Beneath the Surface

Lexie

October 18, 2011

I wake up to a pounding sound that sounds like it’s coming from the front door. I look over at my alarm clock, only to realize I haven’t unpacked it yet and it’s not there. I roll out of bed and shuffle to my bedroom door. I walk across the hall to see that the boys aren’t in their room. They must already be up and playing somewhere. I hear a pissed off male voice coming from downstairs, but I can’t make out what he’s saying. I slow as I come to the top of the stairs not sure who that is that I hear downstairs. I know it’s not my brother. I lean over the railing to get a peek at the front door, and I see my sister’s back as she stands in the doorway, hands on her hips. I can’t see who is at the door from this angle with my sister standing in the way, but I can definitely hear him. As I make my way slowly down the stairs, Mason comes around the corner and plants himself at Maddie’s back.

“I don’t know whose kids those boys are, but y’all better start keeping a better eye on them!” a man’s voice growls at Maddie and Mason. Oh god, we’ve been here not even 24 hours, and the boys have already pissed someone off! I step up next to mason and see Jax standing at my front door looking even more pissed off than he did yesterday. Damn, he looks even better than he did yesterday too. Yesterday he was in distressed jeans and a black t-shirt, but today he’s in a suit. I scan down his body, I can’t seem to help it, and my eyes stop at the badge on his belt. A grin overtakes my face, I moved in next door to a cop! Could this get any better? Well, it’s not a great situation considering how much my boys get in trouble, but it’s an amazing situation that I’m running from a criminal and end up next door to a cop. Shawn is going to be ecstatic when he finds out. I cut my eyes over at Mason and Maddie without moving my head and see that they are also staring at his badge with grins on their faces. I turn my eyes back to Jax to find that he is, once again, glaring at me. This seems to be becoming a habit. I just grin back at him. I’m not as intimidated as yesterday now that Mason is standing next to me.

“Are they yours?”

I blink, “Um, excuse me?”

“The boys, are the boys yours?”

“Yes, they are. What did they do?”

He hold up a baseball, “This was in my living room.” he growls again. He seems to do that a lot.

It takes me a minute to understand how it got inside his house. “Oh, shit!” He just raises his eyebrows at me. “They broke your window?” Maddie immediately starts giggling, and I elbow her to shut her up. Jax seems mad enough without laughing about it. Mason is biting his lip like he’s trying not to laugh as well. “I am so sorry Jax, I’ll pay for the window to be replaced!”

He hands me the baseball and yells, “You bet your ass you will!” He turns and stomps back to his house. He looks over his shoulder and yells at me, “and keep your kids away from my house! Just stay on your side of the property, and keep your kids away from me and my house!” The three of us stand there in shock. Did he for real just yell at me?

“What the hell is that guy’s problem?” Mason asks us.

Maddie turns to me, “Maybe he just doesn’t like kids, but he was an asshole yesterday too, and the boys were gone, so I don’t know.”

I turn to find both boys peeking around the corner of the wall separating the foyer from the living room. I hold the baseball up, “what happened?”

“It was an accident.” they answer in unison.

“How did it happen?”

Once I get the whole story and believe it truly was an accident I hand them the baseball telling them to be more careful, and inform them that they will be doing extra chores to help pay for the window.

“Oh, and you will also both apologize to Mr…” I realize I don’t know his last name, “Jax,”

Jason looks horrified, “but mom he’s scary.”

“You two broke his window and will apologize!”

“Yes ma’am.” They both shuffle out of the front door.