A Loving Vow To Be Made (Book 1 of The Loving You Series)

Chapter 5.

That night a fierce thunderstorm raged and as the rain pelted her bedroom window, there was a noise from below in the store which jolted Rosie from her sleep. Turning to her snoring husband, Rosie pushed Timothy out of the bed to wake him up. After hearing the 'thud' that came from her husband's body landing on the wood floor, Rosie laughed a little inside and tried to conceal the smile that lit up her face. Hearing her husbands irritated groan, she waited for him to get up.

"What the... Good God woman, what did you do that for?" Timothy whispered to his wife in an irritated tone. "Tim! Hush, I heard a noise, it came from the store down stairs, could you check it out?" Muttering to himself, Tim got up from the floor, grabbed his housecoat from the peg on the wall placed his feet into his slippers, picked up the bat that he had placed against the wall just in case a situation as this one happened and descended his way down the stairs to the storefront.

The room was in total blackness, that is until a crash of lightning and thunder lit up the sky allowing him to see what the whole commotion was about. As he headed towards the front door, he saw the hole, it must have been a branch or a piece of debris that caused it, he thought to himself. Just as he turned to head back to bed a movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention, without even thinking, Tim swung the bat. But just before he hit his target, the store was lit once again and he saw his son standing behind him.

"Good God Boy what are you doing sneaking up to a person like that, you could give someone a heart attack creeping up the way you did." Jack eyed his father, the old fool, if only he would just keel over, then he would have the store all to himself and he would run it the way he would like. Good thing he hasn't figured it out of who's been stealing from him, which would surely cause the old man to die. He wouldn't believe for a second that his 'innocent son' was the one behind it all, and for good reason; he needed the money to pay his gang. No man could get anywhere in this world being a hard worker that's for sure;

No! You needed to make your own way in life either doing the right thing or the wrong thing and to him doing the wrong thing always appealed to him more than doing the good thing. Realizing that his father was waiting for an answer from him, Jack smirked, he gave his father a pat on the back and falsely reassured him. "Sorry pops didn't mean to startle you like that, I was just checking the store before you came down. After I heard the sound, I too rushed out of bed to investigate, that's when I found Jon Eden trying to break into the cash register and trying to steal one of the bottles of whiskey that you have in the cabinet. I snuck up behind him and grabbed him by the collar and threw him out of the store with a warning, in my haste, I suppose I slammed the door too hard and the glass window in the door broke. Did I perchance wake up step-mother? Give her my apologies will you?"

Tim placed the bat on top of the counter, turned to his son and grabbed Jack by the shoulder and smiled. "Good job, son, you did well with that sort of trash, good riddance. And yes you did wake her and she woke me; next time be a little more careful will you."

"I will pop, now why don't you go back to bed, and explain to Rosie what the whole commotion was about?" Rolling his eyes, Timothy turned to ascend up the stairs back to their living quarters and went back to sleep. "Good night son." As he watched his father walk away, Jack sneered. Good thing he thought up that great idea of smashing the window after he broke into the cash drawer and thinking up the story of a thief doing the break-in and not him. What a lovely situation, he happened to be in; while Jon Eden would take all the blame; he would get off scot-free.