Page 37 of Her Saviors

“Hey, Ky, why don’t you and I go up and put your bed together? I’ll teach you how to use tools and you can do most of the work and I’ll just supervise,” I ask him as he puts the car down but keeps his toy motorcycle in hand. “I may need to tighten some stuff for you, but you’ll be doing the work, okay?”

“Yes,” he whispers, still frantically looking around the room at everyone.

Grabbing Kyler’s hand, I lead him upstairs and to the room across the hall from us. Entering his room, I see the box laid out on the floor. We walk over to it and Kyler looks down as if he’s trying to figure out how to open the box up. Bending down next to him, I act as if I’m inspecting the box right along with him. Moving to the end, I see the flap and call Kyler over to where I’m crouched down.

“I think if we pull this up we’ll get into the box. Do you think you can help me?” I ask him as he stands up and moves around toward me.

I lift the corner of the box just enough for Kyler to slide his fingers under the edge and grip it. Moving my hand down a little bit farther, I put some pressure under the flap and count with Kyler to lift it. My brother grunts and growls as he uses every ounce of his strength to pry the corner of the box up so we can get it open. I hide my grin at his attempt and vow I’ll keep doing what I can so he can ‘help’ whenever possible. It’s something my dad did with me when I was younger and even though our relationship went to shit after my mom died, I have fond memories and want to instill Kyler with the same things my dad gave to me. It wasn’t very often, but still, every boy needs to learn how to properly use tools.

“Hard,” Kyler grunts when we finally get the flap open.

“That was hard, Little Man. Thanks for the help. I don’t think I would’ve been able to get it if it weren’t for you,” I tell him as I move around the box so we can get all the pieces of his bed out.

“We did it,” he tells me, his voice filled with the slightest bit of excitement in it.

“You stay here and I’ll go get my tools so we can put your bed together. Unless you want to come with me. It’s up to you.”

Standing from the end of the box, I make my way out of the room and almost run into Brooklyn as she walks down the hall with an empty laundry basket in her hands.

“Hey, Love. Are you feelin’ okay?” I ask her as exhaustion fills her eyes and face while looking up at me with a small smile on her face.

“I’m just tired, Gavin. Where’s Kyler?” she asks me, looking around in the rooms with the open doors.

“He’s in his room. He’s gonna put his bed together while I supervise him,” I answer her as her smile gets bigger and her eyes light up. “He was gettin’ overwhelmed with everyone downstairs. I could see him about to have a meltdown so I brought him upstairs to get away from it all.”

“This is a lot for him. Especially with everyone in the house. If you need me to help do anything, just let me know,” she tells me, lifting up on her toes and pressing a kiss against my lips.

I wrap my arms around her and deepen the kiss for a minute before pulling back and resting my forehead against hers. After just breathing her in for a few minutes, I pull back and make my way to where my tool box is. Grabbing it, I head back upstairs while seeing everyone still doing whatever they were previously. I haven’t been upstairs with Kyler for very long so it’s not surprising.

Walking back in Kyler’s bedroom, I find him putting the various pieces of his bed in a line based on the letters covering them. I set my toolbox down and watch as he puts the final piece in a line and stands up to inspect his work.

“What ya doin’, Little Man?” I ask him, moving over next to him as we look down at everything around us.

“Lines,” he says, as I bend down to pick up the instructions and all the hardware needed to put the bed together.

“This is a line,” I tell him as Rion makes his way into the bedroom but doesn’t say a word as he remains far away from my brother so he doesn’t overwhelm him or make him upset. “I think Rion would like to help you put the bed together. Do you think we can let him help?”

Kyler turns around and faces Rion where he stands in the entrance of the room. After looking at him for a few minutes, Kyler turns back to me and nods his head. With a smile on my face I motion for the Prospect to walk further into the room. The three of us get down on the floor and I grab the tools we’ll need to put this bed together. Setting them on the floor in front of Kyler, I point each one out and he inspects them all as I talk about it. Rion remains silent as he watches us interact and smiles at Kyler when he turns his head to face him every now and then.

“Okay. Kyler, we need the pieces with the A and the D on them. Can you grab them for us?” I ask my brother as he jumps up and moves to the line of his bed pieces.

Rion and I watch on as he grabs the correct pieces. The three of us settle in and begin to build his bed. I let Kyler do most of the work on our end while Rion works on the opposite side so we can get this put together. It takes us a lot longer than it would have if Rion and I were the ones to put the bed together, but Kyler was happy so neither one of us cared about the hours it took us to put it together. Brooklyn even comes in to watch us for a little bit when she brings in his bedding and the blankie Theo picked out for him. It’s just big enough for him with a motorcycle taking up the entire blanket. There’s other things on it, but I didn’t look at it too closely since we were still putting the bed together.

“Can I see your bike?” Kyler asks me when we finish putting his bed together.

For a minute, I look at my brother in shock and surprise as he looks up at me with hope filling his large, chocolate brown eyes.

“Of course you can. It’s outside. If you’re gonna go out there, we need to get you in a sweatshirt or somethin’. It’s too cold for you to just have your tee-shirt on,” I tell him, looking around the room for anything that’s ready for him to put on now. “I think we might be able to find somethin’ in your bags that were brought with us. Let’s see what we find.”

Kyler and I manage to find a hoodie in one of the suitcases that were packed from home before we came back here with the kids. Getting it on him, I take Kyler’s hand when he holds it out for me and we make our way outside the house. Wheels and I will have to put our bikes in the garage soon. For now, we’ve just been leaving them outside. Maybe I’ll put mine in there tonight so I can put Kyler on the bike without actually taking him anywhere.

“So, this bike is mine. The one parked right next to it is Jayce’s,” I inform Kyler as he gets up close and inspects each machine.

Kyler doesn’t touch either bike as he moves around them. Jayce joins us and we stand back while watching him act as if he actually knows what he’s looking at. It’s the cutest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my life and I want to commit this moment to memory. I want to have a picture to hang in our home. Jayce, already sensing where my head is, pulls his phone from his pocket and takes several pictures of Kyler as he continues to examine the bikes. First going around my bike and then moving to Jayce’s.

“You wanna get on the bike and help me put it in the garage?” I ask Kyler, my voice barely a whisper as I realize we truly have something to bond over in a way I never bonded with my dad.

“Yes!” Kyler yells in excitement as he rushes over to me and puts his arms in the air for me to pick him up.

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