Cheer Up, Daddy!

Champion Daddy

Chapter Eighteen

(Champion Daddy)

Jackson was perplexed.

After randomly stuffing his gym clothes and his Nike sport shoes into his duffle bag, Jackson hiked up a strap onto one shoulder before scooping the younger twin from the carpeted floor. The way Jackson picked his son up would definitely make most of the mommy bloggers cringed, the sudden movement caught Jeremy off guard as he let loose of the grip on his teddy bear. Straight out from a movie scene, the soft toy conveniently dropped into the pail of dirty water Dustin forgot to put aside after mopping the kitchen floor. Jeremy might not mind his teddy bear soaking wet but Jackson was not a horrible father, he decided to bear with the loud wailing from his younger child and threw the bear into washing machine along with his one week old laundries. Instead of helping out, Dustin and Claire just added more burden on Jackson's burden. His mother might be good at cooking and taking care of his twins while he was away for work but asking her to clean the house was like telling Dustin to stop bringing random men to his apartment: pointless.  

On the way to the baby-sitting center, Jackson had to call Dustin up and go through the hell ride of Friday evening crowd in Target to find the identical teddy bear in yellow shirt Dustin bought for his son so he could keep Jeremy's crying to the minimum. That kid wasn't making his life any better, Jackson tried to cheat his way into putting the first bear he saw -he swore all the bears looked the same- into those chubby arms but Jeremy didn't even bat an eye at it before flinging the fraud back at his father's face. Taking his glance off the car window, he squinted his eyes warily at the sleeping baby in the baby seat next to him. A look at Jeremy from a stranger's point of view might think that this little thing was the most adorable angel, however Jackson knew better that even angel could be trained to have hidden fangs.   

"From now on, I'm keeping you away from Dustin."  

Jackson tucked Jeremy in around his purple nappy, his lips couldn't help but to be tugged up by the peaceful face of his son. The smile didn't last long once Jackson realized the limo wasn't moving any faster, even veteran driver like Hank couldn't get past the New York City traffic jam. Jackson was late for the Friday night class, it was another hectic hours in the workplace as the winter showcase was around the corner. The final setting draft was just submitted to him when Jackson was getting ready to the baby-sitting center, he was forced to stay back to look through the documents and make sure no mistakes in the remaining details. Dustin promised to bring the twins over to the center so Jackson assumed he still had time, however half way through the papers he received a text from his dear best friend that caused him to hurl his tenth phone across the room. 

This sudden change of plan had him running back to his apartment, when the elevator door slide opened to his floor, Dustin was already standing in front of the door with Jeremy in his arms. Jackson gave Dustin the deadliest glare before giving a short kiss onto Jeremy's head, cradling his head against his chest with one hand while stopping Dustin in his way toward the elevator with the other. 

"I remember having two sons, Dustin." Jackson hardened his gaze, "where's James." 

Dustin removed Jackson's arm from the entrance and moved in quickly, "and I remember you have a mother. Don't wait up for me, honey." 

Once the traitor was gone, Jackson put Jeremy down onto his play-mat before dialing his mother's number using landline. It took four calls to reach her mother and the broken phone on the floor was the proof that Claire wasn't bringing back his son anytime soon. Too tired to drive, Jackson called Hank up using his neighbor's phone -Mrs Houston was too distracted by Jeremy's charm to question his strange behavior- and reminded him to buy a booster seat in any nearby department store.