Rob noticed his brooding look. "What is it?"
"Just thinking about Danny being in foster care when he should have been with me," Julian said. "He was a complete surprise to me. My father had been gone for two years, my grandfather for even longer. I thought I had no one, and then suddenly to have a little brother."
"I bet Danny was happy when he finally met you," Rob said to him.
"If he was, he didn't show it. He was very withdrawn." Julian could still picture Danny the way he looked when he first saw him. His head down, he was curled up in on himself, arms pulled in, fists closed tight. Then Julian introduced himself. "Hi. I'm Julian. They told you about me, right. I'm your older brother."
Danny only blinked and wouldn't raise his eyes to him.
"Do you want to come visit me?" Julian asked. Child services had given permission for that while he worked on getting custody. Julian wanted him to know without a doubt that he had a big brother now and that he would be coming to live with him.
Once again, Danny didn't respond. Then he was so scared on the car ride that Julian decided they should stop. On the sidewalk, Danny covered his ears against the noise of the traffic. So that was no good either.
They happened to be in front of a sporting goods store. Julian pointed it out to Danny, took his hand and led him inside.
At first Julian was only aware of that tiny hand trembling in his own. Then he realized they were just standing there while a salesperson asked them if they were looking for anything in particular.
"No. Thank you. We'll just browse," Julian said while Danny cast his eyes down and still held onto his hand.
They wandered the store and Danny found plenty to look at. Then Julian spotted a kid sized, yellow baseball cap and pointed it out to him.
"Is that a nice hat? What do you think?" he asked Danny.
The little boy didn't say anything, but when Julian handed him the cap for a closer look, he held on to it like he didn't want to give it up. Julian would swear that his face brightened.
"Let's buy it, and you can wear it out," Julian said.
At the register, he asked the salesperson to scan it while Danny held it out to her.
"You made a very good choice," she said to him, but Danny wouldn't look up to see her smile.
At the door, he did look at Julian briefly while he put the cap on him. "You look good," Julian told him.
Going outside again, Danny seemed a little braver. He was still scared but not as much as before.
As he sat on the edge of the fountain with Rob and told him about that day, Julian had to admit, "I didn't win him over right away like you did."
"Oh, come on. You're a great big brother," Rob told him while they both watched Danny wave to the tiny paper boat as it sank under the stream of water.
"But I don't know how to lift his spirits the way you do. How to be as open with my feelings and show him how much he means to me." Julian felt like there were walls constantly rising up around him, keeping him from reaching out.
"Maybe you don't always wear your heart on your sleeve, but Danny knows you love him. I could tell he was precious to you from the first moment I saw you two together, and he knows it too," Rob assured him and briefly touched his knuckles to Julian's.
"He's been doing better all the time and especially since we came here," Julian said though his breath caught in his throat for a second at Rob's touch.
"Of course he is. With all the little friends he made and now he has a little dog too," Rob said, smiling. His green eyes were so bright and beautiful in the midday sun while he gazed at Julian steadily.
Julian couldn't believe how much stuff they got for Halloween. They arrived back at the house with the car loaded down with decorations with more of them to be delivered. An ecstatic Lenny greeted them at the door, and Danny was just as overjoyed to see the little dog.
Inside, they found a note from Mitch along with a drawing from Sammy.
Julian read it. "Mitch wrote a message from Sammy. 'Sammy says that Lenny was a very good dog, and this is a drawing of Lenny being a good dog.'"
Julian showed Danny the note and gave him the drawing that didn't look like Lenny or much of anything really, but it was very colorful. Underneath, the words 'good dog' were scrawled very badly.
"I know whose job it's going to be to put up all these decorations, right?" Julian said as he looked at them piled up next to the front door and then at Rob.
"I don't mind. And Danny will be a big help," Rob said and smiled at Danny who was still fussing over Lenny to make up for their long separation.
What would happen when Rob decided to leave? He was so wonderful. Both Danny and Julian were going to miss him terribly.
