-17-

Snowie was getting the mail when a young man walked up to her. Sunset Valley was a small community and she thought she knew everyone.

"Uh hi, I'm looking for Jaylee."

"I'm sorry, who are you? And what business do you have with my sister-in-law."

The young man blinked at the feisty young woman. "I'm Mathew Dark, I live with her mother."

"Ohhhhh! You're Jamie's young beau huh?"

Mathew rubbed the the back of his neck in annoyance. "That's why I'm looking for Jaylee." He shrugged. "Jamie is just a friend of my aunt's, and Jaylee scares me so I need to clear the air."

Snowie snorted, "Seriously? Jaylee is the least frightening person I know."

"If you'd seen her the other night I'm sure she would have changed your mind."

Snowie and Mathew ended up having a whole conversation on the porch. Mathew was in the middle of telling funny stories from his childhood when Jaylee showed up and their laughter stopped abruptly.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Jaylee demanded, placing herself between Snowie and Mathew.

Mathew swallowed the lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat. "Um...."

"He came looking for you." Snowie's eyes narrowed. "Where did you come from? I didn't even hear the front door open."

"It's because you were laughing too loudly." Jaylee frowned, to Mathew she said. "What do you want?"

"I uh...why are you so mean to me?" He whined, a hard look from Jaylee had him stammering out the reason for his visit. "I just wanted to let you know that there's nothing going on between me and your mom, my aunt send me here to keep me out of trouble and...."

"You stay away from Snowie Mathew Dark."

Mathew nodded vigorously and ran away into the night. "Why are you being so rude to him?" Snowie matched Jaylee's cold tone.

"There's just something about that boy that I don't like. I can't quite put my finger on it...."

Claus came home early from work and was enjoying time with his two younger children. Sahara rocked on her butt singing a nursery rhyme that Agnes had taught her while Claus rocked Cupid to sleep.

"Okay Mama, it's your turn." He said and scooped Sahara up. He patted her back and bounced her from side to side and just when he thought that she was falling asleep, the child started a conversation with him.

"Sahara, it's bedtime."

"I'm not sleepy Daddy." Sahara said, Claus enjoyed hearing his youngest daughter speak, she spoke like an adult, perfectly crafting each word into a sentence. Sahara, because she was usually stuck in the nursery with Cupid, made sure that her baby brother was taken care of, if they were late to feed or change him, Sahara would give them hell. Claus had begun calling her Mama because he thought she acted like an old maid.

"But it's bedtime."

"I'm a big girl Daddy, big girls get to stay up late."

"No, you're my baby girl." Claus corrected. "You just think you're grown."

"Plus, if you don't go to sleep the claw will get you."

Sahara feigned fear. "No Daddy! Not the claw!!!" She cried just as Claus began tickling her ribs. She screamed with laughter and kicked and twisted in her father's arms, trusting that he would not drop her.

"Okay, you're gonna wake your brother." Claus smiled, "How about I read you a story?"

"Okay Daddy."

Egypt was outside, she heard her little sister's wild laughter and couldn't help but smile herself. "I guess I'd better go to sleep myself." She told Patches. 

On those very few days that Claus was home, he made an effort to spend time with all of his children. He was accepting of Egypt's choice to sleep in the tree house, but that didn't stop him from trying to convince her to come inside. This usually led to Egypt rolling her eyes, but unlike her mother, she would never backtalk her father, the last time she tried Claus had wrung her ear so hard she heard whistling for two days.

By the time Claus got Sahara settled and went outside to Egypt the girl was fast asleep. He couldn't help but smirk, knowing that the girl was intentionally avoiding him. He was surprised to find Jaylee sleeping when he got upstairs, usually she was up the latest, other than Agnes with her weird, post-menopausal sleeping habits.

Claus took a quick shower and climbed into bed behind his wife. "Babe," He whispered, "You're not pregnant again are you?"

"Don't be ridiculous," She mumbled, "I got my tubes tied remember."

Time seemed to pass too quickly, before the Winters knew it, Cupid was toddling around. Cupid was completely different from his sisters, he played rough and his tantrums, although not very frequent, were twice as terrible as Egypt's. 

Cupid mastered the puppy-dog eyes, he could get away with anything, even where Claus was concerned.

"Big boys use the potty." Jaylee told her son. Cupid couldn't care less where he did his business, but he realized that his family would cheer and clap when he did it in the potty and he liked that.

Sahara still took her big sister duties very seriously. "I'll sing Q to sleep Mommy!" And with that the little girl broke into song. Jaylee started to sing along. "No! I'm singing!" Sahara told her.

"Well I'm sorry Mama." Jaylee said and backed out of the room.

The sun was rising when Snowie crept in the house, she changed into her night clothes and was rummaging through the fridge. On her way back upstairs to her room, she peeked into the nursery and found Sahara trying to climb out of the crib. 

"You're gonna land on your big head." Snowie giggled and help the child down. Sahara peed and then Snowie tucked her back in. 

"Oh God!" She jumped when she started to climb into her bed. Egypt was buried under the blankets so Snowie hadn't realized she was there before. Snowie eased under the blankets and hoped that her niece hadn't noticed what time she came home.

One day the Winter toddlers discovered hide-and-seek.

It would not have been so terrible if all they did was hide, but sometimes it was impossible to find Sahara and Cupid and the older family members would have to lure them out with food. Claus had to put an end to the games though when Cupid began to take it too far, he would hide and either jump out and scare Sahara or pounce on his unsuspecting sister. 

The children's games did give Jaylee an idea for Claus' birthday though.