Here is chapter sixteen I hope you enjoy it, Like always i love to hear what you think and I'll update as soon as possible. As usual I own nothing.
After they left and Jane put the camera away, we did get back to a third room, which we had decided, would be blue. As with the two rooms prior war began the minute the third wall was finished and we really were starting to look like a rainbow of pastel colors. We agreed we had time to get a forth bed room done before going back to start on the second coats of paint in the first two rooms. Which meant we were covered in light green, pink, blue, and yellow by the time we told the girls to go ahead and play with their brother and sister. Jane hung both girls paint shirts up on doorknobs to avoid getting paint on their dolls, and then he joined me in the first room.
"Would it bother you if I took off my t-shirt?" He asked after a couple of minutes.
"I guess not." I frowned, glancing at him out the corner of my eyes.
"It's starting to get heavy with all the paint drying on it." He explained hanging it on the door knob and it took all my focus to not stare at him, he broke his promise again, and just this morning I had announced we were just coworkers.
"That's probably my fault." I answered, "I told the girls to gang up on you in the last room."
"I didn't mind," He chuckled, "I missed having little kids to make a mess with." I turned to watch him, but he didn't look away from his work. "Angela used to hate it, Charlie and I would make impossible messes in the kitchen trying to make 'the worlds best dinners', or in the living room when she was making a collage for school getting glue and paint every where."
"That sounds like fun." I didn't really know what else to say.
"It was, Angela used to say I was more of a kid than Charlie was sometimes when it came to making messes." He stopped what he was doing but only for a second.
"I can't say I disagree." I stated, and he just chuckled. "You know I like hearing your stories." I whispered. "I'm happy that you're starting to trust me more."
"It was never a matter of trust." Jane turned to face me, "At least not trust in you, I didn't trust myself to share things. I was afraid I would break down again, but with him gone and the kids around it's starting to get easier. I don't ever want you to think it was because I didn't trust you."
I didn't know what to say so we just kind of stood there in silence until we both turned back to painting. It didn't take us long to finish the room, but we still had to get all the tape up and fold up the tarp that was covered with splattered paint from earlier. It was easy work and we were on to the second room before we knew it, I had to go check on the kids before we started because the baby monitor had gotten quiet. In the end all three girls had fallen asleep and William was playing with his cars and eating cheerio's that I had to assume one of the girls had gotten out for him.
"Everything okay?" Jane asked handing me the roller.
"Their asleep." I smiled.
"They've been working hard." He mirrored my smile.
"They looked so sweet laying there." I sighed starting on the nearest wall, while Jane started the opposite one.
"They're sweet kids." Jane stated.
"Jane?" I frowned after a little bit of comfortable silence.
"Yes." He looked at me over his shoulder.
"Do you think William will remember his parents at all?" I worried.
"I don't know, I want to say he will, but I don't know." He shook his head.
"Cassandra will never know them." My eyes started to water.
"You just have to make sure she knows of them." Jane tried, putting his brush down and pulling me close again. Great he was still shirtless, but I couldn't pull away. "You have to tell her about how amazing her parents were and how much they loved her. I'm positive Emily and Alyssa will help."
"I know." I sighed, "What was it like not knowing your mom?" I pulled away just enough to see his face.
"Well that's a completely different circumstance." Jane frowned, looking down at me, "As far as I know my mom chose to leave, their mom didn't have a choice."
"But what was it like not knowing her?" I wondered.
"As a kid I made up stories about her and how one day she would come back and save me from my dad." He started, "When I finally got up the courage to ask my dad about her I was nine, my dad just said she was a whore and we were better off without her. After that I didn't ask anymore. A lot of the kids that lived at the carnival only had one parent if any, so after a while it just didn't seem to matter."
"That's horrible." I tried looking into his eyes, he didn't look sad at all, which actually made it worse.
"I had to deal with worse things growing up where I did, besides I've always held the belief it's harder to miss something you never had." He shrugged, stepping backwards, "We better get this room done so we can get to the sporting goods store before it gets to late."
I nodded and looked at my phone it was barely three, a whole hour before he had said we'd be done, but I figured now wasn't a good time to point it out, after he had shared part of his childhood with me. It took us maybe fifteen minutes to finish up the second coat, and then another five to clean up the tape and the tarp. I let Jane carry it down to the garage, meanwhile I went to pack up the kids toys with William's help of course. Jane walked in about five minutes later with his shirt back on, he really did look ridiculous with pink hair, I wondered how many times I had thought that already today.
I lifted Cass out of her rocker before folding it up with my free hand, meanwhile Jane had decided tickling would be the easiest way to wake up the girls. "Hey." Emily giggled squirming away from Jane's fingers.
"Stop it." Alyssa squealed.
"That's for my hair." He laughed helping them to their feet and grabbing the diaper bag. "So one more stop and then back to the apartment." He smiled leading the way to the stairs, while the girls grabbed their painting shirts.
"You mean you don't want to run to the grocery store?" I laughed.
"That is entirely up to you and how many people you want to see us in public together darling." He smiled taking William's hand to help him down the stairs.
"Do we have something at home that you can make?" I frowned, "You were the one worrying about it last night."
"Oh yeah we have something for at least one more dinner," He nodded, "I will suggest going to the grocery store tomorrow either while or after the girls practice."
"Okay so can we agree to not paint hair tomorrow?" I asked the girls, who hesitantly agreed.
Once we arrived at the soccer store we were immediately greeted by suspicious glances and poorly covered laughter, but Jane took it in stride wrapping his arm around my waist no matter how many times I tried to pull away. Two pairs of cleats for five year olds cost thirty dollars each and looking at the prices of the adult sizes I prayed they didn't continue to play into high school, there were a single pair of cleats that cost a hundred dollars. Shin guards were just as expensive as the cleats but the price didn't appear to go up as steeply as they grew. Socks were six dollars and somehow the girls talked me into three pairs each. Then they wanted the special soccer shorts, which looked just like normal shorts to me, but what did I know about soccer. After that it was t-shirts to practice in because they didn't want to get any of their shirts at home dirty. Of course Jane was no help, he was helping them pick out all of these things. I suppose in the end it was a miracle I got out of there spending slightly less than two hundred dollars.
"No playing with the soccer balls in the apartment." I warned grabbing their knew soccer equipment while Jane grabbed Cass and her rocker to bring into the apartment. "Is that understood?"
"Yeah." They pouted.
"And I think bath time is coming before dinner tonight, at least for those of us who painted." I instructed, "I'm going to go put our clothes in the wash immediately hopefully that will get most of the paint out."
"No I like my paint shirt." Alyssa frowned, "I don't want it cleaned."
"Me either." Emily agreed, "It looks pretty."
"Alright, Jane you can go ahead and shower first try and get all of that out of your hair, just leave your clothes in my room and I'll run it down with mine." I sighed.
"Whatever you say boss." He smiled handing me Cass and heading for the bathroom.
"As soon as I get a load of laundry started you two are getting in the bath tub." I ordered, leading the kids to the bathroom, "So start getting ready."
"Do we get to take a bath together again?" Alyssa wondered.
"I suppose so if you want to." I shrugged, lying Cass down in her crib, so I could set up her rocker. Once that was taken care of I wandered into the bedroom and put on some sweats and a clean shirt grabbed Jane's paint covered clothes and rushed them down to the laundry room.
Back upstairs I moved Cass's rocker to right outside the bathroom gave William instructions to stay right there and play while I repeatedly rinsed and shampooed the girls hair until it was paint free. It took three times for each girl I could only imagine how many times it was going to take Jane.
"Can we have more paint wars tomorrow?" Alyssa asked while I scrubbed paint off of her legs.
"You want to have to do this all over again tomorrow?" I asked, turning to start scrubbing the paint off of Emily's legs.
"The painting was fun." Alyssa insisted.
"Yeah but you won't be able to clean the paint off until after your first soccer practice." I reminded.
"So?" Emily shrugged.
"You know what we might be able to but we have to lay ground rules." I laughed at the automatic grins my answer got.
"Rule number one, avoid the head, no paint in the hair." I instructed, "I had to use half the bottle of shampoo to get it out of your hair."
"Right no hair." Emily nodded.
"I'll tell you the other rules when I think of them." I just shook my head.
"Okay." Alyssa smiled.
"Alright all clean, one at a time." I instructed reaching for the nearest towel to help them dry off. "Go put your pajamas on."
"My turn." William looked up from his toys when I walked out of the bathroom.
"Not until after dinner I'm afraid," I bent down to help him clean up his toys. "I thought you didn't like baths anyway." He just smiled and ran his toys back to his room so I was left to grab Cass and her rocker.
"The floor on your shower might be permanently pink." Jane announced walking into the living room.
"Well at least your hair's back to normal." I smiled, "Besides it's not like we'll be here much longer."
"I hope they don't consider that damages." Jane chuckled, taking Cass and the rocker from me, "Your turn go take a shower, I'll start dinner."
"Oh shoot, my contract, I think I still have a couple months on it." The mention of damages reminded me that I would probably still be paying for the apartment even after I moved into the house.
"How much is the fee to end it early?" Jane questioned.
"You're not paying for that to." I stated, "The house is paid for so it won't be horrible to pay for this for another couple months."
"I was just wondering if it would make more sense to pay the fee or the couple months." Jane held his hands up in surrender. "I learned my lesson don't buy you things."
"I don't know I'll look into it." I shrugged.
"Go take a shower." Jane instructed, and I just nodded and made my way to the bathroom. Jane was right the floor of my shower was pink and it remained pink all through my shower despite my efforts to scrub it off. After my shower I hurried and put my sweats back on then ran down to the laundry room to put our cloths in the dryer. The paint wasn't gone but they definitely looked better than before. The minute I stepped back into my apartment I could smell whatever Jane was cooking for dinner and it smelt amazing, and I realized I was starving.
"So you did magic tricks for a living?" Alyssa asked as I walked into the kitchen, Cass in her high chair and the other three sitting at the table watching Jane cook.
"Not quite, but kind of." Jane grinned when I took a seat with the kids at the table.
"What do you mean kind of?" Emily wondered.
"I read minds." Jane smiled, mixing whatever was in the frying pan.
"Cool, like a superpower." Alyssa exclaimed.
"I wouldn't say a superpower." Jane chuckled, "It took me a little while to learn, and then even longer to perfect."
"We want superpowers, can you teach us to read minds?" Emily questioned, watching Jane get out the plates.
"You want to learn how to read minds?" Jane turned around and set the plates down.
"Yeah." Alyssa nodded, "Teach us."
"It takes a lot of work." I interrupted, causing Jane to smirk.
"You can read minds to?" Emily frowned.
"No, but I've been trying to learn from watching Patrick." I answered avoiding Jane's eyes.
"It would be a lot easier to learn if you asked for help." He chuckled going back to fixing dinner. "Cheese or no cheese with dinner?" he asked over his shoulder.
"Cheese!" All three kids decided, watching Jane pull it and the milk out of the fridge.
"Teresa how about you?" He smiled, reaching for some hamburger buns.
"What are we having?" I frowned I still couldn't see what was in the frying pan.
"Sloppy Joes." Jane smiled serving the kids one plate at a time. "So cheese or no cheese?"
"Cheese is fine." I sighed leave it to Jane the one day they take baths before dinner give them something with sloppy in the name.
"We had the hamburger meat and making plain hamburgers just seemed to boring." Jane smiled handing me my plate.
"Yes sloppy after a bath sounds like a good idea." I voiced my concern.
"Girls you promise not to make a mess." Jane turned to the twins and grabbed a handful of paper towels sticking one on their lap and the other in their shirt. "Problem solved."
"Yeah we'll see." I rolled my eyes, "So what are we doing tomorrow as far as painting, because I would like to have clean clothes to wear to the parents meeting."
"That's fine, we can do the small rooms." Jane shrugged, "put the second coat on the two bedrooms, then paint the bathrooms, and the laundry room, maybe the fifth bedroom, we'll leave the master bedroom for another day."
"Jane did you paint your house?" I frowned.
"Not the whole thing, some of the rooms." He nodded.
"So you actually know what you're doing right, you're not just making this up as you go." I questioned.
"I do have a general sense of what I'm doing." He chuckled, when dinner was over Jane did dishes and I took William and Cass in to take their bathes while Alyssa and Emily sat in the living room with a coloring book.
"Teresa when do we get our own beds?" Alyssa looked up from her picture.
"I hope next week sometime." I sighed, helping a very wet William from the tub and into his pajamas.
"You promise?" Emily closed her coloring book.
"I promise, I'll get off work as soon as I can one day and we'll go furniture shopping." I nodded, helping the three of them into bed.
"You have to go to work, does Patrick to?" Alyssa frowned crawling under the covers next to her brother.
"We're trying to figure things out." I answered, "Patrick might be able to stay with you during the week."
"You three ready for a story?" Jane smiled from the doorway with a book in his hand.
"Uh huh." The three of them nodded.
"Good because Teresa's going to read it tonight." He grinned handing me the book.
"What?" I frowned, Jane always read the bedtime story.
"You said it yourself we aren't going to be living together forever." Jane shrugged leaning against the doorframe, "Don't mind me, I'm just going to stand here and supervise."
The kids were asleep before the book was finished so I tucked them in and kissed their foreheads and then watched as Jane did the same before following him out to the living room. "What was that about?" I worried, he just started folding moving boxes.
"Well once you move into the house and go back to work and get the kids settled in at school you won't want me around." He shrugged pushing one of the boxes toward me so I could start boxing up things.
"What?" I moved around the living room sticking pictures into the box, I really didn't have much in the apartment. "Where did this come from?"
"You're not going to want to give any support to all of the rumors at work, so I was going to make it easier." He kept folding boxes.
"Is this because I choked when the guys told us the rumor about us getting married?" I sighed, "Because I was kidding I'm sure it wouldn't be horrible to be married to you, but you're my best friend." That seemed like a good enough answer, it was honest without saying the whole truth, God I spent too much time with Jane. He didn't say anything, "I choked because I wasn't expecting it, and it would be a horrible time to get married."
"I know Lisbon." He sighed, "And I knew you were kidding."
"Well then what's wrong?" I put my box down and came to sit next to him. "Don't lie, remember we were going to try this being open with each other thing."
"I have been incredibly open with you lately." He stated leaning against the wall so I leaned back to. Was this about his family? He had shared a lot these past two days. Was this starting to get to be to much for him?
"You want to go to bed?" I looked up at him.
"Am I still banished to the couch?" He gave me his sad smile.
"It would be more appropriate I mean we are co workers." I breathed, "But come one there's room in my bed for you."