“We need to convince him to do the DNA test. Then I think we should start looking for a bigger apartment so we canall live together. Do you happen to know if there are bigger units in this building available?”
He grabbed me around the waist and wrapped his hand in my hair as he kissed me senseless. I leaned back on the couch, and he followed, refusing to let me go. He was kissing down my neck when we heard a small voice.
“I’ll do it.”
We froze, looking at each other, before sitting up and looking to where the voice came from. Cash lifted his head while I let mine fall back looking at the front door. Calen stood there, hand on the door handle, tears streaking down his cheeks.
“I’ll take the test,” he said with a sniffle. We looked back at each other and he helped right me, then walked over to where Calen stood. Calen cried quietly, looking at the floor. This kid who was almost six foot tall with shaggy dark brown hair, had his shoulders slumped with Cash’s arm around him as they shuffled over to the island. Calen paused in front of me, looking at the floor.
“Do…Do you,” he wiped his face with the sleeve of his hoodie, “Do you really want me?”
His voice was so small and vulnerable I almost broke. He looked at me through his hair that fell in his face. His eyes shifted between Cash and me, with the biggest, glassiest eyes I think I’d ever seen on a person before. This kid just wanted somewhere to call home that came along with a safe, loving family to call his own. Tears filled my eyes as I looked at the vulnerable little boy in front of me, and nodded my head. He wrapped his arms around me, crying into my shoulder. I wrapped my arms around Calen, holding this boy when I feltCash wrap his arms around the both of us as I rubbed their backs, telling Calen we’d figure out a way for him to stay with us.
“I promise. We’ll figure it out, okay?” I tried to soothe him. He just nodded his head, wiping the tears that fell without signs of stopping.
“I’m gonna go work on my homework,” he said as he went back toward the front door, motioning to Cash’s apartment. I smiled at Cash who was smiling back at me.
“You’re amazing, Devin. How did I get so lucky?” I just smiled at him and started making a list in my head of everything I needed to get done.
“First things first. The DNA test.” He nodded and stood up and went to grab the kit out of the cupboard he’d left it in and to talk to Calen. It might be a longer conversation than I was thinking. I decided to start making calls.
Mainly to CPS.
We’re keeping Calen with us.
End of story.
Chapter Thirty-Nine:
Cash’s POV
Closing the oven door, I smiled at the steak broiling over top of the veggies, as Devin was taking a virtual tour of the bigger units, three floors up from us. We’d been pouring over them for the last few weeks, searching for the perfect one. Two of them had four bedrooms, one had three bedrooms and they all had larger shared living spaces. The one was basically a penthouse without being at the top of the building. She was in the middle of asking questions about it when the front door of my apartment burst open.
Calen came storming through, huffing and puffing like he ran the whole way. Devin and I were in the kitchen, having narrowed down our search to two units in the building. We both stopped and looked at him expectantly. Devin was already standing, worry on her face. I was ready for whatever was chasing him.
“I got them! I got the text!” I didn’t know what he was freaking out about. I thought someone was chasing him, but here he was with a smile on his face and his phone in his hand.
What was he—The results! Oh shit! They’re in!
“Hell yeah!” I shouted, unable to erase the smile on my face. I had been stressing and biting my nails the last few weeks about this after he agreed. Calen had listened to the full story of how I found the rest of my biological family, how disappointed I was with who my sperm donor turned out to be. But made it a point to tell him, so far my siblings were awesome. He listened as I told them how I found my dad’s side of the family. However,after talking to two of my siblings and all of us reaching out to our sperm donor, none of us had heard anything.
Not a fucking thing.
The woman I now knew to be my stepmom did call me though. Last week. She had filled me in on the testing and investigating she’d been doing of her husband, and I put her on speaker phone and let her know my fiancé was on the call with us. She apologized for how that pathetic man treated me, and I asked if she’d reached out to any of the other kids. She was quiet for a long time before asking for their details. Calen came home in the middle of it, and she joked maybe he was another stepson when we told her of his circumstances.
That was a whole other issue though, with his mom not signing over custody to us. My stepmother was very pleasant and let us know that she was in the process of gathering information to divorce the man who was no more than a sperm donor to me. When I informed her that I was the eighth affair child, she admitted she no longer wanted anything more to do with him.
She also told us she wouldn’t be surprised if there were more of us out there. Apparently he’d been about as faithful as a married prostitute. I felt bad for her, but she sounded like she was on top of the world with all the information we’d given her.
“I’m only in my fifties. I can still travel the world and find love again if I want. Don’t worry about me.” That’s the kind of strength I hoped to have when it came to facing any situation. But especially the one with Calen.
Devin quickly shut her laptop, snapping me out of the memories of the phone from the night before. She grabbed the tablet off the counter, unlocking it and pushing the tablet over to Calen so he could pull up the email to see what the results said.
Devin stood across from him, giving him her full attention. I checked the timer on the oven. We had ten minutes left until dinner was done. Calen quickly logged into his email and clicked on the link for him to see his results. He looked at both of us, a slightly nervous excitement about him, before he read it to himself. His face was impassive at first, then confused, then relieved, then excited.
“I have family,” he breathed out, the biggest smile on his face, as my heart shattered to pieces. I tried to smile at the kid, but it fell flat. Yes, I was happy he had a family. Of course, I was happy, who wouldn’t be? But…at the same time, I couldn’t be happy at all knowing he was going to go live with them now. I could feel the negative thoughts start to swirl around in my head, my heart thudding in my chest as it constricted.
He had another family, one he hadn’t known about, and he was excited about it. He probably didn’t want to stay with us anymore, more likewouldn’tbe able to in the eyes of the law.
