"Maybe we can do that," Julian said, but that wasn't good enough for Riley.
He came up to Julian, stood straight and turned his face up to him. "You gonna let Danny be friends with us, Mister?" Riley asked while giving Julian a challenging, little kid stare.
"I might," Julian said.
"That means yes," Riley reported to the other kids confidently.
"That's a kid who knows how to turn a maybe into a yes," Wyatt said with approval.
They all went off and the kids waved to Danny, who waved back and smiled.
"Well that was..." Julian trailed off like mere words couldn't do justice to that encounter.
Rob laughed, but looking down at Danny he saw how bright-eyed he was. It did him good to be around other kids.
And Julian had a nice look in his dark eyes too. Rob tried not to think of the look as pretty or to try and imagine what his eyes might look like when he was happy or ecstatic.
"Let's go have breakfast," Julian said and led the way inside the Peach Tree Café.
Like before, the café was crowded and this time they ate at the counter. Danny seemed to like sitting on the barstool between them. Once they were done eating, Rob and Julian helped him hop down, each holding one of his hands.
They were still holding hands like that as they stepped out onto the sidewalk.
"Should we have an outing of our own," Rob asked then he realized that Julian might not want him along.
"There aren't too many places to go here," Julian said.
Rob didn't know what he meant. "There is a ton of countryside to explore."
Julian looked over to Danny. Maybe he didn't want to take him on another car ride. "You can go hiking. Maybe take a walk by the river," Rob said. He excluded himself so Julian wouldn't feel obligated to have him join them.
Julian noticed and gave him a questioning glance. "What about you? If you'd like to drive anywhere, you can take my car," he offered.
Rob wasn't really interested in a solo drive. "No. I'm good." Maybe he would go back to the house and see what there was to do online.
"You're welcome to join us on our walk," Julian said tentatively.
Rob couldn't tell if he was only making the offer because he felt he had to.
Noticing his confusion, Julian tried to clear things up. "You never have to spend time with us unless you want to."
Rob sighed as he realized that both of them were trying to let each other off the hook. "But you wanted my help with Danny, right," he reminded Julian and looked down at the little boy who didn't seem to be following their conversation. "Who knows what he might get up to."
"I'll definitely need help with Danny," Julian said while Danny waited quietly for their negotiation to be over.
They both smiled down at his patient expression under the yellow hat.
"The three of us are going to go for a walk together," Julian told him, and now Danny smiled too.
They walked over dry fields and then down to the riverbank. There was a gravelly path and some wood planks over the muddy areas. Holding both Rob and Julian's hands, Danny walked between them and squinted at everything in the bright, autumn sunshine.
"This is the same river we saw from the window at the house," Julian told him.
"Same one?" Danny said like he couldn't quite believe it.
As they walked along the river, they reached an area next to a shallow stretch of water where Julian let Danny go and play. Throwing pebbles into the river, Danny was saying "splash" after each one.
With him a little ways off, Julian said to Rob, "This is probably boring for you."
