"Sorry." But the boy didn't sound sorry.
She sighed. That wasn't the apology she'd hoped for. Casey was still angry that she'd grounded them from TV for a week for playing their little prank. Now, she needed to stand her ground.
She waited for several seconds, but Noah made no movement or sound. No sign that he accepted the apology, however badly given.
She turned to the boys. "Noah works from home. So when you rang his doorbell, it was like walking into his office and interrupting him. Do you understand why that is rude behavior? Why we don't do that?"
Casey stared off into the distance. PJ nodded, his eyes big in his face. At least one of them seemed to get it.
She'd hoped for more from both the man and the boys.
She pointed up the hill toward her farmhouse. "You guys start walking. I'll be there in a minute." She gently disengaged from Lindsey, who grabbed her brother's hand. Jilly turned on the flashlight app on her phone—should've thought of that when they were standing in the dark on his porch—and passed it to Casey.
The kids started walking, the light bobbing ahead of them.
Noah moved when she turned back to him.
"Noah—"
"Why did you come over here? I know Aiden told you to keep off my property."
"Why didn't you call me yourself?" she asked. "Instead of calling the sheriff?"
His expression was shuttered.
She took a breath. Fighting with him wasn't going to help. "I'm fostering them. The kids. Casey's twelve. PJ's ten, and Lindsey’s seven. The two younger kids are siblings. Casey's their cousin. They're..."
"They're troublemakers."
She bristled. "They aren't. They've had a rough time. Been in the system for too long." They needed a real home, and she was determined to give it to them. If he called the sheriff again, their caseworker might get involved.
"I don't care,” Noah said. “I don't want them—or you—on my property."
He'd made that clear from the beginning. "I'm sorry we disturbed you. I thought... I thought that if we came over here and the kids met you, they'd see you're just a person. And they'd—"
"Leave me alone? Have you ever met a twelve-year-old boy before?"
He said it as if she'd purposely painted a target on his house. Couldn't he see she was doing the best she could?
"I'll keep a closer eye on them."
His sneer and the single eyebrow he raised told her exactly what he thought about that.
She forced herself to swallow her indignation. It didn't matter what Noah thought. The kids were her responsibility. She was going to do right by them.
She'd wanted a family more than anything. She had one now, and she wasn't going to let this cranky neighbor mess things up. She just had to make sure the boys didn't come over here again.
"Good bye, Noah."
He closed the door in her face.
