“Do you have any homework?” I asked, already knowing the answer. Even if the school hadn’t had an app that posted all the assigned work, the way he’d tried to sneak off to his room would’ve clued me in.
He made a face but fessed up. “Yeah, just some reading, and my teacher wants us to write a poem, but I don’t know what to write about. Poetry sucks.”
“Maybe you just haven’t found therightpoetry yet. I happen to think some of it is pretty awesome. How about this one.” I cleared my throat, coming up with a quick rhyme. “Orange or yellow, marbled or holey, the best kind of cheese is the one that’s not moldy.” He looked skeptical, and I laughed. “Tell you what. How about you go feed and water the chickens, and I will find you some epic poems. We’ll bang out that homework real quick, and then you can watch a movie after dinner. How’s that sound?”
“Okay, thanks, Jer.”
While Sammy went out to take care of our girls, I sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out my phone. I stared down at it, debating whether or not I should call CPS. My brain said yes, it was my responsibility. There were programs in place to help children like her, but my heart had dug its heels in. If I told them, they might take her away from me, and I just had this feeling, deep inside, that told me she needed to stay.
Sighing, I turned my attention to another call I needed to make. Dialing my boss, I brought the phone up to my ear. “Hey, Mickey,” I said when he picked up. “I really hate to do this to you…”
He was one step ahead of me, as usual. “You’ve got yourself a new kid?” he asked. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, he always stepped up, no complaints, no questions asked. Mickey and I had been in the system together, once upon a time, so he knew how important it was to have a safe place to land.
“Yeah, a newborn. She’s gonna need some extra care for a bit.”
“Don’t you worry, we’ll hold down the fort. I can shuffle the bouncers around to cover any gaps in the schedule, and you know Jordan is always happy to pick up extra shifts. You just tell me what you need.”
“Thanks, boss. I really appreciate it.”
“Not nearly as much as those kids do, I promise you that. What you do is important, and don’t you forget it.” Maybe it was just because I was so damn tired, but his words made my eyes sting with the threat of tears. I was not a crier, but it’d been a long day.
By the time I’d hung up, I was feeling better about the current situation. I could handle this. If I didn’t call CPS, I wouldn’t get paid for keeping Ladybug here, but the money wasn’t what mattered. Nothing but her health and safety did—and that of her missing parent. I wondered if I called hospitals or clinics and explained the situation, they could tell me if they’d had any patients there who matched her omega parent. I doubted it, what with patient confidentiality and all that. Besides, maybe they didn’t want to be found…
I spent a few minutes looking up some poetry for Sammy, choosing a few silly ones, plus one more emotional one that I thought might resonate with him. I glanced out the window toward the barn, wondering what was taking him so long. Normally he would be out and back in no time. Pushing back from the table, I was about to head outside to check on him when the barn door flew open and Sam ran back, cheeks flushed. He bolted in the back door and ran straight upstairs. He was back down to the kitchen a few minutes later, a bag over one shoulder, and headed straight for the cupboard. “Hey, Jer, can I have a snack before dinner?”
“Sure, bud. We won’t be eating until six.” I watched with a smirk as he set out bread, peanut butter, and grape jam across the counter, making a whole bunch of sandwiches, heaped withfilling until it oozed out the sides. He licked jam off his thumb and then stacked them one on top of the other.
“Three sandwiches?!” I balked.
“I’m a growing boy,” he said in explanation, before he grabbed the bag again and made to run back outside.
“Hey, where are you going?” I asked before he could make his escape. “I thought we were working on poetry.”
He paused, one foot out the door. “Uh, yeah. I, um… had a good poem idea about chickens. I’m gonna go write it out there in the barn, so the girls can help.”
I frowned, wondering what he was up to. “Okay. I guess whenever the mood strikes, you’ve gotta follow your muse. I’m looking forward to hearing it.”
Without another word, Sam was out the door and bolting to the barn, slipping through the door. My bullshit meter was pinging something fierce, but I wanted to give him as much freedom as was safe. Trust was important, and he’d already earned mine ten times over. He was a good kid. He couldn’t get into any trouble out there in the barn. I figured he was probably just texting a girl or boy from school, someone he had a crush on. If that was the case, it wasn’t really my business. I was sure whatever it was, he would tell me in his own time.
My thoughts were interrupted by the first sound of fussing through the baby monitor, and I smiled to myself. As much work as it was to care for a newborn by myself, I knew I was up for the challenge. She was one special girl, and I would do whatever it took to make sure she ended up with the family she deserved.
6
August
Theworldwasonfire.
My dreams were filled with flames that licked at my body, burning me from the inside out. I was hiding from Victor inside the closet of a burning building, trying my best not to make a sound, but the agony was more than I could handle. Eyes clenched shut against the blinding light, a whimper tore from my throat as my skin was peeled from my body, one inch at a time, flaying me alive. When I heard the creak of a door opening, my eyes shot open, and I sat bolt upright with a ragged cry, body protesting the movement.He found me!
Except the light searing my eyes was not fire but sunlight peeking through the beams of a barn, painting my body with stripes of warm golden light.He’s not here, he hasn’t found you.You’re safe, I told myself firmly, repeating it until my heartrate finally slowed. There was no fire, no closet, no Victor searching for me. It was just a dream. The pain was unfortunately real,though, and it took me a long moment to remember where I was and everything that had happened.
A shuffle from my right had my heart kicking off at a fresh gallop, adrenaline spiking, and I whipped my head around to the sound, the barn spinning around me. There was a young teenager there, a boy. The one I saw this morning heading to the bus. Had I been asleep all day that school was now over? Relief that it wasn’t Victor made me sag back against the wall. Surely this boy wasn’t a threat. His whole body had gone stiff, eyes wide and startled, and he had one hand still on the door like he was about to bolt. Something kept him in place, though, and when I followed his gaze down my body, I saw what he did.
Blood, a fair bit of it. It had soaked my pants, smeared across the concrete floor, and my shirt was sticking with sweat and milk that had been leaking from me, already starting to smell a bit sour. Shit. I was a mess.
I thunked my head back on the wood and let my eyes drift closed. I listened as the shuffling got closer, but I was too sore, too tired to open my eyes again to track his movement. “Hey, mister, are you okay?” he whispered from a few feet away.
Honestly? I wasn’t so sure how to answer him. I was decidedly not okay, but I would live… right? “Sure, kid. I’m fine,” I muttered through chapped lips. “Maybe just… let me sleep for a while. Okay? Don’t tell anyone I’m here. I’ll move on after I get some rest. I promise.” I didn’t like the way my speech was slurred, and apparently, he didn’t either, because he didn’t leave. He just stood there shuffling his feet, and I could feel him staring down at me.
