I have for customers. “I’m fine. Just looking for a job.”
“Here?”
He shrugs. “If you’ll have me.”
He’s acting cool, but I can tell he’s desperate. “Are you eighteen yet?”
He nods. “Yesterday.”
“Okay.” The shop has been turning a profit lately, and I can afford someone to help around here, especially someone who needs an out as badly as I’m sure he does. “I’ll hire you. You have a place to stay?”
“I’ll find somewhere.”
I look up. “There’s an apartment above this place. If you’re working here, it’s yours.”
“Thank you, Rhys.”
I offer him a quick nod, uncomfortable with his thanks, feeling like it’s the least I can do for this kid, one of the kids left behind in that fucking house.
I swallow tightly, bile rising in my throat wishing away memories and guilt. “How’s your sister?”
He visibly tenses and shakes his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her for a while. She bailed as soon as she turned eighteen.”
“Jesus.” I want to ask him so many things, but his eyes are pleading with me not to.
I’m almost certain when he says bailed, he means from the Bradfords. He was only eleven when they took him and Charity in. Seven years. Seven fucking years in that house of horrors.
My blood runs cold, and I ache from the inside out. “I’ll show you your new home.”
He forces a smile, but I see the pain he pushes deep down. I want to tell him he’s going to be okay, but I don’t fucking know that.
All I know is I'm going to do everything I can to make sure he is.
After getting him settled and giving him some cash to pick up some things he may need, I go home to Blair. I’m tense and angry. The guilt inside me is threatening to swallow me whole.
I should have tried harder to get them all to believe me. I knew other kids were there. I knew Charity and Christian from school and a group home before the Bradfords. I knew them. And I let them suffer.
Blair is on the bed, tucked under the covers, but she has her iPad on her lap and looks up at me with a smile. “Finally.”
“Miss me?”
She nods her head, her ring glistening on her finger like a beacon for me to join her, to be near her. My heart knows she’s the only thing that’s going to make me feel any better. I kick my shoes off and climb onto the bed, glancing at her screen and seeing she has a real estate site up. “Looking for a new house?”
“I think we need a bigger house.”
I shake my head and tuck an arm under my neck. “Why? So we can collect more kids?”
“Maybe.” She shrugs. “I like it. And the ones we have could probably use a little more room.”
Right now, the boys are sharing a room, and Bree has her own. “You’re crazy.”
Doesn’t bother her, and I admire the fuck out of Blair. “I like the idea of saving several little Rhyses.”
“I told you I don’t like that nickname.” She laughs, ignoring my broody ass.
She doesn’t have to do any of this. She didn’t have to marry me and adopt a kid. She didn’t have to take in foster kids. But she wants to. She wants to be the good in the world. And she is.
Her hand rakes through my hair, and I only smile at the action. No wincing. It feels good. “What’s wrong?”
She always knows. “A kid from my past showed up at the shop, wanting a job.”
“Did you give it to them?”
I nod. “Yeah.” I look up at her. “I guess I want to save some kids too.”
She smiles at that, big and full of hope. “Good. Are they okay?”
“He’s fine. I guess.” I swallow the pain down, closing my eyes and letting her stroke my hair. “He lived with the Bradfords.”
“Oh shit,” she breathes.
“Yeah.”
She puts the iPad down and lays her head on my shoulder, curling her body to mine, and I let her fill in the piece of me that’s been missing as she presses against me. “It’s good that you gave him a job then. You’ll be the perfect boss.”
“I don’t know if I'm strong enough for it, Blair,” I admit it begrudgingly.
“You are. You’re the strongest person I know.”
I turn and press a kiss to her temple. “That’s you, Blair. You are, without a doubt, the strongest person either of us know.”
“I told my dad we’re married.” Her hand slides over my t-shirt, over