They both laughed as he pushed the over-flowing shopping cart. Suddenly, he stopped to look down at her. “I hope you learned everything from Gigi because I have no idea how to cook a turkey, just how to carve it.”
Her face crumpled with amusement, and she pointed at her chest. “Me? Nope.”
Colin pretended a seriousness belied by the twinkle in his eyes. “Thank goodness for Google… and a phone call to Gigi.”
“Works for me.” She watched him add more food into the already overloaded cart. “You’re like a kid in an amusement park, Colin. I don’t want to burst your bubble, but shouldn’t we make sure the kids will be with us before we splurge on so much stuff. We couldn’t possibly eat all this.” She looked over their groceries and started to laugh. “You have enough here to feed a hockey team.”
Feeling shy but determined, he admitted that he’d begun to think they might be there longer than Christmas when it came to having all the legal authorizations finished. “Which reminds me, I need to contact the landlord and make arrangements for January’s rent just in case I have to remain in Quebec City with the kids into next month.”
“Did Gisele have a lease for the place?”
“From what I’ve found in her papers, I don’t think so. Looks like she paid the first of every month, which makes me think she would have had to give a month’s notice before leaving. For me, that wouldn’t be a problem. I’m not due back until January third and can prolong my return if necessary. How about you?”
“I’m scheduled to be back on the ward January third also. But my flight leaves here on December thirtieth. That’s only a week away. Christmas is in three days.”
“I know. I’m praying Cord calls with good news.”
As if his wish registered with the angel department above, his cellphone rang. “Hello. Oh, hi Cord. What? We’ll be right there.”
Jaqueline saw the worry Colin couldn’t hide. “What happened?”
“Look, we have to pay for this stuff and get going. It seems that Maisie had an accident in her pants and fought like hell whenthey tried to help her clean up and change her clothing. She wouldn’t let anyone touch her but Charlie.”
Rushing along beside Colin, Jaqueline felt her stomach clench with concern. “Poor baby. She’s so proud of her bathroom training. I’m surprised she had an accident.”
“Wait… you haven’t heard the rest. Both Maisie and Charlie have been refusing to eat and haven’t had anything since yesterday when we left them at the office. They’re staging a starvation protest, and they won’t eat until they can come home with us. Guess the foster family that took them in won’t be responsible for such behavior and don’t wish to keep them. According to Cord, because they’re short of foster facilities, they have no choice but to place them with us for now.”
***
When she heard the rest of his explanation, Jaq laughed, exploding with happiness at the outrageousness of his statement. She hurried toward the cash registers. “I wonder where they came up with that idea. My Lord, a protest.” She burst out giggling again, getting stares from the other shoppers. “Colin, what have you got yourself into. Those two little geniuses are smarter than we ever gave them credit for.”
In a short time, Colin pulled his vehicle into the parking lot of the Children’s Services office and saw Cord waiting for them at the entrance. “Ms. Lather has them with her in her office. Just to warn you both, they’re tired and obviously hungry. Maisie hasn’t stopped crying for Colin and Charlie won’t speak to anyone but Maisie. They’ve misbehaved according to Ms. Lather, but I will admit she does have a certain admiration in her voice when she told me.”
Colin and Jaqueline rushed to the door Cord held open and burst in together. Both children looked up from where they cuddled together on a sofa, holding hands.
Maisie shouted, “Cowin. He’s here, Charwie. I told you. And Jaq is here too.” As Maisie cried out, her body flew through the room, flinging herself into Colin’s waiting arms. “I missed you too much, Cowen.” Then she started to cry, big sobbing heaves of sorrow that wrung his heart into a puddle.
In the meantime, Charlie flew toward Jaqueline, almost knocking her over. His arms clung around her neck so tight she had a hard time breathing. Not that she cared. On her knees in front of him, her shaking hands soothed his mussed hair, and her lips traveled over his small face. Finally, she pulled away so she could look into his swollen eyes. “Oh, Charlie. We’re so sorry that you had to be away from us last night. We did everything we could to make them let you stay, but they kept flinging rules at us, rules we weren’t allowed to break. Then Colin hired Cord to help us, and he’s doing a good job. He says you can come home with us for now.”
“Yes. For now.” Interrupting, Ms. Lather’s voice hardened as she approached the group. “It’s imperative that you get a court to give you guardianship, Mr. Jones. Those children won’t be happy otherwise. Even though we were able to place them together, they were totally miserable last night and from what I understand, they made sure everyone else shared that misery.”
Colin kept Maisie in his arms as he stood, her face buried in his neck while she sucked her thumb. A faint urine smell lingered, and her tiny body shook from sniffling hiccups that only went to prove how upset she’d become. His large hand soothed her, rubbing her back continuously. “We heard. Cord told us about their hunger strike. As much as it breaks my heart to know they must be starving, I can’t help but feel a certain pride in their resourcefulness. No doubt it got them the attention they neededwith the big shots. They should be fully aware now that Maisie and Charlie would be miserable anywhere else other than with me.”
Jaqueline flinched when she heard those words. The meaning all but floored her, and if she hadn’t had Charlie wrapped in her arms, she might have reacted even stronger. All along they’d planned the outcome being Colin taking care of the kids, becoming their guardian, and eventually their adopted father.
But what about me? Right now, I’m needed… sure. But will that be the same back home in Vancouver? Where do I fit into the future scheme of things? How can I walk away, leaving them to carry on without me… living their lives, and me not being there every day to share it all?
Chapter Sixteen
Once they were seated in Maisie’s favorite restaurant awaiting their pancakes, the kids appeared much less troubled. In fact, Charlie seemed happy to tell them all about the home they’d escaped and the other children being fostered at the same place.
“Most of the kids were little like us, but they had a boy, Josh, like maybe fourteen. He told us he was their real kid.”
Maisie spoke up, “He was fat and mean.”
“Yeah, he didn’t like us staying in his house. The big bully kicked one of the other kids hard… real hard.” Charlie’s disgust rang in his voice.
Shocked, Colin asked, “What happened?”
