Page 19 of A New Chapter
Within five minutes, Rom was relieved to hear Colton’s breathing deepen and grow more regular, definitely sound asleep.
Good. His boy needed the rest. He knew Colton hadn’t slept well last night, and today had been long and stressful, to say the least.
Fortunately not as ugly a confrontation as it could’ve been. Rom wouldn’t have been shocked if they’d had to get the police involved, and Ross had totally been ready to do that. He revealed at lunch that he’d even had the statutes ready to cite.
Thankfully, none of that had been needed. While they absolutely would have done it—and the fact the Oakes couldn’t have used Clayton running away as an excuse, since they got rid of all his things and didn’t report him missing or as a runaway to the cops—Rom knew that would have made everything that much harder on Colton.
Best this way. He would gladly help Colton heal from these new wounds just to have the brothers shut of those two biological fuckheads.
Another thing he’d added to his mental to-do list for tomorrow was checking Clayton’s credit, now that they had his Social Security number and other information, to make sure the two assholes hadn’t taken out cards in his name or anything, and putting a credit lock on it. He already had one on his own and on Colton’s. He’d seen first-hand the aggravation and anguish that kind of financial fraud could wreak on a person.
Hopefully, the rest of this would be an easy downhill glide. Enroll Clayton in school, get him school supplies and clothes, get him counseling or whatever he needed, and then…
Living.
Chapter Seven
The alarm went off way too early for Rom’s liking Wednesday morning, but they didn’t want to drag this out and have Clayton miss more school than was necessary. Rom already knew what school to go to from talking to Ina, and they had had all the paperwork they hoped they’d need.
Otherwise, the next several days could involve another drive to Georgia to get what they’d need.
Colton groaned as Rom sat up and turned the alarm off. “Fuuuuuuck,” Colton grumbled.
Rom poked him in his gorgeous abs. “Language, buddy. We have a kiddo in the house now.”
He let out a sigh. “You’d think I’d be used to this.”
“Yeah, well, we might have to end up with a schedule change anyway. Depending on what time he’s supposed to be at school, you might have to rearrange your clients on your morning schedule.”
Colton sat up. “I didn’t even think about that.”
“Well, that’s another reason I want to sit down and take a hard look at our budget and bills.” He stood and stretched. “You might be able to give up some of your clients now, with my income.”
“What about savings?”
“We can reduce how much we put in, for now.” He headed to their bathroom.
Colton climbed out of bed to follow him. “Or we might have to forget saving for that exotic vacation altogether,” he said. “We could be paying for college.”
After the bathroom, they headed out to the kitchen together to start the coffee, just to find a fully dressed Clayton sitting at the kitchen table and going through the bags of items.
“Hey, buddy,” Colton said. “Didn’t expect to see you up. It’s only six thirty.”
“I’ve been up since five. I used to get up at four thirty to work on the dairy farm.”
Rom knew that shocked Colton as much as it did him, because he pulled up short and gave Rom a look that probably matched Rom’s.
“You’re kidding?”
Clayton shook his head. “No, sir. I had to be there by five and had to walk to work.”
Well, no fricking wonder the poor kid was skinny.
Rom took care of the coffee while Colton sat at the table with Clayton. “You will have chores to do here,” Colton told him, “but your main ‘job’ will be schoolwork. We’ll settle all of that once we’ve got you enrolled and know what your schedule is.”
Rom listened and kept his mouth shut, for now. There’d be plenty of time for him to step in once they had a routine in place. For now, he wanted to treat the boy with kid gloves.
“I had fun yesterday. Aunt Roberta showed me stuff downstairs. She told me Grammy had you working in the store when you were younger than me.”
