Total Knock Out / Book Two

Chapter Fourteen: Family Ties

"Daddy! You're doing it wrong!" Rori giggled, peering at the pancake Stanford had flipped over inside of the skillet from her perch on the chair he had drug over for her to stand on. He poked the burned mess with his spatula and shook his head before scooping it up and throwing it in the trash with the other four he had tried to make.

He looked at Rori and let out a small chuckle when he saw her dip her finger into the pancake batter and make a face when she brought it up to her mouth to taste. She had come into Logan's room and poked his face until he woke up, demanding that they make Logan breakfast in bed; and it wasn't going too well.

"Daddy, this is nasty," Rori whispered, reaching for her small cup of milk to wash the taste out of her mouth.

He knew that he needed to make her stop calling him that, had stayed up most of the night talking to Logan about how Rori had latched on to him and it would break her heart when they finally got to leave and Stanford didn't come with them. But his heart didn't feel so shattered when Rori looked up at him with her green eyes and infectious little grin and called him Daddy like he really was part of their family. It was selfish, but he wanted to put off having that conversation with her as long as possible. He wanted to feel like one of the good guys for just a little bit longer.

"I think we might need to pick something else to make your mom," Stanford admitted, turning off the burner when he heard a knock at the front door. He picked Rori up and set her on his hip when she held her arms out for him before going into the living room and unlocking the front door, opening it up to reveal all of his friends standing on his front porch; most of them still in their pajamas.

Zoey ran into the house and Stanford put Rori down when she started to wiggle, both girls immediately reaching for each other. He watched as they raced into the kitchen and shook his head before returning his attention to the ones standing in front of him.

"Family breakfast," Charlie explained, holding up a grocery bag filled with bottles of juice. "And to make sure that you're really okay after last night. We waited as long as we could, but we got antsy."

Stanford moved to the side, allowing everyone into the house and accepting the hugs that Darcy, Lylah, and Charlie gave him. Ruby put a hand on his arm when he started to follow everyone to the kitchen, making him turn around and face her.

"You've been my son since you were twelve years old. Don't you ever forget that," Ruby said softly, glancing at the bandages on his arm and the fresh Hello Kitty bandaids Rori insisted on. Her eyes welled with tears and Stanford opened his arms, wrapping them tightly around her when she dived into them.

He could feel her tears soaking through the front of his shirt, her face squished against his chest and arms squeezing around his waist.

"You should have told us. James would have taken care of it. I would have taken care of it," Ruby huffed, wiping her face off on his shirt before untangling herself from their hug and heading towards the kitchen.

Stanford shook his head as he watched her walk away, knowing exactly what she meant when she said 'taken care of it'. James would have arrested Shelia on the spot, making her life a living hell before locking her up and throwing away the key. But Ruby would have taken things into her own hands, and there wouldn't have been a pit deep enough for his mother's body when she got done with her. Ruby was a hurricane trapped in the body of a 5'2 woman, and God help anyone who got caught in her destruction.

He made his way into the kitchen, heading straight to the coffee pot and making Logan a cup of coffee. It sounded like a herd of elephants had overrun his house and he knew the sound was going to wake her up if he didn't get in there first, and he knew for a fact that there would be hell to pay if she didn't get caffeine in her system before she realized that other people were around her daughter.