The next few days are mostly the same

The next couple of days went by without much trouble, as Jack spent most of his time doing just about nothing, except for tending to the house and dwelling on his miserable situation. He still woke up early in the mornings, without even setting his alarm, and he wasn't all that surprised to find his daughters were getting back to their usual, late morning routines. Which suited him quite well in fact, as it allowed him to eat his breakfast in peace, and then make himself a bit useful by waking them up.

The change in weather towards the middle of the week also fitted his mood pretty well, as it turned from brilliant sunshine to heavy clouds with occasional showers. It made him less motivated to work in the garden however, and so he ended up even more holed up inside of his house for those following few days, with a growing sense of loneliness as he came to realize how very few friends he had to pay him a visit.

He didn't see any signs of the young stalker either, though he guessed that they too would keep away from sneak around in the bushes while there was a risk for downpour at any given moment. Not that it really concerned him of course, but in some ways he really wanted to get rid of that camera, while at the same time he'd still like to have that little chat with him.

Instead he ended up watching TV for most part of the day, or browsing the net on his computer, and then stayed in the couch when his daughters got home and wanted to watch something as well. At first, Kate and Jennie would come by to check some stupid series they were following, and then he'd be joined by Kimberly instead who was more into sports like himself.

In a way he'd always been happy that his youngest daughter didn't share most of the same interests as other girls, and in this respect she was perhaps like the son he never had. Still she was a tad bit annoying though, as she was still a lot more talkative than any guys he'd met when watching a good game, and was so unfocused that it made him wonder how she was able to play any sports at all by herself.

They were all quite distracting in another way too, as Jack came to realize when they were all propped up comfortably in front of the TV, and more than once he was **** to stop his mind from wandering while they all reminded him in one way or the other of what he missed the most about their mother. It may have been years since he'd got used to watching the changes in Catherine's budding figure, while she was slowly reaching adulthood, and eventually he'd even got somewhat accustomed to the way she liked to dress and flaunt herself, even if he certainly didn't always approve of it.

Seeing that even the youngest of his daughters was now almost fully grown up was something quite a bit different however, and caused him to question his own thoughts as he watched her sprawled out like usual on the floor in front of the couch. Both she and Jennifer had grown quite a lot over the last few years after all, even if they never made such a big deal of it as their older sister, and while inside their own house it seemed like they didn't care too much about what they were wearing, or not.

"Hey, dad...?" Said Kate all of a sudden, who was curled up against the armrest on his left side of the couch, and managed to make him jump a little as she tore him back to reality. If she noticed his reaction she only showed it with one of her usual grins though. "There's a movie I'd like to see, starting in just a few minutes! Would you like to watch it too?"

"Um, I dunno..." Jennifer was the first one to answer, even if her sister's question had been directed to their father. Quite surprisingly she'd taken the seat on Jack's right side for once, instead of grabbing the only chair like she used to. With Shirley out of the picture it seemed like she wanted to get a bit closer to the rest of them, even if it really didn't make her any more social than usual. "What's it about...?"

"It's getting quite late..." Jack decided to interrupt them, as he knew how difficult it was to get them up and away in the mornings as it was, and he glanced at the clock just to make his point. "We can't stay up all night, you know."

"Oh, but there's another game after this one!" Kim suddenly jumped into the discussion as well, just when the rest of them had started to think that she'd fallen asleep already, and turned her head around to look directly at Jack from her place on the floor. "It's our home team too!"

"Well..." The man of the house felt like he'd suddenly been caught in the middle of a firefight, and realized he was somehow expected to solve the dispute by casting his vote. On the one hand he'd love to watch the next match, even if Kim hadn't told him about it, but on the other he knew it would be more fair for the others to watch what they wanted.

Unless he'd just send them all to bed instead, though he guessed he should be glad if he managed to get just one or two of his daughters to lose their interest in staying up in front of the TV...