There was a long pause.
Noah stayed silent, afraid that, if he spoke, it would only enrage the boy. He didn't know what kind of knife Casey held. A pocket knife? A switchblade? Or even one of Noah's kitchen knives?
Any of the above could be fatal for Honey Bear.
They seemed to be at an impasse. The kid didn't want to talk. Noah didn't know how to fix this.
But maybe silence was the answer after all, because after a long couple of minutes, Casey began to talk.
"PJ almost died. And it's all because of you. The social worker came and asked me and Lindsey all kinds of questions. Do you know—" A hiccup of a sob, a release of some emotion, interrupted the boy, but not for long. "Do you know what she asked me? She asked me if I wanted to stay with Jilly or go to a group home."
That must've scared Casey. Probably the social worker had hoped to scare him straight. To keep him from running away again if things got tough. Obviously, it had backfired.
"And now—and now Jilly walks around all quiet and sad. She's watching us all the time."
Noah wanted to ask the boy whose fault that was, but he knew that wouldn't be received well.
"And PJ's turned against me. Lindsey always goes along with whatever her brother says." Now Casey's voice turned almost into a growl, betraying just how deep his emotion ran.
They were getting to the crux of the problem. Up until now, Casey'd had the support of his cousins. But Jilly had won. Jilly had gotten through to Lindsey and PJ if they were steering clear of Casey's schemes.
"All of this is your fault."
Noah could almost feel the boy’s anger. He worried for Honey. And for Casey. He needed to calm him down.
"Do you know why Jilly watches you?" He spoke the words very quietly.
He could hear Casey's hiccupping breaths from across the room.
"It's not because she thinks you're going to do something bad."
He took the boy's silence, the fact that he wasn't shouting at Noah to shut up again, as permission to continue.
"It's because she loves you. "
He could almost feel the waves of disbelief rolling off Casey.
"It's true. She wants to adopt you. All three of you." Maybe he was speaking out of turn. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything at all. He didn't know if Jilly had changed her mind or if the violent behavior Casey was threatening now would change it for her.
"You're lying." But Casey's denial held a hint of tentativeness, enough to show Noah that he'd gotten him to listen.
"Didyou know that your mom won't stop loving you, even when you make stupid mistakes?"
Jilly held her breath. She hovered in Noah's living room, her heart pounding so loudly that it threatened to drown out the soft voices from the other room.
She wants to adopt you. How had Noah found out? She hadn't told him yet.
She was out of sight of the doorway, and Noah had no way of knowing she was there. She'd gotten Aiden's frantic phone call and rushed over here. The front door had been jimmied open, the lock obviously tampered with.
She didn't know what to do. Aiden told her that he could barely hear but that Casey was threatening Noah's kitten with a knife. If she revealed herself, was she going to make everything worse? Would Casey do something that he couldn't take back?
"It's true," Noah went on. "When I was twelve, I made a big mistake. I was fighting with my best friend and... he died."
Oh, Noah.She'd seen what it had cost him to reveal his past to her. She could hear the emotion in his voice now as he shared with Casey.
"I was really messed up for a long time. But my mom stuck with me. The whole time, she never gave up on me. Just like I know Jilly's not going to give up on you."
She teared up as quickly as she registered the conviction in his voice. Noah believed in her. He knew that she didn't justwantto be a mom to the kids, shewastheir mom. Maybe not on paper yet, but in every way that mattered.
