Cash’s POV
It had been the craziest fucking six weeks of my life. Devin and I tried to go on dates at least twice a week, while I navigated becoming Calen's temporary guardian. There was no other family that Calen could go with, so CPS asked I’d be willing to step in. There wasn’t much talk, as Devin and I had already agreed with each other that we would do whatever was best for Calen. So he lived with me while CPS worked with him and investigated his mom, trying to figure out if they’d be able to get him to go home safely, or if he’d have to be placed in the system. That was the goal—the goal for CPS and Viviene.
Calen had other ideas.
He had made it clear, if I would take him in on a more permanent basis, that was what he would choose. I asked if he was sure he had no other family, that his mother hadn’t mentioned any grandparents or mysterious uncles or rich aunts. He swore that Vivienne said she had no one else in her family, other than him. I suspected they either cut her off, or she cut them off. Either way, there was no way of knowing for sure, and who knew if they were willing to take a fifteen year old boy in anyway.
I had mentioned possibly doing DNA testing, even one of those at home DNA kits where you can connect with others on their apps, to Calen to see if he wanted to find any potential other family, since he’d never met his father. He said he wanted to think about it, and I respected it since the kid had a lot of his mind already.
I turned my home office into his bedroom for the time being, moving most of the shit into my room, or stacking it on the kitchen table until I figured out what to do with it all. Devin had been going through all her stuff in her apartment and decluttering, or purging, as she called it. She graciously offered some space for me to work in there, while Calen was staying with me if I needed it. It felt like a step forward, not just for us in our relationship, but to making this work for the three of us. It was a step forward in the direction I wanted to go.
Into something more permanent. Because that’s what I wanted.
Permanent.
Forever.
I wanted that with her.
It was a learning curve for sure for the three of us, but we made it work. With Calen still undecided about the DNA test, no known family and the threat of foster care looming, we made it work. I’d heard horror stories about what happened in some of those foster care places and I didn’t want that for Calen. No way, not my little buddy.
Since taking him in, we’d been getting along really well. He was coming out of his shell more. Doing a lot to help out around the apartment. Devin had even recommended a colleague for him to talk to, so he’d been doing that after school once a week. It was great to see him opening up little by little. Calen had even asked Devin, after staying with me for two weeks, if she’d teach him how to cook when she had time.
So, they started making dinner together every night she didn’t have to work and breakfast on the weekends off. They would look on different recipe apps and social media to find thenewest, craziest, simplest, or tastiest recipes. The most recent one was a chicken alfredo garlic bread. It was so tasty, and Calen even said he thinks he could make it again by himself if we bought a rotisserie chicken and kept it in the refrigerator. Cooking was their thing.
Devin and Calen loved it.
And I did too. Seeing her patience with Calen and explaining things step by step with him, showing him how to do each step while still giving him the space he needed; it was magical. And one day, I was watching them, and then there were more. I could see her doing that, teaching, cooking, laughing, smiling, with our children.
And holy shit how I wanted them.
If she wanted them, as many as she wanted, then I did too. I wanted to see her belly swollen with my babies.
Fuck.
Why was I always turned on around this woman?! I swear, she gave me a constant boner. I was honestly surprised I was able to stand up most days without showing everyone in the room just how much I appreciated her beauty at any given moment.
After a date night, we would try to be as quiet as we could when we’d fool around, and we always waited until Calen was playing or asleep before we did anything. And it was always at her apartment. More and more it seemed Calen was on the PlayStation, headphones on after we came home from a date. She had bought the headphones for him as a gift, but really, it was to minimize the noises he might hear.
Because I couldn’t get enough of her; I couldn’t keep my hands off of her. She wasn’t exactly complaining either.
When we did start going out, we had decided to get a sitter for Calen, at least until we could clear it with the CPS caseworker that he was okay to be left on his own for a little while in order for us to go out. We didn’t want to cross any boundaries or fuck up somehow. Calen was mortified when one of the seniors from his school turned out to be the babysitter we’d hired on a recommendation from one of the nurses at Devin’s hospital.
The first time we left him with her, we came home and talked about it. He said she was ‘really cool’ and promised not to tease him.
“She said it’s kinda sweet how protective my parents are of me. She even started to be friends with me at school. She introduced me to her friend group, too,” he was beaming as he told us about the new developments the very next week when he got home from school Tuesday.
“She told everyone we met in the building, which isn’t wrong because she lives two floors up from us,” he would talk on and on about her. I personally felt he’d gotten his first crush.
Devin and I had a date set for the next night, and Calen asked if he could invite his sitter over, as a friend instead of a sitter though. I wanted to say yeah, but I also felt like this was something I should get Devin’s opinion on.
I was a teenage boy once, but it never hurt to get a second opinion.
*****
Devin’s POV
We were getting ready for movie night at my place. It was our new Thursday night tradition we started with Calen, if we were planning on going out Friday night. We wanted to make sure that we had time together, all three of us, as well as our own time. It was a delicate balance we were trying to work out. It was all still new.
