Margie managed a feat worthy of an Olympic gymnast to get over the sofa and looked at him. “No!”
Holly and Troy stopped on the other side of the sofa and laughed like little hyenas.
Juan frowned and put on his most authoritative voice. “Get your PJs on or you are all in big trouble. ”
The three hellions looked at each other, then took off running again, laughing like the evil little fiends they were.
Clutching Holly’s top in one hand, Juan pursued them, finding it damn hard to catch the little ones. Troy was especially good at evasive maneuvers. Juan couldn’t help but think he’d make a great football player.
Despite his frustration with them, he knew most of this was them craving his attention. He had been gone all day working on the fort defenses and when he had come home, his beleaguered mother and grandmother had quickly dumped the kids off on him.
“They need their father. We’re done,” Rosie had said as she rolled her mother to out of the room. With that he had been on his own with the little terrors.
“Holly! Freeze!”
To his surprise she froze in her tracks, giving him her big-eyed look of surprise. Slowly,
he approached her, holding her pajama top in his grip, readying to put it over her head. Just when he got close, she took off again.
“Dammit!”
“You said a bad word!” Troy popped up from behind the recliner. “I’m gonna tell. ”
“Yeah? Who are you going to tell?” Juan asked.
“God,” Troy responded.
Well, Juan thought, at least Troy didn’t waste time with the middleman, but went straight to the top.
The door opened behind him and he turned to see Jason walk in. Covered in dirt and grime and reeking of gasoline, the teenager shut the door, then leaned back against it.
“Is there hot water left?” Jason asked eying Margie’s soaking wet hair.
“Hey, kid,” Juan said, ignoring the little scamps rushing around him, trying to egg him into a game of catch again.
“Hi, Dad,” Jason answered. He disengaged from the door and walked over to hug Juan. He was stopped by the trio of terror leaping on him. Clinging to him like monkeys, the three began to talk his head off and Jason slowly smiled from beneath his long hair.
Juan walked slowly toward the kids. “You’re just in time for the nightly roundup. ”
“Yeah?” Jason looked down at the little ones yammering away at him, then grabbed all three of them up in his arms.
Massive squeals of delight followed. Juan managed to snag Holly and get her top over her head.
“Ha!” Juan chucked her onto the sofa. “Stay there or no cookies tomorrow. ”
Holly immediately froze and sat wide-eyed in false innocence.
Grabbing a towel off a stool, he wrapped it around Margie’s hair and knotted it on top of her head. Tossing her onto to the sofa, he muttered the same threat and was rewarded with another frozen child.
Troy tried the squirm and kick maneuver but Jason reduced him to giggles by tickling him. Juan somehow managed to get his pajamas on despite all the wrestling. Then Troy was also chucked onto the sofa and joined his sisters.
“Now! In this family, we behave. Or no cookies,” Juan said.
Jack looked up from where he was trying to sleep on the recliner with a look of horror in his doggy eyes.
“Understood?” Juan asked.
The little heads nodded, then Holly yawned.