The little boy shrugged. “I was, but I had a bad dream.”
His heart hurt for the little boy. He was sure that Jeremy had probably dreamt about what happened earlier. “Aw, come here, bud.” He stood up and held his arms out. “Want to come snuggle with me upstairs?”
“Can I?” He clutched the bear Willem had given him even harder. “Daddy Will won’t be mad?”
He shook his head. “No. You and your sister are always welcome to come crawl in bed with me and Daddy Will if you have bad dreams.”
He shifted from foot to foot. “Can sissy come too?”
“If she’s awake. We can check before we go up.” Eli agreed, crouching down in front of the little boy. “But if she’s sleeping, we don’t want to wake her. Sisters need their sleep to be annoying, ya know?”
He lifted the boy up onto one hip, clicking off the kitchen light as they walked by the switch.
“Okay.” Jeremy laid his head down on Eli’s shoulder.
A quick stop by Raelynn’s room showed that the girl was indeed sleeping.
“Shhh. She’ll come find us in the morning. She always runs up here first thing.” He assured the boy, remembering how the girl had burst into the room this morning to find it empty as Daddy had just finishing coming down his throat. Quick thinking on Eli’s part had him slipping back into the closet to pretend he’d been grabbing clothes for his shower, while his Daddy recovered in the playroom.
“Yeah.” Jeremy crawled up the bed to Willem’s side to toss off several of the throw pillows onto the floor. “Why do you have so many pillows, Unca?”
Eli shrugged as he tugged down the quilt. The little boy scrambled between the sheets, his teddy bear taking up residence next to Petey. “Daddy Will likes them, I guess.”
“Daddy Will is silly.” The boy yawned widely. “But he’s okay, right? He’s just spending the night with the doctors right?”
“Right.” Eli crawled into bed next to him, after setting his phone on the stand next to the bed. As he settled back against the pillows, he lifted the covers enough that the boy could squirm closer to him. Jeremy rolled over, pressing his butt up against Eli’s hip, his head nestled next to Eli’s on the pillow.
“Unca?”
“Hmmm.” He ran his hand up and down Jeremy’s back.
“You love us, right? You won’t send us away?”
“Of course, I do.” Tears pricked at Eli’s eyes. “And I’ll never send you away.” He tucked the blanket around the boy. “Even though one day when you’re big and grown you’ll be ready to leave, Daddy Will and I will try to refrain from begging you to stay.”
Jeremy huffed. “I don’t wannaeverleave.” He snuggled closer. “I just want Daddy Will home.”
“Me too, bud. Me too.” He shut off the light, letting the darkness hide the tears in his eyes. These poor kids just couldn’t catch a break. Which is why he’d do everything he could to make sure they knew they were loved.
He sighed, closed his eyes, then forced his body to relax. He needed sleep to be on his best game tomorrow. He’d be single parenting at breakfast for the first time since the kids came to live with them. He’d make his Daddy proud.
He was almost asleep when the pitter-patter of little feet reached his ears.
“Uncle Eli?”
It was Raelynn.
“Hey sweetheart.” He turned his head to look at the girl. Her face was backlit by the phone in her hand. He and Will had given her one of Eli’s old phones to listen to music on as well as to talk to her homeschool friends via a special app geared toward kids. There wasn’t a plan on it, but as long as it was connected to the internet, she had access to the outside world. “What’s up.”
“Daddy Will wants to talk to you.” She held out the phone. “I know I shouldn’t have called him but I woke up scared and…”
“It’s okay, snickle fritz. You just wanted to make sure he was okay.” He took the phone from her to see his beloved Daddy’s face on the messenger app. He was reclined in a hospital bed. The light blue gown didn’t do his Daddy justice, but the color had finally returned to his face. “Hey, Daddy. Sorry if she woke you.”
“I wasn’t sleeping. I can’t sleep in places like this,” Willem groused. “Feel like a dam- er dang pincushion.”
“I know.” He gestured to Raelynn, who had been looking longingly at the bed. “Get up here, sweetie. Just don’t wake your brother.”
“K.” She climbed over him, instead of going around the bed, to settle on the other side of her brother. He grunted as her knee found his stomach and he nearly lost his grasp on the phone.
