Generation (Malignant Epilogue Series)

Barbecue

barbecue dad Harry vibes^

Briar-8 Grey/Atti-6 Mariah-3

"Okay baby this is your job alright? I need you to go around and ask everyone if they want a hot dog or a hamburger and how many. You think you got that?" I lean down and hand Briar the little notepad and pencil, she smiled brightly.

"Okay!" She squeaked by feeling like she was helping. She ran off through the backyard to ask everyone here what they wanted.

I took on the role of barbecue dad, and honestly I'm so good at it. Barbecuing is fun and I understand why dads do it. There's something so manly about a grill that has fire shooting out if it.

The kids ran around the backyard while Amelia and Audrey where in the kitchen having too many cocktails while making the sides. Niall and Liam sat a few steps behind me on the deck. I stood with my hat on backwards and a beer in my left hand.

"Barbecuing is so fun." I said to the two guys sitting not far behind me.

"Stop saying that you sound like such an old man." I heard Niall say.

"I am old." I chuckle.

"You're thirty two." Liam says.

"And I have four kids." I turn my head back to look at them. They both sat in muskoka chairs, Liam with a beer in his hand and Niall with his three year old sitting on his lap- Lacie.

"Well I'm glad you have a new hobby." Liam shrugs.

"Yeah, anything's better then murder." Niall winks while pointing at me, making me roll my eyes and turn back to the grill.

"I hate it when you say that."

"I know that's what makes it funny." He cackles in that Irish tone.

Niall says that a lot because everyone in public thinks it's just a funny expression he states as a metaphor. But we know he's being serious when he says that because we all used to murder people for a living. It drives me nuts, he says it around my bloody kids.

I place my hand behind my head in his direction and give him the middle finger before Briar ran up to me with the notepad.

"Daddy daddy I got it!" The eight year old jumped in her yellow dress.

"Perfect, what does it say?" I ask.

"Atti wants 1 hot dog, Mariah wants 1 hot dog, Grey wants 33 hot dogs, Will w-"

"Wait wait. Did you say 33?" I stop her.

"Yeah." She nodded, not seeing the problem with that.

"Grey can't eat 33 hot dogs babe." I chuckle.

"Well that's what he said." She shrugs her shoulders.

"He's being silly." I turn my head to the lawn to where Grey was wrestling with Will on the grass, Atticus watching by a distant tree.

"Grey!" I shout so he'll hear me. He turns his head and immediately smiles, knowing exactly why I yelled his name. "How many hot dogs for real do you want?"

"33!" He giggles, still not taking me seriously.

"Okay then I guess none for you then."

"2! 2!" He corrects himself immediately.

I chuckle and shake my head.

"And stay away from the pool, all of you!" I shout so they all hear me, earning variant nods. I turn back to Briar who was still standing there next to me.