Two hours after Ben sent the kids to bed, the muffled noise from their rooms finally died down. The house filled with a silence so complete, the hum of the refrigerator—a sound often forgotten during the day—could be heard from the bedroom. Christie had fallen asleep around 8:30, but she would rise with the sun tomorrow, and Ben couldn’t blame her for being too exhausted to stay awake until the little hellions passed out.
Ben kicked his shoes off and moved down the hall silently, peeking first into Elijah’s room. Ben smiled. Elijah had fallen asleep with his arms above his head again. Tomorrow he’d complain they were sore, and force Ben to make the same old joke about how Elijah’s body would never feel so good in the morning as it did at ten-years-old.
He stopped in Nate’s room next; the
