Jenny slammed her top down and scrambled off his lap just in time for the door to burst open and Jefferson to barge in. Charlie was holding Jefferson’s hand, his cat in the other.
“There are lots of presents,” Charlie said. “Are any of them for me?” The sound of wonder and curiosity and hope, tinged with an acceptance that they might not be for him, tugged at Nik’s heart.
Discretely, he adjusted himself under the covers, then swung his legs out of the bed. “Why don’t we go see?” he said.
As the boys ran back into the living room, he turned to face Jenny. “You, me, and that exact position we were in after the boys are in bed tonight.”
Jenny’s cheeks were pink. “Can we get housekeeping to install a lock on this door while we are out?”
Nik laughed. “Probably not, but if it makes you feel better, I’ll drag the dresser over. Because I want to strip you out of those pajamas, which should not be getting me aroused, and watch you grind on top of me.”
He followed the boys into the living room.
“Is this my name, Nik?” Charlie said, holding up a present.
“Well, let’s see. What letter does your name start with?”
Charlie’s brow furrowed and he pressed the paw of his cat to his nose. He studied the tag long and hard. “Uh-huh. It’s a letter C.”
Nik followed the pattern for the rest of the letters until a look of pure joy filled his features. “It is for me.”
He snatched it back out of Nik’s hand and plopped his butt down on the floor to open it.
“Oh my. Are all of these for me?” Jefferson was looking at tag after tag.
Jenny put her arm around his shoulder. “It sure looks like it to me. Want to start opening them?”
“YES,” Jefferson shouted.
“Okay, well, grab that pen and pad from next to the phone. When you open a gift, I want you to write down what it is and who it’s from, and then, tomorrow, we can write some letters to say thank you. Do you think you can do that?”
Jefferson nodded and Nik watched how the kid responded to Jenny’s instructions. Yeah, Jefferson was going to be just fine. One child was missing.
Henry.
Nik left Charlie in the middle of opening his present and wandered to the kids’ room.
Henry was wide awake, his head still on his pillow.
“Hey, Champ,” he said. “Want to come and see if one of these piles of presents out here is for you?”
Henry shook his head. “They won’t be.”
His voice was barely loud enough for Nik to hear.
Nik walked into the room and sat down on the edge of Henry’s bed. When he placed his hand on the kid's waist, it was cool to the touch… all that time in an air-conditioned room and no blanket.
“I’m pretty certain I just saw a pile next to the tree with tags that have your name on.”
Henry sniffed. “There’s no point.” Tears threatened to spill over the kid’s inexplicably long eyelashes. “When we leave, we’re not going to be able to take it all with us.”
The hurt that laced Henry’s words pierced Nik’s heart. Without any shadow of a doubt, it confirmed what Nik already knew. It was his job, he was put on this planet, to help heal this young boy's broken heart and spirit. They’d already made leaps and bounds. When he’d first arrived, he wouldn’t speak to them. All three children were severely behind the learning curve after years of abuse and being deprived of schooling. Their dad was long-since out of the picture and refused to take over their care, their mom in prison on drug charges.
“I’ve told you how I was a foster kid and then ended up in a long-term group home, right?”
Henry’s eyes looked at him. “Yeah. So?”
Nik bit back a smile at the tiny show of rebellion. “Well, so was Jordan. And Dred. And Lennon. And Elliott.”
“I thought you were brothers.”
Nik nodded. “We are. Not like you and Jefferson and Charlie. You all have the same mom who gave birth to you. Ours is a bit different. Our parents were basically our social worker, Maisie, and Ellen, the person who ran our group home. They are married to each other and looked after us. They always said we had the benefit of deciding who our family was.”
“My mom thinks women shouldn’t get married to each other. That it’s an abdominal sin.”
Nik sighed. “It’s abominable sin. And no offense to your mom, but she’s talking garbage. In our family, it’s cool to love whoever you want.”
“Why did nobody love us?” Henry asked.
Nik took a deep breath. Charlie’s squeals as he found a second cat like his own, and Jefferson’s constant shouts of glee, filtered from the living room into the bedroom. Such a contrast between the three children.
“That’s such a hard question to answer, Henry.” He took hold of the kid’s hand. “I think everybody who has ever met you, loves you. How could they not? You’re smart, thoughtful, and want to plan ahead. But I don’t think all the people you’ve met up until now knew how to best take care of you. How to love you and how to make you feel safe.”
Henry squeezed his hand. “Do you know, Nik? Do you know how to do that?”
“I’d like to think I do, but you tell me… have you felt safe since you got here with us?”
Henry thought for a moment. “I haven’t felt hungry in ages. And I like my bedroom. And you play with me.”
“Does that make you feel safe?” Nik asked. The idea of a child going hungry when he had so much sat like a weight in his gut.
Henry nodded. “And Jenny gives the best hugs. And I love your pancakes and the way you don’t shout at Charlie when he does something dumb.”
Nik’s heart melted that Henry cared so much for his brothers. “You know, me and my brothers look out for each other in the exact same way.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, all the time.” Nik thought about the way they’d all lived in the house that was now Elliott’s home so that Jordan would feel safe, the way he’d taken a bullet to make sure Dred’s family was kept safe, the way they’d rallied around Lennon, waiting to make music again until he was able to join them.
“Will we have to leave you and Jenny?” Henry’s words were almost a whisper, as if by saying them he might make them come true.
Nik reached for Henry and pulled him onto his lap. Henry’s small body curled into his. “Not if I have anything to do with it,” he said. “We’d love for you to stay with us forever. But I can’t promise that because it’s not our decision to make. A judge will have to decide that. However, I can promise you this. Jenny and I will do everything in our power to keep you with us. And, if for any reason, the court decides you are safer somewhere else, I’ll make sure I always know where you are and that you have a way to contact me if you need me.”
Henry put his arms around Nik’s chest. “I love you, Nik.”
Nik’s heart cracked wide open. He’d once thought that the only person in the world that he needed to hear those words from was Jenny. And for reasons he knew she would understand, he realized that he needed to hear them from Henry more.
“I love you, too, Henry.” He pressed a kiss to the top of Henry’s head. “Now, do you want to go see if any of those gifts outside have your name on them?”