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I was terrified that Riley was hurt, but I didn’t want to keep him in the cold any longer. I didn’t see any cars besides mine, so I had no clue how the teenager had gotten here. The weather wasn’t brutally cold, but if he hadn’t been as heavily dressed as he was, he surely would have ended up with frostbite. Thankfully, he had gloves and heavy boots on in addition to the parka that had a thick hood on it.
“Let’s go inside, okay?”
He nodded against me. He’d finally stopped apologizing but wouldn’t look at me.
I put my arm around him to guide him up the porch steps. Ford was holding the door open for us as soon as we reached it. I saw a navy backpack in his hand with some snow on the bottom of it. A quick glance at the porch swing to my right showed footprints around it and the bench brushed off.
I led Riley to the living room. Ford got the fireplace going, since the heat in the house would take a little while to make the room warmer. Puddles whined nervously as she sniffed at Riley’s shoes.
“Let’s take this off, okay?” I said as I reached for his coat. He stiffly shrugged it off. I could tell he didn’t want to look at me but it was killing me not to know if he was hurt or not, so I tipped his face up. There were no bruises but the second his eyes met with mine, he began crying again. My heart broke for him. I dropped his parka to the floor so I could fully embrace him.
“It’s okay, Riley, I promise. I’m not angry with you. Not even a little bit,” I whispered as I just held him as tight as I could. He choked out another sob and then put his arms around me. I had no clue how long I held him for, but by the time he came up for air, Ford had returned to the room with a cup of something.
“Soup,” he said as he handed it to me, then helped me work off my jacket. He also had a blanket under his arm.
“Riley, I’m just going to wrap this around you, okay?” Ford said. “It will take a few minutes for the fire to warm this room up more.”
Riley nodded numbly. I removed my gun from my waistband and quickly set it on the mantle of the fireplace, then gently took Riley’s arm and led him to the couch. Once he was sitting, I made sure the blanket was snug around him but left his hands exposed so he could hold the mug of soup in his hands. It was just plain chicken soup from a can, since that was all I had in the house that was easy to heat up and eat, but even if Riley didn’t drink it, it would help warm his hands up. I reached out to touch his fingers. They were cold, but not ice-cold. I thanked the heavens that he’d been so bundled up.
Ford came back to the room and put a cup of coffee on the coffee table for me. “Do you need anything else?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Thank you,” I said softly.
“I’ll be upstairs,” he added, then he leaned down and kissed me. As much as I wanted him to stay, I knew Riley wouldn’t open up in his presence. Hell, I’d be lucky if I got him to open up at all. The kid was nearly a thousand miles from home and clearly traumatized.
Puddles stayed with me and Riley rather than following Ford upstairs. The little dog pawed at my legs. I picked her up and deposited her on my lap but instead of staying with me, she worked her way to Riley’s lap instead. When he dropped a hand to help her get around the blanket and settled in his lap, I left her there.
We sat there for several minutes as Riley sipped the soup. I wanted to touch him but was afraid I’d just upset him. I had no clue what he’d been through. I also didn’t know where to start. I figured I’d start with the thing that was scaring me the most.
“Riley, are you hurt?”
Now that his coat was off, I could see that he looked a little thinner than when I’d last seen him. His skin was really pale and his eyes looked dull, despite being puffy and red. The Riley I’d known at the outreach center had always had the best kind of smile… the kind that could reach down into the darkest parts of you and make you want to smile back. No matter what shit I’d seen at work any particular day, hanging out with Riley had always made me feel better.
