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Seventeen
Robin gave him a few last-minute hints on what he should do tonight, hugged Nova, introduced herself to Noah, told them all that she’d put her number of the fridge, and then she was just gone.
Nick tried not to panic.
It was just him and the two kids.
Two kids he’d just agreed to take care of for at least the next twelve years. What was he supposed to do now?
“You two hungry for dinner yet? I thought we’d do pizza. If that’s ok with you guys?” Nick just looked at his kids.
Noah looked terrified. Nothing at all like what people would picture a foster kid looking like. There was nothing mean, or bad, or heaven help him—evil, about the little boy in front of him at all. He’d heard foster kids called that before. But this was just a little kid.
He was just a kid who’d lost his mother and had had no one else.
Skinny, short, pale, and terrified. Overwhelmed and exhausted, too. Nick had to do something. “Why don’t you two sit down at the table? We can talk for a few minutes. First, Noah, do you remember me at all?”
The boy shook his head. It didn’t surprise Nick. “Well, I remember you. We used to play baseball together when I’d be in town. And I am glad you are here now. You and Nova are family, and families belong together. Nova and I are family, too. I want all three of us to be a family together. That’s going to take all three of us working together, but I think we can do it.”
Noah pulled the chair back slowly.
Nova climbed up in another. The kids just stared at him.
Nick’s stomach was tighter than any sailor’s knot possible. “Do you guys have any questions for me?”
“When is my Robin coming back?” Nova asked, folding her hands on the table and resting her chin on her fingers. She shot him a serious look that had him almost smiling—she looked just like a few of his nieces right there. “I really liked her lots.”
“I really like her lots, too. But Robin has two little boys and a little girl who need her to be their mommy now.”
“Do they not have a daddy?” Nova rolled the word daddy around on her tongue like she was trying it out. It probably felt awkward to her—it sure did Nick.
“No. He went to heaven, too. Several years ago.”
She blinked up at him for a long moment. “Oh. Did it make them sad?”
“I think it probably did. It was a long time ago, though.” At least three or four years, he thought.
“When will Mommy come back from the heaven place?”
“She won’t,” Noah said bluntly. “When someone dies, Novie, they stay dead forever. We just don’t have a mom now. Not anymore. Never again.”
“Oh.” She looked at Nick next. “Are you going to die and go to the heaven place?”
“Someday. But not right now. Not for a long, long, long time. Hopefully, when you are a little old lady with white hair.”
Nova nodded. “But what happens to me and Noah if you do die and go to the heaven place?”
Nick heard the fear in her words, and it broke his heart. “If something like that happens to me, you have three uncles now. Bill, Phil, and Ned. They will take very good care of you. Probably Uncle Phil. He is getting married to Robin’s best friend very soon. She has three little girls just like you for you to play with, and Phil has lots of kids and grandkids. Some are boys like Noah. Some are grown-ups now, though. Phil and Glenna would take very good care of you and Noah. You also have lots of grown-up cousins who will also take care of you. There is Robin, too. Lots of people will be here to take care of you, Nova. No matter what.”
“And Noah won’t ever have to go away again?”
The boy tensed. Nick didn’t miss the fear in his eyes, either. Nick looked him head on. “No matter what—you and Noah won’t ever be split up like that again.”
“How do you know? You’re not my real dad. You’re just Nova’s. And Mom said you just left us to go make more kids somewhere else.”
“That wasn’t what happened.” Nick paused. The last thing he would ever do was bad-mouth the kids’ mother, but what Selena had done hurt. Stung. In more ways than he could ever say. He still hadn’t had much time to sit and figure out how she could have done that to him.
She’d robbed him of almost seven years of his daughter’s life. Pretty damned hard for a man to forgive. She’d robbed Nova of her family, too. That was what was the most unforgivable.
