He's My Brother's Best Friend and My Enemy, This Can't Be Good!

Two weeks with my mother sounded like a bad idea from the start. Two weeks with my mother and Lexis without Cassadee was an even bigger nightmare than I could have ever expected.

Lexis was all right without her parents the first couple nights. We kept telling her that they were coming back soon, or at least that’s what my mother was telling her. Of course, Lexis is a lot smarter than my mom gave her credit for and discovered, by day three, that mom and dad were not coming back anytime soon.

That weekend we spent most of the time at home, making sure the house was in some kind of order. Cass and Trevor didn’t have enough time to come home and open wedding gifts so Mir and I decided to organize them in neat piles in the corner of the living room where they wouldn’t be too much of a bother. Mom wasn’t too pleased with the site of fifty gifts cluttering the living room so while we were out getting food she took it upon herself to move them all into Lexis’s playroom. Lexis, being three, ended up getting into half of them when my mother was supposed to be watching her. Thankfully she had managed to stay away from anything that could be broken and end up hurting her. My mother blamed Lex before she called Cass to tell her what her daughter had done. She forgot to mention, however that she was the one who moved them all into Lexis’s play area. Mom and Lexis were all ready off to a bad start after that ordeal.

I was dreading school when Monday rolled around. Mom had already managed to upset Lexis in the couple hours she had her under her care and now I was expected to leave her to go to class. After much deliberation and yelling from my mother, I went to school. I spent the whole day checking my phone, waiting for some random number to call me to inform me that my mother had lost my niece, thankfully nothing like that happened.

By lunch I began to relax as Ava gathered around to hear the details of the wedding. Miranda and I did most of the talking while Ava listened intently. The boys weren’t too interest in our conversation and spent most of the time trying to decide who could shovel the most food into their mouths without spitting it out. Typical boys.

When school was finished I headed straight home while the others headed off to the football field for the teams weekly practice. Ava and Mir, having nothing better to do, tagged along. At home I found mom napping on the couch while Lexis played by her side, unsupervised. I quickly wrote my mother a note telling her I was taking Lexis out, not wanting to wake her to deal with her lectures. Once I had all of Lexis’s things I put her into the car and headed off toward school again.

Lexis wasn't a frequent guest at the Mass High football stadium. Most of the games took place in the cold weather so Cass and Trevor only dragged her to the big ones so she wouldn’t get too sick. And even then they stayed up in the bleachers. Needless to say Lexis was thrilled to be on the field with the boys.

Lexis tried to keep up with the boys as they ran back and forth across the field building their stamina. When she realized she couldn’t keep up with them she sat her butt on the grass and clapped her hands like Coach was doing to keep them encouraged. As the practice winded down Parker brought Lexis out on to the field to play catch with her. At first it started out with just the two of them but before long all the boys were in a circle fighting for their turn to play catch with little miss Lexis.

“Who knew all we need was a baby to get the team to practice,” Coach joked from the sidelines.

I chuckled before walking on to the field to get Lexis ready to leave. The boys were not pleased with me taking away their new friend.

“And I thought Parker just had a thing for young girls. Looks like so does the whole football team,” I joked, which got a few chuckles from the team.

“She’s going to be trouble when she’s older,” Max said.

“That’s for damn sure,” I said picking Lexis up off the floor. She wrapped her legs around me before tucking her head into my neck. She must not have taken her nap today. With that I excused myself and headed back toward the house.

If only the rest of the evening went as nice as the afternoon had. Once everyone was home we ate dinner. My made her classic spaghetti, which was pretty much the only thing she could cook that wouldn’t end in a total disaster. Sometimes I really wondered how she raised three kids.

From the minute we had arrived back home I knew Lexis was going to make the night interesting. My thoughts were only confirmed the minute my mom served her her bowl of spaghetti on a plate. Lexis took one look at the food and pushed it away from her, as far away as she could given the restraints of her high chair. My mom, being her typical controlling self, pushed it back toward her and instructed her to eat. One could only imagine how well a three year old takes being talked to in a firm voice. After twenty minutes of Lexis crying, my mother gave up and walked away from the scene. I managed to calm Lexis down enough to get her to eat a few bites before settling on making her a cup of milk before getting her ready for bed.

Despite Lexis’s clear exhaustion, she was very keen on not sleeping that night. I tried everything to get to settle down, but nothing seemed to be working. After an hour Parker stepped in and managed to get her to calm down. After another hour she was asleep.

The rest of the week followed in similar fashion. Lexis was usually in a bad mood when I arrived home from school as was my mom would was exhausted from taking care of her all day. Parker and I usually took her out for a bit to give my mom time to figure out dinner before we returned and Lexis returned to her same foul mood. Apparently the three year old did not like her grandma too much, not that I could really blame her.



“Is that Lexis?” I groaned. I rolled over, forgetting that Parker had fallen asleep on my bed with me. He groaned as my foot made contact with his stomach as I struggled to get out of bed.

“How is she not exhausted?” Parker questioned, sitting up abruptly. After waiting for his eyes to adjust to his sudden consciousness, he followed me out of my room and into Lexis.

Usually I tried to calm her down enough so that she would fall back asleep in her crib. It was clear that the usual game was not going to work today as Lexis’s sobs only got louder when I walked into the room. She had gotten herself so worked up that she managed to spit up on her own pajamas. After taking the time to change her and Parker attempting to calm her, I carried her back to my room where I laid her on my bed. Within seconds she fell asleep, curling in a tight ball on the side of my bed.

“At least she’s asleep,” I sighed. I climbed onto my bed and situated myself in the middle so that Lexis had enough room so that she wouldn’t fall off. This caused Parker to murmur something incoherent under his breath. “What?”

“Now where am I supposed to lie?” Parker grumbled.

I shifted carefully, not wanting to wake Lexis, making enough room for Parker to lie beside me. He settled in beside me, before pulling my closer to him. Lexis, who was sleeping soundly, rolled over closer to me. With Lexis’s new sleeping position I managed to make out the time on my clock, three am. Dammit. That meant I needed to be up soon for school.

“How many more days until Cass is back?” Parker whispered.

I stifled a chuckle, “another week.”

Parker shook his head. “Don’t get me wrong Lex is adorable and I love her but god she’s been a pain in the ass.”

“I know,” I sighed. “She just misses her parents. Plus she spends the whole day with my mom.”

“True,” Parker said.

The sound of Lexis sleeping filled the room. Parker hadn’t said much in a while so I figured he had fallen asleep. Curling closer into him I began to feel my own eyes close with exhaustion.

“As much of a pain she is, it is fun playing parents,” Parker breathed.

“What’s even funner, it that it’s pretend and we get to give her to Cass in a week,” I joked.

Parker chuckled, feeling his stomach shake against my back. Once his laughter subsided he kiss me before going to bed for real this time.



“So what are we doing this weekend?” Max asked.

Our usual lunch table had been over taken by some brave juniors whose entitlement had been growing as the school year was slowing to an end. That’s how the six of us found ourselves at a table that usually sat four. We had to push the sets of chairs together creating hopeless benches that almost ended with my on the floor several times.

“We need to start discussing prom details,” Miranda said. She was met with a chorus of groans causing her face to grow unpleasant. “It’s in a few weeks.”

“Few weeks is enough time. What are we doing this weekend?” Max said again.

“Lexis sitting,” I said before placing my hands on the table to avoid falling on the floor, again.

“Still?” Ava questioned.

I nodded my head. Two weeks seemed like a short amount of time but obviously it was not. Taking care of Lexis for a couple hours was a lot different that taking care of her for several days, I was exhausted. Parker was too since he had been helping. My mother on the other hand, looked more well rested than she had when she up to the house.

“Mom can watch her,” Jayden said.

“Your mother is an idiot,” Parker retorted.



“Mom!” I yelled.

I had been home no more than a minute when I found smoke coming from the kitchen. Lexis was seated on the sofa, oblivious to the scene that was occurring behind her. I hurried passed her to find myself in the kitchen. My mom trying desperately to fan the smoke away from the smoke detector that was minutes away from going off.

“What are you doing?”

My mom jumped at the sound of my voice. “Shit, I didn’t think anyone was home.” She continued fanning the smoke away before opening a window. The room slowly cleared out enough for her to make out where I was standing.

“What happened” I asked incredulously.

“I was trying to boil the water to make Lexis macaroni and cheese and I stepped away for a minute and I don’t know what happened.”

“You’re ridiculous!” I shouted.

“Don’t start with me Josylne,” my mother warned.

She then went back to the pot containing the boiling water and poured the package of macaroni in before lowering the flame to the proper setting, so the house wouldn’t burn down. I looked on astonished. How could my mother think it was okay to walk away from a pot of boiling water with a three year old in the house?

“What?” My mom questioned shortly.

“It’s a wonder how you raised three children.”

“Josylne,” she scolded. “I am a good mother.”

“Maybe, but you sure make a lousy grandmother. You walked away from a boiling pot of water with a three year old in the house. You left her alone so long that she got into Cass and Trev’s wedding gifts. The other night you didn’t get up to check on why she was screaming. You don’t ev-“

My mother cut me off, “Are you kidding me right now?”

“No mom I’m not.”

“So my mothering skills are a little out of use,” my mom admitted. She was now busy mixing the cheese into her noodles that were definitely going to be overcooked after the water debacle. There was no way Lexis was going to eat it now.

“That’s bullshit. I’m not a mother and I have enough common sense to not leave the three year old unsupervised.”

“Josylne watch your tone with me.”

There was no use in arguing with her. I simply walked away, checking on Lexis before heading into my room. Only a couple more days until she was gone and Cassadee was back in control, I could do this.

It wasn’t long before Parker found me in my room, wallowing in my own disgust for my mother. Parker didn’t even bother to ask what was bothering me, he knew. We stayed upstairs the rest of the night, alternating between his room and mine all while avoiding my mother. Only a couple more days I reminded myself.



I had never been so grateful to see my sister and new brother in law. Lexis was even more thrilled than I was attacking her parents the minute she heard the door open. Trevor took Lexis out for ice cream leaving Cass in the house to catch up with my mother before her flight left that evening.

Mom gloated about how well behaved Lexis was. She said she had a wonderful time bonding with her. It took all my power not to jump into the conversation. I knew my time would come to tell Cass the truth, and it did.

As soon as my mom left Cass came to find me to see what really happened over the last couple weeks. I, of course, told her everything that happened sparing no details. Cass had a right to know what he daughter was up to at all times of the day.

“Well everyone survived, that’s all that matters,” Cass sighed before hugging and thanking me for watching after her precious baby and mom.

Trevor and Cassadee spent the rest of the night opening their wedding presents and hanging out with Lexis. Leaving me to relax in my room, something I desperately needed. Parker had been right the other night, it was fun playing parent but I was glad it was over with.