Page 7 of Timeless

“So, we can stay?” Troy questioned.

“The only reason I wanted you to leave just invited you to watch a documentary.” I flicked on the hall lights. “Hope you boys are ready to be bored to death.”

They were following me and we walked into the living room. Jack had turned on every single light.

“Seriously, Jack, how many times do we have to talk about power?” I said to him as he searched for the TV remote. I flicked the lights above the kitchen island off.

“The things on the roof pay for it, Mom,” Jack threw me his usual line about the solar power.

“Is the sun out at four in the morning, Jack?”

“Found it!” Jack pulled the remote out from between the couch and looked at the boys. “Mom always loses it.”

“I do not!”

“Do, too!”

There was no point even having this argument with him. The boys were smiling at me. “I don’t lose it!” I said in my defense.

“Sure, you don’t, Amber.” Tyler smirked.

“Just like she was never the one to empty the last of the motor oil,” Cole added.

I pointed a finger at him. “You know for a fact our bikes ran on different oils!”

“You had four bikes, Amber. And three of them ran on my oil.” Cole sat down on the couch.

Well, I couldn’t lie. He was right. I pursed my lips.

“So, what’s this show about?” Tyler said, sitting down next to Jack, who had already thrown himself in the beanbag.

“It’s a documentary,” Jack corrected him, knowing very well the difference between a documentary and a show. A show was theNinja Turtles, in Jack’s eyes. He knew documentary meant it was based on facts.

He was very clever. I don’t know who he got that from. I was starting to think he had been gifted with a clever mind and God had given it to him to test me.

“So, what’s this documentary about?” Tyler rephrased his question.

“You!” Jack said with utter delight.

“Us?” Troy looked at me, rather amused. “Home videos, Amber?” He was still looking way too amused as he sat in a recliner.

“It’s a documentary on Satan’s Sons,” I informed the room. “And Jack is obsessed with it.”

I sat down next to Cole. This was not what I thought I would be doing at four in the morning.

“And you let him watch it?” Cole looked at me slightly stunned.

“My dad’s a member,” Jack sang out from his beanbag. “And you are my uncles.”

My mouth dropped open.

“How do you do know that?” Troy asked, rather impressed Jack had put it together so quickly.

“I have a picture,” Jack said proudly.

A picture he’d stolen! He even put the empty frame back! “Jack, you said you didn’t take that picture.” I knew he did. So much for his story of never touching it.

He remained quiet, which was something a five-year-old never did. Unless he was up to something, or being caught out in a lie.

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