Page 37

Lidia gives Laurie a questioning look.
“Amanda’s son,” Laurie says.
Lidia studies the boy and raises her eyebrows but doesn’t ask the question that is clearly on her lips.Is this Langston’s son?
“It’s nice to meet you, Hayden. Do you want a chocolate chip cookie or a sugar cookie?”
The woman is an angel for not questioning further.
“Chocolate chip, please.”
“Oh, he has nice manners too.” Lidia beams at him as she turns to the pantry.
She comes back with a container filled with fresh-baked cookies and opens it for Hayden to get one.
I look down at Hayden as he munches his cookie.
“Do you guys have any video games here?”
“We sure do,” Laurie says. “Every game system you can think of. Board games too. There were a lot of boys who grew up here, and they all loved playing video games.”
“Awesome!”
“I bet we still have a little bit of time before dinner starts if you want to play for a while,” Laurie says. “I don’t know much about video games, but I bet Jenni could show you everything.”
Laurie and I lead him to the upstairs family room. Langston’s family may not be big on technology, but they did let their sons have whatever gaming systems they wanted.
We head down the hall, and we lead him to the room with all the electronics.
“This is so cool.” Hayden runs into the room and makes a beeline for the TV cabinet, rummaging around through the stacks of games there.
It does my heart good to see the joy on his face, and I suddenly want to show him everything there is to do here. Is this what it would be like to have a foster child? Obviously, it would be a lot harder to have the full responsibility of raising a kid on my shoulders, but this moment is giving me a glimpse of what it might be like for me.
We all have so much love to give him.
“Are you guys going to let me live here?” Hayden asks.
Laurie and I exchange a glance over his head. “Is that why you’re here?”
“Yeah, my mom has cancer. She’s too sick to take care of me, so she needs my dad to help out.”
“Oh, your poor mom. I had no idea,” Laurie says.
That would explain why she looked so pale and thin.
“And you know who your dad is?” Laurie is treading lightly, but I can tell from the look in her eyes that she’s dying to get answers. Not that I can blame her. I’m in the same boat.
“Yeah. Of course. He’s Langston.”
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. So it really is true.
“But I don’t know why you guys want me to call him by his first name. He’s my dad.”
I open my mouth to speak, but then I just shut it again.
“You can call him whatever name you’d like,” Laurie says.
“Anything?” Hayden gets a silly grin on his face. “Even Mr. Stinky Pants?”