A Bradford Birthday Flashback

Freshly Re-Edited

An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle

Part I

“I just cleaned that,” Zoe mumbled sadly as she stared down at the muddy footprints covering the floor that she’d just spent the past hour scrubbing.

“Damn it,” Trevor muttered as he glanced down at his dirty boots before taking in the muddy trail of footprints that he’d left behind. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

“It’s fine,” Zoe said, waving it off with a sigh as she added cleaning the floor back onto her list of things that needed to get done before the twins’ birthday party tomorrow.

“I’ll clean it up,” Trevor said with a wince as he pulled his muddy boots off and set them down on the mat by the front door while Zoe went over everything that she had to do. She needed to finish cleaning the house, inflate the new pool floats, run a half-dozen errands, put up the rest of the decorations, set up chairs in the backyard, and a hundred other things before tomorrow morning.

“Where are the kids?” Trevor asked as he grabbed the mop.

“Mathew and Jessica are with Haley going shopping for the boys. Jonathan is upstairs playing video games and Sebastian is taking the dogs for a walk,” Zoe said as she debated her next move.

“No one’s helping you?” Trevor asked, frowning as he took in the mess covering the kitchen table and counters.

“At the moment, you are,” Zoe said with a sigh as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail and headed into the living room, deciding that was probably the best place to start.

“We should have had the party at the park or the movies,” Trevor said a moment later as he joined her in the living room and started picking up all the video games, toys, and books that the kids left behind.

“The boys wanted a barbecue,” Zoe reminded him.

“You mean Jonathan wanted a barbecue. Sebastian would have been happy with a cake and a new book,” he pointed out with a chuckle.

“He is our easiest baby,” Zoe readily agreed with a nod and a wistful sigh.

“He really is,” Trevor murmured in agreement.

“I don’t think he wants this party,” Zoe said, worrying her bottom lip as she stopped what she was doing.

“No, he doesn’t, but Jonathan does so he’s going along with it,” Trevor said as they shared a look.

“He’d probably be happy with a trip to the bookstore,” Zoe said as an idea occurred to her.

“You’re probably right,” Trevor murmured absently as his gaze flickered to the front door.

“It would definitely be easier,” Zoe said, licking her lips as she casually shifted to the left.

“It really would be. Jonathan would get his party tomorrow and Sebastian-”

“Would probably really enjoy a day out of the house,” Zoe finished for him as she started to shift a little more to the left, the promise of a day free from cleaning, wrapping presents, and running errands too damn tempting to ignore.

“Yes, he probably would,” Trevor murmured in agreement a split second before he made his move, but that was fine because she had a plan.

*-*-*-*

“What just happened?” Sebastian asked as Trevor stood there, wondering the same damn thing.

One minute, he had Sebastian thrown over his shoulder and was heading for his truck, and the next…

He was standing here with his son, trying to make sense of the list that she’d shoved in his hand before she made a run for it. He still wasn’t sure how Zoe managed it. When she realized that he had Sebastian, she should have sucked it up and accepted the loss, but instead, she took him by surprise and dragged Jonathan to her car, shoved him inside and tore out of the driveway while he stood there wondering where he went wrong.

“I really wish I was on Mom’s team,” Sebastian said with a heavy sigh as he plucked the list out of Trevor’s hand and looked it over.

“She cheated,” Trevor bit out, beyond insulted that any of his children would pick their mother over him.

“Of course she did,” Sebastian mumbled absently, not really sounding like he believed him.

“She did.”

“You say that every time she wins,” his soon-to-be twelve-year-old son pointed out while he stood there, wondering how he was going to pull this off instead.

They still needed to clean the living room, the bathrooms, and the kitchen before they went shopping and picked up all the food that his family would devour within the first hour and-

It was time to take matters into his own hands.

Decision made, Trevor pulled his phone out of his back pocket and sent a quick text to Kasey, asking for the favor that was probably going to get him killed when Reese found out, but he really didn’t have a choice. Not when he knew that Sebastian was only doing this for his brother. Seconds later, Kasey texted back letting him know that she had everything handled.

Absently nodding, Trevor looked up to find his son frowning down at the list they’d been given as he debated something. It probably wouldn’t end well, but…

“Go pack a bag,” Trevor said as he focused back on his phone and asked Kasey for one more favor.

“What for?” Sebastian asked as Trevor prayed that he didn’t live to regret this.

“We’re going camping.”

*-*-*-*

“Maybe we should sleep in the truck?” Mikey suggested, which Trevor really didn’t appreciate at the moment, not after everything that he went through to make this happen.

“Tent’s almost up,” Trevor said, even as he was forced to squint as he tried to make out which part of the tent that he was holding in his hands.

“Maybe we should go back to that store that we saw earlier and buy batteries,” Sebastian suggested as he gently slapped the dying flashlight against his hand in an attempt to squeeze a little more juice out of the batteries, only to groan seconds later when the flashlight finally went out.

Shit!

“I believe I saw a lovely hotel on the way here,” Mikey said from somewhere to his right, but since he couldn’t tell exactly where she was, Trevor settled for glaring in her general direction.

“A hotel does sound lovely,” his smart-ass son said, sounding amused as Trevor continued kneeling on the rocky ground, wrestling with the tent that he’d borrowed from Uncle Jared in the pitch black, hungry, tired, and more than ready to call it a fucking night.

But he refused to give up.

It was his son’s birthday tomorrow and he was damn well going to give him the birthday that he deserved, even if it-

Snap!

“What was that?” Mikey whispered somewhat frantically right around the time that Trevor decided that a hotel stay did, in fact, sound lovely.

“Nothing,” Trevor said, even as he abandoned the tent, reached out blindly until he had both kids by the arms and was dragging them in the general direction of the camping site’s parking lot, really hoping that whatever made that sound wasn’t hungry.

Snap!

“Do you think it’s a bear?” Mikey whispered, sounding intrigued as Trevor paused just long enough so that he could throw them both over his shoulders.

With a pained grunt, Sebastian said, “It sounds hungry.”

“It really does,” Mikey added, making him bite back a sigh at the reminder that the two of them together were worse than Sebastian was with Jonathan, which was really fucking terrifying.

Snap!

“Who do you think he’ll eat first?” Sebastian asked conversationally.

“Probably your father,” Mikey said, making him wonder why he liked the little girl so damn much.

“He has been letting himself go,” Sebastian said with a pitying sigh.

“That’s what I was thinking, but I didn’t want to say anything,” Mikey said, making his lips twitch even as he adjusted his hold on the kids, earning matching grunts as he moved faster.

“You’re both mean,” Trevor pointed out even as he wondered if they were going in the right direction.

Snap!

But he was more than happy to keep going in this direction and see where it took them, Trevor decided as the sounds of something following through the woods grew closer.

“It sounds eager for its midnight snack,” his son pointed out.

“It really does,” Mikey said with another grunt as Trevor stumbled out of the woods and-

“Thank god,” he mumbled when he spotted his truck in the poorly lit parking area near the bathrooms and headed straight for it.

When they were only a few feet away from his truck, Trevor dropped both kids on their feet, reached into his front pocket, grabbed the keys, opened the door, and proceeded to throw Sebastian and Mikey in the front seat before jumping in after them, closing the door, starting the truck, and got the hell out of there.

“But, what of our lovely camping trip?” his son asked.

“We never speak of it again,” Trevor bit out, glaring straight ahead.

“We’ll cherish the memories forever,” Mikey said, nodding solemnly and making his lips twitch.

“They’ll get us through the tough times,” Sebastian added.

“They really will.”

“You’re both evil,” Trevor said, chuckling as he headed towards that hotel, hoping to salvage the rest of their trip.

*-*-*-*

“I don’t know about this,” Mikey said, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she sent another nervous glance towards the bathroom door where Uncle Trevor was finishing his shower.

“There’s nothing to worry about,” Sebastian promised her with a satisfied sigh as he dropped down on the queen bed that he’d shared with his father last night until Uncle Trevor got sick of Sebastian hogging the bed and tossed him onto hers.

After that, Mikey spent most of the night trying to get her best friend to stop hogging the bed. When it became obvious that nudging him awake every five minutes wasn’t going to work, she’d resorted to slapping a pillow on his face until he was forced to open his eyes so that he could glare at her. Once they had an understanding over the blankets and exactly which side was hers, Mikey closed her eyes with a satisfied sigh, ignored his demands that she at least share the sheet and quickly fell asleep.

“You mean besides your father wringing your neck and mine beating me within an inch of my life and throwing me in a closet?” Mikey asked, blinking at him.

Chuckling, Sebastian stood up. “Uncle Reese would never hurt you.”

“No, you’re right, but my mother would if I left this hotel room without Uncle Trevor,” Mikey pointed out, wondering why he had to make everything so difficult.

“We’d be with Uncle Jason, so I don’t really think she’d care, but if you want, we can wait for Dad,” Sebastian said, shrugging it off as he picked up Uncle Trevor’s phone and sent a text.

“What are you talking about?” Mikey asked as she grabbed her baseball off the nightstand and began rolling it between her hands.

“This,” Sebastian said, glancing at the locked bathroom door as he pulled a brochure out of his back pocket and handed it to her.

Frowning, Mikey couldn’t help but look up from the brochure describing the huge buffet less than a mile from here. “Isn’t this something that your father would want to know about?”

“Probably,” Sebastian said, shrugging it off as she sat there, shaking her head and wondering if she was ever truly going to understand this family’s obsession with food.

“Then, why did you tell Uncle Jason about it?” she asked, wondering what Uncle Trevor was going to come up with to salvage Sebastian’s birthday.

“Because Uncle Jason was the highest bidder,” he murmured absently as he sent another text.

“Highest bidder? For what?” Mikey asked, unable to help but frown as she tried to figure out what he was talking about.

“For the name and location of this buffet, Uncle Jared offered us fifty bucks. Uncle Ethan offered us a day at Six Flags. Uncle Collin offered to take us with him the next time he had to go to Florida for work and-”

“And Uncle Jason?” she asked, wondering what he could have offered that could beat a day at Six Flags and a trip to Florida.

“His extra tickets to watch the Yankees beat the Red Sox at Fenway,” Sebastian said, smiling hugely as he tossed the phone aside and headed for the hotel door.

“Seriously?” Mikey asked as she climbed off the bed and followed him to the door.

“Mmmhmm. There’s also the entertainment value that will come from this,” Sebastian said as he opened the hotel door to find Uncle Jason standing there waiting.

“What are you talking about?”

With a smile, Sebastian said, “You’ll see,” as he handed the brochure that he’d grabbed from the hotel foyer last night over to Uncle Jason, who shot them a wink before he turned around and walked away, leaving them standing there while she tried to figure out what just happened.

More to Come…

Difficult: A Neighbor from Hell Chronicle

Is Available Now

Surviving high school was going to be hard enough, but surviving telling the one girl that he couldn’t live without how he felt was going to be one of the most difficult things that Sebastian Bradford was ever going to do.

From New York Times and USA Today’s bestselling author R.L. Mathewson comes the second novel in the Neighbor from Hell YA series that will bring it all back, leaving you unable to help but smile as you remember the first time that you fell in love.

For years, Sebastian has been lying to himself, doing whatever it took to convince himself that Mikey was just his best friend and the pain in the ass that he couldn’t stop thinking about and now…

He would do absolutely anything to stop screwing this up, but that probably wasn’t going to happen, not with his brother determined to help him. With every soul-crushing piece of advice his brother threw his way, Sebastian found himself thinking about everything that he had to lose if Mikey didn’t feel the same way and wondered if he was about to make the biggest mistake of his life.

The glaring was definitely starting to concern her, but Mikey had bigger problems to worry about than her best friend suddenly acting weird around her, like the teenage girl and her minions going out of their way to make her life a living hell. She couldn’t risk losing her scholarship, not when it meant that she would never be able to do the one thing that she loved more than anything again.

Going to Kindle Unlimited February 12th.

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