AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nineteen
Noah had wanted to go in there to her, but he stayed right where he was. On the new bed that was supposed to be his.
He could hear what her dad was saying to her. Like he actually cared or something.
Well, Noah wasn’t stupid. The guy probably had known about Nova—and just hadn’t wanted to be a dad. Now they were making him because he was Nova’s real dad or something.
And he had to be a dad to Noah, too.
He’d heard his mom’s boyfriends before. None of them had liked him, and only half had even noticed Nova at all. Except that really creepy one who had liked Nova a lot.
Like Noah would ever leave Nova alone with one of those assholes.
Noah had done his best to keep Nova away from all those freaks who thought his mom was awesome or something.
She wasn’t. All she had ever done was drink alcohol and take pills out of those bottles she’d buy from some of her boyfriends. And smoke cigarettes and stuff.
Their apartment had always stunk like those skinny cigarettes.
Half the time, he hadn’t had any food to feed Nova, either. They’d only had pizza like twice since Nova had been born. When his mom’s last boyfriend Eddie had had leftovers and had shared.
It hadn’t tasted like it had tonight. And Eddie had had to bake it first.
Nova had stopped crying. She was probably asleep now. Her dad had tucked her in. Like he actually wanted to.
Noah didn’t know what he thought about the big redheaded guy. Or anything else. This place had to be better than the group home. Nova was here. That was what should matter.
Nick was just going to be Noah’s foster parent for a while, Linsey had said. At first. Until Nick followed the rules or the laws or took some classes or something and adopted Noah. If that was what Noah wanted, anyway.
He hadn’t exactly been listening after she’d told him he’d be with Nova again.
Whatever.
At least, he had his own room. That was loads better than the group home where he’d slept on a top bunk that had holes in the mattress. And had smelled like pee.
He liked the blanket and stuff, too, he guessed. It was a lot warmer than his old one he’d had to leave behind. But he did have his new pillow. It was shaped like a baseball.
He had his glove in his duffel bag, too. But it was really old.
Mom said a guy had left it behind when he’d ditched her and she’d forgotten about it. Said he’d been keeping some stuff there with her. She’d sold most of it, but nobody had wanted an old ball mitt like that.
He’d been a trucker, Noah thought.
Nick owned a trucking company. Maybe it had been him.
Not that Noah cared. The glove was still way too big; his mom had given it to him for his last birthday instead of buying him a new present or anything.
But it was his. Just like the little plastic green-and-red one some guy had given him when he was like four or something. Noah had lost the little ball that went with it years ago.
The two mitts were it.
He thought it was the mitt in the picture of Nick.
How pathetic and stupid he was. Two ball mitts that didn’t fit, and he didn’t even have a single ball. He should just throw them away and forget about it.
They were almost all he had left from his life before. He wasn’t going to get rid of them yet.
He heard Nick walking out of Nova’s new room. Noah tensed. Now that it was just him and Nick, he bet the guy would tell him like it really was. That Noah better do what he was told or he was gone.
