Page 54 of A Hero Comes Home

Then, with sheer upper body strength and a lot of pain, he propelled himself up one step at a time, backward. When he got to the top, the kids followed after him, ten times faster and with way more ease.

“Can we do it again?” Luke wanted to know.

“Maybe tomorrow.”

After showers and tooth brushing and gargling that left the bathroom in a godawful mess which he would have to clean later, Jake led the kids into the master bedroom with his queen-size bed which should hold them all, unlike the kids’ rooms with twin or bunk beds. Jake hadn’t been up here in more than three years and was surprised to see the bedroom he’d shared with Sally looking almost the same, right down to the blue-and-white star quilt his mother had given them for a wedding present. Sheer white curtains hung at the windows, which were open to the slight evening breeze. The furniture was an old tiger maple set passed down from his grandparents, a golden color that had mellowed over the years. It was a pleasant room with mostly good memories.

Dressed in only underpants, in deference to the heat, identical white briefs, the trio hopped on the bed like rambunctious puppies and cuddled up next to him in the center. Each had been told they could bring a favorite book. They started with Luke’s shyly offered Sneetches, which Jake read twice, at their urging. Mark’s pick was one of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, this one titled Dog Days, which of course prompted the three of them to beg him to get them a pet dog . . . or else a horse. Finally, a somewhat embarrassed Matt handed him Charlotte’s Web, probably fearing his choice was too childish for an eight-year-old.

“Hey, bud, how did you know this was one of my faves? Ya gotta love that Wilbur.”

Which prompted them to ask for a pet pig, in addition to a dog and a horse.

Matt smiled at him and cuddled closer.

The phone rang out in the hall—the landline that they kept because of the occasional weak mobile signals, especially during storms on the Outer Banks—and Matt jumped up to go answer it. “It’s Mom. She always calls to make sure we’re in bed.”

Jake could hear half of the conversation from the bedroom, where the other two imps moved in, filling Matt’s space.

“Yeah, yeah, Mom, we did all that. And Dad read us three stories. Well, not three whole books. He said Charlotte’s Web was too long to read all in one night.”

“Uh-huh, Dad came upstairs with us.

“The butt game. That’s how.

“We’re reading in your bed.

“Okay, I’ll tell him.” Banging the phone down, Matt raced back in and made a flying dive for the bed, barely missing Jake’s bad leg which was extended and vulnerable. “Mom said to make sure you lock the doors. She’ll be late. One of the ovens broke, and she’s waiting for the appliance repairman.”

Jake didn’t like the idea of Sally being alone in her shop this late at night with some strange repair guy. Yeah, it was Bell Cove, but you never knew. And the things Jake had seen around the world made him super cautious. Still, she would not like him showing up at her shop like a Clueless Knight with a Limp, waving a cane, instead of a spear.

So, he waited. And then the kids asked him to tell them a real story about something that happened to him.

“Well, I’m not saying this really happened,” he began and proceeded to spin a wild yarn about a man who lived in a cave for years and years and became friends with the spiders, one of whom was coincidentally named Charlotte, and the bats, one of whom was named Wimpy.

Jake hadn’t intended to let the kids sleep here, but they lay waiting for Sally to return, talking softly about the books they’d read, including his fantastical tale, about their summer activities, what they wanted to do the next week and next month. On and on. Jake really didn’t need to speak. They did all the talking, sometimes talking over each other.

And, really, Jake was just enjoying the coziness—at some point, he’d pulled the quilt up over them all—and the closeness of warm live bodies—he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed that human touch—and the smell of newly bathed little boys, except for Luke who must have used a half bottle of pine-scented body wash and smelled like a Christmas tree.

Gradually, of course, feeling a bit like the Big Bad (Clueless) Bear and its three cubs, they all fell asleep. What would Goldilocks make of them?

Chapter 11

Pillow talk is the most revealing . . .

It was eleven o’clock before Sally got home, having spent two hours and eight hundred dollars with an appliance repairman who had a bad case of BO. At least she’d been able to make a half-dozen extra loaves of artisan bread while she waited, including an experimental ginger-peach country loaf with a crème fraîche glaze and pecan crackles.

She took idle notice as she pulled into the driveway behind Jake’s truck that there were lights on all over the house, upstairs and down, but she couldn’t be mad about that. Same went for the back door being unlocked. According to her phone conversation with Matt, his father had experienced quite a painful time getting up the stairs on his butt. He probably wasn’t too anxious to rush back down to turn off the lights.

The kitchen was surprisingly spotless. Even the floor had been mopped. Jake’s visible form of apology, she supposed.

When her stomach growled suddenly, she realized that she was starving, not having eaten since lunch, and was pleased to see that the doggie bag from The Bay Shack was in the fridge. She warmed the soft crab sandwich and the curly fries in the oven and poured herself a glass of sweet tea. After she ate, she turned out the lights, except for a lamp in the living room, which Jake would need when he came down to sleep on the couch. Or maybe she would need it if Jake was in her bed. Only then did she tiredly make her way up the stairs.

She almost tried going up on her butt, just to see how it felt, and grinned at the embarrassing prospect of being caught in the act. Maybe tomorrow.

The bathroom was a mess of wet towels and globs of toothpaste in the sink and spit spatters on the mirror. Well, at least the boys hadn’t crawled into their beds dirty, which was what they were inclined to do when not supervised.

She was too tired to clean up tonight, but she did brush her teeth. With a wide yawn, she entered her bedroom and stopped with a gasp. She’d fully expected to find Jake there, and he was. But she hadn’t expected to see the three boys there, as well.