Saturday, 14th October 2022
Jamie slipped from bed, leaving Roy asleep and snoring quietly behind him. He changed in the empty bedroom next to theirs…the one Phoebe had declared the spare room because she wanted the other with the view of the tree in the front yard and a window seat. Jamie spent time stretching and then bounced down the stairs. He went into the kitchen and froze; the laundry door was mostly closed but he could hear murmuring. He nudged the door open as he was shaking his protein powder into water.
Phoebe looked up at him with wide eyes.
"It's 4am," Jamie said.
"I just came to check on Cruyff," Phoebe said.
Jamie shook his head. "You need to go back to bed."
"You're up."
"I'm an adult and I need to go out for my morning game training."
"Do I have to?"
"Yes," Jamie told her, steeling himself against her wide, soft eyes.
Phoebe sighed with her whole body. "Fine." She stood up and closed the book that had been in her lap and Jamie frowned.
"What's that?"
"I really wanted Uncle Roy to live in this house and Mummy and I thought he would, so she let me plan the perfect room using all of the things we did together." She opened the book and showed him images of beds, chairs, linen, and paint options.
Jamie smiled down at her. "You can show me properly over breakfast when you've had some more sleep."
"But Cruyff-"
"Will be there when you wake up."
"And the room planning is so exciting and-"
Jamie shook his head and dropped a hand to her shoulder, steering her back to the bedroom. He stopped at the threshold. "Uncle Roy is still asleep, so go back to bed and we can play with Cruyff when I come back and we have breakfast. If you don't sleep, how will you have the energy to play with Cruyff all morning?"
"Have a good run," Phoebe said, holding back a yawn.
Jamie shook his head and left the house; sure she'd fall back to sleep before he made it to the end of the street.
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