Whiskey River, Drown my Soul

Chapter Seventeen

The evening at home went better than I could have hoped for. I realized that the house seemed way less oppressive, and Brad's absence was felt less, when the children were there.

We had cooked pizzas in the basement pizza oven and had rootbeer floats after supper, then we all took showers and got ready for bed (Rev and I separately for once), made popcorn and watched a movie on the projector.

When I noticed Luca start yawning, I asked them where they wanted to sleep.

"I wanna make a nest", Gi immediately answered. All four of us were currently sitting on the couch, Rev and I next to each other, with Gi next to me and Luca next to him.

"Yeah!", Luca said, "I want Rev to sleep by me! He's so cozy!"

I started laughing harder than I probably should have. 'Cozy' is not any adjective I'd use to describe Rev, and I'd be willing to bet no one had ever told him that before.

I turned to him. He appeared slightly disgruntled but mostly amused.

"We usually bring bedding out here and put it on the floor and everyone sleeps all together. We have these camping mats we put down for padding but it's not the most comfortable. I didn't always sleep down here with them or sometimes I'd move to the couch. You don't have to if you don't want to, but I'll sleep down here by them".

"'Course I have to!", Rev scoffed. "If this here bloke wants me, I'm in!"

I smiled up at him. Gosh, he was wonderful.

We built the blanket nest then laid down and continued watching the movie. Rev and I kept an appropriate distance between each other, Luca was snuggled up to him as before, and Gi was cuddled up to me. After she noticed that her brother had fallen asleep, she impulsively climbed over me, shoved me aside, and cuddled up on Rev's other side, laying her head on Rev's shoulder.

Rev and I exchanged a startled glance and he slowly wrapped his arm around her, too.

Once I was sure she was asleep, I turned off the movie, raised my eyebrows at Rev, took a picture and sent it to Kendra, then went to the bathroom, turned off the lamp, and went to sleep.

I woke up sometime in the middle of the night with my heart pounding and sweat dripping down the side of my head. It took me a second to realize I had been dreaming and where I was.

I had been dreaming about Brad, or rather remembering his death. It was the memory of the event, but this time in my dream I knew what was going to happen so was screaming for him to stay backstage and trying to shield him myself, but he got shot anyway. That's when I woke up.

I glanced over at Rev and the kids. They were still sleeping so I must not have been shouting in my sleep. I checked my phone. I had only been asleep for a couple hours. I got up, quietly climbed the stairs, took a drink of water, and used the bathroom. I slowly walked back downstairs, climbed back into my spot, and slowly relaxed and fell back asleep.

I woke again around four because Gi was shuffling around and her knee jabbed into my kidney. At that point I moved to the couch and fell right back asleep.

When I woke again, it was because Luca was using the downstairs bathroom.

Rev stretched on the floor and then ruffled Gi's hair as she rolled over and opened her eyes.

"Morning, love", he said.

"Morning", she grumbled, covering her head.

Gi wasn't a morning person.

Rev chuckled then sat up and looked for me.

"Hello, gorgeous", he said, winking at me.

"Hey".