing, my little grasshopper," Jason said, leaning down to kiss his wife.
"Trevor, can you give me a hand?" Zoe asked, taking his hand and giving it a little tug.
"Sure," he said, placing his beer on the table.
As they walked towards the garage he put his arm around her, wondering how he was going to convince her to wear a bikini during their trip and how to get her to take it off, he thought with a smile.
"What do you need help with?" he asked, holding the door to the garage open for her. "Did Haley need us to grab beers or something?"
Zoe nibbled her bottom lip as she reached back and locked the door with a loud click. "No," she said, already reaching for him and he gladly went to her, "I'm in need of our arrangement."
"I guess I can help with that," he said, walking her backwards until her back hit the wall.