Page 21 of A New Chapter
“I have in my hands a freshly minted court order officially revoking their parental rights and granting you and Colton full custody.”
Rom pumped his fist. “Hold on, let me put you on speaker so you can say that again.” He did.
Clayton wiped at his eyes. “Thank you, Mr. Payne.”
“No problem, kiddo. I’m going to get the adoption paperwork filed today and we’ll start that.”
“I want to change my last name to Quinn. Like Colton and Rom.”
“We can do that, too…”
An hour later, they were sitting in a doctor’s office getting that handled. From there to buy school supplies and new clothes for Clayton. No uniform needed at Clayton’s school, but Rom knew he’d face enough of a hassle as the new kid and having survived a rough circumstance without doing it in the worn-out clothes he’d arrived with.
By the time they returned home a little after five, including a stop at the grocery store, Rom was worn out but the smiles on Clayton’s face had been worth it.
“Go get everything put up,” Rom told him. “Then you can help us cook dinner.”
“Yes, sir.”
He caught the smirk on Colton’s face. “Don’t say it,” Rom muttered to him once the boy had left the room.
Colton’s smirk went full-on grin. “I didn’t say a thing…Sir.”
Rom rolled his eyes, but at least Colton was smiling again, too. This had been a good day.
Not exactly what he’d planned to be doing, but it was productive. Clayton would have two days in school that week—and they’d have that time to themselves in the apartment while Clayton was gone.
By the time they went to bed that night, Rom felt exhausted, but in a good way this time. Ed had sent him an e-mail with copies of everything he’d filed that day, including the adoption paperwork. Now it was just a matter of waiting.
Colton curled around him, playing the big spoon tonight. “I feel…good. Is that weird?”
“Um…depends what you mean by weird.”
“I mean that we got him in school and he was smiling.” Colton rubbed his chin on Rom’s shoulder. “He looks happy. I feel good because he feels good. This is a shitty situation, but he looks like he’s happy now compared to when he first arrived.”
“It was adorable watching him get everything ready for in the morning,” Rom said.
They’d sat watching TV while Clayton arranged his backpack and school supplies, and both of them had nudged each other as he’d swapped stuff around in the backpack several times.
* * * *
Colton wondered if Grammy had felt like this when she’d taken custody of him, the confusing mix of anger and hope and love. They settled in to sleep, and his dreams were plagued by nightmares of his own childhood before the alarm finally went off at six thirty.
Once again, they found Clayton was up, dressed, and ready to go.
Well, that’s one thing wedon’thave in common.
Even though he got up early for his morning clients, Colton wouldn’t call himself “awake” early in the morning. More a case of vertical under protest. Colton and Rom opted not to shower then, and after getting Clayton fed, and after taking first-day pictures, they both poured travel mugs of coffee to sip while they drove him to his first day of school. They wanted to accompany him to the office to show the shot records, just in case there were any problems.
With that done, they took a few more pictures and then hugged him. “We’ll pick you up this afternoon,” Colton told him.
And then he was off.
“I’m scared,” Rom softly said as they watched him go.
“Why?”
“What if kids pick on him?”
