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“I need you to watch the kids for me now for about an hour or two. Billy needs me to help him with a few things at the office.”
Xander’s face brightened. He loved to watch his two young cousins. Jimmy had turned four in May and Sophia would be three in July. They were one of the few things that could make him happy.
“It's dinner time, so I need you to feed them, and if you could give them baths, you would be doing me a huge favor. I have some mac and cheese, and chicken nuggets are warming in the oven.”
He stood up and slipped his feet into a pair of topsiders, and he followed Janelle to the main house. The children were happy to see him, and Jimmy jumped into Xander’s arms followed by Sophia. He wrestled with them on the floor while Janelle and Bill rushed around to gather the supplies they needed to take with them.
“We will be home in a couple of hours. You two need to eat dinner and take baths,” Janelle instructed the little ones.
The children looked at her for a split second and then climbed on Xander again.
“Are you kids listening to mommy?” Billy said.
“Yes, Daddy,” they said in unison.
After they had left, Xander picked them up and took them to the kitchen sink.
“Time to wash your hands before we eat.” He lifted first Jimmy then Sophia to wash their hands. When they were done, he got them plates and told them to sit at the table.
“Alex, do you want some of my ‘roni?” Sophia asked and held her fork out for him. Xander took a bite from the fork, and she giggled.
“More, Alex?” She gave him another forkful. Jimmy got into the act by offering him a dinosaur shaped chicken nugget. When they were finished, he deposited the children in front of the TV so he could clean the kitchen and then sat with them.
A half hour later he was carrying them to the bathroom. He began filling the tub and poured a lot of bubble bath in the water. Jimmy loved to hide in the bubbles, and Sophia always followed whatever her big brother did.
As the water ran into the tub and the bubbles got higher, he undressed the children. Then he tested the water to make sure it wasn’t too hot, and he put them into the bath. Jimmy quickly started to make shapes with the mound of bubbles while Sophia lounged in the corner. Xander handed them both a wash cloth and soaped their hair with baby shampoo.
He let the children play for a while after they were clean. Sophia got soap in her eyes and he quickly pulled her out of the tub, wrapping her in a towel as he wiped at her eyes with a clean cloth. She sat on the toilet seat while he rubbed her dry. Then he dressed her in a thin summer-weight Dora the Explorer nightgown. Jimmy, however, was not as easy to wrestle away from the remaining bubbles. He refused to come out of the tub until Xander opened the drain.
“Come on, buddy. Let’s get you dry and into your pajamas.”
When the children were ready for bed, he sat on the couch with them flanking him while he read a story. They both fell asleep, and he put the book down so he could cuddle them against him. He would never have this for himself, so he enjoyed the time he was able to spend with his little cousins.
He sat daydreaming of a life that once could have been. Ava had been pregnant with his twins, but that was just a memory. She would never be able to have children. He slowly got up from the couch, and first took Sophia to her room and then Jimmy. He tucked the children under the covers and kissed their sweet faces.
Janelle and Billy came home not long after the kids were in bed and thanked him for making their evening easy. No thanks needed. It is special to me to spend time with them. An hour later, he sat in the same position in his apartment in which Janelle had found him earlier that afternoon, still with his iPod on repeat, but this time the song was U2’s All I Want Is You.
