30
Simon
Far too early on a Monday morning, Simon staggered into the kitchen to find Harlow seated at the kitchen table, Parker sleeping in his arms. Simon grabbed the doorway and blinked hard to do away with the hallucination, only to find it was still there when he opened his eyes.
“Good morning,” Harlow said. “Parker and I were having a chat, but it looks like he got bored. Not sure I blame him—compared to his uncle, I’m not all that interesting.”
Heat crept through Simon’s cheeks. He blinked again, certain that he had to be dreaming.
“Jayne… Jayne left for work?” Simon asked. He approached the table cautiously, then took Parker from Harlow. Once Parker was with Simon, Harlow stretched his arms over his head and yawned.
“Yep.”
“He left you with Parker?” Simon asked uncertainly. Jayne didn’t trust anyone with his baby, and after what had happened with Bastian, Simon didn’t blame him.
“Yep.”
“And he… he cleaned the kitchen?” The counter had been cleared of clutter and wiped down. There weren’t even any hard-to-reach crumbs stuck to the back corner where the counter met the wall.
“Nope.” Harlow arched his back to finish his stretch, then brought his arms down and rested his elbows on the table. “Parker told me that it was a good idea to tidy up after his dad, so I did. It didn’t take too long. We tag-teamed the work.”
Simon looked between the counter and Harlow, unsure of what to say. No one had ever been so thoughtful as to clean the kitchen for him before.
“And you know, I thought that maybe if I got up early enough, we might—”
“Morning,” Evie said with a yawn, cutting Harlow off. She rubbed her eyes, then made her way to the counter nearest the sink and took up space against it. “Ugh, it’s so early. Why does school have to start so early?”
“You’re going to school?” Simon felt like he’d missed an important conversation. The last he’d heard, keeping Evie’s existence a secret was their top concern. He looked at Evie, seeking answers, only to see her yawn widely and pluck at her shirt. She wore a simple gray tee and a pair of camo sleep shorts that dwarfed her slender legs.
“No, but Shep is.” Evie rolled her eyes. “He woke me up texting me this morning like the douche-nozzle he is, then hopped in the shower before I even had a chance to use the bathroom. How do you guys even survive with one bathroom split between three people? Like, what do you do if you wake up in the morning and you really,reallyneed to pee, but someone’s already in there?”
“You hold it?” Simon suggested.
“Or you make sure you’ve got an empty Gatorade bottle in your room you can use instead,” Shep said as he entered the kitchen, hair dripping. He cut straight for the toaster.
Evie wrinkled her nose. “Gross!”
“I mean,” Shep tugged a few pieces of bread from the loaf, maneuvering them out of the plastic bag they were contained within, “it’d probably be a little harder for you, since you’re a girl, and all.”
“Shep?” Harlow asked politely.
“Yeah?”
“You should probably cut your losses now.”
Shep dropped the bread into the toaster, lowered the lever, then leaned against the counter while he waited for it to brown. “Too far?”
“Too far,” Evie confirmed. “Are you done with the bathroom now? AKA: can I use it?”
“Yeah.”
“Great. I’ll be right back.” Evie smiled at him, then left the room.
“So.” Shep drummed his fingers on the underside of the counter, continuing to lean against it while he waited for his toast. “I heard you guys were up late last night.”
Fear struck Simon, and his heart dropped like a stone. Tongue-tied, he stared at Shep, scrambling to pull together an excuse. Last night he’d tried his hardest to be quiet, but he knew that they’d still made noise. If Shep had heard, if Shep knew…
Shep cleared his throat. “You know, you don’t have to take shifts or whatever to make sure Evie and I stay in separate rooms. I get it—you don’t want us sleeping together. That’s fine. I’m not gonna go sneaking around behind your backs to do it. So feel free to get some sleep, okay?”
