No peep from him, but he decided to take his silence as a sign of eager anticipation. Between the two of them, he was sure that Barney would receive the better welcome.
Not sure if he was ready to take on what awaited him there, Wyatt thought about the boys. Aunt Deb sent him pictures of them, and as soon as he saw those two little smiling faces, Wyatt broke down crying.
They didn't look just like Wyatt and Lloyd. For one thing, they were closer in age. The older one was five and he must have looked like his mom, with sandy hair, but he had the blue eyes like Lloyd and Wyatt did. The younger one was blond like his dad's side of the family, but his eyes were brown. He was four and had on the bigger smile of the two little boys.
They were so clearly brothers though, and they were Lloyd's kids, and that was enough to break Wyatt's heart. Looking at the photos of them, Wyatt knew that he should have fought harder to stay in his brother's life. Whatever it took, he should have made Lloyd accept him.
It was too late for that now. All he could do was take good care of those precious nephews of his. Before seeing them, he needed to prepare himself and not scare then and upset them by bursting into tears as soon as he laid eyes on them.
But whether he was ready or not, here he was making a turn and then driving down Peach Tree Road. As he scanned the roadside, the house came into view. A handmade sign in the shape of an arrow had the number 721 and the name Hayes painted on it. It pointed the way up a crooked driveway that led to a green front door of a ranch style house with a wooden fence also painted green.
Wyatt hardly paid attention to the house though. He had been trying to prepare himself for his first meeting with his nephews, but he didn't expect to see them already waiting for him at the end of the driveway. As he slowed down and turned off the road, the two little boys stared at his car intently.
Wyatt pulled into the driveway then shut off the engine. He hardly dared to take a breath. Meeting them was that momentous to him. As for the boys, they didn't look too thrilled.
Their mouths turned down at the corners, their eyes serious, two little nephews stood there to greet their wayward uncle. That meant he better get moving. Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Wyatt opened the car door and stepped out.
Waiting there he saw a serious, sandy haired boy with blue eyes and his little blond, brown-eyed brother. As two sets of unsmiling eyes looked up at him, Wyatt approached and greeted them with a smile, "Hello, boys."
In return, he was greeted with a complaint. "He doesn't know our names!" DJ, the older boy, shouted to someone back toward the house.
"Yes, he does," a feminine voice shouted back then Wyatt saw his Aunt Deb rising up from the garden with a basket hanging from her arm. She looked older than when he had last seen her but still strong. "Hi there, Wyatt. I was just picking some tomatoes for lunch."
"Hi," Wyatt barely managed to say as he looked at her through tears in his eyes. She was so casual, like it hadn't been years since they saw each other. She came forward to give him a hug, and Wyatt buried his face in her shoulder for a minute until he calmed himself a little. He had to stay strong for the boys. They were watching his every move.
"As you can see, these two were eagerly waiting for you," Aunt Deb said and looked over at the boys fondly, but they bristled.
"We're not!" Riley, the younger one, claimed like he and his brother had been accused of something terrible.
"Hi. I'm your Uncle Wyatt, and you are DJ and Riley," he said to prove he knew their names even if he was only now meeting his nephews for the first time.
Though Wyatt was the one chosen to take care of these two boys, he was a stranger to them. It was no surprise that's how they looked at him, but he did have an ace in the hole.
"I have someone else for you to meet," Wyatt said to the boys then went back to the car.
Opening the back door, he got out the pet carrier. Craning their necks, the boys were eager to see what he had in there. He brought the pet carrier over and set it down. As the boys crouched in front of the carrier, Wyatt opened the door.
The little, white dog poked his head out and sniffed around. While the boys called out to him to come out, Wyatt introduced him. "His name is Barney, and he came over here with me on a plane."
Wyatt stepped back so the boys could have a good look and play with the dog. As the kids chattered at the dog and he sniffed and licked their faces, Wyatt went to stand next to Aunt Deb and watch them. She still had the basket with tomatoes, but she seemed to have forgotten about them.
"You came loaded for bear," Aunt Deb told him. and it seemed to Wyatt that she couldn't take her eyes off the boys. "They do need some good to come into their lives."
"He's been cooped up in that carrier for most of this trip, poor guy. I couldn't let him loose in the car. That little guy doesn't love traveling. I didn't want him peeing all over my new ride." Wyatt had pretty much landed, gotten off the plane, gotten a few hours sleep on Raquel's couch then gone straight to a dealership with her to pick up the SUV.
"If he isn't housebroken all the way, he can be a yard dog for now," Aunt Deb suggested.
"He's housebroken. He was just a little stressed. And if we leave the dog out in the yard, we'll never get these two inside the house," Wyatt predicted while pointing at the boys, who were preoccupied with Barney. "I know that from personal experience. Dad once brought home a dog that belonged to his friend. The dog was only staying with us for about a week. It turned out that the dog had flees, so Dad tied him up in the back yard. Then he had to bolt the doors so I wouldn't go outside to sleep out there all night and get flees too."
Aunt Deb laughed. "What a stubborn kid you were. Lloyd and your father had their hands full with you, but I think you're going to get some of your own back with these boys."
"Ouch," Wyatt said to her as he went and got some of his bags from the back of his car.
Now that they are a little further away from the boys, Aunt Deb told him, "I'm grateful that you agreed to do this. Jill's sister is struggling with three kids of her own. She just couldn't take in two more. And I have my Tom to take care of. We have to stay near his doctors and his hospital. I really didn't want to see these boys uprooted if they came to live with us."
Tom was Aunt Deb's husband. On top of her job, she devoted herself to helping him. That was more than enough for her to deal with.
"I think this place will be good for Barney," Wyatt told her.
