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“I missed you,” I tell her, letting her sit back in my arms so I can see her face.
“Aunt Mila!” Luca screams from the other side of the room, also running in my direction.
Jace is a little delayed in his excitement, and I can see easily that he was worried that I wasn’t going to come back.
Why would he think differently? His parents dropped him off at school one morning and less than a handful of hours later, they were dead.
A tear is rolling down his cheek when he approaches me. I don’t mention it. I simply wipe it from his face and pull him into my arms.
“I can’t believe all these hugs I’m getting,” I tell them. “Does this mean you missed me? I know I missed you so much.”
“I was good the entire time!” Luca says. “I only went to timeout twice!”
I huff a laugh. I knew he would end up in a timeout. It was two times within the same hour because the child is incredibly stubborn and struggled with the sharing rules yesterday.
“But Mr. Hound let me swim anyway. He didn’t send me to my room for the rest of the day and forget to give me dinner.”
My heart threatens to break once again.
“How long are your timeouts?” I ask when he takes a step back, already over the hugs we were having.
“Five whole minutes,” he says, holding up his hand with all five fingers splayed in exaggeration.
“Exactly. So you don’t have to worry about timeouts longer than that, and you’re never going to get into trouble and miss a meal.” I don’t know if it’s best to tell him these things, but I hate knowing things got to the point with Janet and Carlen that the boys were such an afterthought. I’d like to think that they were more neglectful in their effort to appease the Keres MC rather than being outwardly abusive and refusing to feed their kids, but that’s just one of those things I may never know.
With the house burned down, so many questions will go unanswered. Although I doubt Janet kept a journal listing all her sins and crimes anyway.
“Did you have fun at Mr. Hound’s house?” I ask.
They both nod as Sutton gets distracted playing with my hair.
“But I’m ready to sleep in my own bed,” Jace says. “There are a lot of kids over there.”
“The baby cries at night. She’s not a big girl like Sutton,” Luca says with his little nose scrunched up.
“Me!” Sutton says, patting her hand on her chest.
“That’s right, sweetie. You’re a big girl.”
“Where’s Stormy?” Jace asks, his voice back to being unsure.
“He had to go to work for a little while. He did mention getting in the pool later.”
Both boys squeal in delight, and Sutton claps her hands together even though I doubt she fully understands what I just said. She’s a great hype girl, always happy.
I press my lips to her cheek, earning another hug from her, including that adorable little grunt she makes.
“I don’t know if it was a surprise or not, but I was told I was getting gifts.”
Without another word, the boys bolt across the room toward their respective workstations. I follow, letting Sutton down when she wiggles in my arms. The room is completely open right now, letting me know that the entire area is safe for all the kids. It means the smaller things that would cause the little ones trouble are all safely locked away.
“Here you go, sweet girl,” Misty says when Sutton runs up to her clasping her hands open and closed.
Misty hands her a piece of paper, and my little girl rushes back to give it to me.
Jace and Luca, learning manners so quickly with the consistency that they’ve had here, wait while Sutton goes first.
“Momma!” she squeals, holding out the drawing. The messy lines and squiggles cover the wordsWELCOME HOME MOMMA AND DADDY, clearly written there for her by one of the adults.
