741 V2 ch213 (2/2)
When I came back, it was Dad and Zeke in the room instead of Noah. That wasn't the only surprise. The whole closet was emptied out of our clothes and stuff. That was now the only clean spot in the room as the bats were on my bed and the clothes were on Noah's.
”I've got an idea!” Dad grinned at me when he noticed my return. ”We're going to convert the closet into a cubby. Like in the dugout. So you'll have an organized area for your bats. And then instead of helmets, you can put shoeboxes holding the broken bats.”
”Noah will be able to use this too.” Zeke added.
My jaw dropped. ”Wow.” What an idea. But... ”Are you going to do it right now? What about bedtime?”
”You can sleep on the couch for a night.” Dad waved his hand. ”Noah is already downstairs.” He looked to Zeke. ”You go find the tape measure. We can get the measurements all done tonight and then get the wood tomorrow. This will be a fun project to do for the both of us.” He sounded excited. ”Maybe we can do another one for you and the twins.”
”I'm going to college.” Zeke reminded him. ”Plus, the twins don't have this many bats so they wouldn't care for something like this.”
”Oh.” Dad lost some enthusiasm. ”Well, let's focus on this first.” He chuckled. ”It's been so long since we've done something like this.”
Zeke had a smile on his face too. ”I'll go find the tools.” He left.
I made sure my phone was on the charger before going downstairs. Noah was on the long couch, spread out, watching tv. He pointed at the two-seater. ”Brought you a pillow and blanket too. Looks like we'll be crashing down here for the night.” He held back a laugh. ”Hopefully it's just one night.”
I got comfy on the smaller couch, pulling the blanket up to my chin. ”What happened to Dad for him to just take over our room like that?”
Noah shrugged as he flipped through the channels. ”I just asked him to help us organize your bats and he just jumped into it with Zeke. I think it's finally hitting him that Zeke won't be around to help him with all these side projects that he does occasionally. I wouldn't be surprised if he took the day off tomorrow to get it done with Zeke's help.”
I laughed a little. ”I think he's already planning on it. He and Zeke had emptied the closet and was taking measurements.”
Noah rolled his eyes. ”For someone who always tells us to be patient, he's very impatient.”
”I think he just likes to have these kind of bonding moments with you guys.” I replied.
”With you too.” Noah added. ”You guys disappear on us occasionally.”
I turned to look at him. ”Does that bother you?”
Noah shook his head. ”Nah. I'm used to it. It comes with the territory of having too many brothers.” He stopped touching the remote, settling on the sports channel. It was just playing a recap of the games that took place earlier today. ”I wonder if they'll talk about Jeremy tonight?”
”Probably not. It's not like there was an A's game today.” I got comfortable again, trying to relax.
”But if the news gets out about his uncle or his contract, it could be on tonight.”
”Hmm.”
We watched until we fell asleep, never seeing any news about Jeremy or Uncle Jack.
The next morning, I woke up thanks to Dave poking my face. I swatted his hand out of the way, turning over.
Dave laughed. ”Wakey-wakey, Jake-y. Come on. Time to get dressed.”
I pushed myself up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I checked the other couch for Noah, but he wasn't there.
”Noah should be coming back soon.” Dave noticed what I was looking for. ”He went on a run with Zeke again. Crazy.”
Oh. That's right. He said he was going to keep up with that.