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Jacobi sat on the windowsill, watching as the rain trickled down the panes in front of him. He sighed aloud. Liam was lying on the floor down beside the dining table, playing with his dinosaur toys and getting more and more boisterous the longer they were stuck inside the house. Jacobi was fairly sure they'd both spontaneously combust any second now.
Usually, the boys would go outside in the garden and run around on the weekends, often playing catch together or even ( only if Jacobi was in a really good mood ) pretend to be animals and chase each other around. This let out their unpent energy and tired them out enough for the grandads' to be able to put them to bed. However, as Robby and Jack were finding out, the rain put a massive halt to this - resulting in two bored and agitated boys milling about the house.
Jack decided enough was enough. They needed to get out somewhere.
"Come on guys, I think we should go on a walk." He declared, getting up from the armchair and rubbing his hands together.
Robby looked hesitant.
"We're going to get all wet Jack…" Robby said, not moving from his spot on the sofa.
Jack replies quickly, keeping an overly positive tone, "It's fine Michael, we can all wear coats. It'll be good to get out of the house for a bit." He knew if he used Robby's proper name it'll force him to come purely out of spite.
Surely enough, he was completely right.
And so, this was how the family found themselves on that rainy Sunday afternoon, trudging through the local park in the dripping rain.
Liam was fully content, bounding ahead of them and rolling around on the wet grass, getting mud smothered all on his blue jacket. For once, Jacobi was also calm, walking a couple of paces behind Jack and Robby and in his own little world looking at the trees in the distance. Jack thought it was nice to see him at peace for once, even though he was sure it wouldn't last past the weekend.
"Grandad, look! Can we play with it, please please!" Liam shouted, pointing at an old football left in the middle of the field. Robby smiled.
"Sure, go get it buddy." Robby replied, trying to make Liam run as many places as possible in order to tire him out ready for bedtime later; that was a battle Robby could not be bothered to fight. Anyways, this would be fun for them all to play some good old American football.
So, Liam ran over and picked up the football, throwing it up and down in the air as he walked back over to Jack and Robby, a huge smile plastered on his face.
"Jacobi will love this!" Liam said happily, looking at his brother who was sitting on a bench further along the field. Jack looked at Robby quizzically.
"Why would Jacobi love football of all things?" Jack laughed, catching the ball from Liam and tossing it towards Robby.
Liam laughed back while he grabbed the football from Robby, "Because he loves football silly! At home, he was the best player on the school team and even played for the first team in state."
Jack and Robby were taken aback. Sure, they lost contact with their daughter and weren't the closest, but surely they'd know some stuff about their grandsons and what they liked to do, they still texted and framed all the pictures she sent them.
They watched as Liam ran over to Jacobi and handed him the ball, with his eyes seeming to light up as he grabbed hold of it. He gestured for Liam to run back and so his brother ran about a football field's length away, seeming to be very optimistic about this.
"There's no way he's going to make this." Robby said under his breath, with Jack looking doubtful.
Yet, much to their surprise, they watched engrossed as Jacobi pulled his arm back and threw the ball into the air with clear strength and power, causing it to sail right towards Liam and into his hands. They gasped, shocked. Liam ran back around and tried to run past Jacobi, who pretended to dive and let Liam get past, with Liam cheering in victory and Jacobi laughing from the floor.
At this point, Robby and Jack decided to get in on the action. Robby stood back as quarterback and threw the ball into the direction of Jack and Jacobi, with Jacobi dodging around Liam and jumping in the air ready to catch the ball. Just as he jumped into the air, Jack ducked underneath him and caught him, throwing him over his shoulder and stopping him from catching the ball. Jack and Liam were laughing uncontrollably as Jacobi smiled and tried to push himself off Jack. This was nice, them all getting along for once.
They carried on playing for a while until they decided to continue with their walk before it started to get dark. As they walked along the path, Robby ducked back and walked next to Jacobi.
“Hey buddy, I never knew you were into football.” Robby questioned, hoping to find out more about his grandson.
Jacobi shrugged, "Yeah I used to play." Clearly, he wasn't giving much away.
"Well, there are a few teams around here and your school's one is pretty good too, y'know. We can definitely take you along to one." Robby said caringly, putting his arm around Jacobi.
Jacobi stiffened a bit, but at least he didn’t shrug his arm off. Robby was happy with the progress they were making, with that and the game of football showing signs of good development between them all.
"I don't know, maybe, I'll think about it." Jacobi replied, going quiet again. Robby smiled.
The more he thought about it, the more Robby realised that Jacobi doesn’t like people getting too close to him, hence why he tries to not give too much information away. He wants to make himself bulletproof, never getting close enough to someone that they can hurt him. It was most certainly a defense mechanism after his mother, but it still hurt Robby seeing him close himself off even with something he clearly loves like football.
"It's funny actually, I used to be really into watching football when I was younger." Robby laughed, grabbing Jacobi's attention.
"Who did you support then?" Jacobi said quickly, interest flaring in his eyes.
"The steelers of course! Born and bred." Robby laughed, with Jacobi showing a face of disgust, "I'm guessing you have an allegiance to the eagles even after the move."
Jacobi nodded, smiling from ear to ear. This was probably the happiest Robby had ever seen him.
"Well, you'll be happy to know that I have a lot of memorabilia in the garage that you can go through if you want. I don’t use any of it anymore." Robby said.
"Really!" Jacobi exclaimed, a clear excitement building up. Robby nodded.
And so, continuing their walk around the park, with Robby and Jacobi talking football and Jack and Liam walking together up ahead, the family ended the day in peace and happiness, an unusual course of action for them but welcomed nonetheless.