Ready-Made Family

Chapter Thirteen

"Madison" Brandon called  from the bottom of the stairs. He was officially starting to get  annoyed with having to wait for her. Himself and Noah has long since  been ready and even the girls had just come downstairs dressed and ready  to go. "We are going to be late".

Noah glanced over at his dad from the living room "I hate to break it to you dad but we are already a half hour late".

"Are you serious?"  Brandon grumbled and checked his watch. His son was right; they were  running a lot later than he thought they were. "Madison come on!" he  called "this is getting to be ridiculous".

Madison leaned her head  over the staircase railing; her hair was still up in towel and a  bathrobe around her body. "I am going as fast as I can," she hissed back  at him "if somebody had helped me get the girls dressed I wouldn't be  running so late".

"I said not to bother  giving them a bath" Brandon shot back "if we just got them dressed in  their clothes like I suggested then none of this would have happened".

"If only you had  remember to give them a bath last night like I had asked I wouldn't have  had to do it this morning" Madison countered. She had been over at the  Haywood's last night helping to set up. She had left clear instructions  for Brandon to feed and bathe the girls, but when she came home late she  found them wide-awake still watching a movie. No wonder the girls  didn't want to get out of bed that morning.

Brandon let out another  groan "will you just stop fighting with me and go get ready? We are  making them wait long enough," he said.

Madison grumbled to  herself "dinner isn't until six" and it was still early in the  afternoon. The only thing they were late for was talking with his  grandparents.

She headed back to her  bedroom where she went through her closet unable to decide what to wear.  Both girls were dressed in velvet dresses and tights, Emma in red and  Ella in purple. She had taken the time to even add a large bow as a  headband. But she couldn't find anything right for herself.

She sighed as she tossed  another pair of dress pants onto the bed – nothing seemed to fit her  recently and it was starting to aggravate her. She was finally able to  settle on a navy blue cocktail dress with flowing, elegant sleeves. It  wasn't what Madison had in mind to wear that day but with the extra  weight she put on the loss fitting flowing skirt from the dress covered  her middle.

"Madison" Brandon hissed  walking into the bedroom. She was just now removing her hair from the  towel and using her curling iron. "You can be serious?" he said again.  "We have to go. We are already forty-five minutes late".

"Look" Madison spun in  her chair and pointed her curling iron at him "if I didn't have to  constantly stop to talk to you then I would be getting down a lot  faster. Now if you actually want to help and not just be a pain in my  backside then go to the kitchen and get the pie I made yesterday out of  the fridge".

"Pie?" Brandon asked, his eyes widening a little "you wouldn't mean the apple pie would you?"

"Yes of course" Madison sighed "it's thanksgiving, what other pie would I have?"

"Well..." Brandon  started to say but decided better of it. "Actually you're right. Take  all the time you need, I'll get the pie," he said rushing out the door  and downstairs. "Noah" he hissed at his son low so that Madison wouldn't  hear them talking "we ate the pie".

"What pie?" Noah asked looking up from his game controller.

"The pie we were supposed to take today" Brandon said frantically "we ate it last night".