Page 41 of Chelsea’s Knight

Later, much, much later, after a fun-filled day of hanging with the old ladies and playing with babies once I made my phone call, that is, Canyon and I are relaxing on the couch, my feet kicked up in his lap as he massages the soles of my feet while catching up on our day.

“It was weird being apart from you today,” I confess. “Especially since we were together twenty-four-seven while out of town. I missed you.”

“Bet I missed you more, sweetness,” he replies, his hands doing blissful things to me as he massages the knots loose from my arches.

“Let’s call it a draw,” I tease. “You said over dinner you had something to tell me, but I’ve got some stuff to share with you too.”

“You go first,” he jovially orders. “Beauty before age.”

I giggle, rolling my eyes before I launch myself at him, so he’s forced to wrap his arms around me and hold me close. “Whatever. You may be older than me, but you’re no less gorgeous and you damn well know it. Anyhow, I called DFCS and got the information for the foster classes. Did you know there are three different avenues for foster parents?”

“No, I didn’t,” he confesses. “What are they?”

“I’m glad you asked,” I taunt. “So, you can be a foster parent for specific ages or even medical needs, you can be part of their foster-to-adopt program, or you can specifically do long-term foster care.”

“Can you break the last two down?” he asks.

“Okay, with foster-to-adopt, the protocol is that if a child, or even sibling group is no longer going to be considered for parental or familial reunification, foster parents can opt to be considered to adopt. In that case, their house is typically closed to new foster kids while the family and child or children go through the steps with frequent meetings with the case worker, that sort of shit. Long-term foster care is for the kids whose parents aren’t getting them back, but they didn’t terminate their rights, so the kids need somewhere to live until they age out of the system.”

“Kind of seems the kids could get tossed to and fro, though,” he remarks, frowning.

“I’m sure there’s a lot of movement and replacement, but the person I spoke to said they really try hard to ensure they’re not shifted around a lot since it’s already traumatic for them to be in that situation in the first place.”

“Kids shouldn’t have to be,” he growls out.

“You know sometimes things happen where a parent might be in the hospital or a rehab facility like I was, and they don’t have anyone else in their circle to take care of them. Those are short-term placements, obviously. Then the ones where maybe the parent or parents did something and broke the law so they’re a resident of the local county jail but a relative is unwilling or even too old to take them in, so they’d be a longer placement or even possibly be put up for adoption if the parental rights are eventually terminated.”

“Shit, that’s a lot of information to digest, sweetness,” he groans once I’m done. “I may know of something else, though.”

“What’s that, handsome?” I ask.

“Surrogacy.” He looks at me out of the corner of his eye. I can tell by the way he’s looking at me that he was hesitant about suggesting this as a course of action. But it is something I wanted to bring up and talk about anyhow, so him doing so makes it easier to broach the subject and insert my thoughts.

“Oh! I know about that too,” I exclaim. “In fact, Tessie is the one who brought it up earlier todayandshe said she’d be willing to be one for us if we wanted.”

He cups my face in his hand and quietly asks, “What do you want, Chels? You want a baby that’s biologically ours? You want to give kids who need a home one? You tell me because I’m willing to be alongside you for whichever journey you’re willing to take.” They both call to me, they’re both important.

“What if we explore both, Canyon? I mean, realistically, when you adopt someone, they become your child regardless of any blood relation. The connection is there regardless.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do, sweetness. That’s what we’ll do. In the meantime, we can go and practice.”

As he scoops me up into his arms, I nuzzle against his chest while kissing the underside of his jaw. “At least right now, we don’t have to worry about being quiet,” I tease.

“No, we just have to make sure the dogs aren’t in the bedroom, so we don’t offend them,” he tosses back, making me giggle as he maneuvers us into our room.

EPILOGUE

Orion

True to our club’s nature, we’re celebrating.

Once Kaya and Chelsea were made aware of the disposition on the case against the Mabrys, they said we had to have a party, which all of the old ladies decided was a good plan.

Then it dawned on them we were nearing Thanksgiving anyhow, so our partying has gone on all week long, culminating in the best fucking home-cooked meal I’ve ever had in my entire life.

“Have you seen Roane?” Atlas asks, sitting down next to me.

“Earlier, yeah, but not recently. Why?”

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