“You got something on your line,” he said, pointing to the water where my line was bobbing, but before I could reel the fish in, it managed to fight his way off my hook.
“Shit. Sorry. Must’ve spaced there for a minute.” That had been happening a lot lately. Any time I wasn’t actively using my brain for something, it was a safe bet that Lennix was swirling around inside my head.
“I know what you were thinkin’ about. It’s a girl, isn’t it?” Toby gave me a look that was part grossed out, part proud. A typical twelve-year-old-boy response to the opposite sex. He was old enough to crush on girls, but still young enough that he hadn’t quite grown out of the cooties stage yet.
I cast him a side-eyed look. “I haven’t thought about agirlin a very long time, bud. But I might have had my mind on a particular woman.”
His eyes bugged out, then his face split into a broad, goofy smile. “It was that hot chi—I mean, it was that hotladyfrom before, wasn’t it?”
I mimed zipping my lips and tossing the key into the stream. “I’m not telling.”
He let out a snort and turned back to the water, reeling his line in so he could cast it back out like I’d taught him.
“What about you?” I asked after a few minutes of companionable silence.
He looked at me with a scrunched brow. “What about me what?”
“You got someone, bud?”
His head shot back to the water, his cheeks and the tips of his ears growing pink. It was obvious he was interested in someone, but before I could tease him for answers, I noticed his mouth was pulled tight, and it wasn’t in the usual, shy, giddy, I’m-a-kid-with-a-crush kind of way.
“Hey.” I lightly bumped his shoulder with my elbow. “What’s going on, kid?”
“Nothin’,” he muttered, casting out with more force than was necessary.
“Toby.” I waited until he looked back at me. “You know you can talk to me. You know that, right? I’m here for you. No matter what.”
He blew out a sigh that was way too heavy for a kid his age. I fucking hated how much he had to carry on his little shoulders. I would have given up everything that was important to me if it meant giving him back his happy, loving family.
“There’s... a girl,” he started, but I couldn’t tell by his tone whether the fact that there was a girl was a good thing or a bad thing. I wanted to dig, but held myself back, knowing he needed to open up at his own pace. I reeled in my line and cast out again as I waited. My stomach twisted into a knot of worry, getting tighter and tighter with each passing second. The silence lasted so long I was starting to worry he wasn’t going to give me anything more. Then he finally let it all out. And what he said fucking gutted me.
“She’s nice. And pretty. I like her.” He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “She always comes up and talks to me at lunch.”
“That’s good, right?”
“I guess. But she’s friends with a bunch of assholes.”
I clamped down on the inside of my cheek to keep from reprimanding him about his language. Something told me the curse was warranted. “Oh?” I said instead, then tried to get him to smile by teasing, “Can’t you all be little assholes from time to time? I mean, you give me shit on a regular basis.”
He shook his head, laser focused on the stream like it held all the answers to life. “Not like this. They... they make fun of me.”
I was going to murder those little assholes. “What were they making fun of you for?”
“For . . . for not having parents.”
“What?” I barked out so loud my voice echoed across the gurgling water. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”
He shook his head, a single tear breaking free and trailing down his cheek. “There’s one kid, Mike Booth, he’s the worst.” Christ, it felt like my heart was being ripped I half. I wanted to rage, to jump in my truck and hunt those fuckers down. Then I wanted to find their parents and beat the holy hell out of them for raising such shitty human beings. But as Toby’s mentor, I couldn’t do any of that. As badly as I wanted to. It was a real bitch, having to be the responsible adult and good influence sometimes.
“Hey, come here, kid.” I took his fishing pole and placed it in the grass along with mine. “Sit down here, will you?” He joined me on the ground, folding his legs crisscross and sniffling. “Tell me what they say.”
“They say... they call me Orphan Boy and say no one will ever love me now that my mom and dad are dead. They make fun of me for not having any other family that wanted me and for not having a real home anymore.”
I reached out, placing my hand on his to stop him. For his sake, but for mine as well, because I wasn’t sure how much more I could hear before I started ripping heads off.
“I want you to listen to me. There isnothingwrong with you. Not one damn thing. I’ve known a lot of kids in my day, and I gotta tell you, I like you the best of all of them.”
Toby snorted, but I could see the corner of his mouth tremble as he fought back a grin.
