close as strangers ↣ joshler ✓

4. Kids

"Hm... yellow."

"Yellow's gonna make her look really pretty!" Lily said excitedly as she untwisted the top of the bottle with her fingers, the nails now painted blue thanks to Reagan.

"Reagan always looks really pretty," Josh replied without even meaning to. He realized what he said and looked over to see Reagan blushing. "I promise I'm not trying to get anything out of you."

"Shut up. I love you," she rolled her eyes with a smile on her face.

"I love you too," he grinned.

"Hey no fair!" Cherry interrupted, prompting Josh to hold a finger to his lips to let her know she needed to be quiet. "Lily gets to paint Reagan's nails what do I get to do?"

"You can paint my other hand?" Reagan suggested.

"Can I paint Josh's nails?" Cherry asked.

Josh thought for a moment. He could always take it off when she went home and it would save them a tantrum if he allowed it. "Sure."

Her eyes lit up. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," he laughed

"What color?"

He looked at his choices. "White."

"That's boring," Lily piped up, carefully painting Reagan's nail belonging to her ring finger.

"You're boring," Cherry replied. Lily stuck her tongue out at her sister. Cherry rolled her eyes and untwisted her own bottle while Josh stifled a laugh.

"Sometimes boring is okay," Reagan spoke. "Did you know Josh used to have green hair?"

"Ew. Why?" Lily asked, squinting her eyes as she got to the middle nail.

"I thought it looked cool," he defended. "You did too because you let me take you on a date a week after we met."

"I'm glad I said yes though," she smiled.

"Me too."

They four continued to make conversation as the two younger continued to paint their nails, sitting and letting them dry when they were finished.

"How's school going?" Josh asked as Cherry blew on his nails.

"Good," Cherry replied while Lily replied with "Bad."

"Why bad?" Reagan asked.

"My teacher is dumb."

"Why are they dumb?"

"She just looks dumb," she shrugged. "And she smells like dog food."

"Oh that's gross," Reagan scrunched her nose up making Josh's heart flutter.

"Why good?" Josh asked Cherry.

"Because I like eating lunch and snack."

The two adults laughed at that. Shortly after, Josh and Reagan realized their finger nails were dry and stood up to clean up the newspaper and nail polish. "Alright time for bed it's eight forty five."

The twins groaned a 'no' in unison at that. "If we go to bed early we can wake up early and can make breakfast together before your parents get here," Reagan bargained.

"I am now suddenly sleepy," Lily forced out a yawn.

"Good," Josh nodded with a laugh. "C'mon help me set out sleeping bags. Team work makes the dream work."

They went about laying out the girls' matching princess sleeping bags before Reagan helped them get their pajamas on and brush their teeth. Josh stayed behind to let their dogs out and when Jim and Freddie came back in, he saw Reagan and the kids coming in. The twins were holding each of her hands and the sight made his heart fill with happiness.

"Okay, Josh and I are gonna go to bed too so you're not missing out on anything," Reagan told them.

"Can we have good night hug?" Cherry asked, looking up at the two adults with wide eyes.

"Of course," Josh bent down and embraced them both, Reagan doing so as well after. "Good night girls. If Miles wakes up and doesn't go back to sleep just come get one of us, okay? Jim and Freddie will probably come sleep in our room with us so don't be worried if they're not in here either."

"Okay," the replied in unison. "Good night!"

"Good night," Reagan sang as she turned the main light off, leaving the lamp in the corner on since they didn't like the dark.

Josh and Reagan entered their room, waiting for the dogs to follow before shutting the door. They looked at each other and let out a breath of relief. "I love them but they're crazy," Josh shook his head with a laugh.

"Yes they are," Reagan agreed before the two laid on their bed. "Kids are spectacular though. They're so beautiful."

"Yeah..." Josh trailed off, feeling his eyes start to close. Suddenly, his phone went off and he groaned, opening his eyes. He pulling it out of his pocket and it didn't even occur to him how impractical it was to fall asleep fully clothed with his phone in his back pocket.

He saw Jim and Freddie jump on the bed and the two went over to the corner of the bed and laid next to each other, Freddie curling up into Jim's side. "They're cuter than us," Reagan admitted.

Josh laughed and hit the home button on his phone to see what the notification was. "Yes they— fuck."

"They fuck? What?" Reagan tore her eyes away from the two dogs and saw the distressed look on Josh's face. "Baby? What's wrong?"

"The electric company just took a hundred dollars from my bank account," he rubbed his face, stress radiating off of him. "Rea, we gotta pay rent in two weeks and our pay checks don't come until after it's due. We don't have enough money."

"Just calm down let me check my account," she grabbed her phone and Josh saw dread slowly make its way on to her face as she checked her account. "I have just enough to pay it plus an extra fifty if we combine our money but there's no way we can pay for gas and groceries and stuff," she sighed. "I'll pick up a few hours at work or maybe my parents can help out. It'll be okay, J."

"No don't worry about it," he shook his head, feeling panic fill his body. "I can— I can get an extra job or sell some shit. I'll figure it out. Please don't worry about it."

"Josh I'm not letting you deal with this alone," Reagan told him. "We're gonna figure this out together. We're family. That's what family does."

"Okay," he replied distractedly. He felt his heartbeat start to increase and felt lightheaded.

"Josh," Reagan grabbed his shaking hands. "Hey, match my breathing it's okay."

She continued to breathe slowly, assuring Josh everything was okay. "I feel like I'm gonna pass out," Josh told her, feeling tears in his eyes.

"It's gonna be okay," she repeated. "We'll figure it out. I promise. Can you count to ten with me?"

Josh shook his head, feeling the tears spill over and run down his hot cheeks. "I don't think so," his breath hitched.

"Let's try it and if you can't do it you don't have to," Reagan kept holding his hands as they counted. "Nine... Ten. Do you want to do it again?"

"No, I think I'm okay," Josh took a deep breath even though it felt like hands were clamping around his lungs.

"I'm so proud of you. Is there anything I can do to help you right now? Anything you need?"

"I'm fine. Thank you," he looked at her, his eyes still glossy. "I love you so much. I don't deserve you."

"Yes you do you deserve me and so much more," she kissed his forehead. "I love you too. You're probably exhausted."

"Yeah," he nodded, his chest starting to feel like it wasn't on fire anymore. "I'm not brushing my teeth tonight I'm sorry."

Reagan giggled, shaking her head. "It's okay, baby. Just get some sleep."

Josh slipped his jeans off and Reagan helped him under the covers as he wore just his boxers and shirt. "I love you," he repeated. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I love you too. I don't know what I would do without you either."