“What?” Sawyer called back from the kitchen, so Robbie headed that way. He found the kid with a spoon in the peanut butter jar and a sliced apple already plated.
“Hey, kid. Sit with me?”
Sawyer’s head shot up. “What’s wrong?”
He really was Robbie’s kid. Panicking at the attempt to slow roll.
“Sit,” Robbie ordered and pulled out two chairs at the counter.
Sawyer abandoned the peanut butter to sit. “What happened?”
“Eugene called.”
“I have to see them,” Sawyer said fatalistically.
Robbie shook his head. “No—I mean, maybe. That’s not why he called.”
“Then what—”
“They want custody.” Better to rip the Band-Aid off.
Sawyer paled. “What? No!”
“Hey, hey.” Robbie grabbed his hands before he could get up to pace. “Listen to me, okay? Eugene says they don’t have a hope in hell.”
Sawyer pressed his lips together. “They must havesomehope.”
A fair point, since they found a lawyer to take the case. Robbie held up his hand, thumb and forefinger pressed together. “A miniscule hope. Eugene says our case is solid. He’s filing to throw out the request entirely. He’ll need to talk to you to beef up that request.”
“But he might not get the judge to do that,” Sawyer said, jaw set.
Robbie tried to hide his wince. “Maybe not. But even if it takes longer to get someone to see sense, we’ll keep trying until they do.”
“Yeah, but….” Sawyer bit his lip. “What if you get custody and then they just petition for grandparents’ rights again? ’Cause they’ll technically still be my grandparents if you’re my dad.”
Robbie didn’t know if it worked like that. He’d have to ask Eugene. “I don’t know, bud. Can an adult legally disown his parents? ’Cause I can do that.”
Sawyer fidgeted. “What if—”
“They can’t have you, kid. I’ll fly you to Switzerland first. Wherever it takes.”
Finally Sawyer’s shoulders slumped. “Okay.” But the way he rested his face against the side of Robbie’s arm like he hadn’t done since he was ten and falling asleep during a sci-fi marathon told Robbie he was still rattled.
“So what are we thinking for dinner? Delivery, or are we going to brave the wilds of Toronto for a gastropub? We could invite Imogen.” He’d have to cancel on Finn; there was no way around that, but Finn would understand.
Sawyer shook his head against Robbie’s shoulder. “Can we stay in?”
“Course. Hey, wanna find a bad sci-fi show to make fun of?”
Sawyer nodded but didn’t raise his head.
“All right, what about food? Burgers, pizza, maybe Greek?”
Sawyer didn’t seem particularly enthused, so Robbie ordered burgers because the burger place had good chocolate shakes and at least he could get some calories into him that way.
Then for the much less pleasant task.
Finn picked up on the second ring, sounding breathless. “Robbie.”
