Spike (Aces MC #3)

Chapter 1

Spike

"My tummy's too full Helen, can I leave the rest?" I couldn't eat all of my sausage and mash, I was stuffed. Helen always spoilt me when mum and dad were out, and gave me bigger portions than I usually had. Helen had explained that I was a growing boy and needed a lot of food to make my muscles big and strong.
"That's fine little man." Helen stood and ruffled my hair, which made me giggle before pushing the wooden kitchen chair from behind her across the tiled floor. She collected our plates to take them over to the kitchen worktop and held out her hand for me to take, "I'll clear them away later, let's go and run you a bath before it gets too late."

I loved bath time because Helen allowed me to put all of my soldiers into the bathtub and there were a lot of them. Mum didn't like my soldiers, she used to swear if they were left around the house and she especially got mad if she trod on one with her bare feet but not Helen, she enjoyed spending quality time with me.
I made sure that I was in charge of the British army because they had the best tanks. Unfortunately, Dad had stamped on the German tank last week because I wasn't quick enough to get him a beer out of the fridge. I'll just have to remember to run faster next time because I don't want him breaking any more of my toys.

After playing for a while, Helen closed the toilet seat and sat comfortably by leaning back against the toilet cistern. She stretched her legs in front of her so that she could rest her book on her lap. She studied really hard and was always reading because she wanted to be a journalist. I wasn't sure what one of them was but Helen had explained that they wrote stories for newspapers. She would be good at that because she always made up stories for me with exciting adventures of pirates, dinosaurs and space men.
"You don't have to stay here Helen, I'm a big boy now. Look I have muscles." I tried to flex my muscles to show her how big my arms were unsuccessfully.
"I know you are little man but I like spending time with you." Helen smiled and leant over to ruffle my hair again, a sentiment that I loved and one of the many things I loved about my sister.

"Phrrrrrrr, Phrrrrrrr, Boooooooffff, Cuh-chunk POW!"
Helen glanced up from her book, "Did they win?"
"Yeah. They not only won they destroyed them, look they've sunk to the bottom." I stated excitedly as I looked through the water.
Helen smiled at me as she shook her head, "You're getting wrinkly and it's nearly time to get out." She said with humour in her voice. I looked at my hands to see my crinkly skin and nodded in agreement.
She furrowed her brows, "Have you washed behind your ears yet Connor?"
I held my breath and dunked under the water to make sure everything had been cleaned. When I couldn't hold my breath any longer, I stuck my head out of the water gasping for air. I quickly shook the water from my head animatedly and glanced at Helen to see her frowning disapprovingly.
"You know I don't like it when you do that, I worry you're not coming back up."
"Sorry." I said quickly not wanting to upset her. She acted like a mum sometimes, well not like my mum but how I thought a real mum should be. Like the ones you read about in stories or see on TV where they look after their children and bake, and read you stories before bed time.
"Come on let's get you ready for bed, have you decided what story you want yet?"
"What-a-Mess!" I said excitedly as I jumped out of the bath and landed on the cork bathroom mat splashing Helen with water in the process.
"Not again!" she groaned.
I giggled as Helen ruffled me in the threadbare towel, tickling me through the material. I loved the What-a-Mess stories as they were about a puppy called Prince Amir of Kinjan. I asked Helen where Kinjan was and she had explained that she'd take me there one day but we would need to travel on a boat and an aeroplane, and that I would need to be a very good boy. I don't know when she was thinking of taking me though because I didn't even have a passport but she'd pinky promised which meant she had to do it.

I quickly wiggled into my pyjamas, which took some time as I was still wet and the material stuck to my body as I tried to pull it over my damp skin. Helen entered the room and I snuggled under the covers to keep warm. The heating was still broken and mum had explained that we didn't have the money to fix it yet but Helen always made sure that I was warm, and brought me her cover every evening, which she took back when I was asleep so that she could use it. I loved my sister for looking after me.