Page 11 of Boyfriend on Parole: The Care of Broken Things Extended Epilogue

Samuel was waiting by the gate, with his bag, at seven-thirty.

“Doors don’t open until eight,” Mathews reminded him.

“I’m aware.”

But they did open early. At seven forty-seven Mathews gave in and cranked open the gate. “Come on,” he said. “I’ll process you out.”

There was paperwork, and somehow both more and less of it than he was expecting. He was assigned a parole officer and strip searched for the final time before the ankle monitor was snapped into place—the one that would be there for the next four years. Well, possibly less, but he was prepared to accept the full time. Four years more of restrictions—only four years, hopefully. He was surprised when Mathews offered his hand. “Take care out there, Fuller.”

He had never thought much about Mathews, lazy and not particularly intelligent, but now that he thought about it, the man had been largely innocuous, even something approaching friendly. For the first time he considered the bizarre notion that he maybe even liked the man. “You too, Mathews. Lay off the white flour.”

But then he wasn’t thinking of Mathews. He wasn’t thinking of anything, not even Rat, because as they pushed through the final gate and into the prison’s lobby, there was not one, but four familiar faces.

He may have pushed Mathews out of the way. Or maybe it was someone else who did it. But then Hailey was in his arms, and even as he hoisted her up, there were the others. Nathaniel got there first. Maybe he was simply the most shameless, throwing himself forward, right at his daughter’s back, he pulled Samuel’s face forward and kissed him hard enough to feel the imprint of his teeth. “First,” he said, grinning like a kid half his age.

Samuel couldn’t answer. He could barely breathe. Jenny had taken hold of his hand and was already pulling. “Quickly,” she said, as if Mathews would snatch him back before the minute was up, “Before they can steal anything more from you.

Darren was just outside, kneeling in front of a cat with two black feet and two white feet. He stood when he saw them. “Shouldn’t we do an exchange, at least?” the boy said. “Leave Eli behind this time.”

Eli laughed, and the sound was closer than he thought it would be, right at his back. Samuel turned, and the man was holding his bag, a little bulky because of his typewriter. He got a kiss just behind his ear, making him flush hot. Had he looked like he’d turned just for that?

Hailey was still in his arms. It should have been more awkward to carry her, but she still wasn’t that big yet, and she was wrapped up well, her arms tight around him as she chattered to him, or maybe at him. He had yet to contribute anything to the conversation. Had he spoken at all after those few words to Mathews? He wasn’t sure. It wasn’t that he was so overwhelmed. Strangely, his head was clear. It was just—he was taking it in. Everything. There were just so many things. His sister’s hand in his. Nathaniel’s smile and his bobbing ponytail. Eli at his back. Hailey’s arms around his neck, her words so close he could feel the closeness of them.

Don’t cry. They wouldn’t be angry if he did. Maybe they were even expecting it. But he didn’t want to. He didn’t want anything that would interfere with looking and seeing and feeling them.

They arrived at the car—Eli’s car. And it was Eli who stepped around him after dropping another kiss—to the side of his head this time—and a “be right with you, puppy” as he stepped around him to put the bag in the trunk, but he found himself following the man anyway, as if glued to him, and was rewarded with the blinding flash of that too-white smile, the full power of it catching him at point blank range. “Cute,” Eli said, and leaned in for a proper kiss.

He both saw and felt it coming, his heart rate spiking as he felt the rushing swoop of it in his stomach, but Hailey caught her father’s face with a full-spread palm and an annoyed, “Can’t you wait until I’m gone to be gross?”

“Nathaniel got to.”

“Nathaniel’s got fewer cooties, and anyway you’re too much.”

“Abuse of power,” Eli declared, kissing the hand over his mouth.

But only one part of that exchange registered with Samuel. “Gone?” His arms tightened automatically, his hands pressing her flat against him as if he might merge her body with his.

Hailey liked that, forgetting her father entirely to give him a smacking kiss of her own. “Do you hate that? Should we run away together?”

She was radiant, his tiniest, prettiest friend. He hugged her close. “Yes, let’s go. I have money.”

“How much you got?”

“They gave me $200 with my paperwork. And I happen to know about another $200 buried in a yard somewhere.”

Her smile was even more blinding than Eli’s was. “Buried treasure!”

But she’d meant it about leaving, a plot revealed when Jenny pulled up her Porsche and put the top down. He was aghast. “Where are you going?”

He didn’t want to let her climb down, trying to grasp at her even as she did. How could she be smiling so wide as she pushed the knife into his chest?

She squished his face like a fish. “To school. It was part of the deal.”

“Deal?” It was strange to speak with his lips like that.

“I knew daddy and Thaniel were going to be super gross when I saw you. And you know, I think they might have even asked me to sleep at mom’s if they thought they could get away with it. Can you imagine the audacity? Then again, I guess I feel a little bad for them. It’s not like they have any chance of fighting for your attention while I’m around. So I agreed to leave you in their hands and go to school if they promised I’d be yours once I got back.”

Fighting for his attention. He had never imagined he could be so lucky as to have anyone—never mind them—compete for his attention. He pressed his face into her small shoulder and thought that as much as he wanted to live, dying just then, right in that moment, wouldn’t have been so bad.