Page 97 of Rescued
I pull out a chair at the table, then slide into it, leaning back and crossing my ankles. “We can get a TV set up in your room and can get you a console. Or even a PC if you’d rather.”
He shakes his head slowly. “No, thanks. I don’t need games.”
Arlo frowns.
“Well, is there anything else you want instead?”
He starts to shake his head again but pauses, then holds his phone up in the air. “My phone case is really old, and my screen is cracked, so Arlo said I could get a new case and that he’d try to find someone to replace the screen.”
I nod toward his phone. “Is it a prepaid?”
“What?” Salem asks, glancing at his phone. “Uh, yes. Like I have to add a card. Arlo pays for it.”
Of course he does. My sweet baby boy.
“We can see about adding you to my phone plan if you want. All of you, really. That way you all have ways to contact us and us to contact you.”
This time it’s Arlo’s eyes shooting to mine.
“I get a phone?” Nora practically shouts.
“I don’t know about that,” Arlo says, eyeing me. “It’s something Jasper and I will have to talk about, okay?”
She deflates a little, and my heart sinks too. I know I’m being a little… overzealous. But I’m just so fucking excited, and I want these three to have everything they could ever want.
“Okay,” Nora says, her bottom lip coming out in a pout.
So far, I haven’t seen much of Arlo in her. Her hair is a different shade of brown, and while her eyes are the same shade of blue as his one blue eye, they hardly share facial features. Salem looks the most like Arlo. But in this moment, with her bottom lip sticking out, I can see bits of him in her.
“You’ll both start school on Monday,” Arlo says, glancing between the two of them. “It’s the school Jasper went to.”
“A long time ago,” Nora says, scoffing.
“Yeah,” I agree. “A long, long, long time ago.”
Salem eyes me. “Why do you let her make fun of you? Aren’t you going to yell at her?”
I cock my head. “She’s not being mean. Maybe picking at me a little. And no, I’d never yell at her. Or you. There are better ways to get your point across than yelling.”
Salem hums, then drops his eyes.
This is not the kid that I talked to on the phone last month when Arlo was in the hospital. Not even a little. All I can do is hope that he’ll come around with time. That we’ll be able to break him out of his shell some and help him learn to trust me fully.
Time. And patience. I’ve got plenty of both.
“So, uh…” Arlo drums his fingers on the counter. “Luca and Austin want to come meet the kids.”
I nod. “Okay.”
“Now. Like, Luca’s blowing up my phone and has been since I got up from my nap.”
Chuckling, I shake my head. I’ve really grown to like Luca over the last year. He’s good for Austin, and he’s a spitfire, never once letting all the awful things he’s been through hold him back.
“And I’m guessing Theo and Hunter are next in line?”
Nora’s head is volleying between the two of us. I nearly burst into laughter. Something tells me we’re gonna have to be careful about what we say around her.
Arlo shakes his head. “No, actually. Theodoeswant to meet them both, but he’s hoping we’ll bring them to the farm. He wants to show off his baby goats.” Rolling his eyes, he shrugs. “I told him we could swing by tomorrow.”
