Page 45 of No Kind Words

The big blue ribbon on the little bright red car shines in the sunshine. “Oh, that. It’s for you. Congratulations.” He holds up a set of keys.

“Oh my god, you are the best dads in the whole world. Really, though, this is just for me? I don’t have to share it with you?”

“Nope, just for you, but please be careful. Don’t have the music too loud, and speed limits are there for a reason.”

Both Roddy and I roll our eyes, but Roddy’s lost for words. He looks at the car again and shakes his head. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you.” His voice is low, croaky with repressed emotion.

“Oh, I don’t know, set off to travel over five hundred miles in the winter to find us. We are the lucky ones.” I let him hug me again, his head against my chest as he has a cry. He hates being reminded of his past, but it’s the past that brought him here and made us the luckiest dads alive.

“Thank you,” he mumbles, then straightens and wipes his face. “Luke won’t believe this.”

We watch him drive away. I see the concentration on his face. He’ll be okay.

“Now back to us.” Ben grabs my hand and drags me to the stairs. “It’s time for some loud and messy sex.”

“Amen to that.”

When I put the phone down, Jethro’s watching me. “What was that about?”

“It was the solicitor who helped us with Roddy’s adoption. He works for the social services sometimes, dealing with the crap we had. He’s been handed the case of a teenager, one who had the same sort of life as Roddy.” Fury flashes over Jethro’s face as if he’d been electrocuted. “He wants to know if we would be interested in fostering him.”

“How old is he? I mean, it doesn’t matter, but did he tell you?”

“He’s fifteen. He’s in a children’s home but needs to be somewhere away from other kids. He isn’t coping there.”

“Where’s Roddy? Is he at Luke’s? We need to talk to him about it. We’re only just getting our house back, with Roddy at college in the week. Do you think we should?”

“Can you imagine leaving him there?”

Jethro shakes his head. “No, but it’s a family decision. I’ll call Roddy.”

As Jethro calls our son, my mind is back to Roddy and the state he was in when he got here. How nervous he was around everyone he met. He would hide food in case he had to leave so he’d have enough to eat for a while. I doubt this kid has made the ridiculously dangerous journey Roddy did. But kids will do desperate things in desperate times.

“He’s on his way back.”

When Roddy joins us, I tell him what I know. He’s tormenting his bottom lip with his finger and thumb, something he hasn’t done for a long time. “What do you want me to say?”

“We want your opinion, Rod. This is a family decision because it affects all of us. We don’t know how he’s coping mentally or what state he’s in physically. But the solicitor called us for a reason. He thinks we have something to offer this boy.”

“I don’t see how you can’t. He needs a safe home, and this is the safest I know. You helped me, and I thought I was a lost cause. Maybe he feels the same way too.”

“You’re right, but you were never a lost cause.”

“I felt I was.”

“Okay, I’ll call the solicitor back and set up a meeting.”

Roddy shakes his head.

“What?”

“If they need a safe place for him this urgently, they’ll be bringing him here tonight. I’ve read about this happening to kids.”

“Seriously?” Jethro says. “Are we going to say yes? I mean, it’s only to foster, right?”

I don’t think so. If the kid needs a good home,andif he likes us, obviously, our house will be his forever home. Jethro has a heart of gold and will always be grateful for his mother’s only decent act of stopping his father from throwing him out. This is his way of paying it forward. His heart is too big not to give one hundred per cent of himself.

“Right.” I open up my phone and call the solicitor back. Roddy and Jethro stand together, looking like they’re holding their breaths. “Mr Andrews, it’s Ben Jerrick.”

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