Chapter Two
“Rose, sweet pea, if you could put your pants on, that would be absolutely fabulous.” Rudy crouched down, holding out the tiny purple leggings with the sparkly hearts on them.
Rose giggled, shook her head, and sprinted past him wearing nothing but her ladybug underwear and one sock.
“Or we could just do laundry day in our undies. That’s cool too. ”
“I can’t find my dinosaur shirt.” Jack’s voice echoed from somewhere upstairs, accompanied by the unmistakable thud of drawers being yanked open and clothes hitting the floor.
“It’s in the wash, baby,” Rudy called back, abandoning the leggings on the kitchen table where they immediately got knocked onto the floor by Timothy, who’d climbed up to reach the cereal box. “Tim, buddy, let me get that for you before you…”
The box tipped, and cheerios rained down like sugary hail.
“…do that.” Rudy sighed, grabbed the broom, and started sweeping. Timothy slid off the chair and landed with a soft oomph, then immediately began collecting the cereal pieces and eating them off the floor. “At least you’re helping clean up. Sort of.” A little bit of dust never hurt anyone.
It was a typical Tuesday, in other words.
Or it could be Wednesday. Rudy had genuinely lost track somewhere between Monday’s finger painting disaster and yesterday’s incident with the garden hose that had somehow ended up threaded through the upstairs bathroom window.
Time didn’t really work the same way when he had three kids under the age of six who seemed to operate on pure chaos energy and occasional bursts of weirdness that Rudy absolutely refused to overthink.
“Found it.” Jack clattered down the stairs wearing the dinosaur shirt - which had definitely not been in the wash and probably should’ve been - plus mismatched socks and his favorite shorts that were getting too small, but he refused to stop wearing. “Can we have pancakes?”
“We had pancakes yesterday.”
“Can we have pancakes again?”
Rudy looked at the cereal currently coating his kitchen floor, the half-naked toddler who’d vanished into the living room, and Timothy, who was happily munching cheerios while sitting cross-legged on the floor. “You know what? Pancakes sound perfect.”
The thing was, Rudy genuinely loved his life.
The mess, the noise, the constant demand for snacks and attention, and the occasional arbitration of disputes that made no logical sense.
When he’d won a small amount on a lottery ticket three years ago - which still felt like the universe’s wildest joke - he’d immediately quit his soul-sucking retail job and bought his rambling disaster of a house with its questionable plumbing and doors that didn’t quite hang right.
The plan had been to fix it up, flip it, and maybe make enough money to buy something smaller and actually nice.
The sort of thing an adult with a few dollars in the bank would do.
But he’d barely been in the house for three days when he’d found Rose, abandoned outside a gas station, barely old enough to walk.
Then, Jack, terrified and all alone in the woods behind the house, about six months later.
Then Timothy, sitting by the pond over on the neighbor’s yard - with the house clearly empty - looking lost, silent, and so small… That was a year after Jack.
So the house stayed a disaster, Rudy stayed exactly where he was and nobody ever came looking for the kids. Over the next three years, somehow, impossibly, his life had become a beautiful, chaotic thing he wouldn’t trade for anything.
“Okay, pancakes coming up.” He stepped over Timothy, grabbed the mixing bowl, and started pulling ingredients from the cupboard. “Jack, can you make sure Rose has clothes on? Any clothes. I’m not picky at this point.”
“She’s climbing the bookshelf.”
“Of course she is.” Rudy set down the flour and headed for the living room, where Rose had indeed scaled halfway up the built-in shelves and was reaching for a potted plant that Rudy kept forgetting to water.
“Sweetness, we’ve talked about this. Furniture is for sitting on or for looking at, not climbing. ”
Rose beamed at him, all dimples and dark curls. “I’m a monkey.”
“You’re a cute little menace.” Rudy scooped her off the shelf, planted a kiss on her forehead, and carried her back to the kitchen under one arm while she shrieked with laughter.
“Jack, grab those purple pants off the table. We’re getting this kid dressed if it’s the last thing… Tim, baby, out of the flour please.”
Timothy had somehow acquired the bag of flour and was currently sitting in a small cloud of white powder, examining his dusty hands. His fingers looked slightly scalier than usual, which meant he was stressed about something, but the scales faded as soon as Rudy crouched down beside him.
“Hey, you’re okay.” Rudy gently brushed flour off Timothy’s nose. “Just a little messy, that’s all. Want to help me crack eggs instead?”
Timothy nodded, solemn and quiet as always, and Rudy’s heart squeezed. The kid barely talked, barely smiled, but he followed Rudy everywhere with those serious dark eyes like he was afraid Rudy might disappear.
“Alright, team, new plan.” Rudy stood, planted Rose on the counter where at least he could see her, and handed Jack the whisk.
“Jack, you’re in charge of mixing. Rose, you’re in charge of not kicking anything.
Tim, you and me are the official egg crackers.
We work together, we eat together. Sound good? ”
“Can I lick the spoon?” Rose asked.
“Why stop at one? You can lick two spoons.”
They dissolved into the comfortable routine of making breakfast - or more realistically, Rudy was making breakfast while three tiny tornados orbited around him asking questions, spilling things, and occasionally sprouting patches of fur or scales or claws that Rudy carefully ignored because some things were just part of who they were.
He’d learned early on that making a big deal about any of that only stressed them out more.
The pancakes turned out lumpy but edible. Rose actually kept her clothes on for a solid twenty minutes. Jack managed to eat without wearing most of his breakfast. Timothy smiled - just a tiny one, but still a smile - when Rudy gave him an extra pancake shaped vaguely like a lizard.
“Okay, monsters, I need to throw in some laundry and maybe convince the upstairs toilet to stop making that weird noise.” Rudy started stacking plates.
“You three can play in the yard, but stay where I can see you from the windows. No wandering off. No going near the pond. There’s someone staying in the house next door at the moment, so you can’t go over there. ”
“The pond is fun.” Jack protested.
“The pond is also deep, and I would like you not to drown, so yard only. Got it?”
He got three nods, and Rudy was just going to have to take them as an agreement, because he did have things to do. Chores didn’t magically do themselves. “All right then, love you guys. I’ll be right back.”
Rudy headed upstairs with a basket of laundry and the vain hope that he’d actually accomplish something on his to-do list. The toilet gave up its secrets fairly quickly.
It just needed the chain re-attached. He’d just started sorting light clothes from darks when he glanced out the window and checked the yard.
The empty yard…as in, it was completely empty.
“Oh, no, no, no, no…” Rudy dropped the laundry and took the stairs two at a time, heart hammering. “Jack. Rose. Timothy.”
Nothing. The back door hung open, screen flapping in the breeze. Three sets of small muddy footprints led across the porch and disappeared into the grass.
“Dammit.” Rudy grabbed his shoes, shoved his feet in without bothering with laces, and bolted outside. “This is not funny. If you guys are hiding, you win. Come out where I can see you, right now.”
The yard remained silent except for birds and the rustle of wind through the overgrown bushes he kept meaning to trim. Rudy’s mind spun through increasingly terrible scenarios - the pond, the woods, the road that was half a mile away but still way too close…
A knock at the front door made him jump.
Rudy sprinted through the house, hope and dread tangling in his chest, and yanked open the door to find the tallest, most intimidating man he’d ever seen standing on his porch.
For a start, the man was completely bald, and Rudy couldn’t see a single shaving mark.
He also had aristocratic features, broad shoulders, and he was dressed entirely in black, despite it being a hot day.
His rigid posture suggested anything from military, mafia boss, royalty, or simply “I could snap you like a twig.”
And behind him, looking like drowned rats, stood Jack, Rose and Timothy.
“Oh, thank goodness.” Rudy’s knees nearly gave out.
“Thank you so much. I only looked away for a second, and they were just…” He dropped to a crouch, reaching for the kids who immediately swarmed him, soaking wet and smelling like pond water.
“You guys scared me half to death. What were we just talking about at breakfast?”
“Sorry,” Jack mumbled into Rudy’s shoulder. Rose just squeezed tighter, and poor Timothy was shaking.
“Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay.” Rudy straightened, keeping one hand on Jack’s head and Rose plastered to his side while Timothy gripped his pant leg.
Only then did he really look at the stranger, whose expression was locked somewhere between stunned and deeply uncomfortable.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t even thank you. Really.
Did you find them by the pond? Because I swear I told them to stay in the yard, but they’re quick, and I was just upstairs for five minutes… ”
The man said nothing. Just stared.
Rudy’s brain, which had been pure panic for the last several minutes, finally caught up enough to register that the man was not just intimidating. He was also rather stunning in a way that made Rudy’s mouth go dry, and his thoughts scatter like those cheerios earlier.
“Right. Um.” Rudy cleared his throat, very aware that he probably had flour in his hair and definitely had syrup on his shirt. “Can I… Would you like to come in? Coffee? It’s the least I can do. These three are escape artists and I really can’t thank you enough for bringing them back.”
The stranger’s jaw tightened. His hands flexed at his sides. For a long moment, Rudy thought he might actually say something, but then he took one step backward, then another.
“Wait, you don’t have to…”
But the man turned and walked away, long strides eating up the distance to the driveway where a sleek black car waited that Rudy absolutely hadn’t noticed before.
In fact, Rudy was sure it hadn’t been there before.
But within seconds the big man had folded himself into the driver’s seat, and the engine purred to life.
“Okay then.” Rudy watched the car disappear down the long driveway, dust rising in its wake. “That was weird.”
“He smells like the pond,” Jack offered quietly.
“Well, you guys smell like the pond too, so you’re all matching.
” Rudy herded everyone back inside, already mentally calculating how fast he could heat water for baths.
“New rule. When I say stay in the yard, I mean stay in the actual yard. Not the neighbor’s yard.
Not the woods. Not the pond. The yard. Our yard.
This specific collection of grass and weeds right here. ”
“Sorry,” Jack said again, and he genuinely sounded it, although Rose had gone suspiciously quiet, which usually meant she was plotting something, or she could just be thinking of something else. Timothy pressed closer to Rudy’s leg, and those scales were back on his arms, faint but visible.
“Hey.” Rudy stopped in the kitchen, crouched down again so he was eye level with all three of them.
“I’m not mad. All right? You need to understand that.
I was just scared because I didn’t know where you were.
I love you guys, okay? All of you. That means I need to keep you safe, and I can’t do that if you disappear. ”
“Love you, too,” Jack whispered.
“Love you,” Rose echoed, then brightened. “Can we have more pancakes?”
“After baths. You’re all pond monsters right now.” Rudy stood, ruffled her curls, and tried very hard not to think about the tall stranger with the gorgeous face and his rather quick retreat. “Come on, upstairs. Let’s make you smell like people again instead of swamp creatures.”
More bedlam – bath time always was - with wet clothes and demands for specific towels and Rose attempting to flood the bathroom by turning all the faucets on at once.
But through it all, Rudy kept seeing that man’s expression.
The way he’d stared at Rudy like he’d grown a second head, and the way he’d left without saying a word.
Weird, Rudy thought again, wrapping Timothy in a towel and trying to coax a smile out of him. But then again, maybe finding three random kids by a pond and having a stranger invite you in for coffee is weird from his perspective, too.
It was a shame, though. Rudy would’ve loved to have heard the man speak at least. He was a stunning man. The kind of gorgeous that made Rudy think about those paranormal romance books he read late at night when the house finally settled. A tall, dark, mysterious stranger appears at your door…
“Stop it,” Rudy muttered to himself, and focused on getting Timothy dried off before his imagination ran away with him completely.
“You’ve got three kids and a house held together with duct tape and rusty nails.
You don’t have time for a tall, mysterious man unless he knows how to use a hammer or a paint brush.
” Although, I’d have settled for sharing a coffee with him.
It would’ve been nice to talk to an adult for a change.