She's The Boss

11. This Was Your Idea?

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Wolverine jumped as the fire blazed up.

"Chef Larson, are you teaching him to flambé or flamethrow?" Joanne looked up from her phone and at the mess at the other side of the counter, Xander trying to put the fire out with a dishcloth while Hardin got hold of the extinguisher.

"It's my first time!" Xander whined.

"Honey, it could be your hundredth time and I could swear that you would still be this bad!" Joanne chuckled as she went back to scrolling through reels.

It was Saturday, almost a whole week since she woke up from her coma. She was supposed to meet her grandfather and birth parents today. She was not in the best of moods due to this appointment but she knew she needed to get it over with so that she could go ahead with the plans that she had been carefully laying out since the moment she woke up.

"You are mean." Xander stuck his tongue out at her and it immediately took her by surprise. Those antics were her specialty. He had no business adapting them into his own personality and becoming extremely adorable by doing so.

Joanne looked at her almost four-year-old Great Dane and grinned. "It looks like it's been a while since you took a bath, Old Man."

"I gave him a bath last Sunday," Xander informed her while fussing around the kitchen looking for who knows what while Hardin, as usual, stood at a corner massaging his temples.

"More the merrier!" Joanne clapped as she hopped off the couch and made a sprint for the back door.

Xander knew exactly what that meant. He chucked the dishcloth he was holding and ran in her direction, the cloth landing on Hardin's face.

The chef sighed. "I do not get paid enough for this."

"Jo, no!" Xander covered himself the best he could from the jet of water she aimed at him. "You need a bath too, Xandy. You smell like smoked salmon! Not the delicious kind!"

"This is so childish, baby. Stop!" He tried to get his hands on his wife but Wolverine was getting in his way. Forget the fact that Xander catered to every single one of Wolverine's needs the past three months. As soon as his mother was back, Wolverine was back to team Joanne and not giving Xander the time of his day.

"Joanne, what are you doing?" Rubina caught the commotion downstairs from the balcony. "You will get sick, sweetheart!"

"I wouldn't if Xander does not try to spray me with water!" Joanne laughed as she yelled back. "You don't want me sick, now do you Xandy?"

"Hey, that's unfair! I am at a disadvantage here!"

"All's fair in war and love. And this is war."

"And this is war."

They finished in unison.

Rubina spent twenty minutes yelling at the overgrown children as they ran around, Xander trying to move closer to the tap only to have Joanne chase him away from there before he finally succeeded in turning the water outlet off.

"Very funny, Jo." He rolled his eyes at his cackling wife as he squeezed the water out of the hem of his tee.

"It is a little funny." She pinched her fingers together, her grin ever present.

Xander wanted to laugh with her but he thought it would take the fun out of whatever Joanne was trying to do so he was willing to pretend to be annoyed by her antics if it gave her the satisfaction.