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Nick stepped toward his door, looked at the little girl again. She looked up, her eyes big and terrified behind glasses. All alone and afraid.
Her whole world had changed.
She reminded him of his nieces Maggie and Nikki after they’d lost their parents. Reminded him of Phoebe, Pip, Perci, and Pan when they’d lost their own mother. Of Juniper, and Augusta, and September when their father had run out on them, leaving them to fend for themselves as teenagers. They’d hidden the fact that they were alone for weeks. How afraid they had all been. How confused and broken.
How he and his brothers had pulled together as best they could for those kids when the world had turned cold and black.
They’d made a point of being there. Because…
Tylers took care of Tylers.
That little girl was a Tyler. No one was going to raise her but her father. Him.
Nova wouldn’t face the world alone again. Ever.
That was his baby girl sitting right there.
The enormity of that responsibility almost rendered him speechless—and froze him where he stood.
Then Nick pulled himself together and said the words he had to say.
"Get out your paperwork. I'll sign it right now. That's my daughter there. She's going to stay with me. We’ll…figure out the next part together.” His stomach tightened into a ball of concrete as he made the biggest decision of his life.
But was there really any decision other than the right one?
That was his kid right there. His.
Jude shot him a beaming smile. "I figured you'd say that. If not, well, Martin is an approved foster parent, too. She was headed out there next. Perci and Nate still hold an active license as well. I was going to call them, if needed. We try to keep kids with family, whenever possible. I wasn’t letting her leave this county.”
"She's a Tyler. Mine."
Perci and Nate already had two girls. They could take care of another kid, on top of the two girls they already had.
But when the little girl—Nova Lynn—looked at him through the open door, fear on her little face...
Nick knew that would never happen.
His daughter was coming home with him tonight. He would find a way to make this work. For her.
"What about seeing her brother?" Nick asked. "They close?"
"I am still trying to track down his case manager, actually. I believe he is in a group home in Cheyenne now. He's been there since three days after the funeral. Selena was actually living in Laramie when she died."
"He's just turned twelve. What in the hell is he doing in a group home? Aren’t those for teenagers?"
"There probably wasn't an available bed anywhere, Nick. We just don't have enough foster parents—especially for boys in his age range. I am hoping to be able to get him moved to this region, maybe with Martin, but…it’ll take me some time. Some, in that region, well, Linsey and I haven’t exactly made friends. Not after what happened.”
"This going to be a permanent thing? Him miles away from her? Her whole world has changed and she's been with strangers for a week. She's lost her brother, too.” Then again, he didn’t know the kid at all. Maybe it wasn’t safe for Nova to be around her brother now. At twelve, Nick had been almost six feet tall and strong as an ox. Hot-headed and stubborn and impulsive and just plain difficult for his parents—who hadn’t been the greatest parents to begin with. He could have hurt someone smaller at that age. Easily. Luckily, he’d had Phil and the rest of his older brothers to ride herd on him when needed. “He a discipline problem?"
"From his paperwork, it doesn't look like it. He just...there wasn't someone available who could take both, apparently. And it took some time to get her transferred to our region. I had to make threats involving my own supervisor to get it to happen. There was a small delay in her home county, with a medical emergency from the supervisor there. But she's here now. And he’s still at the group home."
Lead filled him when he imagined how scared that boy probably was right now. At that age, if he’d lost his brothers, particularly Phil, who’d been only three years older, it would have devastated him. Terrified him. With his parents more concerned with the bottle than their kids—Phil had been his anchor. His rock. His main source of safety. Hell, Phil had practically raised him, Nick wouldn’t ever deny that, and Bill had practically raised Phil. “Noah was always a good kid. Quiet. Sensitive."
"I can try to get him transferred closer to here, so they can have regular visitation. But he has no biological family now, except a possible maternal uncle, Selena’s half brother, who we are still trying to track down—"
"Except her." He looked at his daughter again. Her entire life she’d had her brother and her mother. Now, she had him. And had lost both Selena and Noah? Hell, no. That wasn’t right.
"Except her," Jude agreed. "Unless we can find someone to take both. There is such a thing as fictive kin. But with you being willing to take her. Maybe Martin. I can speak to him today.”
