We’d all nodded sagely. When those three got together to ‘fix’ something, it usually ended up being worse than a drunken sailor/truck driver convention. Every other word out of their mouths was fuck, shit, damn, or asshole. And that’s just when they first get there. I’d walked in with Leah one morning for Sunday breakfast and they were taking apart a lawn mower…let’s just say the air was blue, my ears were burning, and I learned new words that day.
Then we laughed when it hit us, after which we’d crowded around the window to see Luke dragging the plastic pool into the yard from the garage. We hadn’t budged, either, when Brandon had come in the back door near where we were all peeking out the window to get tomato juice from the massive stash of cans in the laundry room.
Emma had started stocking up on it when Doug had decided to become best friends with the skunk in the woods. It was kind of a one-sided relationship; Doug loved the skunk, the skunk hated Doug. And let him know it by spraying him at least once a week. Still.
Luke had tried everything to get rid of the thing, but to no avail. I guess running from the woods gagging about a half dozen times cured him of his ability to try; well, that and Emma laughing her ass off at him each time it happened.
Brandon had shaken his head at us, smirked, loaded down a laundry basket with about a dozen and a half of the large cans of tomato juice, grabbed the can opener, and walked back outside without saying a word. We’d found out, by watching out of the window, of course, that it wasn’t just Doug that got sprayed this time.
Nope. This time, DJ had gotten it, too. We weren’t too sure how Grady had managed to avoid it, but no way were any of us going outside to ask. Hayden had tried but Jenna had told her no. In fact, I think her words were, “if you want to go outside and smell like a stinky skunk butt, then go ahead. But you’ll have take a tomato juice bath outside just like the dogs.” She’d quickly lost interest then and had gone back to coloring.
“Oh, shit!” Emma shrieked, then laughed uncontrollably (and we did, too) as we all watched Luke make a dive for DJ, who’d managed to get the front half of his body out of the pool, and miss, therefore belly flopping in the middle of the juice-filled pool. Which then, since he was kneeling on the other side of the pool dousing Doug with tomato juice, soaked Brandon with a tidal wave of juice, causing him to let go of Doug.
What ensued after could only be described as gut-wrenchingly hilarious; Luke and Brandon tried to wrangle the dogs back into the pool, rinse them off with the tomato juice, and then wash them with shampoo, while Jackson stood off to the side shouting directions. It ended with Luke, Brandon, and Jacks all dripping wet, their clothes stained red with tomato juice, and covered in suds. I say AND Jacks because Luke and Brandon got tired of him laughing, chased him down, and wrestled him into the juice pool.
And all the while, Grady was sitting in the shade a few feet away, watching everything with a grin on his little doggy lips.
When everything was cleaned up, including the guys (thankfully Brandon still had a few clothes at Emma and Luke’s), they talked us into merging girls’ day with guys’ day. Of course, we were pretty sure it was just so they could chow down on our munchies and didn’t have to fend for themselves.
After they cleaned us out of pretty much everything we’d made, except for special sundae makings, we all sat talking in the living room for a while, passing babies around and petting dogs that would come up for random loving. That’s when the 4th of July party finally got mentioned.
My brother nodded immediately, as soon as Leah brought it up. “Hell yeah!” he said. “I’ve got dibs on fireworks!”
Brandon and Luke both scowled at him. “No, fuck no, you don’t,” Luke hollered. “The last time you picked out the fireworks, you came home with pansy ass smoke bombs and sparklers.”
“Hey!” Emma cried. “What’s wrong with sparklers? I love sparklers!”
Luke turned to her, his face softening. “I know, sugar, and there’s nothing wrong with sparklers.” He turned his head and glanced at Jackson out of the corner of his eye. “If you’re a girl.”