Page 9 of Kissing the Debutant
He nodded and let her give her final instructions to his siblings.
Once the door shut behind her, Jack turned to Alexis and Wyatt. “All right, report. Wyatt, you first. Homework?”
Wyatt straightened and lifted a hand in salute. He loved their nighttime routine.
“Lexi?”
She giggled and gave a weird half salute thing.
He clasped his hands behind his back and surveyed them like a drill sergeant. “All right, soldiers. Homework is done, and I will choose to believe you. Now, onto our next task.” He leaned in and dropped his voice like it was a big secret. “Brush. Those. Teeth.”
Both kids snapped off another salute before scrambling toward the bathroom, elbowing each other out of the way.
Alexis stepped onto her stool, and Wyatt tried to push her off.
Jack let out a fake growl. “No monkey business, soldiers. We have an enemy to defeat. And who is that enemy?”
Wyatt only shrugged, but Alexis giggled. “The enemy is sleep.”
“No, the enemy is lack of sleep.” Particularly his. “Come on soldiers.”
They sped up their teeth brushing before spitting in the sink and rinsing it.
“Go. Go. Go.” Jack waved them from the bathroom like he was ushering them through a boot camp obstacle course. Instead of running through tires next, they had to get into their pajamas as fast as they could.
“In bed, in bed!”
They jumped into their respective beds across the room from each other and burrowed under their blankets.
Jack surveyed the room. “Well done, soldiers. Now, for your reward.”
“A story!” Alexia yelled.
Wyatt’s eyes lit with excitement.
As much as Jack envied his friends who could do whatever they wanted, hang out in the evenings or play video games, he wouldn’t have given this up for anything. He flipped off the light before taking an extra pillow from Alexis’ bed and lowering himself to the center of the room between the two beds. He leaned back and closed his eyes as he tried to think of a story.
Each night he put them to sleep, they demanded a new and fresh story straight from his imagination. And he gave it to them, because he couldn’t deny them anything.
“There was once a knight named Alexis of the kingdom of Butler. And she was sworn to the princess, Wyatt.”
“Hey!” Wyatt leaned over the edge of his bed. “Boys can’t be princesses.”
Jack held in a laugh. “Wy, you can be whatever you choose.”
“Okay, then, I don’t want to be a princess. I’m a queen.”
“Sure thing, kiddo. So, Alexis the knight worked for Queen Wyatt.” He lost himself in a story of dragons and knights until Alexis crawled from her bed to snuggle against him on the ground. It didn’t take long for Wyatt to make his way down, and Jack let his voice lull them into the safety of sleep.
Once the story was over and their breath evened out, he lay there a while longer, letting the kids wash away the stress of the day. School wasn’t easy for him. He struggled just to maintain a B average, in part, because he rarely had time to study.
He definitely hadn’t needed some girl telling him he couldn’t possibly know dance because he was just a janitor. He knew his place in this town. As the son of people who were barely making it, he’d grow up to barely make it himself. There was no way out of that cycle for someone like him.
But he wasn’t always looking for a way out. Sure, their family didn’t have much. Many meals consisted of hot dogs and beans or mac and cheese. Yet, none of them had ever minded because they had each other. His parents did their best, and his siblings gave him something to fight for.
He wanted things to be better for them.
He didn’t know how long he rested under their weight before shifting them off him and getting to his feet. He scooped Wyatt up, and the kid didn’t make a sound as Jack put him in his bed and covered him with blankets.
