"The same goes for you, Jeremy." Dad said. "We may not have as much to work with compared to you, but if you need a bailout, we can work something out. Don't try to take on everything by yourself."
"Did you overhear me in Jake and Noah's room?"
"I did. Not much, but enough to know that you're being used."
I heard a small gasp from behind me. I turned to see the twins and Noah all right behind me, also eavesdropping. Noah put his finger to his lips to signal for silence.
"It's not like that." Jeremy sounded defensive. "This is family. You help family when they're in need."
"Jeremy," Dad sighed. "We both know that's not true."
"You don't understand. That's my uncle. He took me in after my dad died. I'm not just going to leave him out there to dry." We heard a grunt, a car door slam, then the engine starting. Jeremy had pulled out of the driveway and left, his taillights shining bright in the dark.
"Shoot!" Dave was the first to rush away.
"Let's go before Dad catches us!" Kyle ran away after him.
I glanced at Noah. He stood right behind me, waiting.
"Boys." Dad said.
I turned to look out the door and saw Dad heading for us.
"Do you really think his uncle is using him?" Noah blurted out.
Dad sighed. "I do. No parent would willingly take their kid's money. Not so much. All at once. There's a lot of wrong going on."
"He's not his parent though." I whispered.
Dad looked at me with a sad smile. "I know. That's what makes it even more concerning. But, Jeremy is an adult. He has to make his own decisions. You don't have to worry about this, okay?"
I nodded slowly.
Dad came inside and closed the door behind him. He guided Noah and I to the stairs. "One of you need to go shower and the other needs to start on laundry. Can you guys guess which is which?"
Noah wrinkled his nose. "I might need a shower after dealing with our dirty clothes. Nothing but dirt and sweat."
"Take a second shower if you must." Dad laughed.
Noah frowned. "I was just kidding." He went up the stairs first.
I hesitated for a second. Then looked to Dad. "Do you blame Jeremy? For giving his money to Uncle Jack?"
Dad shook his head. "I don't blame him. He's an adult and his own person. I wish he thought more for himself."
"I understand where he's coming from." I told him suddenly. Dad looked surprised. I looked down at my hands. "If I got rich and you guys needed help, I would give it all to you as well."
Dad reached out and held onto my shoulder. "And we would turn it down. Your money is yours to keep." He gave me an extra squeeze before letting go. "Hurry up and shower. You guys still have one more day of camp to go."
I nodded, then hurried up the stairs.
In our room, Noah was going through my baseball bag, pulling out his glove. He pulled some wood pieces out. "I'll help you find another shoe box or something."
"Thanks." I told him. I went to the bathroom with pjs in hand and showered.
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.
