“Sure.” I was at the machine already, after all.
Rey was an enigma. Soon he would have been with the guys for a year, yet they still knew nothing about him, other than his age, because he’d blurted it out when it was his birthday in February.
The kid had dark hair and big eyes, and he looked like some sort of an elven creature from a fantasy movie. Or a fae, maybe? I’d read a lot of fantasy books as a kid, but not recently. Either way, he looked striking, especially when he was smiling and happy. He hadn’t quite grown into his body yet, but that only made sense, since he wasn’t yet eighteen.
He had, however, this sort of too old for his years kind of aura about him. I didn’t know what he’d lived through, what he’d survived, but it had taken a toll on him.
* * * *
A week and a half later I met Madden for the first time while River and I visited him in the hospital, and I recognized something similar in him that I saw in Rey.
Madden had said he wanted some autonomy for himself and Mona, and he chose to live in my old room upstairs in the house with her.
I knew Toby hated that they wouldn’t be under his roof, but he’d also made a private deal with a social worker friend of his. Toby would start the process of becoming a foster parent, while the kids stayed where they’d be safe at the rescue. I was pretty sure it wasn’t how you were supposed to do these things, and I wondered how they’d gotten lucky enough to have the social worker on their side like that.
River said that the kids hadn’t yet been discovered by “the system” whatever that meant, because Toby had asked for some incredibly valuable favors. After Lake had once explained to me how much the rescue business revolved around favors of all kinds, I thought it was kind of apt how this part, too, would work like that.
I just hoped the favors would be collected in a way that wouldn’t be too taxing for Toby whenever those people came to call.
* * * *
One day, during a self-appointed coffee break, I went to the house to get myself a mug, then made one for Sierra and took it to the office for her.
Theo was working with one of the horses I didn’t recognize in the round pen, but Lake and River were on one of their shopping days in Chicago. They’d taken Mona with them, because she was in need of new things, as was Madden. When I’d been asked if I wanted to go with them, I’d all but broken out in hives. They’d laughed at me.
Madden would arrive tomorrow after his hospital stay had been extended because of some surgery complications. Mona was incredibly excited about being able to live here with her brother, and I couldn’t blame her.
Now, as I stepped out of Sierra’s office, I smiled at the late September day. It was so quiet and peaceful, that I almost ignored the truck driving along the road that went past the rescue. Except, suddenly the dogs became alert in a way I hadn’t seen before.
All of them stood and stared as the old, banged up looking truck turned into the yard.
“Uh, Sierra and Theo?” I called out loud enough for hopefully both of them to hear.
Theo turned a little, the horse stopped moving, and Theo caught it by the halter. Sierra opened the door behind me just as the truck stopped next to the office.
“Oh shit,” Sierra murmured, then vanished from the doorway, and when I glanced at her, she was grabbing a phone off the desk.
Theo peered over the round pen fence, looking serious under his ball cap.
The dogs slowly moved around the truck as a middle-aged man got out of it. He looked…sad. There was something defeated about him, and I instantly saw Bucky sense that, too. He didn’t go to the man, but he glanced at me, then back at Theo.
Sierra stepped out to stand next to me with a phone in her hand.
“Look,” the man said, stopping next to his truck and glancing at us before dropping his gaze. “I’m sorry, okay.”
“We know,” Theo said, strolling closer without the horse that he’d left in the pen.
“What are you doing here, Andy?” Sierra asked, her voice stern in a way I hadn’t heard before.
I could feel her anxiety, though. I felt as if she was two minutes from vibrating with it.
“I just…” he rubbed a hand over his face.
Theo nodded at Bucky, who walked to Andy and waited for the man to lower his hand.
“You here to see Sally-Mae?” Theo raised a brow.
Andy nodded and smiled ever so slightly when Bucky licked his hand. “Yeah. I…I got this last night.” He produced a green thing from his pocket, and I realized it was one of those coins from AA.
